Back to the peck ;)

It was a dusty afternoon in Ms. Varsha's house. The clamoring calls of the utensils,books,magazines,chairs,tables and even the old writing desk when moved from their original places,could be heard outside the house. The scene looked like a burglary taking place, things were strewn across the floor, in addition to it, the master-bed had a lion's share of the booty. It was awarded with the wardrobe collection, the cosmetics and the entire collection of Arun's toys, with Arun still playing with them in the midst of chaos.

In that very room, there was a woman, clad in a simple blue cotton saree,with no bangles and jewels decorating her. The straight face with widened eyes and pushed up rubick cheeks, indicated that she was doing haarrrdddd woooorrrrkkk. She was standing on top of a chair,balancing her whole weight on the ball of her feet,with her heel up in the air,in an acrobatic position. She had sweat on her,but that doesn't take off the beauty, with the lussome looks of her face, her svelteness and the tone of her skin, nine out of ten times people would not guess her to be the mother of eight-year-old Arun.She was Varsha, spring-cleaning the master bed-room of her house.

Varsha was furiously emptying one cabinet after another in the array of wall mountable cabinets.With so many cabinets,it will take nine lives to empty all of them she thought. Though standing on the chair, and busy with her work,she kept an eye on her junior-horlicks(hyper active) son.Arun, wearing his favourite stripped black and white T-shirt and a jean trouser looked very much intensed in what he was doing.Closing his left eye, he was aiming his dump truck to dash against the helpless 'Hot-Wheel' car. Arun was very much like the kid you see on Health Drink Advertisements, with short hair, smiling face and bubbly cheeks and top of all with the "aappaang chhuppang kappang attitude".

"vvrrrroooommmm ... Dammmmaaall and (followed by Arun's theatrical explosion)",Arun signalled *Mission Accomplished*,the Dump truck crashed violently with the innocent helpless car. Hearing the after shocks of the crash her son has caused,Varsha with her head into one of the cabinets,while emptying it, popped out and gave Arun a stern look. It was like a hungry lioness, giving a stern warning posture to her mischievous cubs. Arun took the hint and bowed his head. Varsha was throwing down the old magazines that got accumulated in the cabinets. The magazines in a bunch,came falling from the them and fell with a thud. This carpet bombing of magazines from the wall mounted cabinets mixed perfectly with the dishevelled room.

Arun, was captivated with the falling magazines. He jumped from the bed and ran towards them. He was lucky, his mother had cleaned up the India Today Magazines,which had lots of pictures. Being an eight-year-old boy,he loved magazines with pictures and India Today was one of his favourites. Quickly he started rummaging through them, pointing his finger to the picture and reading the caption of the picture.He loved the headlines in bold letters, as they were big and easier to read. "M R. Raajnat h Singh to be elected Prressident of BJP",Arun's voice echoed through out the premises.Ms. Varsha was happy that her son, was doing some reading rather simulating violent crashes with his toys. She was unrelenting in cleaning up the cabinets.

 "Will the boys in blue succ eed?",said Arun who is immediately corrected by his mother making him to pronounce rightly the word "Succeed" ,"Natwaaar Singh caught in cland ...(once again Varsha helped him to pronounce a difficult word "clandestine")destine deal" .. and he continued reading the top stories of India Today Magazines. Hearing her son read the magazine's top stories flawlessly,Varsha took pride in her son and once in a while, stopped her work to hear his innocent pronounciation.By now Varsha had completely finished emptying the magazines from the cabinet and moved her chair to and climbed upon it again to open another container to empty it. This time she hit the jack-pot, for the first time in many years, she was able to locate the crockery sets and other utensils that were presented to her by her relatives, thought to be lost by her."Here they are ..",she uttered as she began taking them out.

 "Look who is hotter ..","Swim Suite Collection ..", hearing those words from Arun,she knew that something was wrong. She placed the crockery sets,that she was holding in her hands back in the cabinet and looked down upon Arun.To her horror, she found that Arun had finished the India Today Magazines and moved over to the more pictorious Femina Magazines. Arun pointed his finger upon the caption of a Full Page Swim Suite Model reading "Swim Suite collection for summer .."."Arunnn",thundered Varsha,with madness and anger all over her face.Arun engrossed looking at the pictures and reading the captions, was frightened hearing his name called out in such a manner, and when he saw his mom mad with anger,looking bent upon him standing from the chair, a chill went down his spine. He even feared that his mom would bounce upon him from the chair and in an instant he stood up from his freefall position on the floor.

 Seeing her son realise that she was enraged by his actions, Varsha softened her stance and said "Stop reading and get back to the bed ...Dont make me mad ... Cant u see that I am working ?".But that was still a stern warning, and Arun quickly ran towards the bed without replying back and took his toys to play once again, but this time in a subdued manner, making no violent crashes or noises at all. With peace set upon the household, Varsha continued her work. When she finished digging out her treasures ( crockery sets and presents ) Varsha, located a Cardboard Box with a caption "Do not Open- By Order, Neo ;)".Varsha looked at it and smiled, for it was her husband who wrote that.

 With her husband out of town, she was tempted to open it and see what was inside, for she never opened the box in all these years. But her conscience did not let her, and she carefully placed the cardboard box on the floor, and got back to the cleaning bussiness.She enjoyed absolute silence from then on, and she was more focussed on her work. But after sometime,the silence became spooky in her mind,she thought everything is going super-nice .. How could that be ? ... Then a bolt of thought reminding her of her son Arun came to her mind ... Frantically she searched for her son, her son was not at the bed where she last saw .. Her heart thumped, she began searching for furiously, looking at all corners of the room."Arun ..", she cried at the top of her voice."I am here, mom",said Arun who was on the floor beside the chair.Turning to the direction of his voice,Varsha found Arun exploring the content's of the "Do not open" Box. She was shocked but at the same time curiousity got over her,she wanted to know what was inside the box.She said to her conscience that it was their own son who opened the box and she happened to see the contents by accident.

 Arun had neatly arranged the contents of the box on the floor.Varsha saw some old greeting cards, some of which she recognised giving to Neo back in college, some watches that she had presented, and other things which might have been given by his other friends. Her thoughts went back to the good-ol'days' , when she and Neo met on college.Quickly she snapped out of the memories and with the mystery of the "Do not open" Box revealed to her, her admiration for Neo grew by leaps and bounds, which was shown on her countenance and resumed back to he work. Nevertheless she had a tinge of doubt in her mind why her husband had kept the box as a secret ? But with the tense of the work ahead, she never gave it a harder thought.

 Meanwhile, Arun after foraging through all the contents, came across a leather diary. The soft leather made it pleasing to touch and being an adventurous boy, Arun opened the diary to see its contents. Upon opening the diary,Arun stumbled upon a page written in dark bold sketch pen. No wonder the writings attracted him. Arun who expected to get himself a sound admonishing for his act, was surprised to see his mother calm. This gave him the confidence to move on to the next level,he decided to read the page.He read aloud,"My first kiss ...",which startled Varsha,for a moment,she stood nonplussed. She never expected Neo to write about their first kiss in that diary. She took a closer look at the diary her son had on his hand, it clearly showed Neo's handwriting and written were 'two-liners' describing the incident.

Arun knew that he captured the attention of his mother,he asked a question,"My first kiss means first ummmaaa ... isn't it?"(The young boy thinks everything in Black and White .. Kiss was always an "ummmaaa" which he got before going to bed).Varsha was full steam blushing when Arun asked his innocent question. Seeing his mother blush,Arun began smiling and Varsha chuckled back. With the erupting smile on her face, she replied back "Yes", and turned her attention to complete her work,which was to empty the last cabinet full of oil lamps and clean each and every one of them,which can be done at a slow pace.The curious Arun began reading the Diary,"I am curious about girls,even today.".Varsha said to herself,"Oh boy, he is ever curious about girls",her face showed everything what she felt,her actions slowed down, the oil lamp which required just 1 min of cleaning now seemed to take many more minutes. Arun on the other hand did not notice the change, but was very eager to please her mother by reading the contents of the diary, he never cared to know the meaning of what he read.

Arun began reading the next set of Two-liners " But even to a tight ... (Arun struggled with that word .. Varsha made him spell out the word and made him pronounce Tightmouthed)mouthed guy like me. A kiss actually happened.".Varsha's memories went back to college days, when the incident actually happen, she felt a rise of passion,joy and ecstasy when thought about the incident. Then the next set of two liners "She sat near me everyday. I liked her hair,her pri... pri ..("Mom .. I cant spell that word ..",said Arun and Varsha who was listening to her son attentively helped him again by saying "Pristine") pristine eyes dazz ...led along with her yummy cheeks.". The reddened cheeks of Varsha, perfectly matched the lines.

Varsha continued to do her work at an ever slower pace,her mind tuned to hear the next word uttered from her husband's secret diary. Arun did the job perfectly, he read the two-liners at a pace that suited both of them. He read the following lines unwaveringly ..
" She smiled whenever she saw me.
I used to smile back blushing.
Sometimes I make it a point not to look at her and listen carefully to the class proceedings.
But my heart breaks down after some time,she must have looked at me atleast 6 times by that time. ".

Varsha was blushing with emotions,wondering what Neo must have felt about her. Then the next one, " No one from our class seemed to be bothered about our clandestine(Both Arun and Varsha beamed with joy when Arun pronounced it correctly) stares and the consequent blushings. *People must be busy in their work.I guessed* ". A wide smile decorated her face, when Arun read the above line, she reasoned that as she and Neo were among the top love couples in college, everyone knew about their affair, so it was logical that people did not bother about them.

But Varsha did feel a tinge of confusion and suspicion,when Arun read the next set of two-liners" A few days passed and as luck wud have it,the girl next to her was absent for that day.
I did not hesitate and captured the moment.
I cant beleive my luck I was siting next to her. ",Varsha felt for the first time that the girl mentioned in Neo's short poem might not be her.She kept on thinking hard for an incident,where Neo came and sat next to her while on college.She reasoned out that the chances are null as Varsha sat on the first bench and Neo never had a chance to sit with her during class times.Varsha's mind so far relishing the two-liners, now had a thousands of thoughts clamour on it .. "If its not me .. then who else ?"

Slowly, from ecstasy to suspicion and finally fear took over Varsha's heart and it finally burst when Arun read the dreaded lines, " I moved closer and pecked at her yummy cheek.
My heart stopped .. "Actually her heart did stop for a moment, she was 100% sure that she was not the girl, whom Neo kissed as he mentions in that diary.She said,"Stop it,Arun .. Its enough, go and do ur homework", in a breaking voice. Arun saw her mother through traverse through a galaxy of emotions.But though he did not understand what was going on his mom's mind,he recognized that mom was feeling bad,with sorrow and misery and its better for him to obey her words.He showed his disappointment,for not being able to read anyfurther,nevertheless,he replied back,"Sure mom .." ,he closed the diary and walked out of the room.

Varsha, felt a deep sense of disappointment and rejection,she could not stand to hear the lines written in that diary, but tried to divert her attention on the impending work ahead of her. But the thought of who that girl might be, and why Neo did not mention about the girl,kept on haunting her. As a consequence, the energy and zeal which she had before had been drained completely. The spring-cleaning of the bed-room which she undertook single-handedly in the beginning now seemed to be very harder. She slogged through out the remaining afternoon and a good part of evening to complete her work. All these time,she waited patiently for the phone call from Neo,who usually called him everyday while he is out-of-town. She was determined to ask Neo, who that person was whom he had kissed. But as luck would have it, Neo did not call her up, and with the worrisome thoughts haunting her, she had to prepare dinner and help Arun on his homework.

It was a tiring day for Varsha,both mentally and physically. Her mind,body and soul had been stretched too far. The phone call from Neo that was expected to arrive,did not arrive and it added to the pain. At the end of all, she lay on her bed with Arun fast asleep beside her. She made up her mind to know about the girl that was written on the diary. Silently,she got up from the bed and moved towards the previous bedroom which had the 'Do not open' box. She lit the desk lamp and sat on a chair and placed that box on the table. She began examining each and every article in that box to get clues. She opened and saw each and every article in it,be it the greeting cards, the watches he presented him and other gifts from Neo's friend. There was nothing suspicious of the things,that Neo had stored in that box, nothing seemed of clandestine nature,except what was written in that diary.

Then she decided to read the whole thing written on that diary and find out for herself, who that girl might be.With tension mounting on her heart every second, she began reading from the following lines, " I moved closer and pecked at her yummy cheek.
My heart stopped for a moment.
"Did the teacher see it?"... My tension which rose like a rocket fell like one when she SMILED BACK ...
Finally my time hath come.
I have a girl-friend whom I can kiss. ( Unlike Varsha :( ) "
"Unlike Varsha", that comment hurt her, tears dropped from her eyes, she was still in shock. Her worst fears have come true. With dirge engulfing her heart, a lachrymosal Varsha ... in utter disbelief and anger, she braced herself to read the full poem ..
"I said to her "I would kiss you after every session". Mysteriously she agreed to my deal.
She KISSED ME on my left cheek. ( Varsha learn from her ... ;) )
It was the first time when a girl of my age kissed me." The painful lyrics, made it even more agonizing by the very mention of her name. "How could Neo be so cruel to me ?", she thought,"He wrote this poem after coming to know about me".. The tears began to ebb out, like a stream. Varsha was a composed woman by nature, but for a brief period of time, she lost her composure completly.She thought that she should not have read the diary and wished that the box was never opened.

A tear fell upon the diary and made a blot, it made Varsha look down upon the diary for the last time .. Her eyes caught the following few lines ..
" "Neo... " the teacher shouted. "Naughty boy!! What are you doing in that corner?"she asked.
I was flabbergasted,but my girl friend was not ...
She smiled at the teacher,as if she has not done any wrong :) ", Varsha got confused reading that line .. that was quite evident even on her tearful eyes. To understand it, she voraciously began reading the last lines ...
"She(teacher) looked at me to admonish but she could not control her laughter.
My First grade teacher said "I am going to change your place !!!"
Errr....
Years have past, after that cute adventure ...
I wonder where she(my first grade sweetheart) is now ?"

In an instance, the misery, sorrow,disappointment and rejection disappeared, the brute force of releif washed her aching heart. She began to laugh , but the tears did not stop flowing. "Oh my god .. I have been taken for a ride ..!",she thought. She was indeed taken on a wild ride, which made her cry and and still makes her cry, but this time in joy. In that moment of releif and happiness, she thought about the very secrets that people hold on, some of them are hidden to prevent misunderstandings and conflicts, others too silly to be told, even she had many secrets that she dared not say to her husband and above all the work of the 'divine hand' in opening up her husband's secret to her ...

She wiped her tears ... She searched for a pen,on the desk drawer. She found a pen, in the drawer which was emptied on the afternoon ( another miracle work of the 'divine hand', I would say ;) ). She was determined to share her secret too ... "It is a secret, that I cherished, wondering where he was ... till the day I met you, Neo, but the time has come ...", she said to herself.

Then with the moist of the tears still on her palms,she gripped the pen and began writing below,
"I wonder where she(my first grade sweetheart) is now ?"
the following words,"She is in your home, as your wife !"