{"id":1640,"date":"2013-03-06T19:12:17","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T13:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teekhapan.wordpress.com\/?p=1640"},"modified":"2013-03-06T19:12:17","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T13:42:17","slug":"the-secret-of-raul-ghandis-girlfriend-is-out-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/2013\/03\/06\/the-secret-of-raul-ghandis-girlfriend-is-out-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The secret of Raul Ghandi's girlfriend is out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/strong>
\n<\/a>Vivek Kaul<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n(This is a work of fiction)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\nIt was late evening in Lutyens Delhi and winter was gradually giving away to the long hot summer. Madam was sitting in her verandah and was listening to an old Kishore Kumar song.
\n\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>Zaroorat hai zaroorat hai zaroot hai<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>\u201d\u00a0went the lines. \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>Ek shirmati ki, kalawati ki, seva kare jo pati ki<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>.\u201d
\nThe CD player had been set on a high volume. This woke up Raul, who was having his daily afternoon siesta.
\n\u201cMa, you don’t have to play it so loud,\u201d Raul baba said as he barged into the room. \u201cYou know I sleep very late at night.\u201d
\n\u201cI was hoping you’d take the hint\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>beta,<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201d\u00a0said Madam, who other being Raul’s mother was also the chief of the Con-Regress party.
\n\u201cMa, you know what?\u201d said Raul. \u201cAs I told journalists the other day I am like a parachute.\u201d
\n\u201cSo?\u201d
\n\u201cA parachute can land anywhere. It needs a lot of training to land it at the same place all the time.\u201d
\n\u201cSo?\u201d
\n\u201cWell if I get married, the parachute will have to land at the same place all the time. And I am still not trained enough to do that, still finding my feet around.\u201d
\n\u201cOh,\u201d said Madam. \u201cI really didn’t see it that way.\u201d
\n\u201cYou like Kishore Kumar songs. I like Amit Kumar, his son’s voice more,\u201d said Rahul, taking the conversation on a totally different track.
\n\u201cAmit Kumar? Where did he come from?\u201d
\n\u201cLet me play to you my favourite Amit Kumar song,\u201d said Rahul, putting on a CD.
\n\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>Jab se hui hai shaadi aansu baha ra hoon<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>,\u201d went the lines. \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>Aafat gale padi hai usko nibha raha hoon<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>.\u201d
\n\u201cHa ha ha. Naught boy,\u201d said Madam, trying to rough up Raul’s hair.
\n\u201cMa, I am man now. A 42 year old man,\u201d said Raul. \u201cAnd the difference between the father and the son can be seen in the songs that they sang. Kishore Kumar married four times. Amit married just once and that too very late in life.\u201d
\n\u201cYes,\u201d said Madam. \u201cI am only bothered about you\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>beta.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0I am fine as long as you marry, even if its late in life. But how late can it really get? You’ll turn 43 in June. Hope you don’t get too late because the show needs to go on\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>beta.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201d
\nAs soon as Madam had finished asking her question, Raul’s mobile phone started to ring. \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>Shayad meri shadi ka khayal dil main aaya hai is liye mummy ne teri mujhe chai pe bulaya hai<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>\u201d\u00a0went the ring tone.
\n\u201cExcuse me,\u201d said Raul and disappeared into his room.
\nMadam followed him and put her ears close to Raul’s door trying to overhear the conversation. And she could easily hear Raul’s side of the conversation.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>Haan jaan bolo!\u201d
\n<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cNo baby!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cI love you baby. But in politics we have to keep saying things.\u201d
\n\u201cYou want me to repeat what I told the journalists the other day?\u201d
\n\u201cI feel we should all be detached from power. Only then we can contribute to the society better. You people ask me about my marriage plans. Sometimes, I think, if I marry and have children, I would want my children to take my position. Sometimes, I feel that status quo is better.\u201d
\n\u201cYou thought that was funny?\u201d
\n\u201cThank you. Thank you. I came up with that impromptu. It went with my broader philosophy also. I never mean what I say and I never say what I mean.\u201d
\n\u201cBut why don’t you want any children?\u201d
\n\u201cMy show must go on baby! Please understand. Or Bob’s children will take over. The bugger is even throwing a party tonight.\u201d
\nMadam kept hearing Raul’s side of the conversation till the bunch of keys she was holding in her left hand fell and alerted Raul.
\n\u201cOkay, I will call you at night,\u201d he blurted out, cut the call and rushed out of the room.
\n\u201cSo?\u201d asked Madam.
\n\u201cGuess you figured it out.\u201d
\n\u201cWho’s she?\u201d
\n\u201cMy girlfriend.\u201d
\n\u201cWhen are you marrying her?\u201d
\n\u201cI don’t know. She says, she likes me, but is not sure if she loves me.\u201d
\n\u201cOh!\u201d
\n\u201cAnd you know that parachute line. I actually borrowed it from her. She said it first.\u201d
\n\u201cThese parachutes seem to be ruining my life,\u201d said Madam.
\n\u201cOkay. Tell me when she is ready,\u201d said Madam, going back to listening to songs.
\nThis time it was another Kishore Kumar number that was playing.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n\u201cBarah mahine line maari phir bhi laga na number, January main shuru kiya tha aa gaya December, mera phir laga na number!<\/a>\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>went the lines.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n(This is a work of fiction)
\nThe article <\/a>originally appeared on www.theunrealtimes.com on March 6, 2013<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\n(Vivek Kaul is a writer. He tweets at @kaul_vivek)\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vivek Kaul (This is a work of fiction) It was late evening in Lutyens Delhi and winter was gradually giving away to the long hot summer. Madam was sitting in her verandah and was listening to an old Kishore Kumar song. \u201cZaroorat hai zaroorat hai zaroot hai,\u201d\u00a0went the lines. \u201cEk shirmati ki, kalawati ki, seva … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Vivek Kaul","author_link":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/author\/vivekkaul\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"Vivek Kaul (This is a work of fiction) It was late evening in Lutyens Delhi and winter was gradually giving away to the long hot summer. Madam was sitting in her verandah and was listening to an old Kishore Kumar song. \u201cZaroorat hai zaroorat hai zaroot hai,\u201d\u00a0went the lines. \u201cEk shirmati ki, kalawati ki, seva…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}