Five Thirty AM - XXXIX

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Author’s Note: 

Mehal Kapoor’s tiny little love story is on this blog. Its called Ships in the Night - see the navigator bar to the right. Enjoy!!

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It was Saturday evening, and Noel had told Mitul that they needed to go somewhere. She put on a pretty floral dress in a burst of colors, green being the predominant one. The full-skirted chiffon floated to about two inches above her knees, the three-quarter length sleeves caught with thin green ribbons at the elbows, that were echoed in the neckline. She slipped on her trusty pair of strappy heels, applied a copper colored lipstick and she was ready.

Noel was waiting for her, dressed in a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a black shirt. They waved goodbye to the others, as he led her out to the car. They would be meeting up with the other four sans kids, later on for dinner at a restaurant.

Noel started the car, and put on his sunglasses, making sure she was strapped in, before taking off.

‘Where’re we going, Noel?’ she asked him.

‘Dev’s parents house. I always visit them when I’m down here. They’re retired, like my parents, but ... you’ll see what I mean when we get there.’

They drove inland for about half an hour and came to a very posh residential area. Mitul looked about her interestedly. The houses were a mix of old and new, old trees lined the streets and there was an air of exclusiveness about the area.

Noel pulled up in front of a large house, one of the older ones on the street. They walked up the steps to the door and he rang the bell.

The door was opened by a man servant who gushed, ‘Noel baba, how are you?’ his lined face breaking up into a wide smile. He looked like the Shomu bhaiyya of this house, thought Mitul.

An older version of Dev, with no hair, no soulpatch and glasses walked into the marble floored hall and said, ‘Noel! Come in, come in!!’ Noel was hugged and then he looked at Mitul. He was clad in a simple cotton kurta pajama, and had a newspaper in one hand, obviously having been reading it before they arrived.

‘Who’s this?’ he asked in his gravelly voice.

‘This is Mitul, uncle,’ Noel introduced her, as she raised her hands in a namaste. ‘Mitul Imani.’

‘And she is?’ uncle’s eyes twinkled.

‘My ... girlfriend,’ Noel held her hand, and she was surprised to find his palms sweaty.

‘Bless you, my dear,’ he said with a warm smile and a hand placed over her head in benediction. ‘Now come on in, both of you. Your aunty has been baking all morning, since you called. So you’ll have to join us for tea,’ he said, leading them out to a terrace at the back of the house, that was shaded from the sun by tall trees around the back garden. Elegant wicker furniture stood at one corner, where they settled down.

A servant brought out a tray of baked goodies, and he was followed by an elegant lady in a crisp cotton sari, who held out her arms to Noel.

‘Noel! It’s been a long time since you visited,’ she scolded, before kissing him on both cheeks.

‘Sorry, aunty,’ he apologized, holding out a chair for her. ‘I was away in Canada and then US. Then the latest film shooting. It’s only now that I could take a weekend off.’

‘And who is this young lady?’ she asked turning to Mitul.

‘I’m Mitul,’ she said, raising her hands in a namaste again.

‘Noel’s girlfriend,’ Dev’s father supplied, with a big grin on his face.

‘Noel?’ Dev’s mother smiled at him. ‘She’s a very pretty girl and she must be special,’ she smiled artlessly at him, as his cheekbones turned a slight pink.

‘Yes, she is, aunty,’ Noel smiled at Mitul, holding her hand. Mitul ducked her head shyly, feeling the heat on her cheeks.

Thankfully, tea arrived just then, and the conversation turned to other matters.

And Dev.

‘He hasn’t called in the last few days,’ said his father thoughtfully.

‘Last time he called he seemed a bit ... quiet, I think,’ his mother added.

Noel was like a deer caught in the headlights.

Mitul quickly said, ‘he might be just busy, you know, aunty.’

‘Well, he should slow down a little. Time for him also to start thinking about settling down. After all, look at you two,’ Dev’s mother smiled blissfully.

Noel and Mitul exchanged a glance. ‘Aunty, we’ve just started dating, so right now ...’ he started.

‘Rubbish!’ she cut in. ‘You never bring a girl to Goa to your parents house if you don’t plan on making that permanent, Noel,’ she said.

Noel cleared his throat and said, ‘we were talking about Dev, isn’t it? I’ll tell him to call you,’ he offered.

‘And tell him we want him to settle down as well. Find a good girl for her, Noel. Someone like Mitul. What sort of friend are you?’ Dev’s mother added.

‘Aunty, Dev makes his own choices,’ clearly Noel was losing the battle in front of this steamroller.

‘I think we should look for a girl ourselves. Enough of this independent thing.’ She turned to Mitul. ‘Do you have a sister, maybe?’

Noel choked, while Mitul thumped his back, thankfully turned away from aunty.

‘I’m an only child, aunty,’ she said, her thumping bringing tears to Noel’s eyes.

‘Enough, Mitul,’ he gasped in a hoarse voice.

‘Oh! Well. If you see a nice girl, think about Dev. Okay?’ Dev’s mother said.

Mitul nodded dumbly. ‘Yes, of course, aunty.’

They took their leave shortly, arms laden with boxes of baked goodies.

‘Whew!’ said Mitul, when they were on the road again. ‘That was close.’

Noel laughed out loud. ‘There Myna’s mother wants her to get married. And here Dev’s mother wants him to get married. And to someone like you, no less. It’s bloody ironic!’

Mitul turned slowly in her seat and stared at him. ‘Dammit! Noel, you’ve hit the nail on the head!’

‘What?’ he looked at her puzzled.

‘We need to get these two sets of parents together!’ she exclaimed.

‘You’ve forgotten, darling. The Kapoor guy is coming to meet Myna. Myna won’t talk to Dev. Dev doesn’t know how Myna feels and she doesn’t know how he feels.’ He sighed. ‘It’s complicated.’

‘I know,’ she said dejectedly, and slouched back into her seat.

******

Mitul and Noel returned to Mumbai on Sunday night.

Kuntala was scandalized at first that Mitul had spent three days away with Noel, but was then pacified to learn that it had been with his entire family.

‘Are they getting married?’ she asked Kamini sotto voce, when they were in the kitchen cooking.

‘They’ll decide if they want to get married or not,’ Kamini said. ‘They’re old enough.’

‘But, Didi, this going away with him, spending weekend with him...’ she left the sentence hanging.

‘Noel’s mother called and invited Mitul, asking permission from us,’ Kamini was busy shelling peas and was getting progressively more annoyed at Kuntala’s line of questioning. ‘There was no reason to say no.’

Kuntala nodded as she kneaded the flour. ‘There is that. But Didi, they’re Roman Catholics, aren’t they?’

Kamini finally had it. ‘Kuntala, it doesn’t matter to Noel, it doesn’t matter to Mitul, it doesn’t matter to Aditya or me or Noel’s parents. So why should it matter to anybody what God he prays to? For that matter, if you notice, Mitul is not much of a temple go-er or anything. So I don’t see a problem with it.’

Kuntala retreated. In truth, she was often intimidated by Kamini’s strong-willed ways. She often wished she was like that. Able to take a stand and stand by it. But she wasn’t. And she knew that.

She was in for another blow later in the week.

Tuesday morning, she received a phone call. Ten minutes later, she walked into the dining room in tears.

‘Kuntala, what happened?’ asked Kamini.

‘Mrs. Kapoor called,’ she sobbed and managed to speak all at the same time. ‘Mehal has met a girl in the US. He wants to marry her only. So they’re not coming to Mumbai anytime soon. And they’re very sorry about Myna, but what could they do? Mehal has made up his mind.’

‘Who’s Mehal?’

‘The boy! The NRI millionaire that Myna was going to marry,’ she wailed.

Kamini let out a deep sigh of relief. ‘So the marriage is off?’

‘Yes,’ sighed Kuntala wiping her eyes with the end of her sari. ‘Now where will I find another boy for her? And now she wants to work?’

‘Kuntala, listen,’ Kamini tried to make her see reason. ‘Everything happens for the best. Maybe there’s an even better boy out there for her.’ Crossing her fingers behind her back. ‘And when the time is right, he’ll be there. Why’re you fretting so much?’

‘Didi, do you see how old she’s becoming? And no future in sight for her!’ Kamini rolled her eyes at the dramatics, of course behind Kuntala’s back.

‘Mitul is older to her, and she hasn’t got married yet,’ she said, soothingly.

‘Yes, but Mitul is with an ACTOR now. A FILMSTAR.’ Like that was sure-fire sign of permanence. ‘Myna is with NOBODY,’ she sniffed.

Hopefully soon with somebody good, thought Kamini. She tsk-tsked, patted her sister-in-law’s back and walked off with a gleeful smile on her face.

*****

While Myna was understandably happy at this unexpected turn of events, Dev was still unaware of what she’d gone through.

She’d steadfastly refused to answer his calls and he was fast losing hope of ever seeing her again. The only light that he could see, was the wedding, and he knew that that was the one time he would have, and he would have to make it count. Make her see that they were meant for each other. He’d never been this obsessed with a woman before, but Myna Imani brought out something primitive in him, something that made him want to possess her and make her his. But if this arranged marriage thing were true, he’d have to come up with an alternate plan. Granted, he didn’t have much of a plan to begin with. How was he supposed to come up with an alternate one?

******

Noel came to pick up Mitul on Wednesday. He had grown a little more comfortable with Mitul’s parents, and he found he could talk easily to her father. Kamini brought him a cup of coffee saying that Mitul was delayed because she’d got stuck in traffic.

Since, Myna’s parents were in town, he was introduced to them.

Kuntala was thrilled. She was having a mental conversation in her head about how she would tell kitty party friends, very casually. ‘Oh you know, while I was in Mumbai, Noel had come over too. Noel? Oh you know, Noel James. Ya, Ya, the one that acts in movies and all. Such a nice boy. Actually, he’s my Jethji’s daughter’s boyfriend, na? He’s a very private person, so it’s like a big secret right now. But he is so nice. Swear to God, talks with such respect to elders. He even touched my feet, because see, I am his girlfriend’s chachi. So traditional.’

Myna came in, gave him a brief hug and said, ‘Hey Noel, did you guys have a good time in Goa?’ just to let him know that she was okay with him and Mitul.

He smiled back at her, a genuine smile and said, ‘yeah we did. By the way, congrats on the new job.’

She smiled at him, and he could see that without the arrogant mask, the sarcastic tone and the fake sophisticated outlook she’d presented before, she was actually a very pretty girl, and charming as well. No wonder Dev was running around chasing his tail.

‘Thanks,’ she smiled at him. ‘I’ll go and tell Mitul Di you’re waiting,’ she told him before leaving the room.

Kamini was itching to talk to him. She’d heard about Dev’s parents from Mitul, but she really wanted to know more about Dev and his feelings. With Kuntala there, she had to resort to a little underhanded questioning.

‘So Mitul tells me you went to see Dev’s parents in Goa,’ she started. ‘I must tell them thank you for the lovely cookies they sent.’

‘Yes, we did,’ he replied, ‘and of course. Aunty always bakes up a storm if either of us are there.’ He was wondering where this conversation was going. Mitul’s mom obviously had an agenda of some sort. He leaned forward to put his coffee mug on the table.

‘How’s Dev?’ she asked.

The question startled him, but for once his actor’s training came in handy. He raised the mug, sipped from it, put it down, before raising guileless eyes to hers. ‘Aunty, he’s not doing too well. Well, you know what happened to him. He’s really upset about it. And he can’t even reach these people right now,’ an expression of worry and concern etched on his face.

‘Oh! That’s too bad,’ said Kamini, her face mirroring his concern.

Damn! He thought, Aunty is one fine actress!

‘Then I guess he’ll have to wait till they meet again, right?’ she continued. ‘I hope that won’t stop him from coming for the wedding?’

‘Oh! Of course he’ll be there, Aunty. After all, the twins are so looking forward to seeing him again, you know.’

Kuntala was trying to follow this completely incomprehensible conversation, until she could bear it no more. ‘Who’s Dev?’ she finally asked about this nebulous person whom everybody, except she seemed to know.

‘Oh! Dev’s my best friend. He’s also my manager,’ said Noel, politely.

If he’d understood it right, Aunty was throwing some sort of bait out there, and Myna’s mom seemed to be sniffing it!

Kuntala looked a bit bewildered at this. Why was Didi asking so many questions about Noel’s manager? ‘How do you know Dev?’ she asked Kamini.

‘Oh, he’s been here a few times,’ Kamini blatantly lied through her teeth, at which point, her husband excused himself to go find a place where he could chortle in peace.

Noel sat there poker-faced, playing the game with Kamini, both of them in complete understanding of each other.

Damn! Thought Kamini, he’d make a really good son-in-law. I could have fun with him!

‘Oh!’ Kuntala’s mouth rounded into an ‘O’. ‘So what does he do? Dev, I mean?’ she asked trying to look interested.

‘Oh, just manages me, my time, my finances, contracts. Things like that, you know,’ he said nonchalantly.

Kamini looked at him, her eyes speaking volumes. What are you doing?

Noel fluttered his eyelids and lowered his voice. ‘Aunty, the truth is, I may be an actor, but anytime, ANYTIME someone wants to work with me, they have to go through Dev. All the producers, directors - they go to HIM. He is the one with the real power. Thing is, Aunty, this is how it works in the Industry, you see,’ he stressed ‘Industry’ with a capital ‘I’, turning on the full force of his hypnotic voice on Kuntala.

‘I’ll tell you one more thing. I am not the only one that Dev manages. He manages ...,’ and here Noel inserted a few well-known names. It was the truth. Dev had taken managing careers to a whole new level, employing a staff of handpicked people to support him. However, Noel was the only one he managed personally.

Kamini raised an eyebrow wondering if Noel wasn’t going a little overboard with this hard sell. But Noel was in full-flow, so she didn’t interrupt. Kuntala was well and truly hooked!

‘In reality, Dev doesn’t need to work.’ He sat back, sipped his coffee. ‘He just does it for the challenge of it. Plus, he’s my friend, someone I trust very much. It’s because of him I am who I am,’ Noel shrugged his shoulders, leaving the thought hanging out there.

Kamini smiled at him. Good boy!

Mitul walked into the room, just then, and they left in a flurry of goodbyes.

Noel waited until they’d pulled away from her house before he said, ‘your mother is a star! She is fabulous!’ and broke into laughter.

‘Huh?’ Mitul looked at him like he’d gone stark raving mad. When he’d finally finished telling her how her mother had hooked her aunt, she was laughing along with him.

But they couldn’t tell Dev anything, yet. Not even to give him hope. Because ultimately, it all depended on Myna. And that they had no control over.

******

‘Didi,’ said Kuntala, busy shredding some cabbage. ‘Can I ask you something?’

‘Of course, Kuntala,’ Kamini said, ‘you don’t need my permission. What’s the matter?’

Her sister-in-law looked around to make sure everybody was out of earshot before she said, ‘This Dev boy you were talking about,’ she began.

‘Uh hunh?’ Kamini was determined not to give her an inch.

‘Ah. You said Mitul had gone to his parents house. Did she tell you what it was like?’ Kuntala asked.

‘She said, it looked like a very posh neighborhood, they had a big house, marble floors, two or three servants,’ Kamini said.

‘And what about him, where does he stay?’

‘Oh, he’s got a penthouse apartment in a high rise, here in Mumbai. He has his own car. He used to work for a mutli-national but gave it up to join Noel and help him,’ she said.

‘I’m thinking...,’ Kuntala said. ‘Never mind.’

‘Go on, tell me,’ she said.

‘I was wondering. Well, Noel and he are friends, so wouldn’t it be nice if Dev and Myna ...?’ she trailed off.

‘First of all, Noel and Mitul are not marrying yet. Secondly, you haven’t even met him or seen his photo, how can you think of taking a proposal to his family? Besides...’ she stopped. This was the fine line. She had to leave Kamini wanting more, but allow Myna to make the final decision.

‘Besides, what, Didi?’

‘Noel mentioned that there was a girl who broke Dev’s heart. So, in fact, he doesn’t want to marry anyone else right now,’ she added firmly.

Kuntala looked disappointed. But Kamini hid a smile as she could see the gears whirring in her head.

Kuntala had heard of a good boy, and she was definitely intrigued. Well, that was half the battle.

And now for Myna.

*****