Skins of Lies

Skins of Lies

(1)

"Hi. Good morning."

"Morning. How are you doing?"

"I hope it's a good time to have some discussion." 

"No time is a good time to have a discussion on our divorce, Kaushik."

"Come on, Preeti. Isn't it something that we both had agreed on?"

"We sure did. That's what makes it super weird. Doesn't it?"

"Oh, Preeti! You and your twisted sense of philosophy! Come to the point. What are you suggesting?"

"Come on, Kaushik. Do you even remember our University days?"

"I see where this conversation is going. You're going to blame this whole thing on me, won't you?"

"Oh, Kaushik! You and your ability to interpret the meanings! Tell me one thing. How could a beautiful and intelligent lady like Jenny fall for this package? I feel for her, like honestly."

"You're going to divert the entire conversation to this, aren't you? Let's do it your way, then! What do you want to discuss about? What is the thing that I haven't been honest with you yet? "

"That Jenny had never loved you. And that you had never fallen for her anyway. And that you had lied to me about her because you were too scared to talk about the real problem."

"Let me stop you right there, Preeti."

"You could never stop me, Kaushik. Let's not try that today. Let me give you two choices. Either let me ask you the right questions and please answer them honestly or let's discuss about the formalities of our divorce and get this thing over with."

"Preeti! Preeti! Preeti!"

"You know you can disconnect the phone and we can let our lawyers take care of the mess. And to be honest, we are paying them hefty amount for this shit."

"You have not changed a bit, have you?"

"Not a bit, husband. Oh sorry, am I still entitled to call you my husband?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should pull our lawyers in this call and find out?

"Wow! On point, mate! I must say I'm impressed. Are you taking classes to improve your sense of humour? I mean I'm away and you must have some spare time to..."

"Preeti, what are we doing? We were supposed to talk..."

"About our divorce. I know. But I am enjoying this conversation. It's been long since we have experienced something like this."

"I suppose it's true. Maybe since Maya was born..."

"So, you're going to blame this on our child? Do you even know how is she doing? When is the last time you talked to her in person or at least, on the phone?"

"Yesterday. When did you talk to her the last time, though? She misses you; you know!"

"I'm sorry, Kaushik. I went a little overboard with it. Just went with the flow, I guess."

"Preeti?"

"Say it."

"You wanted me to be honest. You were right all along. I was so scared all this time that I could not accept the truth. I did not have it in me to..."

"To admit that your male ego is poking its filthy nose to dampen our relationship."

"You can name it as you wish. I did what I thought was right."

"Look at you, justifying your poor act! You didn't even have any feelings for Jenny. You had to go full drunk in that party, cry like a teenage boy, talk about our fragile relationship and then hold her hands..."

"Wait a minute! How on earth did you manage to..."

"Oh, Kaushik. We are women. We manage to get hold of relevant information whenever we wish to. Didn't you attend Professor Bagchi's classes at the University properly?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. How does it matter anyway? Since one cat is out of the hat..."

"What do you mean by one cat? How many cats do you have in that hat?"

"I had only one and that's out now. But your cat is still hiding."

"What do you mean?"

"You have not been honest with me either. Have you?"

"I don't know what you are saying."

"Come on, Preeti Chauhan! Why did you not care to inform your husband that you were not ready yet to be a mother?"

"What? I mean, how? Where did you get piece of information from?"

"Your big brother, Avinash. You should have known. Me and Avinash were best friends in the college."

"I didn't even inform Avinash. He must have heard about it from our mother. I had to tell her, Kaushik. I could have hidden it from the world, but not her. You, of all people, should know this."

"Pardon me for my hearing problem. Did you just say sorry?"

"Yes, I'm sorry. I should have told you, but I was scared too. This feeling of guilt, a sense of betrayal, was swallowing me whole. I tried to tell you thousand times, but I could not. I wasn't prepared for that kind of conversation."

"But you are, now. How patiently did you wait for me to make one small mistake!"

"You make me laugh, Kaushik Bose. It was not a mistake; it was a choice. You acted like a victim and tried to gain sympathy for a misery that you were not going through."

"I'm sorry, Preeti. I had no clue that she was going to kiss me."

"Look at the state of you! You are still boasting of that incident. Do you understand what you did was morally unforgivable."

"And yet, my wife, my Mother Teresa, forgave me."

"I didn't. I saw how miserable men can be when someone, specially their wife, hurts their ego. What did I say to you, mister? I said you were being forgetful, you were losing your charm, you were getting fat and unattractive. And it was enough. You found a reason to play your victim card."

"It wasn't just one isolated incident, Preeti. You made me scrutinize my choices everyday. I was starting to question my masculinity. I was beginning to realise that I could never be a decent father or a decent husband. When in truth, it was you who was not ready to be a parent."

"I know. And I'm sorry for that."

"Why did you not stop me?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You knew what was happening all this time. Why did you not stop me from making that mistake? Instead you kept pushing me towards the edge. Wait a minute, you wanted me to fall. Didn't you?"

"Since we are playing truth or dare today, let me be honest with you. Initially I did not want you to fall. I was annoying you to piss you off. I wanted to spend some me time to figure out the situation. I knew you loved me, but I had to be sure that I was prepared enough to be a mother. At first, I was having fun to irritate you but then it became a bad habit. I knew you were not having an affair. But I was genuinely not aware of the fact that you were suffering from insecurity."

"At first I thought you were teasing me. Then you crossed the line and dared me to have an extramarital affair."

"And you obliged that. Such an obidient partner you turned out to be! Who would have known!"

"It was just a couple of kisses!"

"You think I was hurt because of those two kisses? You really don't know anything about women, do you?"

"Why were you pissed off, then?"

"I was hurt because your male ego was so shallow. I was hurt because you had to go out of your way to Impress another woman. I was hurt because you had to lie to me about the whole incident. I was hurt because you, of all people, did not deny the false charges that I tagged on you."

"Fantastic! Well played, Preeti. How did it feel when you logged false charges on my name?"

"It felt terrible. But I felt I had to do something about it. I knew that you two were not having any affair. I knew you two did not even have feelings for each other. I knew you had to get super drunk to get out of your senses and talk to Jenny about our failed married life. You had to lie about a lot of things so that you could gain her sympathy. And then appeared your final act. You had to lean on her and kiss on her lips and apologize for your behaviour. Well played, indeed! She was super drunk as well. Afterall it was professor Rawat's housewarming party in Greater kailash, booze was there in abundance. Anyway, she felt sorry for you and kissed you back. Then she consoled you by holding your hands said everything was going to be ok. Now tell me, Mr. Kaushik Bose, Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Delhi, who outplayed who in this game?"

"I'm still no match for you, Mrs. Preeti Chauhan, Associate professor at the Department of Economics, University of Delhi, when it comes to games. You planted the seed, you helped it grow. But why did you have to do all this to get rid of me? You could have asked for a divorce right away and maybe you should have."

"Do you even hear yourself? I was pregnant with Maya during that time. And imagine what I was going through. My husband was more cautious to prove his masculinity than to remember his responsibilities. He was so busy portraying his charm and appeal to a woman who merely cared for him that he forgot he had one woman carrying his child in her womb."

"It is that same woman who didn't even want to be a mother but didn't bother to inform her husband. It's the same woman who kept pushing her husband towards the edge needlessly. It's the same woman who kept questioning her husband's masculinity every day. It's the same woman who forgot that her child was as precious to her husband as she was to her. For god's sake, Preeti. You had her moved to a boarding school without having informed me, her father."

"It's the same father who accepted the false allegations against him to show the world that he was an attractive male. It's the same father who wanted his wife to believe that he could sleep with another woman. It's the same father who couldn't care less about his wife when she was pregnant with his child."

"Conceded. So, we both agree that we have been terrible parents."

"Oh hello, mister! We both agree that you have been a terrible parent."

"Preeti, remember that accident?"

"Which accident?"

"The one you met with when you were like, 4 or 5 months pregnant?"

"Of course I do, I was getting out of the car and lost my balance, probably due to low blood sugar or something..."

"And you fell down."

"Yeah, that! I'm sorry. Why are we having this discussion now?"

"Do you remember any other occasion where you did not wait for me to come out of the car and unlock the front door at your side?"

"I guess not! I mean, I don't even remember. We have known each other since we were students at the university. There must have been occasions when I did something like that. I'm going to ask you once again..."

"And what happened after two weeks since that accident?"

"What has gotten to you? Why are you asking questions that are not relevant? Forget about relevance, how on earth am I supposed to remember something as negligible as that?"

"You told me, out of the blue, that Dr. Saraswat was not making you comfortable with his treatment. We switched to a different gynecologist altogether after that day. We started consulting Dr. Mehra."

"Now I remember. You're right. Dr. Saraswat was very uptight and methodical in his way to treat patients. That's why I was not being able to ask silly questions, you know, or at least ask for some unorthodox suggestions or request for breaking some rules for diet or sleep for a day or two. You know he was really unapproachable..."

"It's ok, at least you tried."

"Come to the point. Phone's battery must be running out."

"I must say I'm surprised. For a mother who went for an abortion..."

"Wait, what?"

"You heard and understood it right. You decided to abort our child all by yourself. You went for a checkup alone and requested Dr. Saraswat if it can be done. He had your entire body tested. You already had an existing infection at your cervix, another news I was kept unaware of. He advised to not go for an abortion, especially when you were already 4+ months pregnant. This was mere one week before you attempted for that planned accident. Even then you could've informed me. We could have talked that through and decided something mutually. But no, you had your own ego driving you crazy. You chose to act in a negative manner. You made up a story on Dr. Saraswat and we went on to consult Dr. Mehra. So Preeti, you heard it right. For a mother who went for an abortion, that too, having not informed her husband, it's difficult to forget the events that she herself is responsible for."

"So, you knew all this. Since when? And how? And why did you not confront me in the past?"

"You amaze me, Preeti. You really do. I was waiting for the right time. Sadly, it never appeared."

"Every time is a right time to have a discussion your wife who is planning to have an abortion, having not informed you..."

"Wow! Did you just try to blame this thing on me as well?"

"I most certainly did not. I have been a terrible person, a failed wife who could not be honest with you, a failed mother who could not be a decent parent to our child. I had her sent to the boarding school in Nainital so that I could get some time to think about our future, so that I could talk to you about the whole thing. But unfortunately I never got prepared to talk about it."

"I don't even know what to say."

"Say something, anything."

"Why did you even wait for four months or so to attempt for an abortion?"

"I don't know. I guess I was trying to figure out..."

"Stop lying, Preeti. You are not even half decent at it."

"You were right. We have not been good parents. But let me ask you something. If we could sit together somewhere one more time, be brutally honest with each other and then decide if we can give ourselves another shot, would you be ready for it? For our Maya's sake?"

"Maybe."

"Kaushik, you don't have to be forced into this. If you don't feel like having a face to face conversation, you should say that out loud now."

"You know what? Let's do this. Let's meet somewhere, somewhere we have never been to. Maybe that is what we need right now. A fresh start, maybe?"

"I like it. A fresh start, huh? Let's do this. Text me the details. Let's do this, Kaushik. For our Maya's sake."

"For our Maya's sake."

"Maybe we should hang up now. I don't even remember the last time we had talked over the phone for this long."

"That's the thing with the privileges, Preeti. When they're there, we don't appreciate them enough."

"I will wait for your text."

"Noted and appreciated. Bye, Preeti. Take care."

"Bye, Kaushik. You take care, too."

(2)

"Cafe Green, huh?"

"The reviews were pretty good."

"Taste of our food better be good."

"Momos?"

"Good old shortcut to my heart."

"You love them. Don't you?"

"I do. Momos are one prime reason we were together for so long..."

"Well, technically, we still are. Let me order our food first...Hi brother, can you please take our orders?"

"Are you feeling hungry?"

"Not really. But I'm in for Momos 24*7."

"Guys are incorrigible, aren't they? They

have two states, either hungry or horny."

"Wow. Stereotyping at its best!"

"Can you deny?"

"Sometimes they are just hurt."

"Interesting. Noted."

"Let me break the ice."

"How would you like to start the discussion?"

"Your mom, she never wanted us to get married, did she?"

"Quite an offensive start to say the least."

"I thought we are going to be honest today."

"No, you are right. Let's start with my mom. Your Momos are here by the way."

"They are yours as well. Would you like to have some tea after this?"

"Obviously! Brother, we'll have two large cups of milk tea, one extremely strong, filled with loads of ginger, cinnamon, green cardamom and cloves, and another one should be milder, loaded with ginger only. And wait, none of us like our tea sweet. So please be careful with sugar cubes. Thank you so much."

"Quite a detailed list of requirements. I'm impressed with the fact that you still remember my choice of tea."

"Really? That's the catch line you are going to use on your wife?"

"I try."

"Okay, Romeo. Coming back to your mother-in-law being not able to accept you. As far as I know, she used to like you. But the day she came to know that we were dating, she wasn't the same anymore."

"Okay. But why?"

"Man, they really make good Momos. Good choice, husband!"

"What???"

"Don't act like you are not savouring them."

"Come on, Preeti!"

"The Chutney and the Soup are also delicious. Would you mind if I order another plate of Momos? Let's try some other flavor. Shall we try the pan-fried version? Wait a minute. Why are you making that weird face, husband?"

"Even after all these years, I feel like I don't know you."

"Which is a good thing, isn't it?"

"Sometimes."

"Coming back to the topic I skipped. My mom is modern on the outside but conservative on the inside. Inter-caste marriage, Kaushik. She could never be happy about it."

"Even after all this years?"

"Yep. There was another thing. Since we are being honest today...Excuse me, brother? We'll have a plate of Pan Fried Momos, please be generous with using green chillies."

"And also, maybe, please check if you can delay our order for tea till, we're done with our Pan-fried Momos?"

"So, where were we?"

"So, let me get this straight. You knew about your mom's disapproval all this time and didn't bother to let me know?"

"I had my reasons. Apparently, People from Bengal are too open-minded for her liking. To be honest, you had your fair share of lady friends in the University. My mom always feared that eventually you'd leave me for some snob Bengali girl. Your parents were far more liberal. They were far more supportive of our relationship. They had love marriage and to be honest, that played a huge part in their thought process. My mom considered you a family member, treated you like her child. But she could never accept you as a son-in-law."

"And your father?"

"You know my father. He only cares about one thing, his research. He was not much bothered about our relationship. He actually thought we'd make a great couple."

"But tell me, Preeti. Why are we having this discussion after ten years of knowing each other?"

"Because it never mattered to me."

"You know I never considered myself a Bengali. I always thought I was a Delhiite. I was not raised as a Bengali either, apart from having "Luchi Alur dom" on Durgashtomi or wearing "Punjabi Paijama" on Saraswati Puja. My mother told me that I was 2 years old when we moved to CR Park. We have our fair share of relatives in West Bengal and we do visit them occasionally but that's about it. I can't even remember the streets of Kolkata. You know the directions of the streets of North Kolkata are too difficult to..."

"I have a question. Why do you guys, I mean people from Bengal, always move to CR Park in Delhi? I mean there are other places too."

"I guess you had asked me about it in the past as well. I don't have an answer to your question, to be honest. Traditionally it just has been like that only."

"Be thankful to your parents. You wouldn't have met me if they didn't choose to move to CR Park."

"I know. I used to consider myself fortunate. But at what point, Preeti, did you decide to cheat on me?"

"What the hell?"

"We're in a relationship for four years before we chose to tie knots. I want to know at what moment you thought it was okay to cheat on your husband."

"What are you..."

"No, don't interrupt me today. Let me finish. You'll have your say. I understand I may not have learnt to be a decent husband. I understand I may not have lived up to your expectations. But I have always tried to make you happy. I may have failed to satisfy you, either sexually or emotionally, or maybe intellectually or I don't even know how..."

"What the fuck is the name of the drug that you're on?"

"You know what happened to me when I found out that you were having an affair with Professor Rawat? It completely broke me. And you know why? Because I didn't know why you did what you did. I didn't know what I lacked. I tried to ask you hundred times, but you wouldn't listen. You'd divert the topic, you'd shout at me, you'd try to demoralise me. Why did you do all this?"

"I..I.."

"Don't fucking stammer now, Preeti. Now is the time for you to be honest. Now I know why you did what you did. Whenever you used to look at me, you saw your guilt. You didn't know what to do with that. You had to channelise your guilt in such a manner that everything could seem alright. You were pretty sure by then that you were going to file a divorce. But you had to have a reason. So, you planted a seed. You tried to trigger my insecurities so that I could fall. And you bet I did. I fell down so hard that filing a divorce, by then, was just a formality."

"I am sorry."

 "Now that you're sorry, what can I do? Shall I dance and let the whole world know that my wife had failed me when I needed her the most? Why did you marry me if you didn't like me? Or did your love get lost somewhere within our first year of marriage?"

"You are absolutely right. I have failed you. Maybe not just you, I have failed both of our families. I might sound unapologetic, but the guilt is there. I have been always been terrible in relationships. You know why I chose you? Among all the guys, you were the only one who didn't seem desperate. I was in a relationship with Nikhil when you asked me out on a date..."

"I know that. Even Avinash was taken aback when you agreed to go on a date with me."

"Do you know why I dumped Nikhil?"

"I don't know. You tell me."

"He wanted us to get married..."

"Wait, what? You just dumped your boyfriend because he wanted you to get married?"

"Yes. I was not prepared then, and you seemed cool and all..."

"What the fuck, Preeti? So, you did not like me in the first place. You know what? I think we should just leave..."

"What's the hurry? Oh, our Momos are here."

"Oh, I see. Momos are the only thing that's keeping us here."

"I did eventually start liking you after a year or so."

"Thank you very much for showering your love on me. May I know why you agreed to get married when I..."

"Because I loved you, Kaushik. I honestly did. And I love you. Just that I am not good at relationships, or having kids or being a decent wife..."

"You loved me and still went on to have an affair with Professor Rawat?"

"Yes. I know it's hard to explain but I was getting bored. When I said you were losing your charm, maybe you weren't. Maybe it was me who got bored with your charm. And it might sound ridiculous, but even when I was having sex with Ravi, I mean Professor Rawat, I knew in my mind that I loved you."

"Go on."

"And eventually I lost my precious connection with you. We started fighting. It was all on me, but I had to blame it on someone. And then I got pregnant. The worst thing was that I had a child growing inside me and I didn't know who her father was. Ravi knew about it. He advised me that we could opt for an abortion. I was convinced by then that I was not going to give birth to my child under those circumstances."

"And then you waited for me to make one mistake. I eventually did, coincidentally in the same Professor Rawat's..."

"Trust me, I did not ask Jenny or Ravi to plan anything. Whatever happened in that night, it was really just a spontaneous act between you two."

"I know. Somehow Jenny got to know about your affair. She told me about this whole thing when Maya was already born. Even I don't know how I would have acted if told me about all this on that night itself."

"So, you knew about everything. It's been more than 5 years, Kaushik. Why did you not charge me for any of this?"

"I was hoping that someday you'd come up to me and tell me about everything."

"I thought I would, too. But I guess it was too hard to find words..."

"Why did you wait for 4 years to file a divorce?"

"Mostly because of Avinash, my big brother, your best friend in the college. He kept saying that you could never have done something like this and that I had made a blunder…”

"And also, you expected Professor Rawat to come and save you from this mess. He was already divorced by the time he arranged the housewarming party. But he never showed up at your door. He could not just gather courage and..."

"Please don't embarrass me anymore, Kaushik. I'm pretty sure I had no feelings for him but somehow, I kept getting attracted to him. I can't explain but..."

"You can. He must have been very good in bed." 

"You can pretty much see through me now. How did you change so much, Kaushik? How did you become so wise?"

"Wounds are funny, you know. Some of them break you while some of them make you."

"Right. I never got to know how you managed to convince Avinash to take care of Maya?"

"He never liked the idea of keeping Maya at a Home, even for a few hours a day. I'm being generous here. He fucking hated it. It's him who appeared as a saviour and approached me, to take care of Maya, till we manage to sort things out. Sadly, that never happened."

"I know. I'm glad that he got married to Janvi, she's so understanding in nature. They take very good care of our Maya. I don't know if we could have taken any better care of her if she was with us."

"We couldn't have."

"What's next for us? I totally understand that it's not possible for you to accept me..."

"I don't know about that, Preeti. You know, my mom really liked you. Don't worry, no one knows about the whole thing, not even Avinash. I may not be a good husband, but I'm still a good friend. I have always been a keeper. Anyway, she still likes you. She thinks I've become a better person after meeting you. And it might sound ridiculous, but I think you do make me a better person."

"You make me a better person too, Kaushik."

"Maybe we should take a rain check on this whole thing?"

"What are you suggesting?"

"Maybe it's better that we take some time, a week maybe, to think this through, we tell our lawyers to wait before making any move, go and meet Maya together and then..."

"You still love me, Kaushik. You poor thing!"

"I do. See, our tea is here as well."

"I love you too."

(3)

"They make a really good couple, don't they?"

"You bet they do."

"We make a pretty lousy couple, don't we?"

"Oh, husband! You just took the words out of my mouth."

"Remember the day I asked you out on a date for the first time?"

"How can I forget that you started sweating on a chilly afternoon in the month of January in Delhi?"

"You're such an expert in exaggerating stuff."

"So, you say! By the way, when was the last time we visited the Bengaluru Airport?"

"Interesting question. Your brother got married after one year of our marriage. We visited them couple of times after that. So, it must be late 2015 or early 2016..."

"You don't remember anything, do you? Remember we went to Pondicherry in 2017, apparently to reignite our relationship. It only worsened our bonding, but you should agree that the trip was awesome."

"I do. And the reason we're having this discussion is that we had a one stop flight scheduled to return to New Delhi airport. That stop was this, Kempegowda International Airport."

"Bingo. So, what were you saying? We still have half an hour before this stupid flight takes off."

"I was saying that I had to gather a lot of courage before asking you out on a date. I had to prepare a good opening line, polish my gestures, and most importantly, I had to have a backup plan ready, in case the original one didn't work."

"What was your back up plan, mister?"

"It was a very stupid plan, even for a backup. If you had turned down my proposal, I would've bought you a gift on the next day and maybe asked you out again, a bit more politely?"

"Come on, husband. You really thought a mere gift could have changed my decision? Anyway, I should have turned you down the first time then. I had missed out on a gift. That sucks."

"That hurts. But the point is I was scared, the night before, and on that very day as well. I didn't know what to do or how to react if you had rejected my proposal. But the situation turned out to be uncomplicated. You didn't even take much time to answer."

"Oh hello, I agreed to go on a date, not to spend a lifetime with you then."

"I know. But I had imagined the same conversation to turn out very differently. I didn't even expect you to accept my proposal in such a manner. In my head, it was a victory, earned too easily. Sometimes when you want something with all your heart and get that without having to sweat, you tend to get complacent. Maybe that's that happened with me. I got you too easily. Maybe, at times, I took you for granted."

"I know. But I don't blame you for this. In a way I deserved every bit of it. And the funny thing is I don't even feel the kind of remorse I'm expected to."

"And I don't feel the kind of betrayal I'm expected to. It's funny how we were married for 6 years."

"We still are."

"Oh, crap! I keep forgetting this simple thing. We have been too busy stitching our own wounds that we forgot to pay attention to our most precious belonging, our child."

"I know. I have been a terrible parent."

"Me too."

"Your parents were never fond of me, were they?"

"Maybe not, I might have lied to you the other day..."

"I know. What were you thinking? 

"They thought you were too career oriented for their liking. I had tried to..."

"They were right though. I am a person who gets bored with her personal or professional life easily. I crave for changes at every step. I shouldn't have married you, or anyone for that matter."

"I think we both could have been a little more kind to each other."

"Yep. Especially when you knew you feared having children, you tried to implant your insecurity on me. By the time I was pregnant, your parents were pretty much convinced that I was not going to be a decent parent. You started highlighting the smallest of mistakes I made. You had to maintain your perfect image. So, the bad influence in our courtship was going to be me. Am I right, mister?"

"So, it wasn't just me finding out dirty secrets."

"How could I have let you have all the fun alone? We were supposed to be partners in crime, remember?"

"So, let me get this straight. All this time, we both were aware of our faults, our insecurities, our betrayals and still we didn't even try to confront each other for once."

"All this time."

"Maybe we both wanted us to fail. Maybe we were only interested to build the house of the cards, not to keep the house safe."

"You went to Dr. Saraswat's chamber and found out that I had lied to you."

"You were there at the housewarming party of professor Rawat."

"You knew that I was having an extramarital affair."

"You knew that I was scared to be a parent."

"You knew that my mother did not approve of our marriage."

"You knew that my parents had always doubted you."

"You knew that I was messing with you."

"You knew that I burdened you with my insecurity."

"You knew that I was going to be a horrible parent."

"And you knew that I was going to be no less."

"And still we waited."

"Because we knew that the first one to ring the bell, loses the game."

"You certainly won this game. I'm sorry I don't have a medal or something."

"And yet I don't feel like a winner."

"Maybe in the end, you have learnt to love the most precious belonging of yours. Maybe, you’re sad because you couldn’t keep hold of her."

"But I haven't learnt how to protect it, nurture it or even help it understand its own worth."

"Maybe, someday you will."

"Maybe, someday you will, too."

"It's almost time, husband. It's boarding time."

"Time flies."

"In 15 minutes or so, we will fly, too."

"Come on, how can you act like nothing happened? We are getting separated, for fuck's sake!"

"When in crisis, crack a joke."

"That was a sick joke."

"Still a joke. Anyway, we'll still be friends, right? But no sex, remember our pact?"

"Come on, will you ever change?"

"Nope. But know this, sometimes two things just don't fit together, not because they are not meant to be but because they are both better off staying away from each other."

"Maybe next time, use our names instead of some torn out philosophy?"

"Cool. So, what's next, Kaushik? Have you thought of marrying Jenny? Remember though, I'll keep stalking you both. You two do look good together."

"I will pretend that I did not hear any of this. But tell me, are we doing the right thing?"

"We certainly are not doing the obvious wrong thing."

"She'll understand, won't she?"

"I don't know about that, Kaushik. If I were her, maybe I would have never forgiven my parents. I mean it sucks. Doesn't it? You bring someone to the world and then refuse to take the responsibility. I mean how cheap does that sound?"

"But it's still better than showering fabricated love, isn't it?"

"There you go, mate. Sometimes you have to be the bad person in order to..."

"I know, I know. It's me who teaches philosophy in classes. Sometimes I forget that when I'm with you."

"You don't have to worry about that anymore."

"What about you, Preeti? What lies ahead of you?"

"Me? You know I'm an attractive woman. I'll find my way home, some way or the other."

"So maybe, the next time we meet, we'll talk about your new home?"

"Or maybe, we should wait, Kaushik, before we decide to meet again."

"I understand, no hard feelings."

"No, you don't. And I don't. And that's why we are boarding on the same flight to move forward with our lives in two different directions. You understand that, my friend? We need to realise how awful we have been. We need to understand that we have lied to each other so much that we don't even know what truth feels like. It’ll take a lifetime of ours to peel the skins of lies that we built ourselves."

"You are right. We must learn to be honest with ourselves first. Unless we manage to do so, there's no point in meeting each other."

"Oh, husband! Who says you don't get me?"

"It's time to fly, wife. See you on the other side of our journey, conditionally."

"See you soon, conditionally!"

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