School over, Lhemo, the VP, intercepted me on the way.
“Mr. Bhattacharjee, I’ve been thinking about your request. Each of our Staff Quarters has four units. You can occupy the ground floor unit of the first building. You'll have to share it with another teacher though. Accommodation is tight here. Come in the evening. I’ll take you there. Deki, the other occupant, isn’t gonna be here for the weekend.”
I loved the look and the feel of the place. Ms. Deki had done a fantastic job of decorating and maintaining it. The walls of the Living Room were adorned with some wallpapers and posters of Hollywood divas. Upfront, there was a shining, oval-shaped dining table with four matching chairs, facing the glass window. On the opposite side, there was a sofa set with a tea tool in the middle. Lhemo left me, once she was done with showing me around, I stood at the door, hypnotized! It was such a picturesque room with a feel-good factor about it.
While coming out, I noticed a lady’s black, furry overcoat. It had fallen off a hook at the back of the entrance door and smelt of foreign perfume. I bent down to put it back on its place. I don’t know why the black far coat had such a pull over me!
I informed Madam Lhemo of my decision of occupying one room of the unit at the earliest on the way.
I was introduced to Deki the following Monday. She was a stunner. Slim, smart and stylish. A teacher, she had straight, black hair reaching down to her shoulders.
“Hi, I’m Rathin,” I exclaimed as we shook hands and I found myself looking into a pair of dark, deep brown eyes. Her smile dispelled all my fears instantaneously.
“Hello, we’re gonna be roommates, I mean, we’re gonna share the same unit, right?” When I nodded, she added,“ Welcome home.”
The friendship happened sooner than expected as I found myself captivated by her charm.
She stayed back the next Saturday. She’d called some students for cleaning the area around the Staff Quarters. I was lazing in my bed – lonely and lost with the curtains drawn when a student sought permission to enter from outside. Deki had sent a steaming cup of coffee. I don't remember for how long I lay there as the light outside faded. I was still in bed without bothering to turn the lights on when the loud music playing on the stereo from her room, hit me :
Take me to your heart………
I broke into a smile, slowly popping up on bed.
Busy washing during the weekend, I was humming the tune when I saw a shining, black Jaguar slowly heading its way up to our quarters. The car stopped right in front of me. I saw Deki getting out from the seat next to the driver's. She was returning from the weekly shopping with hands full of parcels and plastic packets. She walked past with her goggles moved back to her head before smiling at me.The hefty man, with a French beard, in the meantime, had banged the car door shut.
“Sir, meet Karma. He’s here for the weekend.” Deki told me without any preamble.
As we shook hands, I found myself looking at a pair of probing eyes of the man. He had a clean-shaven face. White-complexioned, he wore light blue jeans and a black half-sleeved shirt open at the neck.
“Pleased to meet you,” he said, looking genuinely pleased.
At 5, Deki tapped on my door. On peeking out from behind the curtain, I found her beau behind her.
“Sir, we’re throwing a party tonight. Just close friends, you know. Lhemo will be there. Will you join us?”
Later, with the party going on in full swing, I found Deki dancing with Karma.
“They make such a handsome couple,” I heard someone remarking. I don't know if it was due to the influence of the drinks, I didn't find them such a handsome pair at all! Deki looked ravishing, no doubt, but Karma, despite his dashing looks, looked like a jerk. A complete mismatch!
So lost they’re in one another the next day that they didn't come out of their room before midday!
On Monday as Karma was leaving, he called out to me from outside my door.
“Sir, I’ve a Music Shop. I heard you’re going back to Kolkata soon. This is a parting gift from us for Madam (my wife).” He spoke haughtily while stretching forward his hand with a CD of All Time Favourites.
I couldn't refuse it.
I saw Karma coming and spending a few more weekenders with Deki. One late night after I had retired to bed at around 11, someone tapped on the glass window from outside. Curtain pulled apart, I found Deki tightening her black coat around her, pointing sheepishly to the main door.
She was boozed that night while I opened the door. That familiar scent hit me as she stepped in and walked past me, wiping away the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.
I spent that night sitting on the sofa, listening to her with that strong perfume emitting from her black overcoat and my hand around her shoulder, occasionally getting up for making black coffee – learning about the devastating betrayal!
Post retirement, I was sitting on a leather chair out on the porch in the fading sunlight one wintry afternoon in Kolkata when I heard that familiar tune playing on my daughter's stereo.
An unbearable pleasurable pain shot through me as memories came flooding back.
The song blaring from Deki’s room; the party; the bleak night when she told me how helpless she felt in the grip of a married man, who loved her for her body alone, and finally,
Take me to your heart…..
DoubleSpeak 