“Hello? Atharva?!”
He sat with his knees folded up, back to the temple wall, drinking hot tea from a paper cup. The sun was rising outside and the rain had slowed to a patter.
“Atharva?! It’s you?”
“Yes,” he swallowed the hot liquid. “Sorry, I was swallowing.”
“Are you ok? Did you reach there safely?”
“Yes, yes, sorry…”
“It’s been a whole day!”
“Sorry, I didn’t contact you…”
“Stop saying fucking sorry…! Sorry,” her voice softened. “Are you ok?”
He laughed, his lungs rattling with the amount of water he had swallowed. “I am fine. Things are better here now. All the people of the village are accounted for and sheltered in one place.”
“Why are you wheezing?”
“It’s raining here,’ he deadpanned.
“Don’t act smart with me…” her voice crackled. The towers had started showing some reception at this height but it was coming and going.
“Iram?” He sat up, crossing his legs, the pandemonium of a disaster shelter alive around him. “Iram?”
“Yes? I lost you.”
“Right here.”
“When are you coming back?”
“A team of J&K Disaster Management is here, we are waiting for NDRF. They are going to land this morning.”
“J&K Disaster Management? Your team?”
“Yes.”
“Atharva, Amaal has arranged for some media to reach there as soon as the water levels lower. She said Samar must get visibility. If NDRF is coming, they will accompany them. Don’t be seen.”
“Yes, ok. I will leave as soon as things stabilise. How are you? How is Arth, and Daniyal and the two daughters-in-law of our house?”
“Arth is in the deepest part of his sleep, Daniyal is about to go to sleep, Noora has gone to the square downtown to help with relief distribution and have breakfast with them, Shiva must still be in bed because I can’t hear anything downstairs.”
“And you?”
“Waiting for you,” she answered without a pause.
And in this grim hour, his mouth turned down and he felt the frisson of joy that always enveloped him whenever she said she waited for him.
“Myani zuv.”
“Hmm?”
He paused.
“Thank you,” he clawed his fingers through his wet hair, eyeing the sun’s rays pierce the temple’s courtyard, even amid drizzling rain.
