Page 100 of 12 Years
‘It’s not good for the club. We’re trying to scale here, bro. Investors don’t like a place that abuses and mocks the customers.’
‘Is it all about money to you, Mudit? Really? That’s it? You want to raise capital, and this upsets your plans? You don’t care about what your best friend is going through?’
‘Stop it. If money is all that mattered, I would’ve also joined investment banking and not been foolish enough to open a comedy club.’
I didn’t respond.
‘You think I don’t care about you? Really?’ Mudit said.
‘You do. But you don’t get it. You don’t get what I’m going through.’
Mudit took a sip of water before speaking again. ‘You’re right, I don’t get it. Why are you so into this girl anyway?’
‘I love her, Mudit. I’ve never loved anyone like this.’
Mudit smirked.
‘What?’ I said. ‘Tell me what you’re thinking.’
‘Okay, this will sound harsh. You asked for it. Hear me out. I think you found a hot young girl and felt super attracted to her. She liked you as well. The sex was insane. She was inexperienced. You taught her everything, which is superhot as well. She submitted to you for a year. You lived in this world of crazy sex with a babe. It became a drug. Now that she’s gone, you miss your drug. This is the withdrawal phase. It’s making you do insane things like day drinking, that too before your act, and insulting the audience.’
‘I didn’t insult them. I made a joke that didn’t land.’
‘Whatever. Point is, you’re not in love. Every man has a mid life crisis in his thirties or forties. Nobody wants to be middle-aged and old. Payal came into your life and made you feel young. For a while, it was like being back in your wild twenties again.’
‘I never had a wild twenties. I was always studying. Or busting my ass off for my start-up.’
‘All the more reason why this is hitting you so hard. You never had your wild twenties. Or wild anything. This was the first time you did something crazy and exciting. This was nothing like the boring, occasional sex you had in Silicon Valley with a wife who never loved you.’
‘Mudit,’ I said, my voice loud.
‘Sorry. But am I right or not?’
‘Partly. Yes, Payal brought excitement. But it was more than that. We went grocery shopping. We sat on the ledge and worked in silence for hours. We cooked together. We went on walks …’
‘Yes, you played house-house with her for a while. Which makes the withdrawal worse. It also makes you feel way more lonely. But you know what?’
‘What?’
‘It was all an illusion. She’s twenty-one, Saket.’
‘Twenty-two.’
‘Fine. She’s twenty-two. And she’s beautiful, smart and comes from a rich, conservative Jain family. You knew these facts from day one. What did you think her parents would say, “Okay, beta, marry that middle-aged, divorced stand-up comic who lives in a rented one-bedroom flat in Bandra?”’
‘I’m not middle-aged.’
‘Getting there soon though.’
‘So are you.’
‘Yes, and that’s fine. Bro, there’s nothing wrong in getting old. Nothing wrong in having fun with a young girl either. Hell, a part of me was jealous. But where it starts going wrong is when you start assuming it’s something else. A hot adventure is not a lifelong partnership, Saket.’
‘It wasn’t just a hot adventure for me.’
‘Well, seems like it was one for her.’
‘No.’
