34 - 45 The first phone call (Random chapter)

The choir was singing the final hymn and the people were moving to pay their last respects to the deceased person. Annoyed at being dragged along by his parents for a funeral service of someone he hardly knew, Rajesh gave a bored look around. He made a double take when he noticed someone who looked familiar, their eyes met for a brief moment and she recognized him a brief moment before he did.

As the crowd moved closer to the entrance following the funeral procession she managed to come closer to him. “What are you doing here? Are you planning to pull another stunt like your friend? Is this a place for it?” she hissed to him, not looking directly at him as her family was close by.

“Wait! I came for the funeral service!” said Rajesh softly.

“How do you know thatha?” she asked softly. “Thatha??!! Ok dad and his son are classmates, that’s dad over there, we came to pay our respects. I am sorry for your loss, you must have been close” Rajesh replied.

“He is my paternal grand father. Actually we were not actually so close, long story,” she said with a guilty smile.

“Iniya!!” a stern looking lady called out and she rushed to her side. “Who is that boy?” she continued in a loud whisper.

“Ma, he is my NIIT classmate, his dad was a classmate of Peter chithappa, I just said hi” Iniya replied looking at Rajesh with a pleading glance to play along.

“Hello, I am Rajesh Lazarus, I study in NIIT too, I am sorry for your loss”, Rajesh said, playing along. “Ok we will be leaving. Good bye” said Rajesh desperate to leave from the presence of the stern mother of Iniya.

As he was leaving the church he paused to look back at Iniya who smiled and mouthed a Thanks before leaving with her family.

It was a lazy Sunday morning two weeks later and while watching TV, Rajesh happened to notice a card lying on the coffee table nearby. Scanning it with a disinterested look he was about to throw it away when he looked back at the card and called out, “Ma, what memorial is this?”

“Remember we went for a funeral, the one you hated to come, well they have invited us for the memorial service next week, and don’t worry we are not going so don’t sulk” said his mother from inside the kitchen.

Rajesh looked back at the card again and he smiled. At the bottom were the names and the phone numbers in the RSVP space.

He now knew the name of the girl and he knew her phone number. It took him a lot of self control to not dial the number immediately, common sense told him that with the entire family usually at home on a Sunday  it may be a risky effort so he decided to sleep over it.

Monday evening he tried his luck calling the number that had been deeply imprinted in his brain from a PCO. After hanging up on possibly the mother two attempts he was lucky on the third attempt.

“Hello, Iniya?” he asked

“Yes! Who is this? “she replied cautiously

“Its Rajesh”

“Rajesh? Which Rajesh?”

“The Rajesh who is joining NIIT to study with you”

“Oh that Rajesh!!” she chuckled and dropped her voice “how did you get this number and why did you call home?”

“I found the number in the memorial card and I thought I will call you”

“Smart. Wait, Idiot! Why did you call? Do you want me to get into trouble? I will see you in  the memorial, now hang up” Iniya cut the call.

Rajesh came out of the PCO with a silly smile on his face which was not missed by Edwin. He was thinking of an excuse to now go for the memorial service.