AN: Here’s the next chapter dearies! This is now a 3 shot so 1 more chapter is left now.
Happy reading! 🙂
NOT PROOFREAD. Kindly excuse the errors.
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Chapter -1 – Part 1
PREVIOUSLY…
And thus she had taught him that metal butterflies crushing the heart too was a true feeling when he realized that this room would be back to being just ‘his’ again… just his… not theirs…never theirs…
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Chapter – 2
PART -1
He just stood there, caught up in the emotional turmoil… She could turn any moment and catch him at the entrance… But then he took a swift deep breath to clear his thoughts and decided that he didn’t after all want to hear the end of her conversation…So he left as silently as he had come, before she could spot him in the entrance of ‘their’ room. And ‘theirs’, because he had also decided that he would call it ‘theirs’ till the very last minute he could… just like he was determined to enjoy the time left with her, till the very last millisecond of it, if he could have it his way…
That night when he finally entered their room, he found that she was throwing all his clothes haphazardly on to the bed… He was caught on by the nostalgia of a not so distant memory when she was doing the same and he had confronted her… But he smiled to himself thinking that since then they had come a long way… They now had a mutual understanding that right side of the cupboard was hers and the left, his. Well left was almost his, because very often than not he could find her clothes mixed up with his just like his life was reminding him that things don’t always fit into boxes the way you want and more often than not things get mixed up…messed up… Just like his feelings for her…
That line of thought brought back the depressing thoughts from the evening and the reason why she was making a mess of his clothes, only helped to increase it manifold. She said that she was doing her packing today itself, as day after tomorrow was the wedding and then she would leave next day evening after Mishri came and left in the afternoon, after her Pag phere’ ritual. So, in short she explained that she wouldn’t have much time to do packing properly if she didn’t do it right now…
And right then, all he could see was that she was oh so casually packing away a part of his life in her wretched suitcase without sparing even a fleeting thought for him… And that somehow this made him angry and he burst out, ” Haan haan jaldi se packing karlo, thake mein mere cupboard aur kamre ko wapas se saaf-sutra rak sakun!”
That got her riled up in turn and she said, ” Haan haan aap tho mere jaane ki countdown kar rahe hain na?”
He, ” Haan nahi tho kya? Mere karma wapas se mera ho jayega aur mein phir se mere bistar pe so sakunga… isse behthar kya ho saktha hai iss duniya mein?”
She, ” Haan haan, sirf aap hi nahi, mein bhi apne ghar jaake bahut kush ho jaongi! Aap ka ghar aur aapka bistar aap hi ko Mubarak ho! Mujhe bhi koi kushi nahi hai yahan rehna jahan koi mujhe pasand nahi kartha…Yahan se jab jaan chutegi, mein bhi bahut dinon baad meri apni bistar par theek se jaake soungi …”
Were his ears playing games on him or did she actually seem hurt when she said the last words? He wasn’t looking at her before to hide his emotions from her but now, at once, he turned to face her… Hope flaring in his heart… But by that time she had turned herself and her face wasn’t visible again. But that didn’t matter because what she said next had doused his budding hope with ice cold water…
She said, ” Waise iss gaon mein rehna hi kaun chahtha hai? Yahan kuch bhi tho nahi hai… Phone ka ek signal bhi nahi… Ab tak yahan mein meri behen ki galthi ke wajah se phassi hui thi… Magar Mishri ke shaadi hogayi tho woh majboori bhi khatam… Haan Mukhiji yeh mat sochna ki mein apke gehnon ke bare mein bool gayi… Woh mein thoda thoda karke , uski bhi barpayee kar dungi… Phir aapke aur mere beech mein koi ristha nahi rehega… Aap bhi kush aur main bhi.”
Her words were like broken pieces of glass… the shards of which were getting slowly and painfully embedded into his heart as she kept on slaying him with her words… And he realised the reason why tongue was more sharper than any sword, could ever imagine to be…
He just couldn’t bear it anymore and quickly left the room again to take a walk in the night…
The next day morning he didn’t have time to dwell on the happenings of the previous night. He was late for the early morning rituals due to already having overslept a little, owing to being awake till late night cursing his pitiful fate, which it seemed was happily playing a mean game on him…
The various poojas that were supposed to be happen before the day of the wedding were going on smoothly downstairs and everyone seemed to be happy… Mishri and Deep seemed elated and so were his parents, who after finally understanding that their son loved Mishri more than any wealth in this world. They had even said that they didn’t want any property as gifts, which of course he had refused to accept. Mishri was like his daughter and he reasoned with them that if he didn’t give her gifts, whom would he gift them to?
But thinking about that incident again reminded him of that one person he was furiously trying to avoid thinking about or looking at… Aru… His Aru… She was the one who made Deep’s parents realise that their daughter-in-law was worth more than any wealth they could ever get, in her own inimitable style. He hadn’t realised that Deep’s parents were even thinking of his Mishri just as a golden goose until Aru had caught their discussion one day and created a whole drama along with Deep in tow to make them realise their mistake!
At first he was furious with her for putting his sister’s marriage at stake as he would have happily written his whole life to his sister, let alone his money! But Aru in turn, had made him understand that if they wanted only money and didn’t respect Mishri for the sweet girl she is, one day or the other they would mistreat her, when they find someone else with more money than her, later. She said that Mishri was like a sister to her too and she wouldn’t like if her life too was ruined like her sister’s had been before, when her in-laws had rejected her for a girl with more money after marriage…
That whole incident had made him realise how matured and sorted her thinking was. She truly cared for his family just like her own… He didn’t know when he exactly fell in love with her, but one thing he could say for sure, was that, that day both his love and respect for had increased many times more than it was before…
He now realised that avoiding her or her thoughts was a completely futile task even to imagine! In the few months he had known her, she had completely ingrained herself in every part of his life, that he can’t remember a recent happy or even dramatic memory, of which she wasn’t a part of! Looks like she had the starring role in his memories these days…
He sighed and looked at her, sitting there next to Mishri and merrily laughing about something or the other. And as always, a smile crept upon his lips automatically looking at the happy faces of the two most important people in his life… The two most important people who would both leave him and go in two days…
He felt that the whole day, today and next 2 days too were going to be that way… One moment of happiness followed by the sad reminder that it would not last for long… There was dancing and singing going on everywhere adding the wedding festivities and he too was pulled into many of those, which he accepted sportingly for the sake of his sister. But every time he was reminded of the ticking time, his face fell…
As the evening went by and night started to settle, his emotions were threatening to out him in front of everyone… One thing he didn’t ever want to happen, was the world to see his vulnerable side. So he decided to silently withdraw from the crowd and go up to his room to have a moment alone with his thoughts. But looked like going up there was a bad idea because the moment he saw the room he felt a deep pang somewhere in his chest… The room which had developed a character of its own for the past few months, now looked almost dead, devoid of its very soul as it almost bear no sign of her having ever lived in there… It looked to made up. Just too artificial all of a sudden…
He had never realised it earlier how boring his room had been, before she made it her own… Her colourful mess which he had so much detested before, was missing now…and so was its life… Today everything seemed like a reference to his life… Because he realised just like the room she had made a colourful mess of his heart, his feelings and his very life too… And now she was going to go leaving him in a barren soulless mess… Which may be prim and proper from outside but was completely broken and shattered inside…
It was all becoming too much for him… All of a sudden his life had been turned inside out and upside down all at the same time… Two days back he was at the top of the moon, with a happy family… And now…? Now, he didn’t even know if he had land beneath his feet or not… He was lost with no hope of rescue… So he just sat there on her made up bed and finally did one thing he desperately wanted to do… he wanted to let go of his carefully controlled emotions… And for once he did just that… He cried.
But as luck would have it, Aru chose the exact moment to enter the room. He didn’t want her to see him vulnerable like that, so he tried to leave the place but it seemed he was too late… She just came and said, “Mishri ko bahut miss karenge na aap?” Even though it was worded as a question, it really wasn’t one, so she just came and sat beside him and wrapped her hands around his arms and rested her head on his shoulders… He could feel her tears wetting his shoulders… And suddenly he wasn’t ashamed anymore of letting her see his tears… She might not know the complete reason behind his tears as only a part of it was due to him missing his sister… But he realised that day that what it is like to have a true life partner… A person with whom you can share not only your laughs but also your fears and tears openly…
He gently freed his arms from her hands and instead kept it around her shoulders, hugging her to his side… Because that’s when he realised he had been too selfish… He had been so caught up in his whirlwind feelings, that he never realised she too must be feeling the pain of separation… Maybe not the pain of being separated from him, no matter how much he would have wished for that… But certainly from Mishri, whom she has certainly come to love as her best friend and sister… She too will miss Mishri after she goes… And she too needed someone to comfort her just like he needed her… So they sat there silently comforting each other… because sometimes silence was more meaningful than words…
Sleep evaded him that night just like the previous night… And he laughed sarcastically when he realised that it might be the norm from now on… like his sleep has suddenly found a new favourite pastime of playing hide and seek with him…
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PART- 2
Then finally the day of Mishri’s wedding had arrived. It was a stunning event which he was sure everybody would remember for a long time just like he always had wished it to be. Everything was going on just as planned… But the only problem was that he felt as if the day was flowing by like a beautiful river in front of him and he was a spectator watching it from afar… He was there in every step of the way but yet he felt so detached… He was in the centre of the crowd yet lonely… Well that was until someone held his arms… It was her…his gowrani holding his arms again… She didn’t know it but she seemed to ground him in more ways than one… And like yesterday, she just gave an encouraging smile to him, wordlessly giving him strength to cope up with the changes his mind was refusing to accept…
His sister was going to lead a happy new life and today wasn’t the time for him to miss his sister and think she would not be needing him anymore in her life she used to… No, he could do that later… Today his sister needed him to be present there with his whole heart and mind and that what was important and he, Raidhan Raj Khatara would do exactly that! So he smiled at her in return and gently pressed her hands in acknowledgement and thanks for her silent support.
The wedding was finally over just as gloriously as he had always wished and prayed for his beloved Mishri. Mishri had then left to the house where Deep and his parents were staying for the night. He had bid an emotional and tearful farewell to his beloved sister, only to be reminded playfully by Aru that he better save his tears to do that once again tomorrow when she would be leaving after Pag phere to her actual in-laws house. That had lightened the situation and he gave a mock angry look to her had said dafur’ which finally ended the farewell in happy smiling faces… His list of reasons to thank her was becoming almost endless now… He smiled thinking that at one time he thought she was the very word Trouble’ walking on two legs… But now she was actually the solutions to all his troubles…
That night he didn’t want to think of what tomorrow would take from him… that night all he wanted was to just cherish the time left with her and be thankful of all the things he had was blessed with in the first place… So that night they both sat on his balcony cot and reminisced through the photographs of his past and Mishri’s childhood… It was a soulful visit to the past and he nostalgically regaled her with various interesting stories associated with each photo… some happy… some sad and some outright hilarious stories… like the one where he had let little Mishri trim his beard and she had cut half of his moustache instead! A naughty young Mastana then had secretly clicked the photo of that debacle which had been a source of many a mirthful giggles for his baby sister… And looked like it was successful even now in becoming a source of laughter… For her teasing laughter that night had sounded more musical than any musical instrument he had ever heard… Leaving a joyful tingle in his heart…
Later that night he had woken up to find that they both had slept off while looking at the pictures… They both were leaning on the backside wall and she was snugly cocooned on his chest and he had wrapped a protective arm around her and held her to him… as if his sub-conscious was letting know of its inner desire… the desire to always have her closer to him… closer to his heart which it now certainly looked like it had become her kingdom to rule…
She looked like an angel blissfully lost in her own heaven… But he knew that no matter how much he cherished having her like this, it just wasn’t right. His feelings were just his… She didn’t share it with him. He was a never a man who would thrust his opinion on others and here then was the person who was most important to him, how could he ever thrust the weight of his feelings on her and bog her down? She was that beautiful butterfly he had been blessed to have a fleeting glimpse of… You don’t imprison such delicate beauty of the nature… You set them free…
He had then awkwardly waken her up and sent her to her bed. She was just too sleep laden to realise the awkwardness which was good for him as he didn’t need any more feelings to his already stewing cocktail of emotions when he was around her…
He then just lay there staring at her prone form from the window, memorizing the silhouette of her…
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TBC…
AN : That’s a long chapter nah?! … Phew! 😀 Well hopefully u did enjoy reading it… So don’t do let me know what u thought of it… 😀