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‘It affected me so deeply, I can only imagine how it affected him.’
Koyal nodded.
‘And that is why, even though he was being offered crazy amounts of money to stay on in San Francisco, he mov
ed to London.’
‘Oh, is that why he came to London? What got him to San Francisco in the first place?’
‘He studied medicine at Stanford,’ said Kimberly. ‘That is where we first met.’
Stanford? It had been his father’s dream.
‘He has an MA in philosophy from Stanford too, by the way,’ Kimberly said, smiling. ‘In fact that is what got us talking in the library the very first time.’
‘MA in philosophy?’ Koyal asked, surprised.
‘Yeah, he is a bit bonkers that way.’
‘He is.’ Koyal nodded and the two women looked at each other and grinned.
‘And then we both started working in the same hospital in San Francisco … and then London.’
‘He left San Francisco because of Nili?’
‘Yes and understandably so. Everything about the city reminded him of her. And then the hospital. I mean, how do you carry on working in the hospital where your wife died. I mean, how do you walk past that room, or pop into it to see another patient where you held your wife as she breathed her last…’
Koyal felt goosebumps and she saw tears in Kimberly’s eyes.
‘It was such a horrible day,’ Kimberly whispered and then held her face in her hands. ‘We all knew she was slipping and we kept a vigil outside her room so that someone was around for Atharv when the time came … and then the C-sec happened and then … when they got her body out of the OT … It … it all happened so fast … The first and the last time I’ve seen Atharv sobbing like a little boy…’
Koyal and Kimberley stared at each other, the pain in each pair of eyes visible to the other.
The audience erupted into laughter, breaking the spell. Kimberly paused to look at Atharv who, she noted with surprise, was looking in their direction – not at her though.
His eyes were focused on Koyal, he had seen that she was upset and his eyes were asking her, all the way from the stage, if she was okay.
Kimberly saw Koyal quickly wipe off her tears, smile and nod her head.
I am okay, she said to Atharv without using a single word.
‘You came to London too, around the same time as Atharv did?’ Koyal asked, trying hard to keep her face expressionless and her voice free of curiosity.
‘Um … yes … I got a job and plus I am half Scottish, I have some family close by, so it made a lot of sense, really,’ she fumbled, but Koyal knew.
Koyal smiled and Kimberly noted the mole, the heart-shaped face and the perfect teeth. Koyal was very pretty, she thought to herself.
‘Your sari is gorgeous, by the way, and you look so beautiful tonight,’ Kimberly said and Koyal smiled again and thanked her for the unexpected compliment.
The girls got up and joined in the cheering.
‘I didn’t hear a word!’ confessed Koyal.
‘All my fault!’ said Kimberly. ‘Maybe we’ll ask him to repeat the speech for us later,’ she said, giggling.
‘Can I ask you a question?’ Koyal asked.
‘Yes, sure.’
