One More Time

12

It was her first sunday in this house,Ria was helping Titli with her studies, earlier Binni had come to keep some cookies along with coffee.....her MIL had gone to some temple with her friends, she came down with the mugs, saw her FIL sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper, he smiled looking at her, Binni was busy in cleaning her room so Titli came downstairs too and sat on the sofa to complete her school assignments.....Ria started to prepare the sunday breakfast, she herself kneeded the dough, and made the Luchis finally......it was 10 am already, her FIL served himself and Titli, Ria...

Ria went to see if Koustav was home or not....earlier Tuhin and he used to go for adda  at a friend's place. She found him sleeping on his side facing the wall,  she intentionally made some noises on the table a few times, nothing worked, she called by his name for the first time, then after many tries he finally woke up, she went towards the door and said to him,"Ma is not home, everyone is having breakfast, come downstairs if you feel hungry.....the food is getting cold".....she then sat to have her food,coming downstairs, after 15-20 minutes, Koustav came down,Binni kept his dish in front of him.....he stood up and went to his father's room to talk....Ria made herself busy in cooking lunch,made some pasta for her lunch box , she liked having home made food rather than awful canteen foods....By the time Mita came back, Ria was chatting with Binni and Titli sitting on the dining table, she went to kitchen, found lunch was prepared in a way so that only some chapattis were needed to be made for dinner......she distributed the sweets among everyone, served the lunch to everyone with the help of Binni....during sundays, Binni used to stay only the half day, she went home cleaning the dishes and keeping the things to its places.......Titli had to go her friend's place, from the balcony she saw Koustav's father was going with her to drop her......soft melodies of songs were coming from Koustav's room..she could hear those while sitting in her balcony, not a single drop of rain was there, the sight of sunset was beautiful ,the tunes of the songs made the view more attractive, back home she used to keep the room lights off during the sunset,she enjoyed darkness......

She wanted to have another cup of tea,so came to kitchen, Koustav was already there making tea, his face was crunched seeing the colour of the burnt tea ,seeing her in front of him , he tried it after sieving it, the tea must had been too awful to taste, he left the utensils on the sink, went upstairs.....Ria checked the surroundings, took a sip of her tea, it was really bad......she threw the rest of it, cleaned the utensils and made some fresh tea, poured it into two cups, went to his floor ,saw Koustav in roof,standing alone, only his side face  was visible in the dim light, she took the chance, folded his bed sheet, kept his clothes on the nearby hanger,then called him and was going to her room,she had no desire to spoil her own calmness...."Your tea tastes better than me....and thanks for yesterday ......",Koustav said suddenly...

Ria :Yours was also good,it just...just got a bit burned.

Koustav: You tasted it?

Ria: What was the harm in doing that?

Koustav started to sipping the tea again, he did not wanted to prolong this conversation.....Ria left...

During dinner,Titli came back with her uncle....she came back and started to go behind Ria,wherever she was going during  serving....

Ria slept early that night,after asking her FIL about the auto and bus routes to her new university, being 3 years far from Kolkata, made the roads and directions more complicated to her....

She was in a car...the Mullick's family car.....beside her,was sitting a smiling Koustav on the steering...he was worried for her not putting the seatbelt on.......he was asking about her time of return....suddenly someone was shaking her...

Mita had come to wake her up for her first day.....she realised she was having a happy dream about her husband....Mita then went for a walk....Titli was still sleeping,she had time for her school.....she was going to enter the kitchen and found Koustav was already there,

Ria: Tea?

Koustav: yes, call me when you are done....

Ria: Bring the empty water bottles from your room....and wake Titli up while returning.

Koustav ( going near the stairs,quite in a rigid way) : besides making tea, you don't have to do anything for me....still, thanks....

The residing happy vibe of her dream was gone.....Ria put on the water for tea, brought out three lunch boxes ,put the pasta in those three lunch boxes, closed the lids.....a yawning Titli came and thumped on the sofa, Koustav put one bottle on the kitchen counter......Ria  put the bowl of cereal in front of her FIL and Titli, took her cup of tea and went upstairs for shower, leaving his cup of tea on the counter....

She called her old friends,who took admission in her university,rechecked her schedule.....picked a simple kurta and went for getting ready.......coming out of washroom she found Titli was all set to go school, her school bus was scheduled at 9 am.
 

She bid Ria bye and left the home hearing the school bus honking....

On the dining table, Ria and Koustav were sitting opposite to each other.Koustav wore a grey and white checkered shirt. She stole some glimpses of him eating ,while Mita served both of them...Ria sat with the two lunch boxes, she pushed the lunchbox slowly towards Koustav, he looked at it, and stood to wash his hands.....Ria stood too and checked the spill-proof lid again and put it inside his office bag along with a bottle of water.....when she finally got out of her house, she catched the glimpse of Koustav getting in a cab.....she went her eye, it was quite difficult to locate the alleyways of the auto stands...with half help of gps and local uncles, she reached her university.....called her mother and informed her,she had reached safely.......then she hurried towards her class.....

University was good....3 years being alone had made her capable of making friends fast...some of them were already from her school, besides there was Romy....she was surprised again. After the first day at uni was over, she huffed and thought that University would not be that bad....

While coming back, Romy showed her where she would live as a PG. Tha landlord was a single guy, mostly he stayed outside, the housekeepers looked after the PGs.....Ria told her to call her anytime for any help....took the bus and thankfully got a seat....

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