Chapter 72 - Struggling to find the way to him (1/2)

|Innaya|

I glanced at the clock once I got back home after bringing the capsicums. I had more than enough time to cook. Fresh coriander's pleasant odor filled my nostrils. I remembered Eshan telling me once that he loved the taste fresh coriander added to foods, and thus I brought it with capsicums.

The six dishes weren't hard to make. I loved cooking. I learned it from my grandma. Her culinary skills were on par with professional chefs, maybe, more than them. She had that unique taste to all the foods she cooked, and many little secrets tips of her gave a different flavor to them.

I washed rice, split chickpeas, split pigeon peas respectively, and soaked them in separate bowls. When soaked they would take less time for cooking. The more time I saved in the cooking, the less time I would require to reach Eshan.

I finished the chopping first before kneading the dough for parathas. Leaving the dough to rest, I placed one pan, one stainless steel pot, one iron and one stainless steel kadhai on the gas. Thankfully, we had a four-burner gas stove. Adding oil in all of them, I started to cook capsicum fry, kadhi, tomato upma, and cabbage simultaneously.

Back then, I was used to handling the cooking of multiple dishes in my maternal home. Hence, it didn't take me long to finish up with all the dishes.

*

I packed the dinner and put the Tiffins carefully in a bag. By the time I was done with everything, I had a smile on my face... a genuine smile that I rarely had in the past two months. I took off my apron and made it to our bedroom to change.

I searched through my wardrobe for a particular outfit and was instantly disappointed after not finding it. I almost emptied the whole cupboard until I got it.

The Sari Eshan gifted me.

I hadn't spent even five minutes in dressing up in the past two months exception being today's morning. Make-up was out of the question, but today, I was going to get ready, again, properly - for him.

It still took me not more than fifteen minutes to change into the red saree and put on some mild makeup. I couldn't go beyond that. Artificial and materialistic things never appealed to me, and I know, it didn't appeal Eshan either.

<>

I forgot to consider something really important.

I didn't know the route.

Arjun had blindfolded me when he was taking me to Eshan.

How was I going to reach to Eshan? I sat, confused in the car.

Though it wasn't the first time I had gone to that house. It was the very same place where my foolishness had insulted our relationship, but it had been two months to the same, and I wasn't in the state of mind to note the directions when I had followed Eshan to that house, two months ago.

'If you want it with all that you've got, Innu, - you will always find a way. All you need to do is try, and you will see the entire universe helping you get to it.'

My eyes snapped open as grandpa's words replayed in my ears. I silently thanked grandpa for helping me the way he always did, when he was with me, and even when he was gone.

I had to try, and I would try.

The next half an hour was spent in recalling everything that I could about the directions to the house. Never before I had hated my memory as much as I did that day for I could only faintly recall and that wasn't enough to get me to Eshan.