A friend in need - II

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Mohan’s nap lasted for hardly fifteen minutes when he was woken up by the shrill ring of the doorbell. Sheila went to open the door and saw a man standing by the door. He still had one hand on the doorbell and he had a cigarette in the other. He seemed respectable but his clothes were all crumpled and soiled. She didn’t recognize the man and so she just stood there waiting for the man to speak.

“Hello. I am Deepak, Mohan’s friend. Is he here?” the man smiled and spoke.

“Oh yes. Hello, how are you? Please come in, please come,” Sheila invited him inside. “Hey man. How are you Deepak?” Mohan came to greet his friend. He hugged his friend, held his friend’s arm and led him to the living room. “So, long time no see man. Where have you been, Deepak? No contacts from you from so long,” asked Mohan.

“Yeah, it’s been a long time,” Deepak replied. “I’ve been sort of really involved in my work.” “Sheila, won’t you make some nice hot tea for my friend here?” asked Mohan. Sheila nodded, smiled at Deepak and went in the kitchen. “Hey that’s no excuse,” continued Mohan. “If I had your number, I would have definitely called, no matter how busy I was. So how are you? Where exactly are you working man?” asked Mohan earnestly.

“I’m in Pune, in a software company,” replied Deepak. “Good for you,” Mohan said. “You’ve always wanted to work with computers. So how’s the job? What do you do there?”

“Well, I’m a software designer. The job’s nice and the pay’s pretty good,” answered Deepak. “I’m sure it is nice, whatever it is that you do,” joked Mohan. “You know I don’t know anything about computers. Remember how you used to solve all those computer programs for me in college? That Saksena surely suspected something fishy but couldn’t catch us.”

Both of them laughed. Deepak replied, “The pay is excellent but it is too hectic. It eats up the whole day.”

“Hell, you were one clever student in school. I’m sure you can handle all that,” said Mohan. Sheila brought Deepak tea and some biscuits and set the tray on the table. She sat beside Mohan as he continued his conversation. “You didn’t even come to our marriage. What was the excuse? Too busy in your own honeymoon?” joked Mohan.

“No yaar. I was in Bhopal that time. Ramu had told me that you had finally decided to get married,” said Deepak and smiled. “Remember how you used to brag in school that you were going to stay a bachelor all your life.” He turned to Sheila and said, “Bhabhi, he was a real Casanova in college, I swear.”

Sheila rolled her eyes in mock anger. Mohan smiled embarrassingly. “But it’s a good thing you decided to finally marry,” continued Deepak. “Bete, tum bhi kam flirty nahi the,” Mohan said. He turned to Sheila and explained, “Deepak Mehra, romeo no. 1, they called him.” He turned back to Deepak and asked, “So how’s your married life?”

Suddenly Deepak’s face turned grim and he shook his head. “It didn’t turn out good,” he said. Sensing his discomfort, Sheila excused herself by saying that she had to make dinner.

“So Deepak, where are you staying tonight? Why don’t you stay over here? I’m sure we’ve a lot of things to catch up with,” asked Mohan. “No yaar. I’m staying with my relatives in Mahim. Maybe some other time,” said Deepak.

“Then at least have dinner. We’ve a quiet night ahead. The kids are not at home and the TV’s not working. We can talk till late night,” asked Mohan.

Deepak reluctantly agreed but his face brightened, “I’ll have to call them up and tell my relatives.” “Call them up and tell them. Also, why don’t you get fresh? Your clothes seem to be in a mess. Where had you been?” asked Mohan looking at Deepak’s clothes.

“Oh I came from Pune in a general compartment in the train. And it was really crowded,” replied Deepak. “Ha, ha. Try traveling from Dadar to Andheri in a local train[3] during rush hour. You’ll come home a squashed vegetable. Even the first class compartments are no good. Good thing I got myself a car. The peak hour rush is too tiring,” said Mohan.

“That’s good,” said Deepak while getting up to go to the bathroom. “Yes. It is much more convenient,” said Mohan showing Deepak the bathroom. “Third switch from the right,” Mohan pointed. When Deepak came back, his face was still down. Mohan asked him, “What happened, Deepak? Something wrong?”

For a while, Deepak just sat looking down. He clasped his palms together and spoke, “Nothing Mohan. I messed up my life and marriage. We had so many fights between us.”

“Why, what’s wrong?” asked Mohan anxiously. “My job used to eat up the whole day. I would hardly get to spend time with my wife. And my kids, they are not doing too good at school,” Deepak confided.

“Oh, marriage troubles. Hey, fights do happen between husbands and wives. Don’t take it to heart. I have had so many fights with Sheila. Try to work it out with your wife,” suggested Mohan. “Ours’ were more than fights. I’ve tried a lot to make it better. But now it’s too late,” said Deepak dejectedly. “What do you mean it’s too late?” asked Mohan, more shocked than surprised.

“I’m all confused as to what to do. Listen Mohan, I need your car for a couple of days,” asked Deepak ignoring Mohan’s question. “Can you lend it to me?” “Sure,” said Mohan.

“Are you sure it won’t be a problem for you?” asked Deepak. “No man. My daughter Priya’s got a car. And she works in a call-centre. So she doesn’t need the car during weekdays. It won’t be a problem at all,” said Mohan. “What’s up? Are you planning to going on a trip or something? You could use a vacation,” said Mohan and smiled at his friend.

“Yes, maybe I do need a long break from things,” said Deepak softly, and stared blankly at the wall.

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