Reading Time: 7 minutes
It was a lambent ambience aglow with the colourful attires and fineries donned by the gathering on lush and plush green lawns edging over a sheer drop to the high tides of the sea. The sun was gradually setting, the skies awash with streaks of colours behind the translucent clouds and waves covered with a shimmer of gold, yellow and red. It was a magical dusk, made more so with the mellifluous shehnai strains in the background, welcoming the guests for a celebratory evening.
It was a joyous occasion for Naresh Apte and Sujaya Sharma, as they soaked and basked in the warm setting. Naresh was a widower in his late sixties and Sujaya was in her mid-thirties. Naresh and Sujaya had met about a dozen years’ ago at the passing out convocation of a prestigious business school down south. Sujaya was one of the bright spots in that institute and was a top 5 ranker, much admired and wooed by not just a few.
Naresh and Sujaya had taken an instinctive liking for each other the moment they had been introduced. Naresh saw in Sujaya the daughter that he never had and Sujaya saw in Naresh the father that she had lost early in her life. Naresh was articulate and affectionate by nature while Sujaya was understated and passionate about everything in life. Sujaya and her classmates had had a whale of a time and conversations over a celebratory meal late that evening and Naresh was one of the invitees. Joie de vivre was evident as everyone was taking everyone else’s case via humorous anecdotes and experiences over two years of togetherness in their arduous MBA journey, now all set to embark on exciting professions and careers in India and abroad.
Naresh and Sujaya had several common interests like history, philosophy and spirituality, outside of their professional pursuits in the field of finance and investments. They often got together for discussing their common areas of expertise and learning from each other. The ultra-conservative Sujaya was an apt counter to the high-risking Naresh, particularly in their approach to investments. Suffice it to say, each had a positive impact on the other and got along like a house on fire. They were by and large at ease with their lives, given their philosophical and spiritual orientation and involvement with myriad classes and practices.
More than discussing their respective professions, Sujaya always used these meetings to discuss something or the other on her personal front, having developed immense trust and faith in Naresh and his ability to sift and solve difficult issues with pragmatism. Naresh had become Sujaya’s go-to-person for anything and everything under the sun, the huge generational gap notwithstanding. Though she saw her father in Naresh, Sujaya was impressed by how well he was attuned to her generation’s ways of living and thinking and could vibe with them with deep empathy and understanding.
A few years later, Sujaya had a devastating bereavement in her mother losing a long drawn out battle with the dreaded C. Soon after procuring her degree, Sujaya had moved with her mother to Mumbai, to take up a job. Mumbai was a vastly different city with its own ethos and milieu, much unlike Kanpur, and it had taken a couple of years for Sujaya to settle down and feel comfortable, thanks to her mother’s soothing presence. Now with her mother gone, Sujaya often felt bereft and desolate and this led to her meeting Naresh more often than in the past. Naresh deeply felt her sense of loss, as he himself had when he had lost his wife to a fatal ailment a year earlier. Sujaya had then been a tremendous source of comfort to him, with her philosophical and spiritual empathy. Gradually a strong filial bond developed between Naresh and Sujaya. For all practical purposes, Naresh gave Sujaya the same attention and care that he did for his own family and never let her feel inadequate or lonely. Sujaya played the perfect role of a daughter that Naresh never had, but always longed for.
Naturally, given their close father-daughter relationship, Naresh got anxious to see Sujaya settle down with a life companion. Sujaya, surprisingly and contrary to her usual candidness with Naresh, never encouraged a discussion about her marriage, except to say that she had been in a deep relationship with a batch mate in the past but it eventually broke off due to divergence of outlook and views about life in general. Her batch mate with whom she had been in a relationship had since migrated abroad permanently. Fortunately, there was no rancour at the parting of ways and a polite and graceful friendship continued, given that they had several common friends. However, this had left Sujaya deeply disappointed and disenchanted enough to stay away from any new relationships. Though Naresh was keen to hear more from her, she brooked no questions and avoided answering them for fear of upsetting him. In any case, she was doing very well in her professional career and her spirituality kept her well balanced to accept the situation and live it out alone. Naresh could not help but think about his own two sons who were in no hurry to get married initially, but eventually agreed for arranged marriages recently and had settled abroad. Sujaya had been an invitee to his sons’ marriages but had abstained citing busy schedules, which was a sore point for Naresh, but this never came in the way of his strong bond with Sujaya.
Years were slowly passing by and Sujaya soon breached 30. Naresh, given his fondness for Sujaya, did not give up trying to convince her to find a good life partner and get married. Sujaya on her part was as adamantine as ever, given her fierce independence of thought and would not have any of it. Naresh was quite nagging and persistent, but Sujaya never felt uneasy about it, knowing Naresh’s deep feeling for her and his good intentions. Naresh soon organised a surprise party at his home and invited Sujaya and six of her close friends. They were all doing very well in their chosen professions and their respective partners were equally successful. It was a great evening for Sujaya and her friends hosted as it was by Naresh, a person of impeccable taste and fondness for the good things of life. The best of the wines, the best of cheese and the best of food had been organised from gourmand chefs and the guests were relishing the fare over great chatter and natter. Naresh ensured that the subject of Sujaya’s marriage came up and built up some peer pressure, hoping that Sujaya would at least listen to her friends and be convinced about the happiness of a life together with a life partner. Truth be told, Sujaya had been thinking about it for long, had been feeling lonely of late, but had always been unsure and insecure. A change of heart happened in Sujaya, listening to her friends and the sincerity of Naresh’s purpose. After the party, Sujaya hugged Naresh warmly and gave him the go ahead to find her a suitable match.
Naresh was overjoyed to say the least and over the next few months of intense networking, applying to matrimony sites and scouring the data with utmost care and diligence, shortlisted 4 names whom he felt would be ideal for Sujaya. Sujaya had complete faith in Naresh’s judgement, as one would have in a doting father, and agreed to meet them. A round of get togethers at Naresh’s home and dating encounters followed and soon Sujaya felt comfortable with one of them and expressed herself to Naresh. After a couple of more independent rein checks and mutual visits and discussions with the boy’s family, the marriage date and venue had been fixed. Sujaya had chosen well; the boy was from a highly educated and cultured family, having himself qualified from Ivy League colleges in US and had come back to India, sensing the huge opportunities in a growing economy with a promising future. He had set up his own start up in logistics solutions and it was gaining momentum slowly and surely.
Naresh’s eyes turned moist as he did the kanyadaan of Sujaya and performed the marriage ceremonies with grace and aplomb and the guests showering their blessings on the well matched couple. Naresh sorely missed the presence of his wife, but found solace in the fact that at least his elder son had come down from the US to attend Sujaya’s marriage. Several pics and videos captured the beautiful moments of the various marriage ceremonies, of the guests meeting the couple, the beautiful decoration, the fabulous venue by the sea and the happy couple coming together for each other. As millennials are very much present on social media, Sujaya and her husband shared their joy with the world and went to town on Instagram and Facebook. Congratulatory messages poured in from several quarters, including her close batchmate who had migrated abroad.
A month later, Sujaya on her way to office, dropped in at Naresh’s home to spend some quiet moments with him. She felt overwhelmed by what Naresh had done for her and her life taking a turn for the better as a result. She ran across and hugged him profusely and broke down in copious tears. She was too overwhelmed to speak. No words were required, Naresh understood what Sujaya was silently expressing and for the first time in several years, he too broke down at the poignancy of the moment.
Naresh had all along known about Sujaya and his younger son, Abhishek, being more than mere batchmates, looking at their dynamics and body language on the convocation day, a dozen years ago. An informal chat with their batchmates on that day had only confirmed their closeness. But sadly, it was not to be. A sense of drift had thrown Sujaya and Abhishek asunder and he could only watch it helplessly, much as he had tried to convince Abhishek that Sujaya was the perfect match for him. Naresh had to summon all his inner strength and composure whenever he interacted with Sujaya and behave as though he did not know about her and Abhishek. He could not get a daughter-in-law in Sujaya, but it was karmic that he could get a daughter in Sujaya. His solemnising Sujaya’s wedding was his way of healing hearts.
