| Mahima

It had been one hectic week this one! The Lions of Cannes were giving us all at work sleepless nights. The Ultimatum from the boss was dreadfully clear "Make it three in a row!"

Having worked all my life in the creative arena of Advertising, I was now looking at the possible exhaustion of my creative juices. The uber creative Tanmay, yeah that's my given name, Mass comm. major from a top Bangalore college 15 years back was now turning out to be a machine at the end of its useful life, belching out recycled ideas and "inspiring" new ones from the hapless Ad guru wannabes that have been thrust under my belt.

What I had assumed would be a terrific first trip to Cuba & the Caribbean's had turned out be a total kill joy. Meetings upon meetings with potential clients and the serious prick that the Sales Manager, Siddharth proved himself to be during the week, put more burden to my already sagging self worth. The tropical rains and insane humidity outside definitely didn't make things any better.

Well hey! On the brighter side, we did manage to get an order for a 15 sec commercial for a Jamaican brewer. That's something to be especially proud of, I guess.

Staring at an old footage of the 1998 FIFA world cup at the lounge at the José Martí International Airport, I sat there, stoic and totally perturbed about the closing deadline, about Dhriti & Abhay back at home. It had been over 2 weeks since I saw my wife and kid and now that I am going back to see them, all I have for them is a box of Swiss chocolates that I bought at the airport.

I knew from the day the Lions were up for grabs that I would lose my sleep, my temper, my confidence and what not! My growth in the company had been partly due to my contributions for the Lions entries. We had stuck gold the last two years when we won the Lion under the Media category. I was very swiftly elevated to "Creative Head" last year and I had very little to be unhappy about. The new position paid me well, new car, new apartment and of course a small cabin, all for myself. Hell! I even had my own secretary.

"Boarding starts in an hour" Siddharth informed without being asked.

"Alright, I guess I have more time to think about what went wrong for the Brazilians" I said cheekily, making a gun clicking action at the large screen at the lounge.

Siddharth was not too bad; he was young, fresh out of MBA College, killing himself to prove his salt in the meandering industry of Advertising. He quite often reminded me of myself, the fact that I didn't like. He wandered off to a recliner at the corner of the lounge, phone in hand, probably chatting up his girl friend or whoever.

I was desperate for a few minutes of nap time and I would have killed for everyone around to just shut up. The airport in Havana did not fly direct to India and we had to change flights at Frankfurt. I was expecting one hell of a jetlag!

The modest lounge in the small airport was teeming with people. The recent thaw in US – Cuban relationship seemed to have a magical effect as I saw more and more tie & suit clad businessmen milling around the coffee & book shops that dotted the scene around the lounge.

While I was animatedly browsing through the human traffic, I caught many eyes catching mine although for just a second but all of them had the same indifferent look.

One particular set of eyes that lingered on for just that extra second was that of a woman who looked strikingly familiar.

"Do I know her? Well may be I do or I don't . But If I do know her and I approach her with that, It would be the most clichéd approach I could make. I am probably wrong about this" My heart beat went faster just by the thought that maybe I knew that woman and that I may look like an ass if I did know her and chose to ignore

Hoping that I had not shown any emotion of finding a familiar face, I sheepishly turned towards the large screen. A rerun of the now legendary Brazil Netherlands semi finals was on with Ronaldo in his No. 9 jersey of mythical powers dribbling past the iron clad Dutch defence. I was never a football fan but could not ignore such magic. The brilliant goal had me slapping my thigh just as a few heads turned at me, eyebrows raised, some single and most of them both.

Still busy chatting up his girlfriend or whoever, Siddharth relished the sight of me embarrassing myself. I knew because he had a smirk on his face as he looked at me.

"Shi.." I clenched my fist tight. This was the worst trip ever.

"Tanmay? Is that you? Oh my God! What a pleasant surprise?" said a pleasant sounding voice as I took some time to shake myself off from the mortifying episode I just had.

"Ye.. Yes.." I was stuttering much to the amusement of the man on the laptop sitting two seats next to me.

"May I" she said, while pointing to the vacant seat next to me.

"Of course. Please. I knew I knew you...you know..When I saw you over there.." this was definitely not me speaking. I was always confident around women and I had a lot of pretty ladies working with me at the company.

"Pratima! YES! That's who you are!"

Pratima was my Mass Communications classmate from Bangalore and was an amazing beauty at the time, not that it had diminished any bit over the years. She looked bold bordering on the brazen in the attire that she had chosen for herself. Thick kohl lined eyes dripping with mascara, long curly hair dropping down over her well toned shoulders, brown lip gloss with hints of makeup.

The Pratima who sat next to me looked completely different from the demure & simple yet stunningly beautiful girl. We were quite close during college and even interacted well into my courtship years with Dhriti. We had lost touch since Pratima moved to the US after getting married. It was all so sudden, I was not even invited to the wedding, no good byes, nothing, I guess our friendship did not run so deep and now here we are talking to each other in the most unlikeliest of places in the world. What were the odds!

"Well, Tanmay, call me Mahima! I go by this name now" replied Pratima. I wondered whatever was wrong with her given name.

"The Guruji my mother had so much faith in suggested that I change my name to Mahima to improve my chances of marrying into a wealthy household"

"So did you? Get married into one?" We all knew she was married but none of us from college were invited. We had all felt so low the time when Pratima had ignored all of us.

"I guess I owe you the story of my life. But how about a cup of coffee?" Pratima looked very eager to share something with me. I was sure about that! She had that look in her eyes.

"Sure, I have another 45 minutes for the boarding, what about yours?"

"Oh, don't  bother" says Pratima "Tell me, what do you want, they do have a Starbucks on the far side of the terminal. But nothing beats filter coffee huh?" playfully holding my left arm with her right as we walk towards the coffee shop.

As we find ourselves a spot next to a large window overseeing the runway at a distance, I thought I must learn more about her. Why did she leave without seeing any of us, especially me? What was she doing in Cuba? Etcetera, etcetera.

"So, Pratima... sorry sorry Mahima" tell me about it, the story of your life, you were saying. I took a regular latté and she had the same in her hand as well.

"You know we stay in Havana now. We moved from Miami about 9 years back. Karan's family ran a business of dealing with antiquities in Miami. They traded artefacts, handicrafts and what not from India, Nepal and Srilanka in the US market. Business took a beating after 9/11 and the recession took away everything from us. My parents had sold all our lands in our hometown for our marriage and financed Karan's family set up shops in Upscale Miami"

"So you are with Karan's family in Havana now?" what do you guys do now?" I asked Pratima as she would always be that for me.

"No, Karan & I stay here. My in laws and my daughter, Riya went back to Bangalore when we moved base here. She is 14 years old, by the way" Pratima spoke, head bent over her cup of latté passively stirring it.

"So you sell Indian art to the commies?" said I.

Looking up towards me with eyes all moist, Pratima's expression was that of a warrior who had lost everything on the battlefield, full of pain & remorse and deprived of any hope.

"Hey, relax, I can imagine what you are going through Prat.. Mahima, closing down a long running business, moving base and staying away from your family can be extremely difficult. Trust me; good times are just around the corner"

"You can lose everything and still be happy Tanmay but only when you lose character you lose everything" her voice shaky, Mahima was on the verge of breaking down in a coffee shop. I stretched my hand to hold hers only to see her withdrawing it from the table. I looked around to see if anyone caught my second embarrassing episode.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be bothering you with my nonsense, but I sincerely feel I owe you an apology and an explanation for running away from you all.

It was all a mistake, a big mistake, I must never have left India in the first place, but Karan was so charming and my mother trusted her Guruji more than anybody in the world....

Karan's parents did not want a big wedding but a big fat bag of money as dowry for them to set up a boutique in Miami where they already had a rather dingy establishment... they had come down to India for just a week and they wanted the wedding to get over immediately.

Karan's family knew someone at the US Consulate in Chennai who would take care of my immigration to the US. We got married in the temple in our home town, can you imagine?!

Things went well for a couple of years but post 9/11 our business was hit so bad that we failed on mortgages many times and ultimately had to sell off most our property to clear our debts. Karan's business in antiquities meant he often interacted with very rich men, Very powerful men.

Riya was only 5 years old when we moved to Havana on the advice of Karan's new acquaintance who had promised financial support if we moved."

"I understand you guys would need some time to fix everything and get the business up & running again"

"You don't  understand anything Tanmay, Karan & I have reached a point of no return in our lives. We are completely ruined. My In laws and Riya are staying with Karan's sister and my parents moved to a rented accommodation after my marriage to Karan.

Karan's acquaintance in Havana is with the Cuban Customs department here at this airport. He found the most gullible guy in Karan when he was scouting for peddlers for his drug business. Turned out he used his contacts in Miami to peddle drugs via chartered flights flying out of Havana."

Then a revelation by Mahima took the wind of my lungs "I am now an escort for Karan's high flying clients. My route is Havana to Miami and back. I have to do this and carry "the parcel" up to Miami. Paulo, here at the Customs ensures that I go through security without questions".

"But why do you have to put with this asshole, Pratima!. You have your parents, you have your friends, you have US!" I clenched her hand and looked straight into her hollow eyes.

"I am scared It's too late for that Tanmay. I only regret that when we did meet after so long, it would probably be the last time I would see you". Her statement made me extremely nervous and I think I broke a sweat in the cool air conditioned coffee shop when she took out her blue scarf from her vanity and showed me what looked like a kitchen knife stained with blood, already drying.

"I am done with this life Tanmay, I am done with Karan. I had grown wary of the constant abuse of my body and my conscience. I wanted out of this darkness in my life and I wanted to go back to Bangalore and start life afresh, but Karan no longer was the same person I married. With a smug face, he showed me a picture on his mobile today of Riya with another man in a car and said she was in "training´. It was then, when I knew that my child for whom I was doing all this, was also going the same dark path I was forced to take.

I had only two choices, die and be free of the troubles in my life or protect Riya at all costs. Karan walked into the airport restroom to retrieve "the parcel" when I thrust this into his neck. Now, I will travel back to India with the money I will get from this deal and take Riya away from my In – laws, well Ex In Laws"

Despite the hot coffee before me, my throat was parched and I never felt my heart beat so hard any other time. Just as she finished, Mahima looked the very embodiment of calmness.

"It's time. My client is here. This is my last deal. I may never see you again Tanmay. I cannot stay back in Bangalore when they find out about Karan.

I am so relieved now that I got this off my chest. I think you better make your move Tanmay" We shook hands as I walked away from Mahima and she sat in the Starbucks cafe, sipping her coffee and staring out of the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her handbag, covered with her blue silk scarf.

I did not sleep all the way from Havana to Bangalore via Frankfurt and I had in my mind a short film for the Lions. I would call it "Mahima".

A Short Story by

Vinay Palsamudra