ARAINA- Part (ii)

(ARAINA is a new series I have come up with. Do share your views as to how you feel about Araina. Happy reading)

Link to Part (i)

Toby went out in the balcony to have a drag of cigarette and Araina followed him. Araina did not like Toby’s habit of smoking but she had never told him. This was the only bad habit Toby possessed and Araina did not want Toby to be perfect. For Araina like happiness, perfection was also a myth. Araina’s life had always been adventurous. She was bullied when she was thirteen, she lost her mother when she was eighteen and she survived synovial sarcoma, some rare deadly disease as doctors had told her. Pain changes people and Toby knew that Araina's sufferings had changed her completely. Her sufferings had made her free. And it was this freedom which always resulted in failed relationships for Araina. All she did was be her, whoever that be and that was not acceptable to the male chauvinists she loved. Araina had started enjoying her solitude and when felt lonely, Toby always came as her rescue. Araina never found a companion more compatible than solitude and a stranger more antithetical than loneliness.  In solitude she tried to find herself and in loneliness the others. For her solitude was the state of being rich and loneliness of being in terrible poverty.

 

Araina and Toby came inside to seize one more glass. Toby called the waiter and asked Araina what she wanted to have. She repeated her menu and asked Toby, “Why is it always necessary to make a choice?” and Toby replied, “Well you have the power to choose at least.” Araina pondered for a while and said, “I have power to choose, but I do not have power to escape the necessity of choice. As the ‘change’, the ‘choice’ always remains constant. It is difficult to decide what is better.” Being an epicure Tody ordered his favourite Naan-e-Afghani, another word for Afghan bread and he knew that Araina also cherished the same. He was well aware that the word Afghan would bring her out of her doldrums and would take her into some good old memories. 

to be continued...