All Roads Lead Home - 8

I stood there watching Vishal drive away. Waste of an afternoon? I hadn’t found my parents house, I hadn’t even come close to the locality but I wouldn’t call it a waste of an afternoon. Somehow, Vishal had left a mark in my mind. I vowed to see him again before I left.

I had nothing else to do but wait for Prachi. It got really dark around six, up in the mountains. I pushed the curtains aside and watched the little city starting to sparkle with lights. As the darkness took over, the stars and the lights intermingled and I couldn’t tell where the mountains ended and where the stars took over.

I woke up suddenly, I had fallen asleep, curled up near the window. I yawned and looked at my watch. It was nine already. Prachi should have been here by now. Panic took over as I searched for my cellphone. As I dialed her number, the knob on the door turned and in walked my sister.

“God! Of all the places, your parents could originally be from, they had to be from here!! No direct flights, no direct trains! Even the buses are not direct!!”  She scowled at me as she walked in. She dumped her luggage in one corner and let a huge breath out.

As I heard her ranting and raving about how difficult it was for her to get here, I realized how glad I was that she came. Within the two minutes that she had been here, she had removed the stress that was building all around me and replaced it with humor.

I walked over, as she unpacked, and put my arms around her and squeezed her tight.

“Get off me!” She said, but made no attempt to try and make me move.

“Thank you for coming..” I whispered in her ear.

She merely grunted, but I knew she was pleased.

“So what are you going to do Ira? How do you plan to start? I mean, even in a small city like this, its going to be difficult to find them. We don’t even have a name.” Prachi clearly, like me, had had a lot of time to think about it.

“I’m working on it.” I offered lamely.

Prachi dropped the clothes she was unpacking from the bag and turned to stare at me in disbelief.

“Are you telling me, that you have NO idea?” She asked incredulously.

“I told you that over the phone call, that I have NO idea.” I went on the defensive. I didn’t ask her to come. She had no right to come here and make me feel stupid or ridicule me.

“How could you Ira?! I thought you had this whole thing figured out! How do you know we are not on a wild goose chase here? Maybe they never really lived her. Maybe they gave a fake address! Then what are you going to?”  She challenged.

I looked away. I had no answers for her questions. I had asked myself the same questions while coming here. And somehow, despite not knowing answers to any of the questions, I knew I had to try.

“I’ll think of something. Is this why you’ve come here? To de-motivate me?” I questioned her.

“Ira!” My sister was clearly exasperated. “You quit your job to come here. I thought you had a plan!”

“I don’t.” I shrugged. It didn’t bother me, right now that I didn’t have a plan. Whatever I was doing felt right. “You can go back, anytime you want.” I continued.

She bit her lip, I knew she was making up her mind. Finally, she glared at me. “Well, I guess you haven’t left me with much choice.” She started zipping her bag up.

I nodded. Even though, I knew, that her staying, would serve no purpose, I was disappointed to hear her decision.

“I’m going to take the bed near the window though.” Prachi said, as she dragged her bag to the other side of the room.

“You’re not leaving???” I asked, shocked.

“Look at yourself Ira, you don’t have any idea why you’ve come here, what you’re looking for, how you’re going to find it and where you’re going to start. You’re like a little lost puppy. Somebody has to be here to give you some direction..” A smile had crept on her face. “Now, come here, I have some ideas.”

It was contagious. A smile made its way on to my face too.

As I settled on her bed and watched her pull out her laptop, I realized that it was her way of showing that she loved me and nothing had to change between us.. Sometimes, that kind of love, which remains unspoken, is the kind that you should treasure the most..

All Roads Lead Home - 7

I decided not to wait for Prachi. I was feeling restless in the hotel room. I needed to get out and do something. I had an address, nothing was stopping me from going and taking a look. Who knew what I’d find. Besides, I really didn’t expect Om to turn up with anything substantial.

It had started to drizzle as I walked out. I pulled my jacket tighter as I walked out in the rain. On most days, the rain would have depressed me and would have ensured that I stayed in my room, but not today. As I walked out, I noticed how the rain was washing the city clean, giving it a new cleansed look. All the dust and dirt which had settled on trees and plants got washed away, leaving the bright soothing green leaves behind.

I noticed people scurrying around, trying to escape from the rain. For a change, the rain did not bother me. I tilted my head and felt the droplets hit my face, the rhythmic pitter-patter of the rain calming my frayed nerves. I didn’t ask for directions. I had spent enough time on the flight and the bus here, trying to memorize the streets from the map that would lead me to my parents house.

Pretty soon, I was out of the commercialized area. Maybe I should have rented a car, or carried an umbrella.  It had been one hour and I was still walking, still getting drenched. The excitement of the rain had died and now I shivered uncontrollably as I realized I was lost. There was no cell phone reception and not a soul in sight.

As I wandered around, trying to find shelter, I wondered where my good aura had disappeared. I was going to fall terribly sick if I kept getting wet. I trudged along, praying that I would meet someone, anyone.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I saw a jeep SUV approaching. Relieved I put out both my hands, trying to get the driver’s attention. The driver didn’t even slow down.

“Hey! Hey!” I called out. I half ran behind the jeep SUV. I let out a huge sigh of relief as the jeep SUV stopped. A hooded figure peeped outside the window.

“Well, hurry up get inside.” A male voice called out.

I gulped. I didn’t want to get into a vehicle with a stranger, that too with a hood! I hesitated.

“Are you coming? Or shall I just go?” The voice asked me impatiently. I thought of the past one hour that I had walked in the rain and literally, raced to the jeep SUV and got in without so much of a glance at the driver. I couldn’t have cared less if he carried a knife, I was exhausted and drenched. I just needed to get out of the rain.

As I shrugged my jacket off, I noticed a big black dog in the back seat. I felt my throat go dry, Since childhood, I had had this inordinate fear of dogs and being in such close proximity with such a huge dog, wasn’t an ideal scenario for me.

“Thank you for stopping.” I said politely. I tried to see his face, but the hood covered most of his face.

“What were you doing so far off the road anyway?” he asked. He noticed the clattering of my teeth and shook his head. He rolled up the window and put on the a/c.

“Better?” he asked as he pulled off his hood.

I nodded, rubbing my arm gently, trying to get some warmth back into my body. I looked at him sneakily, trying not to make it obvious that I was looking at him.

He was older, maybe fifty or sixty. It was hard to tell. The large amount of grey in his hair gave him a distinguished look.  His hands were rough and calloused, classic signs of a farm life.

“So, what were you doing back there?” he glanced at me suspiciously.

“I was looking for an address, and I got lost.” I pulled out a tissue from the Kleenex kept on the dash board and wiped my face.

“Silly girl,” He chided me, “Never step out into the mountains by yourself. You are new here, did you know you were headed towards the forest area?” He asked.

Shocked, I shook my head. Thank God, I had met this man when I had.

Suddenly the dog growled.. I almost jumped out of my skin. I retreated, away from the dog.

“C-c-can you k-keep that thing aw-way from me?” I stammered.

He laughed. “Who? Lyka? She’s a gentle one. Here, give me your hand.” He grabbed one of hand and placed it on the dog’s snout. I held my breath trying not to scream. Lyka, stood still, even whimpered a little. Emboldened by her response, I stroked her a little and was taken aback when her tail started wagging. This wasn’t so bad.

“See, she likes you..” He smiled kindly at me.

“Yeah, I think she does.” I smiled back and continued petting Lyka.

“Okay, we’re in the city. Where do you want to be dropped?” He asked suddenly.

Surprised, I looked around. I was already there, near my hotel.

“Right here, please.”

As I got off the jeep SUV, I realized I didn’t even know his name.

“Thank you for the lift.” I said through the window that he had rolled down.

“My pleasure, be careful next time.” He said as he started his jeep SUV again.

“I’m Ira by the way,” I introduced myself a little too late.

“Nice to meet you Ira, I’m Vishal Sood. I have this little cottage for tourists that I run. Come by sometime. Lyka will like that.”

As he drove away, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that I would be meeting him again. And soon.

All Roads Lead Home - 6

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.

All Roads Lead Home - 5

With Prachi’s call, I was filled with a new found hope and energy. I walked down to the front-desk and asked the concierge about the area that my parents had lived in almost thirty years ago.

“Thirty years ago..” The concierge said thoughtfully. “That area was a well off area quite a few years ago. Then the richer people started abandoning the town to go settle in bigger cities and all the good areas in the town deteriorated. But thirty years ago, that’s a long time ago.. I’m sorry, I can’t really be sure.”

I turned away disappointed, when the concierge called me back, “Maybe you can talk to Raaghav, our doorman, he’s been around for as long as anyone can remember.” He pointed at an elderly gentleman manning the door.

Funny, I had  never paid any attention to him as I had walked in. Now as I walked towards him, I noticed the way his shoulders slumped, the way his back slouched, the look of exhaustion on his face. I felt sorry for him. Was my birth father standing somewhere like this? Exhausted to the core? Working to make ends meet?

I shuddered and put the thought out of my head. After a quick word with the concierge, I took Raaghav on a break. Somewhere, inside, I hoped that my good deed would be passed on to my parents, if they were in a such a position.

Raaghav felt too conscious to enter the coffee shop in the hotel, so we decided to go to a nearby chai shop.

“So, thank you for talking with me.” I waited till the tea was on the table.

Raaghav, clearly not much of a talker, simply nodded.

“I wanted to know about some residential areas in the city. I mean, what kind of people stayed there, around thirty years back. Can you help me?” I hurried to finish my sentence as Raaghav gulped down his tea.

“One more?” I asked. He nodded and gestured to the waiter.

Silence surrounded the table.

“So will you help me?” I asked. I could hear the desperation in my voice.

After some thought, Raaghav said, “Can I have something to eat too?”

“Sure, order whatever you like.” I passed on the menu to him. Turns out, he didn’t need it. He was a regular here. I waited patiently till he finished eating.

As he started getting up, I realized he had taken me for a ride.

“I am sorry Madam, I don’t know this are you wanted to know about.”

I nodded a little and grimaced at my naiveté. Why had I assumed he would be the answer to all my problems. The bill came as he walked out. Feeling somewhat like a fool who’s been had, I took out my clutch.

“Maybe you should talk to my brother.” I looked up, Raaghav had returned. Did he expect me to feed his brother too?

“No, thank you.” I said curtly. How stupid did he think I was.

“He works for the Post Office.” He had said the only thing, that could have stopped me from walking out.

“And you..” I asked hesitantly, “think he’ll be able to help me?”

He smiled kindly at me, “I don’t know who you are looking for in that area, but if anyone can help you, its him. I will call him to meet you tomorrow.”

Suddenly, he had made my day. I had a plan now. A direction. I felt some weight slide off my shoulders.

As I walked back to the hotel with Raaghav, I realized that in my search, I would have to depend on a lot of people. And I couldn’t treat any of them with suspicion, nor could I doubt their motives. I would have to trust them and their inputs. I would have to jump without a safety net. No, that was not true. Prachi would be my safety net.

“Thank you for the break madam.” Raaghav said politely as he held the door open for me.

“No Raaghav..” I stopped him. “Thank you.” As corny as it was, it was true. He had helped me out in more than one ways.