My Sister's Daughter - Chapter 19 - Sessions in the park

“Me?” I was flummoxed, “But I’m perfectly fine.”

“Are you? Really?”  Shantanu hadn’t missed a beat.

“Yes..” I said firmly as I tried not to think about the screams that I occasionally heard. This was about Pia.. Not about me.

“If you want this to work, you have to be honest with me Khushi..” Shantanu was looking at me gravely, his glasses resting on the bridge of his nose.
“I understand.. So how do we do this?” I was trying to change the subject and get him to focus more on Pia.

“Ah yes..” Shantanu said, as though he just realized that it was Pia who was his patient and not me. “Well.. Pia will take a couple of days to open up to me. Till that time, there’s no point coming to my office. How about we meet here everyday? After her school hours?”

“Here????” i turned around to look at the surroundings. I found it difficult to imagine psychiatric session being conducted there.

“Is there a problem?” Shantanu inquired. I shook my head.

 He certainly had very unconventional methods.. But he was the expert and I wasn’t going to argue with him about his methodology.. Not yet anyway.

This continued for over two week. I used to pick Pia up from school and meet Shantanu over ice cream. Pretty soon Pia got very comfortable having Shantanu around.

He didn’t want to be a Shrink, he said. He wanted to be a friend.

 He told me his story too.  About his obesity problems. About why he was a psychiatrist. But as much as he tried, I could never tell him anything about Di apart from the sparse details about the accident.

At the end of two weeks, as we were saying our goodbyes, Shantanu called out “Come by my office tomorrow. I promised Pia I’ll show her around.”

Was this my cue?

 I guess it was supposed to mean that Pia’s real therapy sessions would start from tomorrow.

The next day, I did as I was told. I followed the directions Shantanu had given us and reached a very swanky looking apartment. I gulped. I hadn’t asked Shantanu how much each session was going to cost. I wasn’t poor but I certainly wasn’t rolling in money either. And the two weeks sessions!! Was he going to charge me for sitting in the park with Pia??? Probably.

I looked at Pia who could barely wait to see her new friend, Shantanu’s office. Whatever he was charging, he was worth it.

 I pushed the thought out of my mind and opened the door to Shantanu’s office.