ROMEO

‘Thou!’ she heard again. Only this time the voice sounded familiar to

her. She opened her eyes and listlessly turned around to see Aby sitting

behind her, grinning from ear-to-ear. ‘Thou,’ he whispered again,

winking at her. Sehmat blushed a pretty shade of pink and turned her

face towards the professor. Almost at the same time, the gong sounded,

signalling the end of the lecture. The classroom emptied out in minutes

except for the three students huddled together as if engaged in a serious

group discussion. Mitali was centre stage, acting as the group leader,

giving sermons to Aby.

‘From now on, Mr Romeo, a simple “thou” won’t do. I expect you to

pick Sehmat up from the hostel, drive her to college and be by her side

for the rest of the day, each day! Though I sincerely wonder what would

happen if you two decided to skip a few classes. The sky surely wouldn’t

fall or would it?’

Aby smiled in return. ‘Thank you, Miss Mitali, for bringing us

together. All I can say is I am deeply indebted to you.’ Sehmat noticed

the gratitude in Aby’s voice as he spoke to Mitali. He is different, she

told herself. She closed her eyes momentarily and thanked God in a short

prayer. Mitali broke the silence, ‘It was a pleasure indeed. You two

beautiful people deserve each other. It had to happen one day. Now will

you two please get lost?’

The trio left the room together, only to be separated again at the car

parking. Mitali bid them goodbye and stood watching Aby’s car roll

down the long driveway towards the college gate. Sitting by his side,

Sehmat had inched closer to Aby. The two indeed made an inseparable

pair.

Their love blossomed with each passing day. It was rare for either to be

seen alone, except in the classroom. Even while attending lectures,

Sehmat fought hard to focus on her studies.

Aby maintained his backbencher status. But his voluminous collection

of poetry on Sehmat began drying up. Instead, he passionately admired

her and occasionally exchanged paper slips, commenting on her clothes,

hair and their meeting plans. Every note carried a couplet or two, oftenleaving Sehmat spellbound with his selection of words. Sehmat

dedicatedly kept the tiny notes as prized possessions, neatly pasting them

in a scrapbook at the end of the day. These notes soon became her

favourite pastime and she pored over them whenever she found herself

alone.

They met regularly even as the annual exam fever gripped the college.

Aby promised to carefully study her notes but found it difficult to focus.

Somewhere deep within, he was worried about the approaching summer

vacation that would take his sweetheart away from him.

Perhaps he had a sense of foreboding of the impending storm in their

lives.

On the day of their last exam, Sehmat had barely stepped out of the

hall when an unknown person approached her. He introduced himself

and gave her a sealed envelope. Thinking it to be one of Aby’s pranks,

she looked at the envelope carefully and found the sender’s name at the

bottom. She was taken by surprise and hurriedly opened it and read the

short note. Mir had requested her to fly back to Srinagar. The envelope

also contained an air ticket for a flight that was scheduled to depart the

next day.

Sehmat instinctively realized that all was not well at home. Shortly

thereafter, she was sitting in the principal’s room, talking to her mother

over the phone. Aby sat by her side, maintaining a studied composure.

Tej tried her best to allay her daughter’s fears and pretend that all was

okay, but failed. Aby too couldn’t do much to bring cheer to her face.

They dined in silence, after which Aby dropped her at the hostel, only to

return a few hours later, this time to take her to the airport.

In a way Sehmat felt guilty. She hadn’t really thought about her

parents in these past couple of weeks. She wondered if she’d been

unusually selfish in being absorbed in love. The guilt and the worry

began to consume her. Aby was patient but also worried, ‘Please call me

as soon as you reach home. If you need me, I’ll take the next flight. Are

you listening, Sehmat?’

Sehmat was lost in her own thoughts. She merely acknowledged Aby

as she left him. On the flight, worry consumed her in the form of various

thoughts. What could have happened for them to send for her like this?Her father hadn’t spoken to her, was he okay? She sighed tiredly and

looked out of the window as she knew she would have to wait till she got

home.

Once at home, Sehmat slowly became aware of what was happening.

She came to know about her father’s ailment and spent a day crying as

she thought about the possibility of him passing away. Her mother was

patient with her, talking and explaining things till late in the night.

Sehmat told her about Aby, and the two found solace in their tears. Tej

told Sehmat about the possibility of her becoming a part of the

intelligence-gathering network across the border. Even though she had

dreaded talking about it, she explained how it would happen.

‘Aby is but a small sacrifice,’ she said. ‘Your father has toiled hard

and taken grave risks for the sake of our country. He would like you to

take over from here and help in controlling the other end, especially in

light of the growing battle cries from the overconfident Pakistani

Generals. Besides, we have known the Sayeeds for decades. Iqbal is a

very fine, well-mannered and educated boy. You’ll be very happy and

safe,’ she said. Sehmat was to be married to the son of a Pakistani

Brigadier, Sheikh Sayeed, in a bold move to understand the operation

being carried out against India.

Deep in her heart, Tej felt a stab of pain for her daughter. This is not

how she had imagined her daughter’s marriage. She knew Sehmat would

obey her and do as she was told. But she also realized the consequences

of sending her only daughter into the enemy camp.

Sehmat found the shock of losing both her father and Aby unbearable.

She wept and sought explanations from the Almighty in the privacy of

her room. If it were a test, she would rather fail than be away from her

family and Aby, she argued with him.

Swinging between anger and despair, she sought answers that no one

could provide. The dark night reflected her state of mind: a sense of

doom reverberating all around the stillness. It was an omen of things to

come, Sehmat thought. Her thoughts flew to Aby, who was waiting for

her. Her anger was directed towards her fate. She couldn’t let her fatherdown but she also wanted to be with Aby. And there was no middle

ground.

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