Chapter 72 - Struggling to find the way to him

|Innaya|

I glanced at the clock once I got back home after bringing the capsicums. I had more than enough time to cook. Fresh coriander's pleasant odor filled my nostrils. I remembered Eshan telling me once that he loved the taste fresh coriander added to foods, and thus I brought it with capsicums.

The six dishes weren't hard to make. I loved cooking. I learned it from my grandma. Her culinary skills were on par with professional chefs, maybe, more than them. She had that unique taste to all the foods she cooked, and many little secrets tips of her gave a different flavor to them.

I washed rice, split chickpeas, split pigeon peas respectively, and soaked them in separate bowls. When soaked they would take less time for cooking. The more time I saved in the cooking, the less time I would require to reach Eshan.

I finished the chopping first before kneading the dough for parathas. Leaving the dough to rest, I placed one pan, one stainless steel pot, one iron and one stainless steel kadhai on the gas. Thankfully, we had a four-burner gas stove. Adding oil in all of them, I started to cook capsicum fry, kadhi, tomato upma, and cabbage simultaneously. 

Back then, I was used to handling the cooking of multiple dishes in my maternal home. Hence, it didn't take me long to finish up with all the dishes.

*

I packed the dinner and put the Tiffins carefully in a bag. By the time I was done with everything, I had a smile on my face... a genuine smile that I rarely had in the past two months. I took off my apron and made it to our bedroom to change.

I searched through my wardrobe for a particular outfit and was instantly disappointed after not finding it. I almost emptied the whole cupboard until I got it. 

The Sari Eshan gifted me.

I hadn't spent even five minutes in dressing up in the past two months exception being today's morning. Make-up was out of the question, but today, I was going to get ready, again, properly - for him.

It still took me not more than fifteen minutes to change into the red saree and put on some mild makeup. I couldn't go beyond that. Artificial and materialistic things never appealed to me, and I know, it didn't appeal Eshan either.

<> 

I forgot to consider something really important.

I didn't know the route.

Arjun had blindfolded me when he was taking me to Eshan.

How was I going to reach to Eshan? I sat, confused in the car.

Though it wasn't the first time I had gone to that house. It was the very same place where my foolishness had insulted our relationship, but it had been two months to the same, and I wasn't in the state of mind to note the directions when I had followed Eshan to that house, two months ago.

'If you want it with all that you've got, Innu, - you will always find a way. All you need to do is try, and you will see the entire universe helping you get to it.'

My eyes snapped open as grandpa's words replayed in my ears. I silently thanked grandpa for helping me the way he always did, when he was with me, and even when he was gone.

I had to try, and I would try.

The next half an hour was spent in recalling everything that I could about the directions to the house. Never before I had hated my memory as much as I did that day for I could only faintly recall and that wasn't enough to get me to Eshan.

There was no more time to waste. I started the ignition and led the car to the first few kilometers that I properly recalled until the car reached a square leading the road in four different directions.

And, I was stuck in a square. I could not remember which way I was supposed to take.

'The right one... no... The left one... no. I was supposed to go straight.' Ah, I had no clue but nonetheless, I continued on the right turn, sincerely hoping that it would take me to my destination.

It was after I covered some fifteen-twenty kilometers on that route, I realized that I was on the wrong route for I recalled that there was a kindergarten on the way which I couldn't see there.

I took a U-turn and got back to the earlier square from where I had started, and I was stuck again. 

Left or straight?

I could have googled the nearest kindergarten school to find the way, but my Internet pack had ended weeks ago, and I hadn't bothered to recharge again. I wish I had.

I closed my eyes momentarily. Eshan's face came before my eyes, and involuntarily, I took the left turn. My heart continued racing as my gaze kept searching for the kindergarten school, and there was no bound to my joy when my eyes caught its sight. I was on the right road.

<> 

Finally! 

I forced my feet on the brakes to stop the car once I was in front of the house Eshan was staying in. I unlocked my phone to look at the time. It was 9.30 PM in the night.

I had left home at five, which meant it took me almost four and a half hours to reach the place where Arjun had taken me in less than two hours.

I had struggled a lot to find the house. A lot. I took so many wrong turns and had to get back to the same place to try the other routes, but I hadn't given up. I wouldn't give up. I wasn't going to give up.

Taking off my seat belt, I grabbed the bag and my phone before I stepped out of the car.

I was so anxious that while walking towards the door, the bag that contained the dinner almost slipped once, and my heart came into my mouth. I had made the dinner for him, and the thought of him not getting to eat it had me panicking. Destiny, for the first time, seemed by my side today. I caught the bag within time.

For several minutes, I was standing in front of the door, figuring out how to ring the doorbell.

How would he react upon seeing me?

Would he ask me to go?

Would he shut the door on my face? No, he wouldn't do that. I knew Eshan that much, but a bunch of possibilities got me a headache as I thought about them.

I could even take it if he slammed the door on my face. The only thing that I was afraid of was - he shouldn't get irked enough to leave the place. How was I going to find him if he moved to somewhere else, to get rid of me?

I was standing still in my place, terribly failing at dealing with the fears that were popping inside my head when the door was opened and I heard Eshan.

"Come inside."