‘You sit down,’ Asrar insisted. She had not even seated herself when someone knocked. It was the waiter. Asrar took the cups from him and kept them on the rack. After that he latched the blinds. Hina was looking at him. She was a bit confused. Asrar bent down and whispered in her ears, ‘I love you, Hina.’

Hina smiled.

He had repeated this sentence in the last few meetings. Hina was impressed by the romantic delivery of the line. She always reacted with a smile. Her answer was in her smile. In the dim light of the cabin she said, ‘I love you too.’ The vibrations of her words penetrated Asrar’s heart. He kept gaping at her for two minutes, and then gathered courage to put his palms on her cheeks. In the dim light, they peered into each other’s eyes. They could feel the infinite love in their eyes. They kept looking at each other for a while. Looking at each other was bliss, the greatest bliss of the world at that moment. They were lost in the moment when God knows from where Jamila Miss and Shanti entered Asrar’s thoughts. Jamila Miss was angry. The brimming love for Hina in Asrar’s eyes seemed to anger her. Maybe her heart was wounded. In his mind Asrar saw Jamila Miss drowning in a tunnel-like pit. The pit was full of dense blood and the blood belonged to no one but Jamila Miss herself. A spring of red blood was emerging from her chest. While drowning, she looked at Asrar and cried, ‘I loved you. I thought you were mine.’ Shanti stood at a little distance from the pit. She was holding a plate which fell on the ground. Vermilion and haldi kumkum were scattered on the floor.

Shanti lifted her eyes and looked at Asrar. ‘You’re fortunate to have found love. Ah! What is there for the likes of us?’