Part One. .

This is a work of fiction and any resemblance with any person living or dead is purely coincidental and unintentional.

One

Somesh put off the alarm in the first beep itself and tiptoed out of the bed. He glanced at his wife, sleeping blissfully with a smile etched across her face; maybe she was having a beautiful dream, Somesh contemplated. 

He draped the blanket around her, double checked if the window curtains were banishing any ray of sunlight from entering the room or falling on her face, which would definitely wake her up. He didn’t want her to wake up anytime soon, he dint want her to wake her up just yet, before he was ready.

Aakriti could sleep soundly with the TV or music on in full volume, or him talking on the phone beside her, but she couldn’t sleep with any lights (sunlight or tubelight or any sort of light) falling on her eyelids. She needed total darkness for as long as she slept. So Somesh ensured the room was dark, even though the sun was shining brightly outside, while he left the room, making a mental note of the things he was supposed to do before Aakriti woke up. He realised he was running late, so he executed his daily chores with haste.

He entered the kitchen and started preparing her favorite breakfast – dosa, vada, steamed idli and sambar. Despite being abroad for almost five years now, she savoured the south Indian dishes, the most. Whenever they were dining outside, if she found out the menu had south Indian delicacies, her eyes would beam with happiness. He loved the ways her eyes popped whenever she was happy, she looked even more elegant when she did that and he fell in love with her all over again.

Aakriti was his treasure, his pillar of strength, his salvation, the love of his life, his girlfriend for quiet some time and now lawfully wedded wife. He often wondered how did he get so lucky to have found her. He felt true skin deep happiness everytime he saw her face when he woke up in the mornings. He felt his life was perfect, from the moment Aakriti had stepped into it and taken control over him and his crumbling life. Everytime his friends as well as colleagues groaned and complained about their wives and miserable lives, he only smiled, congratulating himself inwardly for not being like them or not leading such sorry lives. Ever since they both had joined a MNC, had moved to Auckland, taken a home here and settled down, they were leading life straight out of a fairytale. Both his and Aakriti’s families kept on insisting it was high time they had kids. They knew that too, they had plans underway, but they kept saying each other, just a little more time is all we need, exactly how much time, both weren’t sure.

After the breakfast was ready, it was time to set the table. He decorated it with petals of rose and lilies, placed the fine china cutleries, which they used only on rare & special occasions, well this was most certainly one, he thought. Finally he placed the manila colored envelop adjacent to the spoon stand on the table. He felt proud of himself of being able to pull out half of his plan in time. He checked the DVD player, television, the CD all was in place, where he wanted them to be. He adjusted the cushions of the sofa, so that she could watch it with ease, he checked the sticky notes were all in place. Satisfied with all the set up, he pulled the curtains of the bedroom allowing white sunlight to wash the room and disturb Aakriti’s sleep, while he rushed into the bathroom, to freshen up. Having locked the door of his bathroom he gave himself a high five, for having successfully pulled up the plan of action with so much ease.

As the mixture of hot and cold water escaped through the nozzle of the shower and fell on his face and body, he envisaged the action of events unfurling outside.

  The sunlight would have surely disturbed Aakriti, she would have tried covering her face with the quilt, but that way she would have felt warm, as Somesh had switched off the AC, next she would have called out to him, enquiring the reason behind the AC being turned off and the window curtains being open. Unable to get any response from him, she would have got up from the bed, cursing him to have disturbed her peaceful slumber. She would have either walked towards the curtains or the AC switch; nevertheless she would have found the sticky note which read

Hello Gorgeous, goodmorning. Sorry to have woken you up this way, but there’s a reason behind this. Now shake off your sleep and brace yourself for a surprise.

 – Love your faithful husband.

He tried to imagine the look her face would have wore after she read this note. She would have definitely smiled, and wondered what was on Somesh’s mind, she would have searched the room for him, seeing the locked bathroom and the shower noise coming from within, it wouldn’t be difficult for her to comprehend, he was inside. She would have scanned the bedroom for any more sticky notes and would have walked to the dining room as instructed in the next note stuck to her phone. There she would have found the table with breakfast along with the decoration and she would have squealed with delight. She would have reached out to the envelop and would have tried to find out the contents, but while trying to open it, she would have found the instruction on the seal which read

 “Do not open just yet, walk to the television for now. This can wait.” 

He hoped she had obeyed the instruction and did as she was told, and after reaching the sofa set she would have found another sticky note on the CD which said

“Watch this!!”

Unable to bear the aroma of the breakfast along with the eagerness to watch the contents of the CD, she would have grabbed the brush and paste while she switched on the DVD player and the television. After serving herself with one item each from the menu, she would have settled down on the sofa and rested herself over the cushions while watching the video. However Somesh was pretty sure, when the CD would have started playing she would have definitely kept the plate of food aside and would have immersed in the video. A few tear drops would have escaped her eyes and she would have wanted to hug him just at the very moment and thank him for the wonderful gift.

He walked in to the room, showered and fresh, witnessing the exact scene he had weaved in his mind, with Aakriti’s back towards him, cuddled in the sofa, shedding silent tears, with the plate of food kept aside, the video ended just then, he walked around the sofa set, stood facing her, saying “Happy 10^th Anniversary Aakriti. Exactly a decade ago we met for the first time.”, with wide open arms, into which she rushed in and gave him a long tight hug and said “Same to you sweetheart.”

After quiet some time she let go of him. Both of them proceeded towards the table to have their breakfast. She ate in silence and he waited for her to speak. He sensed his normally chatty wife was restrained today, didn’t she like his surprise, didn’t she like the video, what was it that was troubling her. Just when he was about to ask she said “The sambar is delicious, so are the vadas and idlis too are quite good. Tell me you didn’t make them, tell me you ordered it from the Indian Restaurant down the lane.” He smiled seeing her giving one of her naughty smile while she said that.

“Let’s say I cook better than you!!” saying so he winked.

“Ahh, yes of course. Well then please take over the kitchen chores from today.” Saying so she winked too.

“Oh no no. I was simply kidding, you know the kitchen belongs to you. I do know how much you love cooking, I can’t take that away from you.”

She nodded. “Somesh how and when did you compose the CD?” she said with her voice sounding serious and low.

“Let me think. At times when you were out shopping, sleeping or having your long phone calls with your family and friends. Well was my effort worth it? Did you like it?”

“Did I like it? Are you kidding me? I absolutely loved it. I can’t believe the extent of trouble you took to surprise me. How did you get hold of all the pics and videos that we have had since the day we met? Some of the pics and videos I saw for the first time, myself!! Each one of them opened a floodgate of memories!! Each of the pics and videos made the old memories come alive with them.” She sounded emotional as she talked, which meant she was touched by his gesture, he thought.

“I had to make a few phonecalls to some common friends and ask them to scan through their archives and send any pics of ours if they had. I guess I was lucky, when all of them sent few pics each which proved my effort successful. Like a story I set the pictures from the oldest to the most recent ones, along with the videos. You see it was nothing much as compared to the price to make you happy.” Somesh said modestly.

Aakriti knew he meant what he said. She reached out for the manila envelop, there was a package plan of three nights and four day trip at Bay of Islands which covered Paihia, Cape Reinga and the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Her mouth went wide open when she saw the hotel where they were gonna stay charged a whopping 3000 NZD.

“Are we spending all our savings on this trip?” she asked.

“Actually the company is paying for the trip. There is a meeting with the clients tied up along with our informal trip, but that’s gonna take hardly few hours each day. The rest of the time is all ours.”

“This sounds so awesome. Ever since we have shifted here we have been on roadtrips, but this is the first trip we are going to actually stay at such an royal place. Imagine spending 1.5 lakhs just for five days!! I thought you were out of your minds to have booked this place. Thank god the company is paying for it.”

“Well when the reason is grand the celebration should be grandeur too, don’t you agree?” he asked.

“I agree. Cheers to our pictureperfect relationship. Cheers to us.” They clinked their glasses filled with champagne.




To be continued. . .