Ellipsis

"Mom!"

Avantika shrieked as she rushed into the house. A girl of 19, Avantika was a bright student and multi-faceted girl with interests in various co-curricular activities. She was not a spoilt brat, but after a near death experience in an accident two years ago, which claimed the life of her father, she was showered with all love and care her mother could bestow upon her.

"What is it this time?" Nalini wondered coming into the living room. She was a woman of 45, signs of age and stress showing on her beautiful face. Two years of raising a firebrand girl all alone had sapped away some life off her, but she still looked beautiful, if she tried.

"What happened Avi?"

"See this" saying so, Avantika thrust a copy of Romeo & Juliet in her face.

"What is this?" Nalini asked.

"Mom, there is a cool professor in our college, Sameer. I had forgotten my copy of Romeo & Juliet today. So for the class, he lent me his book." Clearly there was something more as Nalini could make out that Avantika was finding it hard to contain it inside.

"See…" Avantika flipped the cover, "What a coincidence!"

On the first page, it was scribbled in red ink,

'Dear Nalini,

Will you be my Juliet?

SameeRomeo'

"There is more…" eyes still twinkling like a Cheshire cat, she flipped the book to the page where a dried rose lay enveloped between two pages and a section of paragraph underlined with the same red ink,

'My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep; the more I give to thee,

The more I have, for both are infinite.'

And Avantika was on a hyper drive. "Who was Nalini? She must be very special that a guy like Prof. Sameer liked her. But wait, if Prof. Sameer gifted this to her, why is it still with him? Did she decline her proposal? But why? He is sooo cuuuuute and so intelligent!"

Nalini, who was still fixed on those lines, jolted herself out of the trance and said, "Enough with this monkey business. He’s your teacher. So show him some respect. And respect his privacy. God! Haven’t I taught you anything? And don’t tell about this to anyone else. And return this to him tomorrow positively."

"But mom, I have my drama rehearsals tomorrow", complained Avantika.

"Hmm… give it to me. I have some business near your college. I’ll deliver this to him."

That night, after dinner, Nalini was reading and rereading the scribbled lines on the book. She identified that handwriting well enough, the lettering, the unique slant and the flair with which the ‘J’ was written. Her thoughts took her back to the midnight of 13^th February, 24 years ago. Dorku, as her class called him, a bespectacled boy, bumbling all the time with no sense of fashion, approached her. Awkwardly managed to get on one knee and extended his hands forward which had a red rose and a book and said, "Nalini, will you be my Juliet?"

Nalini said, "Awww that’s so cute Dorku, but sorry. You’ll always be my friend, but I am not ready for a relationship right now." Saying this, she gave him a little peck on his left cheek and went to join her friends who were at a distance giggling all over themselves. A single tear ran down Dorku’s cheek, over the outline made by her lipstick.

It was the buzz of alarm from her smartphone that woke her up. She looked at the screen and it said ‘9:00 AM’. "Oh shit! I am gonna be late." She woke Avantika up, helped her to get ready, packed her lunch and sent her off to her rehearsals. She started dressing up and sat in front of her dresser. It felt alien to her as she rarely dressed up after the passing away of her husband on that fateful day, two years ago. However, she calmed her nerves and applied some nude make-up that didn’t scream too bold and went with her simple sari and wore minimal jewellery. She looked at the image and though age was getting the better of her, her face still showed why boys swooned over her 25 years ago.

She reached Avantika’s college by 10:15 AM. She asked her way around and made her way to Avantika’s classroom. By 10:25, when the bell rang, she was standing in front of her class, with the book firmly clutched in her hand and the rose poking out of the pages.

Amidst the crowd of students and faculty members making their way to the class, she saw a familiar face. The horn-rimmed glasses had given way to rimless ones, the hair had thinned and was graying at the temples and the baggy clothes were replaced by smart casuals. But all these changes were not enough for her to not recognize Dorku.

At the same moment, Prof. Sameer saw Nalini. He saw the book in her hand and realized why Avantika looked so familiar. Yes, the nose, those high cheekbones…it all came to him.

They looked at each other for a few moments, without saying anything; an uncomfortable silence hung around them as the fervor of students rushing to their classes seemed too distant for them. Nalini looked at the book and then to Sameer. Her brow raised, her eyes watery and her face showing a mixture of nostalgia, concern and lots of unanswered question. A single word escaped her lips, "Still?"

Sameer gave her a weak smile, took the book from her hand and said "Always" as he went inside the lecture hall.

Nalini stood there in the corridor, a single drop of tear making its way down her left cheek.