‘Forgetting relaxes and forgiveness gives peace,’ Shanti said after half an hour.
Asrar agreed.
When he left Shanti’s room at 11 p.m., the rain had stopped. Cigarette butts, plastic cups, packets, paper, dead flowers floated in the puddles on the street.
He lifted his trousers carefully and crossed the dirty water to reach the road. He washed his feet in one of the puddles and a matchstick stuck to his slippers. He removed his slippers and cleaned the dirt between his toes. The slippers started floating and he immersed the pair in the water a couple of times to clean the dirt on them. He wore his slippers. He was thirsty. There was a restaurant nearby. The man sitting at the counter looked religious from his face and attire. Asrar wished him and asked him for a bottle of Bisleri.
The man called out to a servant. A twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy came out and gave him a bottle from the fridge. He sipped the water and walked towards the bus stop. A few taxis were standing there. He got into one of them. When the taxi started moving, the cold breeze touched his cheeks. The cold of the wind made him feel fresh. It reminded him of how Hina had looked at him from inside the taxi. He wondered what there was in Hina’s eyes that he could not look into them at that moment. The entire encounter with Hina flashed through his mind. From the farewell to the moment when he had seen her for the first time. It was like seeing a movie in reverse. He wondered how he could talk to a stranger. From where did he gather the courage to go and stand next to her and hold the umbrella over her head? What if her relatives were around? Would they have beaten him up? Such questions kept coming to him. The taxi stopped at the JJ signal. There was a lot of traffic on the road because of the heavy rain. He looked out of the taxi’s window. People were having seekh kebab at a restaurant near the signal. He thought, ‘Why do people not stay at home and rest during so much rain?’
The signal turned green, and the taxi turned towards Mohammad Ali Road.