Getting Married Part-IV

(Continuation of "Getting Married Part-III")
I walk and walk and walk, cover miles together. I remember those days when we could not even bear a separation of a day. We would spend our summer vacations together, half of the time at her grandparents place and the other half at mine.
Where have those days gone?

With tears streaming down my face, I wander aimlessly. I feel a surge of energy… The energy caused by the anger in me… Energy so enormous, that I am scared that it may be devastating. I have exhaust this energy before it makes me lose my temper, before it makes me shout and before it makes me lose control of myself.

I look at my surroundings. I realize that I’m just a block away from home. I walk towards home. Instead of going inside, I pull out the gardening tools from the garage and begin to pull out weeds. I continue with my work paying no heed to the scorching sun and the sultry weather. By the time my temper cools down, our backyard is free from weeds.

****

It’s been two days since I have heard from Radhika. I was too angry to meet her. I did not want to shout at her and upset her. But now, I have some good news to share and the first person who comes to my mind is, my closest friend, Radhika. I pick up the phone and dial her number.
“Hi Sweetie!” she coos into the receiver, “You will live for thousand years. I was just thinking of talking to you.”
“You know what?” I say excitedly.
“What?” she asks with enthusiasm.
“I can’t tell it over phone. Shall we go to the pantry for coffee?”
“Would have loved to!” she sighs, “but I am not in the office, dear.”
“Where are you?”
“I am in Visakhapatnam. Thought of telling you…”
The rest of the conversation goes over my head. Why has she become like this? How much time will it take for her to tell me that she’s going out of station? Things like these have never happened before. Who is responsible for all this? Siddhu… That stupid! That fool! Who is he to separate us, the best of friends? I am very angry with him. I feel like hitting him, banging his head onto the wall and say, “She is MY friend. We have known each other since childhood. You can’t separate us like this.” Instead I ask her to convey my “Hi!” to him. Life is full of irony and sarcasm!

****

During Radhika’s absence, I have been getting closer to another colleague of mine. Her name is Bhavana. She sits right next to me in office. She’s a very shy and reserved girl. She had always wanted to be friends with me, but Radhika hated her. So, even I did not pay much attention to her but now she’s the only friend I have. For the first time in my life, I am doing things without telling Radhika. Bhavana and I spend a lot of time together, having a lot of fun.

One day when I enter our floor in the office, I am welcomed by the sound of laughter. A huge group of people was sitting at Bhavana’s desk. While I am walking past them to my cubicle, Bhavana stops me to introduce me to them.
“We did our BCA together,” she says, “Tomorrow is the wedding of Sanjay, another classmate of ours. We are discussing on what to buy for him.”
“Oh! May be you could get him a ring,” I suggest.
“He already has one and will get one more soon,” replies one guy with a twinkling in his eye.
“Then may be we could buy…”
He interrupts me and continues, “He has the ‘engagement ring’ now and he will get ‘suffer-ring’ tomorrow.”

Everyone burst into laughter. The conversation flows around the same topic. These comments trigger a stream of thoughts into my mind. I start feeling uncomfortable because of them.
“Excuse me!” I say, “I need to begin my work before my boss sees me idling.”
“Hey! Sit with us for sometime,” begs Bhavana, “Our manager has not come to the office yet.”
“But I still have a lot of pending tasks,” I lie and before they can persuade me further, I rush into my cubicle. But I can still hear bits of their conversation.

“Poor thing! He will lose his freedom tomorrow.”
“Another bakra in our group!”
“I have just sent him a mail asking him to enjoy his last day!”
“From now on he has to go home early to report to his life-time boss!”

Laughter and laughter! All this makes me feel so sick from inside.
(The story seems to be endless! Thanks for your patience! It will be continued in "Getting Married Part-V")