Chapter 3
Lost in his reverie, Vijay hadn't realized that he was already on the JFK expressway and very close to the airport. He followed the signs towards Terminal 4, the same place he had come to so many years before to pick up his new roommate. Just like before, he was running late, although this time it was due to the award ceremony. He knew that Lucky - as he now referred to Lakshminarayanan, though he couldn't immediately recall the details of how the nickname came about - was bringing his fianc? to the wedding, and Vijay was very curious about the woman that had won Lucky's heart. Suddenly his phone rang, and he hit a button on the steering wheel to take the call. A familiar voice resonated through the car's speaker system.
"Are you trying to find me?" the person on the line said.
"Lucky, where are you, man?" Vijay asked.
"The same Terminal 4 bus stop," Lucky answered. Vijay quickly turned towards the bus stop, and there he was.
A thin, dark-skinned Indian man in a leather jacket stood at the curbside next to a young Indian woman. Even from a distance, Vijay could tell that she was attractive. Her skin was a beautiful, creamy light brown, and the blue sari she wore, though tasteful and demure, draped her slim figure in a flattering way. Vijay eased the car close to the curb, and rolling down the tinted window, flashed a huge smile at his old friend.
"Lucky, my friend, how are you?" Throwing the transmission into park, Vijay pushed his door open and jumped over the car's hood, sliding on the seat of his pants right into Lucky's arms and hugging him tightly. Lucky laughed heartily.
"I am good! How are you?" Lucky replied.
"I'm good now! It's been such a long time. I missed you, yaaar."
"I missed you to too," Lucky replied, his arms still around Vijay.
The woman in the blue sari watched the exchange with amusement. "I hate to break up this love affair, but I think we need to move the car. The bus is coming," she motioned.
Lucky took a step back. "Oh! Vijay, sorry. This is Kaveri, my fianc?."
"Namaste, Bhabhi. How are you?" Vijay said while offering her a typical Indian namaste gesture.
Kaveri responded in turn. "I am good, thank you, and I am very happy to finally meet you."
Lucky gestured at the car. "Hey dude, open the trunk. We have to move, or you are going to get the ticket." They loaded the luggage quickly and climbed in the car, with Lucky in front and Kaveri in the back seat.
"Nice car!" Lucky remarked as he ran his hand over the leather seat. "People might think you were successful guy or something?you are engineer, yes? Are you good engineer?" Lucky joked.
Vijay playfully jabbed Lucky in the ribs. "Ha ha, very funny. I do okay; thanks for asking. So, how is India?" he said, uncomfortable with Lucky's indirect praise and wanting to change the topic. "How are your parents? How is your sister? Do you still live in Sivakasi?" Vijay asked.
"Yes. Parents are getting old, but they are doing fine. Padma studies in London and she is finishing her residency," Lucky replied.
"Wow! Padma is becoming a doctor. Amazing! You should have brought her for the wedding."
"Eh, she is in Ethiopia doing a summer internship for UNICEF. She is helping kids with malnutrition, so she could not come, but she told me to tell you congratulations," Lucky explained.
Vijay turned his attention to Lucky's fianc?e. "Kaveri, aren't you also running a school in Sivakasi?" he asked, trying to engage her in the conversation.
"Yes, I am!" The excitement in her voice was clear.
Vijay glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Kaveri smile broadly. "We have around a thousand kids in the school," she continued. "We give them education, food, and shelter, if needed. A few of our students even competed in a national-level talent competition, which is why we could not come early," Kaveri said, an obvious look of pride on her face as she thought about her young students.
"That's okay. Just as long as you didn't miss the wedding!" Vijay replied.
Kaveri continued, "You must be aware of the poverty, the horrible child labor problems, and the lack of education for children of Sivakasi. I believe that if we provide them with a solid education, these young girls and boys can have a good career, independence, and a chance for a good life."
"You are absolutely right. Look at Lucky!" Vijay exclaimed.
"I don't know how he managed to get so much education. You can't imagine how hard it is to get these kids out of those poisonous firecracker and match factories and into school where they get free education and food," Kaveri said, shaking her head.
"Where do you get the funds to do your work?" Vijay asked.
"Well, you know all about politics and corruption in India. Even if the government allocates funds for education, food, health care, and rehabilitation of the children, it never reaches the people who really deserve it. Fortunately, Lakshminarayanan's business is doing very well and he helps a lot financially" Kaveri said, smiling at her future husband.
"Good! I am proud of both of you," Vijay said.
Lucky had been quiet during the exchange, knowing how passionate his fianc? was about the children in his village, but he wanted to lighten the mood. "He is getting married, Kaveri. Can we move away from these serious topics?" he said to her, giving her a gentle smile and reaching into the back seat to squeeze her hand. He turned back in his seat and looked at Vijay. "Kaveri is very committed to helping these kids, and if you do not stop her, she will keep talking about it 24/7," Lucky warned.
"And I think that's probably why you are in love with her," Vijay laughed.
"Enough talk about us. Let us talk about your love. How is the bride?" Lucky asked.
"Oh, she's fine. She's at Raj's house for tonight, you know, typical Indian tradition," Vijay explained.
"And Raj, how is he these days?"
"Busy! Since he opened that restaurant in the city last year, he has become a very busy man."
Kaveri spoke up again. "I am sorry, but can I ask one question? How did you, Lakshminarayanan, and Raj meet? Lakshminarayanan never talks about the time you guys spent together," Kaveri asked.
"Oh, Kaveri, it is very long story, and we do not want to bore Vijay with retelling it," Lucky said, attempting to avoid the topic as usual.
Vijay cast a sideways glance at Lucky, and furrowed his brow in a what's-wrong-with-you expression. "It's fine," Vijay said cheerily, chuckling at Lucky's discomfort. "We have to go Fort Lee in New Jersey, anyway. It's a long drive from here, so we can talk about how we met just as easily as anything else. As a matter of fact, when I was driving to the airport this evening, I was remembering the time when I picked up Lucky ten years before."
They were driving on the Van Wyck Expressway, and Vijay suddenly had an idea. "Hey, Lucky! Do you want to show Kaveri the place where we stayed the first time? It's just five minutes from here," he said.
Lucky seemed to have resigned himself to the topic of conversation, so he didn't see much sense in arguing this point, particularly because he knew Kaveri wouldn't take no for an answer. "Sure. I did not see that place for so many years. We can go," Lucky nodded.
Kaveri clapped her hands together and bounced on the seat like a little girl. "I think that's a very good start!" she grinned.
Vijay made a right hand turn onto Rockaway Boulevard and drove in silence for another five minutes until he saw the house. He slowed the car, pulled up in front of the old home, and parked. He and Kaveri got out of the car first, with Lucky following behind them as they made their way up the front walkway. The house seemed to be occupied by new tenants, but it didn't appear that anyone was home at the moment. Not wanting to walk on the lawn, Vijay turned and headed back towards the street until he could hop over the flowerbed and onto the driveway that sloped downward towards the basement apartment. Lucky and Kaveri hesitated before following him, glancing around to see if any neighbors were watching them. Vijay shook the handle on the basement door, but it was locked. He bent down to peer th
rough the lone window, and it was as though the window was a direct portal into his past: Nothing in the apartment had changed. Vijay imagined for a moment that perhaps he and Raj and Lucky were the last people to have lived in this space, and the thought was strangely comforting.
Kaveri came up beside him, lowering her head close to his as she looked through the cloudy glass that afforded her a view of almost the entire apartment. "Are you serious?" she said with a look of surprise on her face.
"Yep. That is where we spent first few months," Lucky explained as he walked up behind her and peered through the window.
"He's right," Vijay said. "That's the kitchen. Beside that, there is small bathroom and the middle space is where we slept, ate, studied, and did everything else."
"I can't believe it! Can we go inside?" Kaveri took out her iPhone and began taking pictures.
"Not unless we want to get arrested for breaking and entering! I don't think the old tenants are still here," Vijay replied.
"It is okay, Kaveri," Lucky said, attempting to damper her enthusiasm. "You can see the entire apartment from here. There is nothing else to see. We are getting late anyways. We should leave now."
"Okay," Kaveri sighed, obviously disappointed, but not sure there was anything else she could do. She snapped a few more pictures as Lucky and Vijay started towards the car.
"Kaveri?come on," Lucky repeated. Kaveri turned and ran up the driveway, and within a few minutes they had left the side streets and the old house - if not its memories - behind.
Kaveri seemed lost in thought, and said nothing for some time. Finally, when she thought she'd found the right words, she addressed Lucky and Vijay. "I always knew that you guys had to work really hard to get your education and become successful. But, after seeing that place?I really had no idea what kind of struggles you faced. And you were so young, in this completely foreign place, with no family and friends! My respect for you is touching the sky," Kaveri said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Kaveri, do not get all emotional," Lucky replied. "It is just an apartment, and it was not a bad apartment. We were lucky to have the roof over our heads. You did not even hear the whole story?" Lucky cut his sentence short when he realized his error. He did not want to encourage her to dig even deeper into his past.
Vijay shrugged in agreement with Lucky. "It's true that we didn't have family or friends when we came here, Kaveri. But I found my lifetime friends in this country. Without each other, we couldn't have achieved anything."
"So tell me everything from the beginning!" Kaveri insisted.
Lucky sighed. He hadn't shut his mouth soon enough. "How much longer to get to this 'Fort Lee'?" he asked, rolling his eyes at Vijay.
Vijay smiled at Lucky and glanced back at Kaveri in the mirror. "Awhile, Lucky. Awhile."
"So Kaveri, I think it was at the end of August, exactly ten years before," Vijay continued. "We had decided to become roommates, so I went to JFK to pick up Lucky. Of course, I didn't have a car at that time, so it was an experience carrying all that luggage," Vijay smiled at Lucky, who returned the smile. "Then I took him to that basement apartment. Surprisingly, Lucky was happy with the place. So many students ran away the moment they saw the space. But he seemed okay with it, and even though he was tired from his long trip, he cooked the most amazing meal for me, better than I ever had at home?"
Kaveri's excitement to hear the story immediately turned to anger, and a deep scowl settled onto her face as she reached over the front seat and slapped Lucky repeatedly on the head and punched his shoulder. "You can cook? All this time I have been cooking for us, and you have hidden this talent from me, you lazy man!"
Vijay tried to keep a straight face, but one look at Lucky's horrified expression as he was being pummeled by his fianc?e was all it took to lose control, and Vijay let out a deep, throaty laugh. Kaveri was not letting up, and Vijay started to get tears in his eyes from laughing so hard.
"Stop, stop! He is lying! I cannot cook! Vijay, tell her!" Lucky cried as he attempted to fend off Kaveri's small, but effectual, fists.
Vijay smiled, and conceded. "Please stop, Kaveri. He's right. I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist! Lucky tricked me into becoming my roommate by telling me he was a great cook, but the truth is that Lucky couldn't boil a pot of water. By the looks of things, I assume he still can't," Vijay said, laughing again. "I cooked that night, and just about every night until we met Raj, but it didn't matter. That night, I cooked and he cleaned. We talked, we ate, and then we slept beside each other on the floor."
Lucky smoothed his hair back into place and rubbed his sore shoulder. "Both of us had almost same family background?similar challenges?similar responsibilities?and most importantly, ambition to succeed."
"So what happened the next day?" Kaveri asked, satisfied that she'd heard the truth about Lucky's culinary skills and wanting the story to continue.
"The next day?" Vijay said while taking a right turn onto Woodhaven Boulevard for Union Turnpike. Vijay could picture everything in so much detail, as though it was all happening right in front of his eyes, almost as if the right turn had taken them through a wormhole, straight back into their past, ten years before.