I sorry - You sorry

The phone started to ring and disturb his sleep. He disconnected the call. It started ringing again. He disconnected again. Third time, he did not. He answered still half asleep

"Hello"
"Hello Ritu" replied a buoyant voice at the other end.
"Why you waking me up so early yaar"
"Ritu, did you check the time, its 8 am in the morning"
"Precisely my point, why you waking me up so early?"
"Stop being a lazy bum and get out of your bed and get ready. You remember our plans for today na?"
"What plans?"
"Rituuuuu..." she said in a cute impatient tone.
"Ok ok. Will get ready in 30. Where are we meeting again?"
"Ok bye."
And before her impatience turned into anger and resulted in one fight more he replied "Acha, sorry was just kidding. I will meet you at your place Aura"
"Good boy. Make it quick" and she disconnected the call.

Ritvesh got out of the bed still half asleep, but was motivated to get ready and go meet Aura. After all, his life which had hit rock bottom had changed after he met Aura. Few days passed after he last saw Aura when she had apologized. He was following his usual routine in the cafeteria - grabbed his lunch and was heading to his secluded corner when he heard some calling his name out. He turned to find Aura. It was a sweet surprise for him as he was not expecting to see her so soon again.

"So Mr. Devdas, heading towards your corner again?"
"Please call me Ritvesh"
"Alright Mr. Serious, let us try and change your ever-existent grumpy mood"
"Please call me Ritvesh"
"Why Mr. Grumpy? Dont you like your new names?"
He flipped out"You don't even know me, you dont know what I am going through. We have just talked twice and now you are judging me and giving me names. Stop bothering me and mind your own business". By the time he had finished he ended up screaming.
Her face turned red with embarrassment, and suddenly tears started rolling down. Tears and he instantly remembered Raksha and how he made her cry. He felt his heart ache. But he could not take a walk down the memory lane, not now. He had made a girl who was almost a stranger to him cry. Somehow all the anger that he had built up, was redirected towards this poor girl.
He wanted to apologize "Sorry... " but before he could complete she started running away. He knew better than to follow her and create a big scene out there. He also knew that he had to give her time to calm down. So he decided to wait.

He could no longer eat after what he did. He just went back to his desk and tried to work, but could not. Looking at the watch constantly did not help either. Every minute seemed to take longer than the previous one and his impatience grew with each minute. He told himself that he would take 1 hour before he went and apologized, but it started to get really difficult. "Screw the time and the timing" he said to himself and set out to apologize.

The building in which his office was located was 12 floors out of which his office had rented out 3. Was unsure where Aura's desk was so his first mission was to find her. It was his not so lucky day because on the first two floors he could not find her. Finally though he did locate her on the third floor and somehow got the courage to walk straight to her. Her eyes had turned red from the crying. She was still sobbing. He realized how much she had cried by looking at the number of tissues in the bin. She did not see him approaching, or may be decided to ignore him.

"Aura" he tried to speak but the voice would not come out. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Aura". She looked up. The mere expression on her face was enough to suggest that she wanted him to get lost. He was persistent though for it was his mistake.
"Aura, I am terribly sorry, actually I am beyond sorry. I am ashamed of what transpired out there. I shouldn't have freaked out. Somehow ended up redirecting my anger towards you. Please forgive me. I am ready to accept any punishment that you think is right"
She was still sobbing but spoke up "Are you sure?"
"Yes, any punishment"
"Ok, you will have to apologize to me in front of everyone in the cafeteria at peak hours"
"Will do"
"I am not done yet. You will have to bow to me, fall at my feet and apologize"
"Ok thats a little overboard but may be I deserve it"
"May be?" and she shot of look of anger back at him
"No, I do deserve it"
"Ok tomorrow at 12.30 in the cafeteria, you do that and then may be I will forgive you"
"May be?"
"Beggars cant be choosers, now please go away before I do something I shouldnt in a fit of rage"
"Please do, then we can call it even"
"You might be smart, but don't try to be over-smart, you will lose this chance of me forgiving you"
"Alright, tomorrow at 12.30"

On his way back and throughout the rest of the day there was an internal conflict that was going on. It was a conflict between his self-respect and peace of mind. Self-respect did not want him to do what he agreed to do, but if he wanted peace of mind he had to do it. He could not sleep the whole night as he was struggling inside. He decided to go ahead with it anyway because peace of mind was far more important than some bruised ego.

He reached the cafeteria at 12.20, so that he was definitely not late and was accused of not turning up. Aura came in at 12.25. He went to her and wanted to say something but she silenced him pointing at the clock. He had to wait for 5 more minutes to be humiliated. Clock struck 12.30 and he would not wait any further. He fell onto his knees. People passing by stopped and started staring at him. Every passing second he gained more attention. And before he could say anything she said "Ritvesh enough. Please get up, lets talk". He did not, instead said "So do you forgive me?". By this time the embarrassment on her face was evident. "I do. Now please get up. This is starting to get a little weird". She started walking away only to pause and look back at him and say "Come with me". He followed.

She stopped at his 'corner' of the cafeteria and turned to him and said " I am sorry Ritvesh. That was a little overboard. I was very angry with you yesterday that I asked you to do all this. This morning my anger receded and though I did not want you to do it, I wanted to see if you would really attempt it."
"I think we have apologized to each other more than we have talked. I guess we need to end this streak of apologies. What do you say?"
"Disagree, you still haven't forgiven me"
"All your apologies accepted and hope all of mine are. Can we move on now?"
"Only on one condition"
"What more now?"
"Friends?" and she extended her hand. Somehow he could not stop smiling and shook hands to something very special.

His mobile started ringing again. Did he dream for long? He picked up the phone and answered.
"Hello"
"Are you ready yet Rituu?"
"Ten more minutes please"
"If you are not here in 30 minutes you will have a bad day dude. I dont care how you come - run, drive or fly for all it matters to me."
"Ok will try. Byeeee" he disconnected and ran towards the shower.

Aura

It was another typically boring day at the office. Ritvesh was in the cafeteria trying to shove lunch down his throat. And like always he was sitting alone at a corner facing the wall so that he could see anyone, rather no one could see him. He bent down to grab his fork which he had dropped accidentally. He picked it up and continued shoving, but sensed some restlessness in his mind. Something had caught his attention but his senses and mind were totally out of sync. It took his mind longer to process what he had seen/heard/tasted. This time he had seen something. The red ear rings. His heart started racing the very instant. He started talking to himself, "Could this be Raksha? what if she is indeed? That is not possible, definitely not possible. But what if by some great miracle she is?" He had to find out. 

He got up and headed in her direction. She was sitting with her back facing him, so he could not see her face. She too was sitting alone he realized. When he was about 5 feet away from her, she turned as if she sensed that someone was approaching her. That very instant time froze. He was hoping against hope that it would be Rakhsa. She was not, she was some one else. It started making sense to him as to why she got his attention. She was the stand out in the rest of the crowd. He now also noticed that she was wearing a blue salwar, had her hair plaited and was wearing the exact same red ear rings. The combination seemed weird to him but was working for her. He suddenly realized that he was standing in the middle of the cafeteria, 5 feet away from her and staring shamelessly. There was a sudden urge in him to talk  to her. Then emotion overcame his sense of control and he blurted out. 

"Hi I am Ritvesh"

"So?

"And you are?"

"None of your business. Please stop bothering me"

"I am sorry, I dont know what I was thinking. Something got the better of me. Sorry to have bothered you again. Please carry on"

He felt as if someone had slapped him hard across his face. He wanted to die at the very moment. He could not. Instead he did the walk of shame back to his desk. The only solace in his life was his work. With a non-existent personal life, the need to meet people, have fun or laugh, he had all the time in the world to work. His boss being the wily old fox, figured that out and extracted everything that he could. Ritvesh did not mind. So once he was back at his desk he got the much needed diversion from the incident back at the cafeteria.

A few days later, Ritvesh was sitting at the exact same spot trying to eat and not to look anywhere else but just at the wall. He felt someone tapping his shoulder. He turned around to find the same girl. This time though she did not seem grumpy. She was smiling. He found nothing amusing about that given the treatment he got the last time.

"Hi" she said.

He did not respond, unsure as to how this conversation would turn out to be. He just had a blank expression on his face. 

She tried again "Hey, I just said hi"

This time it was his turn "So?" 

"I think we got off on a wrong foot" 

"Really? I thought it was quiet normal for you to bash a guy who says hi"

"Alright mister, enough of this. I was in a bad mood that day and felt that I was very rude to you. I tried to find you the next day but somehow was never able to. Today I finally did and wanted to apologize and get the burden off my head, but looks like you are in a even worse mood than I was" and she turned and was about to walk away. 

"Wait. I am sorry. Its just that after that day I hated myself and hated you even more for having made me feel that way. I am not sure why I even came and talked to you. It just saw that you had those.... ignore that. Forget all this ever happened."

"I am sorry too. I was having a bad day that day. It was my birthday but my boss gave me shit because some other dude failed to do his work properly. Apparently we missed the deadline and I was being blamed. I could not take it and just wanted some time for myself, so was sitting alone and that is when you came and you know the rest." 

"By the way I am Aura, Aura Patel. You said you are Rakesh?" and raised her brows to signal that she was questioning. 

"Ritvesh, not Rakesh. "Aura", thats not a typical gujju name"

"Who said that I am a typical gujju? When I was born my dad took one look at me and said that my name would be Aura, for the innate aura that I possessed. Apparently my mom and dad a big fight over my name, but my dad stood his ground. He is happy now though, when people come to him and say that I justify the name." There was a tinkle in her eyes and smile on her face, a slightly mischievous one, he realized that she was one of those who had cute dimples. He also realized that he never really observed how she looked. Now he was doing just that. He could not help but draw comparisons with one benchmark he had, Raksha. She was not as beautiful as Raksha he observed, but her eyes were special: deep, mischievous, they smiled when she smiled. She could communicate with her eyes he figured. She had left her hair open unlike the last time when she had plaited them. And she had switched to a more corporate attire. She looked very professional though, a little too professional for a software employee, but he was not complaining. 

She snapped her fingers and said "Mr. Ritvesh, dont you think it is bad manners to gape at a girl who has come to apologize?"

"Sorry again. I get lost in thoughts very easily these days. The hangover doesnt help too" 

"You sound and look like Devdas. Anyhow, I got to run. Take care dude. See you around" and she walked away. 

After she left, he felt ecstatic. He did not feel like a total loser anymore. Of course she had a reason for an outburst and that reason was not him. 

When he went home that night he did not feel the need to get drunk to fall asleep and he was right, sleep would come easily that night and many nights to follow...