5. Rewind...Back to when they met

A week before this incident at the restaurant, Maliha had arrived at Kirtana’s. Kirtana, or Kit as she would come to be called, showed Mali around her beautiful two bedroom apartment. The home was furnished with many antique pieces of furniture, pieces that Kit had got from her grandfather, others that she bought from shops she happened to find when she travelled on work. Her home was neat and organized but not to the extent that it was perfect. All the walls were a light yellow colour and between the antiques and colourful rugs in her house, she had little bursts of modern art and chrome fixtures that gave her home an eclectic vibe.

Maliha was definitely impressed by her house. She was going to enjoy her stay here she thought, and would make sure that Kit enjoyed herself too. The two decided to have a cup of coffee, just as it began to rain. Mali took the opportunity to get out her camera; she loved taking pictures of cities in the rain.

Kit and Mali sat down on a big blue couch, the upholstery was a light blue and the cushions were shades of green and purple. “I feel at home here already! Thanks a lot Kirtana. So I will take the room on the right? The one with the green painting over the bed, correct?” said Mali. “Yes, do you like the room? I recently finished decorating it, and that painting was done by a friend of mine, I’m sure she will be famous some day, so I bought it from her while I could still afford it!” said Kirtana with a little laugh. “Oh! It’s a really interesting piece; you must introduce me to your friend! And yes, the room looks great, but then again anything would be an improvement from where I spent the last few months!... but I love the room! So tell me about what you do, you only briefly mentioned it, I would really love to hear more.” Maliha sounded quite excited to hear more.

Kirtana began about how she designed office spaces for living. She was an architect and series of decisions and job moves after she graduated from college, brought her to the firm she worked for now, that designed office spaces for large corporates across the country and few across the world. Her company’s main claim to success was the sophisticated and clean finish they gave to offices while maintaining certain environmentally friendly elements, that was a huge hit with their clientele. Kirtana, handled some key projects now and did them very well, her knack for organizing served her well in this sort of environment, which is probably why she had never moved on to any other types of spaces or design. She made herself a good living, but she was not always happy about her job.

Some where she was a little bored, with the feeling that she had not quite found what she was looking for! So now Mali was up to speed about Kirtana’s job. Now it was Kit’s turn to ask the questions, “So, I’m sure you get this all the time, but why do you do it... Why this kind of life? I don’t mean to pry though, please feel free not to answer the question, at least not right away!”

“Oh no! This is probably the part of the ‘introductions routine’ with every new roommate I really look forward to! I will definitely answer your questions, it’s only fair that I do, I’m living in your house!” said Mali with a smile. Mali began a story, that she had clearly told many times. She had grown up in a small very happy family. She and her parents. Her parents were both business people, they had owned and run a cement factory, and had been well off for the time. They however met a tragic end to their beautiful life, the tale of which Mali would save for some other time. Mali had been 18, when she lost them and had inherited her parents business and wealth. At that age, she decided that she would take care of herself the way she knew her parents would have looked after her, which was met with a lot of resistance by her uncle, but eventually she won! She sold the business, at a profit and put herself through art school. She moved out of her parent’s big home, and bought a small apartment. She had enough to lead a very comfortable life, but she deeply missed the sense of having a family. Her parents had been free spirited, happy people and Mali had learnt from their example. She was simple at heart and uncomplicated in her approach to life and took time to appreciate everything she had even when she had lost so much!

Once on a trip from art school, she had stayed with a friend’s old aunt, and had finally got back that feeling, like she used to, of having a family. And this is how her slightly nomadic existence came to be! She had been brave and positive in the light of her great loss, but she would not deny herself the experience of feeling like she belonged to someone, that her life could be touched in a way that could only be done by being with people, like a family. And so she moved from place to place, person to people, learning and living like them and teaching them something about life through her eyes as well. Mali felt herself choke up a bit every time said that story. She had been so tough and been such an inspiration to people she met and at some level to herself. She had lived the last 10 years the way most people did not live in a lifetime...

Kirtana had gotten the chills when she heard that story. She sat quietly, cushion on her lap, the coffee in her hand gone cold from having stopped doing everything to listen to Mali intently. She was already so swept away by Mali, but this gave her a whole new dimension. “I.... I hardly have the words, you have done so much for yourself, I’m sure your parents would be proud...”she said. “So... do you think you will ever have a family of your own someday?”

“Someday..” said Mali, sounding as though that was just about how much she wanted to talk about this anymore. “So now you know... why I do this...live like this!” She asked Kirtana to help her unpack a bit. She wanted to set up some of her art supplies, and wanted to make sure Kit was comfortable with where everything went. Soon they were on the floor of the spare bedroom, laughing and swapping stories about college. They were getting along better that Kirtana had planned! Yes Kit did plan everything! She pulled out an orange box from Mali’s suitcase, and it slipped from her hand, landing on the ground the lid rolling off... from the box, several little objects fell out. Among the objects, were photographs, some small and big. There was one that landed, below Kit’s foot. A picture of a boy, he had on sunglasses, and had a dog sitting by his side, as he smiled warmly. The back drop for this picture looked like a beach. Mali saw that photograph and immediately sprung up! “oh I totally forgot to ask you, would it be all right if I had someone join us to stay?”...she said excitedly..Kirtana looked at her and knew it was the boy in the photograph who would be their ‘visitor' soon.