‘I’m planning to shift here soon to set up shop,’ said Raja Rao. ‘I won’t like to turn a realtor but love to be your consultant in case you take the plunge into the real estate.’
‘Done,’ said Ranga Reddy. ‘Let’s schedule it for this vijayadasami. Meanwhile, I would tie up the loose ends.’
‘Three cheers,’ said Subba Reddy. ‘When you come down, you can count on my account too.’
The next afternoon, when Raja Rao was all set to leave for the Gaganmahal Nursing Home to meet Roopa, he got a message from his boss that he should join him for a crucial meeting next day at Bangalore. As he hardly had any time to catch the Bangalore Express, he rushed to the reception to checkout.
‘Roopa would be terribly upset,’ he thought dejectedly. ‘But how can I help her now. What if I wire my resignation and sort out things with her. No, that’s not fair even for the sake of love, is it? After all, it’s a matter of my credibility. Let me try to get her on phone and explain my position and hint at my love even.’
As the telephone operator at the Nursing Home told him that Roopa was not to be found, Raja Rao left the message of his departure for her and headed half-heartedly towards Nampally Railway Station.
While the news dashed her hopes no end, as a jolted Roopa sank on her knees, alarmed, the receptionist guided a distraught Roopa into a chair to be attended by the duty nurse in time. ‘Oh, I shouldn’t have gone home at all,’ Roopa began to think as others thought that she was down with exhaustion. ‘But then, hadn’t my mother-in-law insisted that I rest for a while. How I wanted to hang around till he came. Well, it’s as if I had a premonition! What’s the sense in living if hard luck were to trick me at every turn? Had I been around when he rang up, wouldn’t I have expressed my feelings to him? Well, haven’t I prepared myself for all eventualities? Even if I were to develop cold feet in the end, I could have still cried over the line to convey my love to him. After all, why didn’t he peep in, before leaving? Oh, why did he leave me in the lurch? How could he be so cruel to me?’
‘Well, he could have come, if only he cared,’ she continued in her depression. ‘Maybe, as feared, has he lost interest in me? Were it possible that he came yesterday only at Sandhya’s behest. Was he friendly with me only for the old times’ sake? Hadn’t I noticed that his looks lacked passion? How I deluded myself then, all along thinking that he could have been inhibited in Sathyam’s presence. Did his passion dissipate in our separation? Don’t I count for him anymore?’