Anarchical Society Over A Cup Of Coffee and Much More
'My sleep wasn't peaceful. I have this sense of emerging from a world of dark, haunted places recurrently, where I have been traveling alone for years.' Abhirati murmured to her best confidante on phone. Her dad. It was congenital of her to address anything and everything surpassing normalcy, without the fear of being judged if not reprimanded - resting in her one and only fold of parental affection. 'You may have been staying up too late recently. Try to work upon a healthier routine. And not on increasing the number of hours you spend in studying the History of the world. Life of an insomniac donnish can be painful. Look after yourself my dear child'. And Dr. Bhargava's phone hung up.
These last five years have been rather ambitious for Abhirati. And full of events too. Stepping out from Pune, later with a progression of switching between her innate tendencies to remain homebound and picking up an ordinary job to satiate her desperation to turn monetarily independent, on the other hand - exploring the opportunities abroad for her higher education. University of Sydney it was finally! Quintessential to her aspiring learned self, she kept herself well connected to the department that prided itself on its research-led and student-centred teaching. Lecturing and professorship was on Abhirati's mind - And she could in no time submerge herself for hours like a submarine into the history of Europe - from the Middle Ages to its contemporary times. Abhirati, exhibited strength in researching specifically on the history of Imperialism, Colonialism and Globalization. She tossed and turned night after night over the annals of gender and sexuality, the history of medicine and health; the history of the American Revolution, the US Civil War, the Spanish Civil War, Colonial Wars, the World Wars by and large. Her collaborative absorption linked her to the Ancient History of the world, Peace and Conflict studies, and the study of Jewish, Arabic and Asian antiquity, along with American and European back stories.
In her journey of PHD degree, the university experiences rolled from bitter to sweet. Teething problem you may call it, with her head held high, Abhirati faced the challenges as if it was a cake walk for her until she was ignored and harassed by professor Davis Parker. Someone has rightly stated - every cloud has a silver lining which metaphorically proved to be Abhirati's distressed situation and eventual familiarization with Pumeet Grover. Pumeet was Abhirati's savior - the one to restore her back to grace as well as in helping her regain the position she always enjoyed a step ahead of her batchmates. Pumeet also permanently replaced an old Davis slightly before the latter's retiring date. All owing to a strange Parker idiosyncrasy that has continued over a period of time tracing back to his antecedents who had a similar not-so-fond record amongst the pupils.
Pumeet had freshly been out from his doctorial research on Anarchist Communism and was all set to take over. He was smart, scholarly, classy and intimidating in his manner. Pumeet possessed every bit of what it took to be a dandy erudite with an arresting communication skill and his female students literally worshipped the ground he walked on. Be it classroom, or beyond the periphery of his engaging lectures, it was hard to resist him.
'I still get nightmares. In fact, I get them so often I should be used to them by now.' Having said so, Abhirati flipped over the pages of Anarchical Society leaning on the last row of the fifteenth shelf that stood towering above her hourglass bearing. Least she knew of the chances that she was unknowingly inviting for this new enchanter in her life to almost lock her within those arms gripping firmly on the edges of the encyclopedia shelf. 'I would love to hear more about you. Your inhibitions. Meet me after the session.' As though a whiff of fresh air blew her away. It was so new to her that someone cared to listen to what she had to say in so many years. It felt like a rebirth within a second - and Pumeet was gone. Where did he go? Why didn't he let the time freeze? Those deep eyes periliously started voyaging through a hall full of people like a wrecking boat that struggles over its puniness across the vast Atlantic.
Thursday afternoon, the fifth group study of the month - there wasn't much that Abhirati could do to escape the clamorous room full of researchers and abduct the head of such a ridiculously important cram session primarily useful for those who had no clue of what they would have to deliver in the upcoming semester. The head had his eyes on Abhirati too, to top it all - on her unsettling gestures following those forthright confessions about her recurring nightmares. But why Pumeet? Why her professor from the world of academia barring everyone else in the rest of the planet? 'Take a seat Ms. Bhargava. We will be discussing few references to Peter Kropotkin on Communism and Anarchy.' Abhirati moved next to Mahi. Mahi's bewilderment was at its best seeing Abhirati restless and scribbling meaningful nothingness in the shape of a heart on the pages of her diary -
'Rati! What you up to? Want some coffee'? Abhirati smiled and pulled her bestie's hair strands streaked in Red and Blue those curled out from the corner of her scarf. 'I don't drink coffee. Kitni baar bolun tujhe? I am craving for a Chocolate muffin dipped in Chocolate syrup. How much time left for the break? I was too lazy to make the waffle today for breakfast.' Mahi quickly pulled Abhirati's diary covering the heart-drawn page with her palms. Chuckling she said - 'The muffin at the cafe has defeated your love for waffle maker looks like! I can't join you at recess today. My cousin wants to see Sydney and it's Friday tomorow. I am off to my aun't place post this Anarchy session'. All that sounded like an assurance that Abhirati could meet Pumeet to let him hear 'more' about her. What was this guy thinking of himself? It was the burgeoning pressure of studies that kept his students busy - there were numerous missing links before she could shift her concentration from the socialist movement, to the evolution towards Free Communism - and she was being asked to meet him at the cafe? Holy crap! Soon she was annoyingly distracted by a husky voice that floated in the air with a touch of i-dee fixe. Yes. Abhirati was swayed by his oratory mastery and flamboyant personality.
'Marxizm does not see communism as a "state of affairs" to be established, but rather as the expression of a real movement, with parametres which are derived completely from real life and not based on any intelligent design. Marxism, therefore, does no blueprinting of a communist society; it only makes an analysis which concludes what will trigger its implementation, and discovers its fundamental characteristics based on the derivation of real life conditions'. Ahh! That was a chain of Abhirati's thoughts swishing out of a heap of fallen leaves in search of life. They gushed at the same pace of our professor's proficiency that swept the maiden off her feet by the end of this stretch.
Days passed and a lot more happened over the cups of freshly brewed Capuuccino.
Pumeet and Abhirati sat for a long time in silence, watching the knots of destiny bloom and vanish, before Pumeet could ask - 'How do you bear it'? Abhirati looked at Pumeet in disbelief. 'I don't Pumeet! Obviously, I don't. I drag myself out of your thoughts each morning and find there is no relief in denying my feelings.' Something in her expressions made him fall for her inch by inch. 'Better not give in to it. It takes ten times as long to put yourself together as it does to fall apart.' Pumeet's intrepid voice rustled in the pin drop silence of a late night walk through the opposite lane of Courtyard Sydney-North Ryde, where he took his lady love (if that's what she became to him, by then) for her birthday dinner. Well, he must have known Abhirati's cisrcumspection. Pumeet continued - 'Take a deep breath, forcing yourself back into one piece that wants to collide in my totality. I want to love you, protect you like nobody else. Abhirati's cold feet held her motionless and still. She blinked at him - Trying hard to disguise those moistened corners of her Almond eyes as the tear droplets pricked them. 'Come with me'. Murmured Pumeet with an unreadable affection on his face; lovingly, he snuggled her within his embrace heading to the attic that Abhirati crossed every morning on her way to the university. The room was filled with Orchids and Red Roses everywhere - at the center was lit a heart shaped candle glowing bright with a mild apple-cinnamon-cedar aroma.
Abhirati's surrounding had never been so magical, so beautiful before - She could hardly believe what was going on. She felt like a princess of some unknown land cherishing the most magnificent moment of her life - The cuckoos, the maple trees, the enchating bower of beautiful wild meadows - All in one sang their lullaby to welcome the most wonderful phase she was supposedly stepping into. Tugging her hands, he pulled her close to him and even before she could know it, he bowed down to one knee in front of her. Abhirati was left spellbound. From his jacket pocket he showed up a ring and looked up to analyze her emotions.
His eyes were intense, burning with a passion untold and unfathomable. Bending over him, Abhirati's face whipped around to meet his. He stoood up - gazing clear and undisturbed at her quivering lips. Taking her face in his palms, he kissed her forehead. His hands held firmly by her waist, he ensured the distance between the two to be almost nil. Smelling her hair he whispered into her ears - ' I am very selfish and possessive. I can not think of anything else other than sharing my life with you Abhirati. Will you be mine?' By the time Pumeet was through with his statement, Abhirati had gulped her fear and insecurities deep within the system that knew nothing of true love earlier. Her heart was almost in her mouth, her lips desperately trying to reach his. Closing her eyes, resting her arms around her new found love's neck she surrendered. Pumeet presented her with the kiss of a lifetime. Her exquisite, honest, warm and begulingly vulnerable state was all that he could ever dream of. By the time the long kiss could come to an end, Abhirati was his, and swooned by his self-centered but charming ways. She loved him to death and couldn't afford to lose out on a single moment of being with him. He made her feel safe, graceful, and desirable. She started to trust her inner Goddess that was stifled for years...On finding Pumeet, she knew that love was stronger than habits or circumstances. Perhaps it is absolutely possible to save up yourself for someone for a long time, and realizing what were you waiting for when he or she arrives at last....'I would enter your sleep if I could, and guard you there, and slay the thing that hounds you, as I would if it had the courage to face me in fair daylight. But I cannot come in unless you dream of me.' Our male protagonist muttered while Abhirati rested her head on his taut chest that safeguarded her being like a shield against the universe and its evil eye. She took it to be a lifetime togetherness. Unbreakable and unstoppable. Surreal, Divinely.
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