Love is Love: The Final Act 🏳️‍🌈

The Final Act: All Good Things Come To An End

 

“Yes, am perfectly safe and sound”, Pallavi rejected all our theories. She was not kidnapped by Nikitha’s father nor by anyone else. Her phone died, and that’s why she couldn’t respond to our calls.

“I’m in T Nagar TTD. Come fast!”, she sounded excited. I cut the call and looked at Nikitha. She was smiling, probably thinking about their life together. I saw behind, Pallavi’s mother was busy on her phone while Siksha dozed off hugging her guitar bag. I reached TTD in the next 15 minutes. It was closed, obviously.

Pallavi ran to me and hugged me. I detached her from me and got ready for some serious conversation.

“What did you tell to your mother?”, I asked her.

“Deepan, I thought you’ll tell her, it would be easy if…”, she was interrupted by me.

“Did you think how heavy it is for me? Then think what it would be to her!”, I shouted at her. Nikitha held her hands. Pallavi started to tear up.

“Aunty!”, Nikitha called Pallavi’s mother out of the car, by waving at her.

“Amma, am sorry ma. I know this is not how you would’ve wanted my marriage to happen. I’ve disappointed you”, Pallavi tried so hard not to sob while talking. I kept my hands on my face and sat on the road. Her mother was confused as hell.

“I mean, am okay with everything da Kanna! Deepan is a good….”, her mother started. Nikitha had to save it. Or, she lost her cool.

“Aunty, we both are going to get married. Pallavi and I are in love”, Nikitha broke everything. Her mother stood there. Pallavi hugged her mother but she didn’t hug back. She cried out loud when her mother didn’t hug her back.

“Ada, Kanna! Wait, does that mean, Deepan just came here as…” her mother spoke finally.

“A driver. Friend driver. Or driver friend”, I completed her sentence.

Pallavi glanced at me while wiping her tears. Her mother turned to her and wiped her tears.

“Why do you have to cry for all this? It’s fine! You’re my daughter da! I love you however you are”, her mother got emotional. I pushed Nikitha towards them. Her mother looked at her.

“Would you take good care of my daughter?”, she asked.

Nikitha nodded before breaking into tears. They hugged and started to cry.

Her mother suddenly realized something and checked her phone. I panicked seeing her anxious.

“What happened, Aunty?”, I went to her. She was fumbling with her WhatsApp. She was checking the live location of Pallavi’s dad.

“You sneaked into his phone and sent your phone his live location? That’s brilliant!”, I exclaimed. I genuinely loved her intelligence.

“Yes! What’s more brilliant is, he’s here, around Panagal Park”, she replied. The smile on her face faded, while Pallavi rolled up her sleeves. Nikitha stepped back to watch the action. I mean, it looks like she has never this side of Pallavi.

He arrived at the location in his old model Activa. To everyone’s surprise, he was already in a bad condition. He removed his face mask which revealed a four-finger mark, a tight slap would leave. He touched it and looked at Pallavi. Pallavi didn’t speak anything. Oh, perhaps, she didn’t abscond for no reason. She went to teach her father a lesson.

“Krishanaveni, I’ve just come to pray to Balaji for our relatives to spare us from the ill curses, of having a wicked daughter like her. Not here to attend anyone’s marriage” her father said to her mother. Pallavi’s mother was shocked by her guts to slap that person but she seemed relieved too. Well, I was relieved too, as there would be no more drama. Or wait, there is.

A man was standing in front of me, suddenly outta nowhere. Oh no, he parked his car on the other side of the road.

“Dad, let’s talk. We can talk this over”, she came forward. So, the man is Nikitha’s dad. I stepped before him.

“I warned you. You didn’t choose to listen to me back then”, he spilled out his words. He introduced a gun from his right trousers sleeve and pointed it at my forehead. I mean, this is not the first time I’m seeing a gun today, but still, it was terrifying.

My legs started to shiver, but I wanted to be decent in front of others.

“Yep, shoot right into my forehead. There’s nothing left in this world for me. I mean, I still have to complete the post-production work for the HP advertisement, but yeah, other than that, nothing else”, I started to blabber in fear. He raised the gun and shot towards the sky. Bam!

While I looked up, he pulled me towards him and took me as a hostage, pointing the gun at my forehead, comfortably. I looked at the empty Venkatnarayana Road. I thought of its busiest times, and how it chose to be lonely when am about to be killed.

I looked at Pallavi. The small box in my pocket felt like it was drowning. All those days I’ve been with her, my happiness flashed in front of my eyes. She stood there helpless, gripping Nikitha’s hand tightly. Nikitha was probably in a dilemma, on what to do. There’s nothing really she could’ve done.

“I know I can’t stop you people from marrying. But I could kill this stupid and shove you, people, up with guilt throughout your lives”, her father said and laughed, in an evil manner. Or he thought so. He watches lots of films and tries to imitate a bad cop from one of them. Honestly, I wanted to pull the trigger myself, instead of hearing him laugh.

“Please don’t kill him. Please!”, I thought Pallavi would say this. But to my surprise, Nikitha screamed the above phrase. I was happy, as this girl is not heartless as I had assumed before. She stood there, pleading for me, but this heartless man, right next to me, was in no mood to listen. Wait, arggghhh, we forgot her, didn’t we?

I honestly thought she was going to play guitar when she got out of the car with the guitar bag, like they played violin in Titanic, before the disaster. Siksha lit her cigarette and threw the empty box away. She unzipped the guitar bag and took out a SPAS-12, or to be simple, a goddamn shotgun. She held it against me and winked at me. So, the whole time, I was traveling with an Expandables gang?

The gun could possibly be heavy around 4-5 kgs, and she held it like a pro. The smoke from the cigarette complimented some extra swag to her whole posture. She kept her left hand on the forend and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the gun her father was holding. It flew away and left him unarmed. I saw Pallavi’s dad’s reaction. He swallowed hard, and am sure he would never mess with this group.

“Back off, Uncle!”, Siksha spoke gently, pulling the forend back, for the gun to spit out the empty shell. She signaled the couple to get into the temple. It was 3:30 in the morning, and they haven’t opened the temple yet. They had to jump over the wall and went inside. They came outside after 10 minutes, with Nikitha having the Mangalyam around her neck. I congratulated them and couldn’t control my tears. Everyone was happy, yes, except those dull-looking dads.

“If you want to see your daughters exchanging rings, please follow us in your old scooter, bye for now”, Siksha told and got in the driver's seat. I took the aisle seat and fastened my seatbelt. She smiled at me.

“Yes, Deepan, you’ll need that”, she told. Haa, Jesus.

Jesus waited for us in Santhome. The sky started to leak rays of the Sun. We went to the church and Siksha spoke with the father over there. I turned around, to see Pallavi’s dad standing near the entrance. I went to him, and he pretended as if he was standing there casually.

“Hello Uncle, you’ve come to pray to Jesus ah, Uncle?”, I asked him. He was red in anger.

“Is that girl a Christian?”, he bit his teeth so hard while speaking.

“Aiyo, she’s your daughter-in-law, Uncle”, I told him and came inside.

They managed to convince the father and were prepping for the ring exchange. I went straight to Pallavi.

“Ummm, congrats, Pallavi”, I told to her. She was happy.

“Yesss, after this, let’s go to my new house in Adyar. I’m excited”, she told.

I took out the small box from my pocket and placed it in her hands. She looked at it and looked at me. Her eyes shined with tears.

“Consider this as my gift. I need you people to have this as your engagement rings”, I told, looking at the rings in the box. She was emotional but clasped the box and took me to the front.

The father properly asked for their consent before they exchanged rings. They looked so happy together. They smiled, and kissed. Of course, that was not the first time, I’m seeing two girls kiss, but unlike the first time, this time, the kiss looked soulful, like a promise made, forever. 

I handed over the car keys to Siksha as I started feeling heavy and wanted to leave the place as soon as possible. I was happy that my Bi-friend got married to the girl she likes, but also felt sad for the girl I liked got married. It was unexplicable.

“Take them home. Tell Pallavi, I’ll come to see them after they settle in”, I told Siksha and came out of the church. I walked towards the Lighthouse. My chest felt heavy and my legs were shivering. I couldn’t walk in a straight line. I sat on the stage of ‘Namma Chennai’. Yes, Chennai was finally getting busy, after everything got over.

I looked up after repeated horn sounds and saw Siksha on the old Activa. She smiled looking at the state I was in.

“If you’re a non-smoker, caffeine could help you bring down your stress level. You look like you’ll need five to six coffees”, she told.

I smiled.
“You gave them the car keys? Did they start from the church?”, I asked her.

“Bitch, let us talk about you and the state you're in, with some coffee”, she told me.

I got on the scooter. She drove on the vast Kamarajar Promenade Road. I looked at the sun. I closed my eyes, leaned on her shoulders of Siksha, and enjoyed the breeze against my face.

“Typical chilly breeze of June is here”, I whispered.

We have Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, and Queer ( + And more!) people around us. 

Let's start to embrace them for what they are! Peace! Subham! 🏳️‍🌈