That evening, I stayed in my room. Exhaustion had enveloped me. I was physically and emotionally drained out. That night, I dreamt about old houses, new relationships and happy endings.
The next morning, as I lay on the bed, pondering over my dream, I felt some good aura around me. I put my hand out of the blanket as though I could grab all of it and keep it with me.
I felt it in my bones, today was going to be a good day.
With a spring in my step, I got ready and rushed down to meet Raaghav. He had promised to introduce me to his brother, the first thing in the morning.
I could see two people standing outside from inside the hotel, one of them in the doorman’s uniform. Excited, I pushed the door open and stared.
It wasn’t Raaghav.
“Can I help you Madam?” The doorman, whose name tag most definitely did not read Raaghav, asked.
Slowly, I recovered from the shock and asked him, “Where is Raaghav today?”
“He’s not keeping well today, he’s going to be on leave for a couple of days.”
A couple of days??
“What happened to him?” I was concerned about him, even if my ulterior motives were selfish.
“I don’t know. Is it something important?” He asked.
I didn’t know, if his brother could help me, then most probably this was the single most important thing for me right now.
“Yes.” I said hestitantly, ”Is there any way I can contact him?”
The doorman eyed me suspiciously. After all, why would a guest be interested in the doorman’s wellbeing. To the extent of wanting to call him.
He shook his head, “You’ll have to check with the front desk.”
Discouraged, I walked back inside. I hadn’t even asked Raaghav his brother’s name. The concierge also couldn’t help me. He promised to ask around among the staff circle if anybody could contact Raaghav for me.
Heartbroken at the way the day was shaping up, I went back to the room when the front desk called me.
“There is someone by the name Om here to see you.”
“I don’t anybody by that name.” The front desk apologized for the inconvenience which somehow ended up frustrating me even more. COuldn’t they tell, my day had gotten off to a bad start.
Five minutes later the phone rang again.
“I’m sorry Madam,” The front desk clerk apologized before he even began talking.
“I told you!” I felt my temper rising. My carefully laid plans, which had seemed so perfect yesterday had come crashing down and I didn’t even have a backup plan. I was back to square one.
“Madam, he says Raaghav sent him.” The clerk interjected quickly.
“Oh! I’ll be right down.” I cursed myself for panicking. I should have known Raaghav would be as good as his word.
Om wasn’t hard to recognize, he was a splitting image of Raaghav but unlike Raaghav, he was gruff man. He scowled as he saw me approach me.
“Raaghav sent me, he said you want to find someone? Give me their old address, I’ll see what I can do.” He said before I could introduce myself.
He grabbed the address from my hand and started walking out.
“Thank you!” I called out behind him, unsure of whether the address would actually be looked at or whether the piece of paper would find its way into the trash can.
