Kabir

I stared at Aman in surprise. ‘Vanished? Where did she go?’

Aman shrugged. ‘No one knew. None of her friends. I tried calling her house. I even got her father’s number. No one ever took my calls. I tried waiting outside her house. Nothing. Her phone was switched off. She didn’t reply to any mails. After two days, I went to my father.

‘I just walked in on him having a meeting with a whole lot of top brass. I stood there while he told them to go away.

“What is it, beta?” he asked me.

“She’s gone. She’s just vanished. I don’t know where she is. She’s not at home, and no one can tell me anything.”

‘He took off his spectacles and rubbed his nose. He used to do that when he was going to say something he knew you wouldn’t like.

“If I was her father, I would have tried sending her away. Just to see if that didn’t make it wear off.”

“It’s not going to wear off,” I said. “What if they marry her off? What if they beat her?”

“Aman, calm down and think rationally—”

“Did you?” I shouted at him. “Did you?!”

‘I slammed the door behind me. My father wrenched it open and shouted down the corridor, “Where are you going?”

‘Policemen were snapping to attention, watching us curiously. “To file an FIR. A missing person report,” I said.

“Come back here, Aman!” he shouted.

‘I walked away without looking back.

‘The officer at the desk looked really nervous when he told me he couldn’t write the report. “Sahib has asked you to wait.”

“Are you going to do your duty or not?” I said, made frantic by my worry for her. “If you refuse to file this report, I shall go to the press.”

“Sahib has asked you to wait until he returns,” he repeated. “He has gone to meet her father. He said to please go home and wait.”

‘So, I waited. What I would have given to be at that meeting! My father and hers. A rock meeting a mountain.

‘My father came home after a couple of hours. I was sitting at the dining table waiting for him. I had calmed down by then. I pulled some ice cream out of the fridge and silently scooped it into two bowls for us. My way of saying sorry.

“I spoke to her father,” he said. “He has sent her away for a while. He doesn’t want this relationship.”

“What did you say to him?”

“I said that we cannot dictate to our children who they will love. To give both of you time. But he would not listen.”

“I knew he wouldn’t,” I said.

“I knew that too,” said my father, “but I had to try. You are my son. This is your happiness.”

‘We were silent for a while.

‘My father spoke carefully. “I got back to my office to find papers on my desk. I have been transferred to Kashmir. Effective immediately.”

‘That shook me. It had never occurred to me that there would be repercussions for my father.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“I have two options,” he said. “Resign. Or go.”

“Which one are you going to take?”

‘My father looked me in the eyes as he spoke. “I understand you love this girl. But you have already been hurt because of it. They beat you up. With me out of the way, I don’t know what they would do to you. Come with me.”

“You’re going?” I said, shocked.

“She is gone for a while. You can do nothing here except wait. Come with me. We will come back.”

“No,” I said immediately.

“Please,” said my father. “You are all I have left. Please, my son. Come away with me. We will come back. Give it time. Let me think of a way. Please.”

‘We hadn’t spoken to each other properly for years. He had never begged me for anything before.

“Do you know where she is?”

“Yes. She is safe. She is not married. She is in her father’s village, in her grandmother’s house. I have people watching her. I knew this was coming. I am a policeman, you know.”

‘I was so relieved, I could have wept. “Thank you,” I said.

‘He looked at me. “I promise you that I will find a way to get you together. I promise that I will have my men keep an eye on her so that she comes to no harm.”

“What if he marries her off to someone else?”

“I won’t let it happen. I swear. I swear on your mother.”

‘I knew there was no oath more powerful for my father. I knew there was nothing more I could do for the time being.

‘I agreed to come away. To bide my time. I was sure that the love between me and Diya was strong enough to outlast any separation. I thought I would go away for a month. Things would calm down. And my father would work out a plan for us to be together.

He looked at me. ‘Then it happened.’

My brother took him. Three days after he landed in Kashmir, my brother picked him up in broad daylight from the middle of a crowded street. He was the son of the new DGP and a target. Aman came to Kashmir and ended up in a cabin in the middle of the woods, unsure if he was going to live or die.

‘I don’t know if she is back. I don’t know what has happened to her. I know nothing!’ he said. ‘And she has no idea what has happened to me.’

‘I’m sorry, Amanbhai,’ I said. I was terrified. I knew how this story ended. Kidnapping stories never ended well. She would never know what happened to him.

He knew too. ‘I don’t think I will ever see her again,’ he said. ‘Your brother will not let me live.’

He had put into words the thought in my head. I hadn’t expected to become his friend. I hadn’t expected to start calling him ‘Amanbhai’. I couldn’t look at him.

He spoke softly, with irony in his voice.

Is it my fault?

Is it yours?

Blame instead the stars,

That our lives are tied to

With such fragile thread.

Know that all men live,

All men die.

His voice trailed off into silence. He lay down and pulled his blanket over his head.

Fate. It had brought him here, thousands of miles from the girl he loved. Held hostage by men who hated his father. Not knowing what had happened to her. She not knowing what had happened to him.

Blame the stars. Who else can you blame?