Rama

Chapter 1

10th March 2019, 11:00 AM - Jolly Grant Airport

Waiting by the side of the luggage carousel, I looked at my companions and was surprised to see their absolute calm demeanor. Have they really forgotten that we have paid an extra 2 grand just so that we don't have to wait and can pick our stuff quickly? But here we are standing by the belt for at least 10 minutes now and the same two ugly boxes are being cradled without anything remotely new on the horizon. I can understand Divya because she wouldn't care even if our bags don't arrive - God seemed to have forgotten to put in any strand of worry in her. As long as we are around, she cares about nothing other than sharing the juiciest of the rumors from inside the Bollywood. Many times I have thought of asking her about her source of such elaborate information, but then have decided otherwise. It's one thing to sit inside a house and watch the storm from behind closed panes-facing it head-on is a different ball game. The two others, Ela and Preet, make up an incredible audience - people who rarely watch anything on TV. To summarize, when Divya shares with us all these "highly confidential real-life" stories, we just assume that they are about characters A,B,C and D who are very much real in her life and highly imaginary in ours.

As I tried to focus on what she is relaying, I understood that she is trying to explain how evil an actress is who would deliberately forget her lines and take multiple takes to finish up a scene just to trigger her male co-actor. Ela and Preet were far more attentive than me - they seemed very much ready for an examination on this historic narration.

"Do you guys plan to stay in this airport for the next 7 days"- I threw the question at the class without expecting anyone to catch it in the first place.

Ela: "Well, if the bags don't arrive, we might as well. After all it was your brilliant idea to pay extra money to get our bags before we reach!"

"Just like the guy in the movie....oh what's the name...haan, terminator?" Preet looked victorious as she was able to remember the name of a movie in the first shot.

"It's not terminator...It's The Terminal" - I retorted with a defeated sigh.

"Bhavnao ko samjho, behna!" Saying this Preet and Ela went back to a restless Divya who was dying to get into more details of the celebrity behavior, clearly indicating that my worries were paid no heed.

It was not actually surprising to hear this from Preet. The mother of a 7-year-old, married to a  businessman, surviving cancer - if she hadn't lived her life on "bhavna" and focused more on realities, she would have perished by now. Not physically, but mentally. I have never seen her low, except when maybe she lost all her beautiful brown locks. We cried more than her and then the next two hours we spend very productively in trying to choose the right type of wig for her. There is no pain that shopping cannot mend.

Ela would disagree though. She is a champion in minimalist living. We have listened to 100 hours of Ted Talks from her on why not to go for mindless shopping but then. quite religiously, she would come along every time we plan to rampage a store. And then, if not all, she will at least buy half of the stuff that we would make her try. She says her evolution is not complete yet but we know that we are just a very bad influence.

Looking at these bizarre group of friends who were so different from each other yet glued with an inseparable gel, I felt like I somehow fall in between all of them. It's like I am a mixture of characteristics loaned out from each of them. I am neither an extreme optimist like Preet nor a staunch realist like Ela. In moments of crisis, I have seen myself struggling to breathe, and then all of a sudden, I would disconnect myself from the existing and impending struggles and would float away in a realm of imagination where everything gets miraculously corrected with time. My sense of caution would never abandon me - I can easily dream of myself using a hand sanitizer while dining with Obama. Yes, you heard it right but I will not delve much into the quality of my dreams - that's itself content worth a chapter.