TWELVE
Time passed. Little Maya joined English literature. She was a free soul, keen on finding the meaning of life. She topped in her class and college education was opening up the world of prose and poetry to her. Still, she couldn't figure life out. Everything seemed to become shallow after some time, even though she had no trouble making friends and spending time with them at coffee shops, movie halls and parties was fun. She had even tried drugs, but everything seemed to bore her. She dated men, but did not go beyond kisses, if at all.
Then Vikram Oberoi happened. She met him in a training session just after she finished her graduation and was scouting around for a job. He was known for his numbing magic shows. He used colour therapy and magic to train and heal people. Her college had organised a training session by him on how to retain one's focus and that was how she came to known him.
When she first saw him, she could barely take her eyes off him. He was powerfully built with a strong jawline and mature brown eyes. He seemed serene. After the session was wrapped up, Maya had gone up to him to ask for a personal healing session.
“Can I come for a personal session to you?” she asked, blushing.
“Why do you need to?” he grinned.
“I guess I'm a little disturbed!”
She felt he was suppressing a grin this time.
“Everyone here is disturbed, you see,” he said, dismissively.
“I want to find the real meaning of life.”
“I can't help you much with that. All of us have to find our own meaning. No one else can do it for us, no matter how much they would want to.”
“I want to learn magic!”
“You have to be eligible for that,” he smiled.
“Eligibility needs to be created. Help me with that!” He smiled at her.
“You mean you won't let me come to you,” she said, disappointed.
“Well, normally I don't take individual sessions, but I'll make an exception for you. If you're serious, you can join me as a part-time assistant after you graduate next month. But only if you are serious. Don't waste my time otherwise!” Vikram wondered why he came up with the lie about needing an assistant.
“Of course, I will. When can I join?”
“Tomorrow, if you can!” he smiled.
They agreed, she could join as soon as her graduation examinations were over. The day after it got over, she went to his office.
“Hi, my name is Maya,” she told the girl in his office.
“I'm Manmeet,” the girl replied, sounding aloof.
She looked good enough to participate in the Miss India contest, Maya thought. She held a jazzy pink Samsung handset with a shining key chain hanging along with it.
“Are you the new girl he has hired as his assistant?” It was her turn to ask questions. Yes, Maya replied.
“I wonder why he needs anyone else,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.
Maya felt a little embarrassed, but she managed a reply. “I will only be coming for two hours a day on alternate days.”
“Is he in?” Maya asked, trying to change the topic.
“No, he isn't.”
Maya waited for an hour. During that time she saw Vikram Oberoi's sketches. There were horses in black and white running across flat lands. A lady bound in chains. Most of them were in black and white.
She lost her self in his art. Painting had always brought solace to her, though she herself painted only occasionally. She must do it more often. How it would be to make love to a painter. Her heart chuckled.
She noticed some photographs hanging on the wall adjacent to his cabin. There were some certificates of specialisation in magic. There were some symbols painted on the wall behind his desk. A pack of card lay on a glass slab specially designed to keep them. Books on magic and spiritual healing stared at her from his glass cabinet.
One of the photographs had him standing with a charming lady, his arm around her. Was she his girlfriend?
“Why don't you call him?” Manmeet suggested.
“Are you the only one in his office?”
“I'm his personal assistant,” she said sighing.
“This is his private office. We have one in the basement where the rest of the staff, about a hundred people work. There are branches all across India. Didn't you bother to check our website?” She made Maya feel stupid. “I guess I should have!”
“I take care of his appointments and schedules. He doesn't like to deal with multiple people. In fact, I wonder why he hired you.” Maya cleared her throat. “I called him, but he did not take my call.”
“He has a magic show today for some clients from England.”
“Who's this lady in the photograph?” the words were out of Maya's mouth unexpectedly. Manmeet gave her an angry look, but did not answer. Maya wondered if he was in love with the woman in the photograph. Manmeet went out. When she returned Maya was still around. “I thought you'd left!” Manmeet looked at her with raised eyebrows.
If she could be half as sweet as she looked, she would have passed the test of being human, Maya felt. Maya picked up her big black leather bag and walked out.
She did not meet Vikram for another three days, and somehow she couldn't convince herself to not to go to his office.
“Are you sure he has called you to work with us?” Manmeet asked her when she went to his office the fourth day. “I told him about you, but he couldn't recall offering you a job,” Manmeet said gleefully. This was humiliating. The lady was definitely loaded with sarcasm. Maya found her rather dumb. She had a huge Kareena Kapoor poster pasted on the side wall of her desk. Maya wondered if copying her was her only mission of life.
“Hi, Manmeet!” she heard Vikram's voice, the very voice that made Maya's heart beat faster. Vikram came in. “Hey, what are you doing here?” he asked Maya.
Maya looked at Man meet for a second before she answered.
“Remember you said I could work with you for an hour, thrice a week,” she cleared her throat.
“Oh! I'm sorry. It completely skipped my mind,” Vikram said. “Anyway, come in,” he said entering his office.
Maya went in after him. He looked criminally handsome in his deep grey suit. He lit a cigarette and took a puff. Everything he did seem to have a sense of rhythm. She had never felt so strangely conscious in front of anyone. His eyes seemed to be staring inside her soul. “Why do you want to work with me?” he asked, smiling.
“Well... to learn from you!” She didn't know what else to say. He smiled again. His otherwise serious eyes twinkled. His expression changed completely when he smiled.
“You said your mother was a painter. Do you paint too?” He remembers. Her heart was ecstatic.
“I write. I want to paint too.”
“You can't say, want to paint. You just go ahead and paint.” His eyes were twinkling. Maya felt as if he was teasing her.
“I believe you can heal. I have this unrest in me. I don't know what to do. It's as if someone else is living in my body. I just want to feel at ease,” she said, eyes drooping in shyness at having said something that was so personal to her to a near complete stranger.
He took a deep sigh and his smile vanished. He stared at his cigarette and then looked back at Maya.
“Unrest happens when there is a conflict in the soul. When we decide to overlook what our hearts are trying to convey to us, this happens. The law of the universe states that you get what you really desire, Maya. You have to focus and listen to your heart. No one else can do that for you.” Tell him I desire him, said her heart.
“What if I am unable to listen to what my heart says?” He smiled.
“It's not so difficult. Close your eyes, concentrate between your eyes,” she felt his hand in the centre of her forehead, “Just breathe and wait in silence.” A glimpse of bright light charged her and she blinked. He smiled again and winked at her.
“Do you see the cigarette here? Do you see the fire? It burns with more intensity with every puff of mine. This is how love is, for a person, for a thing, for an art. The fire once lit burns you completely and its intensity only increases with time.” What the hell was he saying? She stared at the cigarette. “Where does the fire go when the cigarette ends?”
He smiled at her. He knew there was something extraordinary about this girl. It was as if she belonged to magic.
“Why don't you join me for dinner tonight?”
She wanted to say yes, but she thought of her stepmother.
“I have to inform my people in advance,” she said.
“No problem, some other time, then!”
“Tomorrow?”
He smiled again, the smile that kills.
“OK. So be it.”
She paused.
“Who's the lady in that photograph?” she asked, wondering if she wasn't stepping into someone else's personal life.
“She is my partner,” he said, getting up, indicating that the conversation had ended.