Part 99-Her!!!

Part 99

Her

Saket …. To Golf Links

April 3^rd 2011

She was deeply emotional… but very few knew that about her, outwardly she was a classic goofball, talking more than breathing, laughing more than thinking….. she was born after “tapasya” her Dadi would scold….

Family astrologer had told Sushil, his misfortune would end if a “girl child” is born… so even by her birth Radhika happened to be radical.

In a country where female feticide is not uncommon, she was a reward for prayers….

And his luck did take a U turn….

They moved from the outskirts of Delhi to Saket, Sushil bought his first mutthi bhar zameen, the Saket apartment after her birth…

She was the baby…. Ritwik was almost 3 years older…

Fiesty and naughty from childhood, had the most friends of the opposite gender even at the day care near Gargi…

She would gush and coo and started to talk at the end of the first year… in 3 word sentences… not surprising considering how much talking had to be done…

She was Rachit’s favorite and Ritwik’s adversary, A  born leader, she could be heard shouting in the terrace on many a Delhi summer afternoons when the mercury peaked at 46F

She was the “principal” if they played “school” she was the “boss” when they played “office office” she was the cop when they played “chor police”

And boy did the boys receive a thrashing, once she beat up Mukul from Pocket C soundly and his nose started to bleed…

That did not did the chor police games though… she was on the roof twisting the antenna before Sushil could afford cable television, once at the neighbor’s Mr Bansal’s she climbed from the balcony on to the concrete shade over the window  to rescue a rajai cover that had flown off the terrace….

Sudha watched in horror as Radhika hoisted herself from the railing on to the window…

She was part of the neighborhood cricket and volleyball teams

She fought with the society guards if she found them pilfering subzi or fruits from the hawkers’ carts

Righteous she was… from her toddler years.

Sushil and Sudha insisted the kids be respectful and polite and well mannered… a “UP trait” Radhika would tease often.

She tried to keep in touch with friends from playschool, she met friends from Springdales (she moved to DPS R.K. Puram 5^th on wards) for lunch years after she quit that school.

She was Papa’s lil girl, she was home by 7 every nite as a kid, to stock up on her brownie points

Getting a rank between 1-3 helped some as well.

She was always asking questions, championing for causes from raising money for the school ayah’s foot surgery to helping Gopi’s maasi return to the village.

“She would argue endlessly with the society RWA Secretary about water wastage and how sprinklers were left on negligently for hours…

Scientist or an activist?… Sudha and Sushil would ponder many times

She set her hair on fire once trying out a science experiment in the kitchen

They realized then…. the latter maybe…J

“Ma main shaadi nahi karoongi, will you approve if I live in” she would ask seriously.

Sudha would swallow a fly or two… or choke…

“Mujhe bache bilkul nahi chahiye, shaadi hogi to bache honge” she would declare pompously

Sushil let her cut her hair almost like Ritwik’s when she was 18 and wanted to donate it for a cause

She cried uncontrollably when friends inadvertently hurt her, she cried when she watched sappy movies with her Ma

She teetered from being overjoyed to drowning in despair… no emotion was in half measure for her.

She jumped off the balcony on to the downstairs neighbors coir cot to go meet her first boy friend at nite.

Her first tattoo at 19

Her first, second set of  ear piercing at 20

Her first navel piercing at 21

Her first visit to first base at 22…

Her first break up?... a long time ago

She wanted to “do it” with the jeweler’s son… like she was the only one in her “group” (of 22 friends!!!) who hadn’t done it…

Dadi showed up in town that evening and ruined it all

Rad had the house decorated, given Gopi the evening off, and even gotten a “head to toe” thing at the spa… in anticipation…

“Tum itna udaas kahe ho gayi Radhi” Dadi pestered her all nite long…

Little did she know that she had rained on her only grand daughter’s “party”

Then she broke up with the “johari”  as she would refer to him derisively

She almost plunged into an abyss………. Almost

Work always yanked her out of personal melodrama

She loved it, cherished it, soaked in it and craved for it…

Her biggest aspiration…. To work for a clean water NGO happened….

Before her life hit the qtr century mark she had a long list of accomplishments at work… was nominated for the “NGO Star” award twice in a row… got herself 3 interviews in mainstream newspapers…

And brought clean drinking water to over 9 villages…………………..shut down operations, brought permanent indictments against 3 major corporations!!!!

Then Raghav happened……….she had no idea who he was, for some strange reason she could hear her heart beat in her ears when he approached…

She thought he was mute… at first…

He stared and lounged…

Some one taller than HER!??

“Raghav’s got to be the sexiest name” she had once told Ritwik…

He didn’t wait he kissed her… she shut her eyes all the way home in the auto many evenings after…. Feeling his touch…

For someone like herself who thought she was a “Ms Knowall” he made her feel clueless

He just listened….

When she stopped gasping for air….  He would smile and wait… for her to continue…

He held her hand… like they had known each other ages…

“You must think I am a naïve dork” she said once

“Nope, incredibly sexy” he responded…