Sapno Ka Shaher

Ek Kadam Aage...

It was Monday morning and still no-one was in a hurry in the Maheshwari house. Rakesh had just returned home after buying vegetables and was now noting down the expenses. He was calculating the monthly expense of milk, grossery, vegetables, and newspaper as it was 1st April. He kept the money for the house rent in the separate chain of his black leather bag and started counting the rest of the notes. Naina had studied for an hour in the morning and was now preparing for lunch with Sameer after breakfast. Sameer had objected and asked her to rest, being the 3rd day of her periods, but she just wanted to be him after seeing his mood yesterday. So they both were preparing for the matar-pulao, dal-fry and roti-sabzi while talking non-stop.

It must be 11 in the morning when the cordless in the living room rang and Rakesh stood up to answer.

"Hello." He said.

But no-one spoke from the other side. He spoke again. "Helllooooo."

There was just a silence on the other side. Rakesh frowned. "Kaun hai Bhai? Kisse baat karni hai?" He got annoyed now after getting no response, "arre bhai baat nahi karni hoti toh phone kyun karte ho?" And smacked the cordless into the cordless holder.

His loud voice could be heard in the kitchen and Naina peeped, "kaun tha Papa?"

Going back to his place again, Rakesh chided, "pata nahi kaun tha. Jab baat nahi karni hoti toh phone kyun karte hai log pata nahi." He muttered some inaudible words and poked his head in his diary again.

Sameer giggled and bent towards Naina, "Papa ki aawaz sunke darr gaya hoga bechara", laughing again at his statement.

Naina pondered over it for a moment and said, "Bechara ya Bechari?" She raised her brows.

"Matlab?" Sameer asked, not understanding her point.

"Kahin..." Naina said dramatically, "tumhari woh Teju ka toh phone nahi tha?"

Sameer actually couldn't comprehend why Naina was talking like this. "Woh kyun mujhe phone karegi? Aur yeh 'meri Teju' kya hai? Usko sabhi log Teju hi bulate hai... Itna bada naam kaun lega har baar?" He was a little miffed.

Naina blinked. How could Sameer know about Tejashree's feelings for him? It was a wife's sharp gaze that had grasped her feelings but there wasn't any possibility that Sameer may know about it. She cleared her throat, "arey, mai mazak bass kar rahi thi Sameer. Tum gussa kyun ho rahe ho?" She tried to lighten the mood.

He gave her a fake angry stare and focused again on peeling the green peas ahead of him.

Some five minutes later, they heard the telephone ring again and Rakesh instructed from the living room, "Sameer, tum dekho toh kaun hai", unaware of the conversation the husband-wife had in the kitchen.

Naina just sniggered, keeping her palm over her mouth and Sameer passed an angry stare at her for real, but the continuous ring forced him to leave from there.

"Hello." He unnecessarily sounded harsh. "Ji. Ji Sir." He immediately calmed down.

"Kya? Sach me? Sir aaj 1st April hai, aap mazak toh nahi kar rahe?" Sameer couldn't control the smile on his face.

His eyes shone listening to the person on the other side. "Ek minute Sir..." He fixed the cordless between his shoulder and ear and opened a small diary kept on the table to note down something.

"Hmm... hmm... ji.. okay Sir." He scribbled a few things on the diary. "Aur thank you so much personally phone karne ke liye", he said, putting the diary back on the table and disconnected the call.