The party was in full swing, as the wannabes and newbies tried to ingratiate themselves with the A-listers and the glitterati. Sujata held onto her glass of orange juice and looked around for Amit. He had excused himself to take a call on his mobile and had not returned ever since.

She wondered slightly who the call would have been from. Normally Amit didn’t take calls when out for social evenings. Her anxiety to find him had a tinge of curiosity as well. Her chief concern was not to be cornered by an acquaintance without Amit, who knew all the correct polite answers to the questions such people asked.

She wandered on the edges of the party, looking unconcerned and yet keeping an eye out for Amit. Finally, she spotted him under a tree, intently talking on the phone. As she watched she felt a twinge of jealousy for all that kept Amit occupied and his life so purposeful. Her own life in comparison seemed so pointless.

Amit finally kept the phone and looked around; he saw her at a distance and beckoned her to come close.

We need to go home, he said as soon as she reached him.

Not unpleasant words for Sujata at all, she hated these necessary for business, parties but such a quick exit surprised her. Amit usually stayed back late, getting acquainted with new people, striking deals with known ones and even whistling and dancing with the performers at times along with the other inebriated males.

Together they started walking towards the exit gate where the hostess was still standing welcoming guests and made a quick excuse about an emergency at work which was pulling them away from such a wonderful party. They said a hurried goodbye and got into the car. Amit instructed the driver to take the road to the airport. Initially, Sujata didn’t ask anything, waiting for Amit to explain his strange behaviour as and when he would deem fit. She assumed he had to take a flight immediately.

Amit seemed preoccupied; he made several calls asking for a certain person whose name she had never caught before. Then, a familiar word froze her. It was ‘Mussoorie’.

What happened to my daughter? She gasped.

Amit looked at her strangely for a while and then said, ‘Nothing yet but we’re trying to ensure that nothing happens either.

He didn’t say another word and she knew better than to ask in the presence of the driver, something in Amit’s eyes told her she had to hold her tongue.

She submitted impatiently to the long ride to the airport and then once inside waited impatiently for Amit to organize the tickets and then come back and tell her what the whole thing was about. In the meantime, her mind raced back to the farce of the puja in her daughter’s name that she had created; she couldn’t help cursing herself silently.

Finally, Amit came back and said, ‘The flight to Delhi leaves in an hour and a half.’

He saw the unasked question in her eyes and on impulse squeezed her shoulders and told her not to worry. He sat her down, took her trembling hands in his and then explained.

‘I got a call from her Headmistress, it seems a man has been asking to meet her, but since his name didn’t show on the authorized visitors’ list, he was not allowed. Later the security guards saw him lurking at the gates and playground and even following the school bus.’

Sujata closed her eyes and relaxed a bit, her daughter was safe, and there had been no accidents or sudden illness. It was only a man and though it was disturbing Amit would surely know how to tackle this problem.

Amit looked a little puzzled to see Sujata relax instead of the agitation he was expecting. ‘Strange are the ways of women’, he mused.

After a while, Sujata who had seemed lost in thought asked if their daughter was aware of this man following her. Amit wasn’t sure but thought not and said so.

They sat together holding hands each immersed in his or her thoughts.

The drive up the mountains with the sun barely starting to rise was beautiful and for a moment Sujata forgot the dark shadow of the stranger man who was trying to disrupt her daughter’s peaceful life.

They reached the school gates and the guards who had been informed of their visit asked them to drive in directly to the Head Mistress’s home.

Sujata waited impatiently as Amit and the Head Mistress exchanged pleasantries, this was one talent she had never mastered, the ability to act as if nothing was wrong and talk about inane things when something of much higher importance lay beneath.

As the discussion finally turned to her daughter and this strange man who had been following her, Sujata came alive, asking for details of what the man looked like, what language did he speak etc? Amit looked on amazed at her taking centre stage for once; she got all the details and then relaxed a bit. The man was unknown, not someone from her past as she had feared.

She left it to Amit to plan arrangements. It was decided that a private security firm would be asked to protect their daughter while also trying to dig out details on the man. Her desire to meet her daughter was vetoed since such a visit by both parents would seem strange and they took the winding way back to Delhi.