“Hey Labonyo…,” Risha giggled, “What are you doing standing there all by your… yo… yourself?” Risha said and mumbled. She was on her fourth large peg and anybody could have understood that she was feeling tipsy.
“I am coming in a while, Risha!” Labonyo said after composing herself a bit. Risha had startled her. She really did not think that Risha, her colleague, had been noticing her in the midst of such a happening party. “You guys enjoy yourself…. I will be back in a while,” Labonyo said and went inside her room with the glass of vodka half empty in her hand. She sat down on the edge of the bed and zoned out again.
A few minutes later, there was slight knock on the door. “Come in!” Labonyo said. It was Riya – her childhood friend. She entered the room and closed the door behind her. Riya locked her eyes on Labonyo and noticed her for a good many seconds before finally saying, “What’s wrong, Labonyo?”
“Oh, it’s nothing…. I was just wondering about the booze… I think it’s almost over,” Labonyo said meekly.
“Oh stop it, girl! I have known you since you sipped milk from a cup and pretended it was wine. You think you can get away with bullshitting me?” Riya said.
“What else do you want me to tell you, Riya?” Labonyo erupted. It seemed as if she gave vent to all the anxiety that she had been suppressing till then. Riya knew that her job was done. It would not take her friend long before she actually started to speak her mind.
“I want YOU to tell ME the obvious! Or do I have to goad you more?” Riya said. She was sarcastic but her voice did not have the tiniest trace of harshness.
“Would you really believe me if I told you something tonight of all nights?!” Labonyo asked anxiously.
“Look, sweetheart, as long as it concerns your well-being, I am really not bothered about what night it is. Yep, it’s your bachelorette party…. So? What’s the point of drinking ourselves sore if you are not enjoying it?” Riya said.
“That’s it, Riya! I am not… I am not… I am seriously not enjoying it at all! I don’t want this marriage with a strange spectacled nerd! I… I… I find my desires more beautiful than kissing this guy with bad breath, Riya. And… and… I know that if I marry him now, I’ll probably end up losing my last train to the top of the mountain!” Labonyo said. She rubbed her eye and downed the remaining vodka in her glass in one gulp. Riya smiled. She walked up to the bed and sat down beside her. The two girls looked at each other for a few seconds before Riya started laughing out loud.
“You know what’s going to happen next?” Riya asked. The question seemed rhetorical.
“Get me out of this, Riya!” Labonyo smiled and said.
“Don’t worry. But where do you want to go? What do you want to do?” Riya questioned.
“I never told this to you guys before…. I have landed a job with this very big media house in Mumbai; I will be in charge of the column of a daily where I get to write on all kinds of social topics for every publication!” Labonyo said and her face lit up.
Riya could not hide her excitement and asked, “What? Are you serious?”
“Yes, Riya! They have asked me to join by next week!” She said.
“Well, Labonyo. All I can say is that I will not be drinking to your bachelorette party tonight, but I will drink to your new job! As for the rest, leave your passage to Mumbai to me….” Riya said.
Two Months Later
Labonyo was happily settled and working in her newfound job in Mumbai. Riya had helped her out of the sticky situation two months back. She had even managed to get her flight tickets and hotel reservations for Mumbai at peak hours within a day. Sure, her parents were peeved at her behavior, but they calmed down somewhat when they noticed that she was happy with her new life.
Most importantly, her workplace was great. She had made many new friends. One among them was Arya. He was a fun-loving guy and had readily become friends with Labonyo. They often hung out together. It was during one of their hangout sessions that Labonyo told him about a problem she was facing in Mumbai.
“Arya, tujhey pata hai, Mumbai is a damn good place! I love the people here. Just that living in a hotel is proving to be costly for me. I can’t keep on staying there, you know?”
“Of course, Labonyo. I had told you na, if you want some place decent to live in other than a hotel, let me know? But you never thought about it! Why are you bongs so slow in processing information?”
“Oh, shut up! I thought you are clever enough to realize that I was going through a tough time settling down in this city after rushing out of Kolkata like that!”
“Oh, yes, I do!”
“Ghanta!”
“Dekh, Labonyo, let’s meet Kabir. He is a good friend of mine. He came to Mumbai three years back. I know that he has a space and he is willing to rent it. So, if you guys don’t have a problem, then we can arrange something.”
“No problems. Let’s meet him first.”
The three met the very next day. After the initial discussion everything was settled and Labonyo was ready to move in to the apartment, which she did within a couple of days. However, Arya realized that Kabir and Labonyo did not get to become great friends on their very first meeting. He was sure that they would get used to each other with time.
Labonyo and Kabir were sharing two flats connected by a common passage on the same floor. It was almost similar to living in with a partner sans the obvious benefits! However, that was not the point that irked the two of them. For some strange reason Labonyo came across as being too snobbish for Kabir while Labonyo thought that Kabir was simply an immature and spoiled brat.
Within the first few weeks of being together, Kabir and Labonyo started bickering with each other at the smallest of issues. Labonyo did not like sharing the bathroom with Kabir. More so since he had a bathroom in the other side of the apartment. One day he sneaked in Labonyo’s bathroom when she was busy in the kitchen. Unfortunately, it did not take her long to find out.
“Kabir! What the hell are you doing in my bathroom?”
“I don’t see your name on it, ma’am!”
“Why can’t you keep yourself to your bathroom, huh?”
“I told you the geyser is not working!”
“That’s none of my business! Get an electrician and get your geyser mended and please stop irritating me!”
Kabir felt that she was being rude but he didn’t say anything else. He got the geyser fixed and tried to keep his distance from Labonyo. He had fun in making her angry but there were moments when Labonyo’s tone had some strange power over him. He was hurt that morning.
Labonyo had noticed the sudden silence on Kabir’s part and she was clever enough to realize that he was hurt but her ego prevented her from going up to him and offering him his favorite ice cream.
Then one night, suddenly, Kabir did not return from work! Labonyo tried to reach him over the cellphone many times but it was switched off. She was worried sick and kept awake till dawn when the doorbell rang. She rushed and opened the door to find Kabir standing there.
“Don’t you have any ounce of sense, you spoiled brat! I was worried sick about you!” she screamed.
Kabir quietly came in and locked the door behind him. “I am sorry! I tried to call you but I lost my phone. I had gone for an audition in Lonavala. They had informed in the last minute and I couldn’t even find someone to lend me a phone so that I could call you.” he said and walked away.
“What kind of an audition?” Labonyo asked. Her voice mellowed.
“For a minor role in a movie. I didn’t make it. Guess I need to keep trying just like I have been for the past three years…,” he said and crashed on the bed. He fell asleep instantly.
It all started to make sense to Labonyo. Kabir was working a day job in a restaurant while he was constantly trying to make a breakthrough in his career by landing a role in a movie. She looked at the boy sleeping on the bed. Suddenly, she felt an unknown stir in her soul. She pulled a sheet on Kabir to make sure he did not feel cold in his sleep.
She was unable to grasp whether this was some sort of a new beginning. Quietly, Labonyo walked out of the room and spent some quiet moments by herself at the dining table. The early light of morning filtered in through the curtains and birds began to twitter in the branches. Everything felt beautifully new. There was a strange rumbling in her tummy. While she felt happy that Kabir was back home safe, she was also sad because his auditions probably did not go so well but more than anything else she was still angry on him for some unexplainable reason.
When he woke up, there was a nice war cup of tea waiting for him on the table. He was honestly surprised; it was the first time that Labonyo had actually shown that she cared after all. He felt a prick of conscience as everything he had imagined till then about her being snobbish proved to be completely false.
“I thought I could only irritate you at best…. Never imagined that you could also… erm… care!” Kabir said stuttering with the last part.
“Don’t worry, Kabir, we all have our secrets waiting to be explored. You can’t be too sure about yourself nowadays…!” she said and walked away.
“Hey, wait! What do you mean?” Kabir asked.
Labonyo did not reply.
Two days later while Labonyo was busy working at her table, Arya stopped by and said, “Hey, Labonyo, what’s the big plan tonight?”
Labonyo could not understand what he was saying. She asked bewildered, “Plan…? What plan?”
“Oh c’mon, Labonyo. It’s okay if you don’t want to invite me but at least you can tell me what you guys will be doing tonight?”
“Arya, stop talking like an idiot! Will you please tell me what plan you are talking about?”
“Why is it Kabir’s birthday today! And he told me that he doesn’t want any big celebration and all…. He simply wants to spend it by himself BACK HOME. So, that’s when I deduced that you two might have some plans of your own!”
“Seriously, Arya?! Now you’ll tell me that I am trying to evade you on this? I didn’t know it’s Kabir’s birthday today!”
“Woah! Okay…!”
“What okay? Tell me, Arya….”
“Nothing…. Just that Kabir had told me to not tell anyone about this! I mean, the fact that it’s his birthday.”
“Did he take my name?”
“Huh? No… no… no…. He didn’t! Oh God, Labonyo…. It’s not what you think. He was not trying to keep any secrets from you! Oh man… I screwed up big time!”
“Stop acting like a guardian, Arya. I think your friend has his reasons. I don’t care.”
Later that evening when Labonyo reached home, she found that Kabir was sitting alone in the room with a cake laid out in front of him. The moment he noticed Labonyo, he caught his ears and stood with a pleading face in front of her. Before she could even speak, Kabir said something that melted her heart and all her anger vanished within the wink of an eye.
Photo by Ayra Rodrigues“Labonyo, I didn’t try to keep this from you! I just wanted this to be a surprise and… and… so… so that we could just… spend some time together…,” Kabir said.
“I think today’s surprises should have been meant for you. Is there something you want to tell me?”
“Labonyo, I saw how much you cared for me that night. It’s just that… do you think you can care for me just like that for the rest of your life?” he mumbled audibly.
Labonyo’s face broke out into a smile and for the first time, she hugged Kabir. He was mesmerized with the fragrance that emanated from her. They had the most beautiful birthday ever!
Written by Poonam Chatterjee
I am the 27 -year-old budding author, pet lover, and foodie. From a tender age of ten, I found my calling in the written word and since then, has been scribbling away my unconventional ideas, sometimes in the last pages of notebooks and sometimes on online blogs. Writing gives me happiness like no other thing.
Week 6, February 2021
