04. In Search of Love - Sandhya

Gayathri looked to be in her late forties. She had a charming smile that was so very infectious… Though there was some trace of sadness in her face, she looked lovely for her age…

 But that was not the only reason why Pooja couldn’t take her eyes of her… She really felt that she has seen her somewhere…  She resembled someone…

Strangely, just like Pooja, Gayathri was also staring at Pooja…

While they both looked to be lost in their own thoughts, Annie and Gayathri’s daughter Kalai Selvi continued the conversation initiated by Gayathri…

“Everything is perfect madam! Ofcourse this bungalow is so cool! We can’t take eyes off the garden… It’s so very well maintained…” appreciated Annie.

“All the credit should go to my mom… And ofcourse we have good and efficient servants too…” said Kalai Selvi with a smile.

“Though the servants are efficient, you need someone to manage them properly to get the work out of them… So I would give the credit to Gayathri madam…”

Somehow by then Pooja regained her composure and started listening to their conversation.

“Ha ha ha… I too accept it Annie madam but I don’t think my mom would accept it…”

“That shows her humbleness… But please get rid of this madam tag… You can just call me Annie… I am not that very old, you see…” said Annie with a smile.

“Of course!  Accepted Annie…” said Kalai Selvi with a giggle.

“Kalai, I think you should ask Ramu and Rani to start serving the food and then continue your conversation…” said Gayathri.

“Yes sure mom…” said Kalai Selvi obediently and moved away to talk to the servants.

Gayathri noticed the surprise in the faces of Annie and Pooja.

“I can understand your surprised look. I am a very strict mother! So both my son and daughter are used to saying yes to my words…” explained Gayathri with a friendly smile.

Though her tone made them both feel at ease, Pooja couldn’t help but think about Gayathri’s son…

She could remember the conversation between Pratap and Nikhil in the morning…

Pratap mentioned about Nikhil’s sister and mother… So Kalai Selvi should be his sister and Gayathri should be his mother…

But Nikhil doesn’t seem to have any resemblance of his mother… He looked very different from Gayathri. Kalai Selvi atleast have some sort of resemblance of her mother…

But then if it’s not because of Nikhil, how come she has this strong feeling of knowing Gayathri before?

But that’s not important now…

Pooja shook her head as if to bring herself back to senses…

Gayathri and Annie were continuing their conversation and Pooja tried to concentrate and understand the context.

“… tea and coffee estates are also there… My son and son-in-law manage everything for us…”

“That’s good to know madam… I don’t think in this computer age, many youngsters prefer to stay in a hill station like this…”

“Oh yes, that’s very true. Pratap was born and brought up here and he admires this place a lot… But Nikhil staying here in this hill station is a surprise for me…”

“Oh!”

“Yes, even as a kid he used to be running around everywhere and it used to be very hard to make him stay at a place for a minute… But now he is staying here in a remote place that’s cut off from the world for almost two years…”

‘Oh! I can understand the reason for that…’ thought Pooja…

‘I am sure he is stuck with guilty conscience!’

In a way, that made her happy.

He is not very happy after all!

“You both look very tired, please help yourself… We both came here just to make sure that everything is comfortable for you…”

“Oh yes madam! It’s too much comfort! We don’t have any word to express our thanks…” said Annie.

Gayathri’s eyes looked towards Pooja who hasn’t spoken a single word so far…

Even now, Pooja just smiled back as if to agree Annie’s words but didn’t utter a word.

 “No, it’s our pleasure to host you all here… I owe a lot to your college principal…” said Gayathri with her smile.

Nikhil looked at his mother who seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. He was surprised!

Usually Gayathri never allow her own thoughts to mask herself… He could understand the reason for that too…

If she had allowed her own thoughts to overwhelm her, by now, all three of them would have been lost in the wave of time… There’s no one to look or worry about them in this world…

The thought brought back memories of Pooja… He knew he couldn’t escape from that…

Pooja’s memories have been haunting him for the last few years now… He hasn’t spent a single day without thinking of her… Infact she has been in his thoughts always… It’s just that sometimes he has to forcefully push it backwards for concentrating on other work…

He remembered the Pooja he saw today morning… She looked very dull… But surprisingly she looked very confident and somewhat mentally strong…

“Do you really love me, Nikhil?”

She used to ask him the same question so many times during their brief love affair… He could sense her insecurity and high expectations in that question… And willingly he had used that to exploit her and complete his revenge…

“Nikhil, can you move that chutney for me?”

Pratap’s voice disturbed his thoughts… He moved the chutney to his brother-in-law and again looked at Gayathri.