Madhuyu(k)tham - Prologue

30 March 2012 7:30PM

Madhumithran locked the door behind him softly. It was another tiring week coming to an end. A gentle breeze blew through his home as he opened the doors of the balcony. Pushing a chair to the center, he cushioned his seats well. He sat there gazing at the sky contemplating whether to wash the socks atleast that day nearly after two weeks or save it for one more week. He was suddenly disturbed by the loud door bell. With a face of annoyance, he walked towards the glowing teak wood. Took a quick glance via the peep hole to check the visitor. A familiar face was looking at the door and the doorbell every other second, thinking about putting the doorbell to use again.

Madhumithran thought for a second and took another good look at the face, a face that housed the mouth which spoke and made him speak thousand emotional words, eyes that kept him under its supervision during his initial days of getting to know the world, slowly the hand was moving from its position.

Jeevaneshwaran lifted his hand to press the bell again.

30 Jan 2004 5:00pm

The bell rang loud. It was time for the evening food, for all birds flew from all corners of the college and sat in a straight line parallel to each other on the elevated floor of the temple. Madhu and Jeeva walked chatting vividly towards the temple. It was their weekly routine, to visit the temple every Friday evening after the classes. Over the last 6 months both have grown from just an acquaintance to be the best buddies, the college have come to know.

Aborting the customary third round with two, Jeeva sat on the floor of the temple. A face that bore all resemblance of a question “why no third round?”, from Madhu, met with a passive assuring face of Jeeva. As Madhu finished his third and neared Jeeva, he noticed a new pair of legs occupying the place beside Jeeva, his traditional place every Friday evening. Irked and puzzled he looked up to find the face of a fairer sex, not sure how to react, he moved his lips to portray a scene of deep devotion and sat next to Jeeva.

"Samyu, how was the food today noon?" asked Jeeva unaware of Madhu's presence. "Food was ok. It is actually becoming bad from good", came the reply with a fixed gaze on Madhumithran.

Taking cue from her face, Jeeva realized Madhu sitting next to him looking at the ground. Understanding Madhu's state of mind, Jeeva started, "Madhu, this is Samyuktha, she is also from Chennai and belongs to our year. And This is Madhumithran, he is my best friend since we all joined this college last summer. He is also from Chennai and ofcourse we all belong to the same department".

"A long statement indeed, why cant he just keep it simple", wondered Madhu. A hand came towards him, startled and not used to  such stuff, he looked at the hand and then from where it came. It was a smiling face, a feeling he has never experienced before swept him giving goose bumps."Hello, where are u in Chennai? I am from Tiruvanmiyur", asked Samyuktha.

Not sure how to react, he caught hold of the hand, crushed it as much as he can,"I AM VADAPALANI", bombarded Madhu, beads of sweat decorating his forehead.

As an uncomfortable smile settled in Samyuktha's lips, Jeeva intervened, "let’s go to canteen and have a coffee?". Suddenly Madhu realized his hand was holding something very tight and released it with no second thoughts. Happy to have her hand back, even though it was all sweaty, she made a thorough inspection making sure every part of her hand was intact as she replied, "no its getting late, have to go. Otherwise warden would make me meet Vice Chancellor". The temple bell rang aloud, abnormal for that time. All the three turned back to find Bitruhari sporting a wicked smiling, looking at them and ready to swing the bell again.

Samyuktha hurried to hostel with no farewell message to both, as the bell thundered again- TINGGGGG.....

30 March 2012 7:40PM

TINGGGGGGGGGGG

Madhu took sometime to come back to his self. He stepped back from the door, opened it with wild thoughts of embracing each other, how the welcome speech should be. Alas, all he was presented with was disappointment,  to find no one  in front of him. "Oh my bad, after long time he came....", with deep remorse he hung his down and swung his hand to close the door. Just then he noticed a white cover lying on the floor. He focused his eyes on the cover for a minute, he found some letters and design on red. He found his name Madhu in the "TO" field written with a black pen. He took it in his hand and gazed at it for few minutes. Bold and glorious letters at the top read "Jeevaneshwaran weds....".

It took sometime for Madhu to digest the information. He stood there, perplexed with a downpour of sweat, ready to drench his shirt from his head, his eye balls failing to get its focus either on what he held with both his hands or the horizon that had the sun going down majestically across him and kept flipping. His dreaded fears were coming true finally.

to be continued…….