Part 5: High on Life (Chapter 4)

The direction of life was already decided for Sameer yet he took his time preparing to face it.

He could no longer attend his classes and his work lost its sheen because it was no longer supporting the big picture. He was left with only two thoughts, the first one was what to say when he would call his dad and tell him about coming back to the folds of family and family business. There was no way he could salvage this situation. He had lost a lot of time and money along with a lot of face.

The second thought was more intriguing. He wondered how Kusum was able to create to the perfect lie. He gave thought to many characteristics that he could have used to fabricate his own little lie of a make-believe girlfriend. What combination of religion, caste, family background and education would have intrigued his parents to accept her without meeting her? Also will they ever have the patience and wait for a call from her parents…

Obviously, he could not think even close to an acceptable profile.

While his life was stagnant, it was a relief to see Kusum soar in her endeavors. In fact her calls were the only events in his life to look forward to. She was doing great working at client’s location. Beyond work also her confidence increased leaps and bounds. Now she was into marathons, skiing, toastmasters and driving cars.

Finally one morning when he realized or rather confessed to himself that there was no easy way to break the news and picked up the phone. The last thought as he dialed his father’s cell number was that he will not be in Bangalore when Kusum returns and will probably never meet her ever again in his life…

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The call was a nightmare. It was nothing like he imagined. It was almost like his father was waiting for the call. Besides his usual acknowledgment umms and aahhs the only question he asked was the date of Sameer’s return home.

Baffled Sameer could not decide if his father was too wise or his own failures were this obvious. He even called up Kusum in the middle of the night to share with her the weird reaction of his father. But Kusum just laughed, she was relieved that he was returning home.

Before closing the conversation, Sameer finally poised the question. The “only other thought” that drove him crazy. Kusum replied with her characteristic innocence, killing him on second count with her words….”Sameer, I told them your story, i told them I love you”