PROLOGUE
I had just gotten into bed and was ready to call it a day. Up late my life had been nothing but monotonous. The early morning hospital rounds… long days at the hospital… all of this was really getting the best of me. At the end of the day all that I really required was a nice long sleep so that I could get up the next morning to live the same routine all over again. I really deserved a break. Every day I would think about going out with my gang of friends and blowing off some steam and every day the plan failed to materialize.
The monsoons were retreating in Bombay and they would bring relief in the evening after a long hot day. The weather in the evening was just splendid and with such kind of weather outside all you really want to do is to leave behind all your work and go out for a nice long drive and basically just have a good time. But I guess these were just one of those days when each and every living being decides to fall sick. So with the heavy inflow of patients in the hospital it was impossible to get any leisure time. I guess that’s why I was more than happy on the days when I could get more than six hours of sleep.
I turned off the lights and as the blow of that chilled air form the air conditioner hit my face I began drifting into a peaceful sleep. But as I told you sleep for us has always been and will always be a luxury that you have to learn to live without. The unearthly vibrations of my phone made me sit up wide awake. As doctors you learn to let your phone take control of your life. No calls can really be ignored in your early days. Emergencies in the hospital…dying patients…VIP patients…all of these make you nothing but a puppet in the hands of technology. So your show is on whenever the phone’s ringer goes off. It was 2 AM and my first instinct was to pick the call and hurl abuses at the nurse for calling me at this hour. But then fearing the fact that it might have been a senior I checked the caller ID. It said Rahul Calling…
Rahul and I were in school together. Well leaving our relationship just at that would be the understatement of the century. We were friends…best friends. Back in the days people even called us CHUDDY-BUDDIES. But after school had come to an end we had both taken up different career roads in life and as the years passed we had seen less and less of each other. I was a little surprised at getting a call from him because the last I remembered talking to him was some good six months back when he had called me after getting all drunk and he had blabbered something about him being a pathetic excuse for a friend. I was too sleepy that day to bother about his gibberish but now I guess I could talk to him for a while. I received the call.
‘Hello’ I said.
‘Gaurav…bro…what’s up?’ Came the reply.
‘Nothing much man. Was just going to bed. You tell me.’ I said.
‘Oh…good…you haven’t slept yet.’ He said.
‘No I haven’t…tell me what’s up?’ I asked.
‘I am in Bombay bro. Just landed an hour back.’ He said.
‘That’s great man…we should me up some time.’ I said.
‘Yes…as a matter of fact that is the reason I am calling.’ He said. ‘Can you drive up to J.W.Marriot right now?’
‘Right now??? Why is there something wrong?’ I asked.
‘Bro…there is something really important I need to tell you. Please come as soon as possible.’ He said.
‘Dude just tell me…I have to go to the hospital early morning.’ I said. Driving all the way to Juhu at 2 Am was not something that I wanted to do.
‘Gaurav…if you consider me as your friend you will come straight away. I will be waiting for you in the restaurant.’ Before I could start arguing about how rash he was being he had hung up. I wondered what could possibly be so important that it couldn’t be discussed on the phone. Reluctantly I got out of my bed dressed up and left my apartment. I had to wake up the security guard to open the gate of the colony so that I could get my car out. He blabbered something in Bhojpuri which I guessed were abuses hurled at me for waking him up. After pondering over the ironic fact that the night watchman of my colony got more sleep than me for a while I started driving towards The Marriot.
I drove in a daze…my sleep deprived eyes trying hard to stay with the road. All along the journey I kept asking myself that why was I doing this? Why was I depriving myself of some precious sleep to meet a guy whom I hadn’t seen in ages? The guy who always got me in trouble with the teachers back in school…the guy who would never allow me to take a penalty kick when we played soccer ever after knowing I was better at it that him…I knew he had a record of not missing a single penalty back in school but I too could have had the same if only he had let me. The guy was a habitual liar and I had to cover them up for him. Why was I even bothering about him? I think there was just one answer to all these questions…he was the guy who was my only link to my innocent carefree childhood days which I so dearly missed each day as I ran the rat race called life.
I reached The Marriot after a 45 minute drive. I went inside the restaurant and saw Rahul sitting at a table near the window overlooking the pool. He was sipping coffee and after seeing me he got up to greet me.
‘I knew you would come.’ He said
‘Ya…I don’t know why…but I am here.’ I said.
‘And I am glad that you are.’ He said and we took our seats.
‘So tell me what is it that you wanted to talk about?’ I asked after ordering a coffee for myself. He pulled out an envelope from his pocket and slipped it over to me. ‘What is this?’ I asked.
‘That my friend is your ticket.’ He said.
‘My ticket? To where?’ I said.
‘Go on open it.’ he said as he sat back in his chair looking at me.
I opened the envelope and inside it was a E-Ticket with my name on it. ‘What the fuck is this Rahul? This says that I’m flying to Goa…at 8.30 this morning.’
‘No bro…We…We are flying to Goa at 8.30 this morning…together.’ He said with a smirk.
‘Have you lost it? First you call me half way across town to meet you at the middle of the night and now you want me to fly to Goa with you. I haven’t slept in the past 18 hours and I have to report to the hospital at 8 in the morning. What the hell is all this?’ I was highly confused.
‘Gaurav…you will have to take a leave of absence from work for the next three days and you are coming to Goa with me. This is important.’ Rahul said firmly.
‘What is so important in Goa that you wanna drag me with you?’ I asked him.
‘I am getting married.’ He said calmly.
‘What?’ I was shocked.
‘Yup…I am getting married and I am here to pick up my best man.’ He said.
‘Rahul…why didn’t you tell me before?’ I asked.
‘It has been a mad rush man. I asked her to marry me two days ago and she said yes and we are getting married tomorrow at Saint Xavier’s church in Goa. And all I want now is for you to be the best man at my wedding.’ He was looking at me intently. ‘Are you in?’
All this was a little too much for me to digest. My CHUDDY-BUDDY Rahul D’costa was getting married. I was really happy for him…shocked but happy. ‘Yes…definitely I’m in.’ I said.
‘Thanks man…it really means a lot to the both of us.’ He said.
‘Ya…ya…now tell me who she is at least.’ I really wanted to know who that girl was who had made this blunder of a decision to marry Rahul.
‘Well that I can’t tell you…it’s a surprise for later.’ He said.
‘What the fuck? Anyway tell me what has prompted you to get married man…I mean we are still young…are you sure you are ready for such a commitment…I mean with your habitual lying and all.’ I asked him.
‘No man…that life is way behind me now. Actually I realized that my life had gone haywire and it was really going nowhere with all my lying and all…I had hit my all-time low and it took me a while to pull myself together. There are just two people in this entire world whom I have never lied to. The first one is you and that’s why I want you to be an integral part in my life again. You have always stood up for me and I really owe you for that. And as far as the second person goes…she is the one I am marrying.’ He said.
‘Aww…that’s so flattering. But I am sure you have lied to me.’ I said.
‘No man…I have lied to a lot of people but you were always my confession box. I know you got into a lot of trouble because of my lying but I swear to god I have never lied to you.’ He said.
‘Ya I know…anyway forget all this. Tell me your story man…how did this happen?’ I asked him as I was really curious to know that what had turned Rahul…a guy whose day started and ended with a lie…into this guy who wanted to settle down in life.
‘It’s a long story man.’ He said as he finished his coffee.
‘Well the flight doesn’t leave for another five hours so I think we have enough time. Tell me I really want to know.’ I said.
‘Fine then.’ We both ordered another cup of coffee and went outside and sat by the poolside. ‘It all started around eight months back. The football tournament was on…’ Rahul lay back on the pool chair looking out into the open sky as he started narrating his story…