Can't even say happy reading now.

"What would you like ma'am?" The waiter asked her.

Clueless about what to order Sonakshi said, "The hardest one?"

"On the rocks then?" The waiter smiled at the first timer.

"Yeah whatever!"

Shot after shot Sonakshi kept gulping her drink. It burned her throat at first and the sensation made her momentarily forget about her parent problem which always surfaced in unexpected, happy situations ruining her mood.

She snatched the entire bottle from the waiter's hand and took it outside in the dirty balcony 'decorated' with pigeon poop. She took a large sip.

"Akele akele" Dev sat beside Sonakshi, holding a glass of wine in his hand.

"Is it lady like?" He swriled the glass in his hand and asked her.

Sonakshi looked at the glass in his hand and then back up at him. The way she started idealising Sahil and then the way Dev was slowly turning out to be didn't match at all. He kept on saying that he relates to Sahil, there were minor similarities that she  noted but Dev wasn't her Sahil. Stupid, she still couldn't let him go.

"Sonakshi? Kaha gum ho bhai?" Dev asked her.

"I just ... Kahin nahi." She looked away.

He shrugged his shoulders and took a sip from his glass. They sat in absolute silence looking at the pitch black sky from the balcony. Sona turned around to look at the party, she rested her back on the balcony's railing and looked at Bijoy having a good time.

"Why is he happy?" She pointed at Bijoy and looked to her right, where Dev was standing. He looked slightly blur as her vision got clouded by tears.

Dev didn't know how to answer her question.

"Why is he happy? Why is he given a good life? Mai aur Maa to itne khush nahi rehte jab ki galti to humari nahi thi." A lone tear traced her face. "Why does he gets to smile? Wo kyu khush hai Dev?"

Devrat Dixit, the master of witty responses had no answer. He opened his mouth quite a few times to say something but not a single word left his lips.

"Mai choti thi. Humein financial problems thi. Baba hum dono ko chod ke chale gaye aur khud kamane lage. Selfish! Hum kitni problems se guzre hain inhe pata hai? Inhe farq padta hai? Aur mere saamne Ishwari ma'am ke saath flirt karte bhi nahi sharmate. Kabhi mujhse milne bhi nahi aate set par, ghar pe. Mujhe nahi chahiye aise Baba." Her words became incoherent and her tone softened and became baby-ish. She began losing balance; so, she tried to lean against Dev's torso. That was when he noticed that she was drunk.

He just wrapped his arm around her to give her some physical and emotional support. She smiled through her tears and looked at him.

"I like you. You're a good boy Dev." She pulled his cheek and repeated the line over and over again. Dev had a hard time in keeping her steady.

At a point he had to pull her and literally drag her to his car. He dumped her on the back seat, she was half asleep by now.

He knew her address. He had been there once to help her find one of her PG girls. He had felt the excercise a waste of time then. Now, it finally seemed useful!

He tried to keep his mind focussed on the road and the traffic but her questions kept banging in his head. Questions, for which he had no answer and questions, which should not concern him.

_________________________________

Asha Bose had walked a long distance from home. A sharp cry of a horn from behind her made her gain back her senses.

She looked around and realised that she had walked out of her street, out of her colony, out of her locality. She hardly had any money in hand. She was perspiring. She wiped her face with the corner of her dupatta.

It would be a long walk back home.
___________________________________

The concert and the fest was over. Jubin was respectfully sent back. The audience dispersed. The volunteers were leaving one after the other.

"Munna peeche ... peeche, wo wali photo dikha." Swati and Munna were busy looking at the pictures on the DSLR.

"Ghar nahi jaana?" Preeti asked

Naina who was admiring SwaMun got startled.

"Kya dekh rahi hai?"

"Preeti... Hum dono, Mai aur Sameer bhi aise the... Matlab humara level of comfort bhi aisa hi tha. Humari dosti..." Naina felt her throat choking.
"Maine gadbad kar di."

"Gadbad se hi seekhte hai baccha." Preeti raised her palm in aashirwad mode.

"Tujhe kya lagta hai? Ab kya karna chahiye? Mera matlab hai uske bolne ka wait karu ya mai sorry bol du?" Naina's questions resonated the excitement in her. After six months Preeti had heard Naina chirping.

"Relax. Relax." Preeti held Naina's arms. "Mai iss mamle me tujhse zyada experienced hu. Okay? Mujhe lagta hai ki ..."

"... Preeti" Naina cut her in between "Jab hum dost the tab hum bacche the, ek level ke the... Ab humara status kaafi alag hai. Tujhe kya lagta hai ye relation chalega?"

"Date kar ke dekh le na!" Preeti told her.

"Nahi yaar. Mujhse heartbreak handle nahi hoga." Naina said.

"Tu bahut aage ka soch rahi hai!" Preeti tried to make her see reason.

"Mujhse time paas wala pyar nahi hoga."

"Toh kya chahiye?"

"Shh.. Shaadi wala pyar" Naina closed her eyes tightly knowing how Preeti would react and she did it the same way Naina imagined. Preeti giggled hard.

"Ye 2018 hai behen!"

"Mai to mai hi hu na." Naina pouted cutely. Preeti hugged her amidst their collective chuckles.

"Tu, tu hi hai!"
_________________________________

"It's getting late!" Asha thought. "I should ask the girls if they are home yet?"

She dialled Preeti's number but even after full rings she didn't pick up her call.

"Ghar chalte hai." Asha told herself and pressed her temples. Bijoy's letter during their divorce was floating in her head.

Asha looked left and right. There was no car in her near vicinity. She started crossing the road.

When she was mid way through the road, she felt a sudden pain in her ribs. She could feel herself in the air for a second and a sudden darkness began engulfing her. Suddenly, she felt the road against her back when she landed on it with a thud. She could feel something wet trickling down her forehead but the darkness grew upon her and she felt no strength to inspect the source of the wetness.

She heard mixed voices.

The darkness grew all over her senses.

The public that had gathered on the road at the accident spot called an ambulance. Someone called the last dialled number on her phone -

'Preeti'
____________________________________

Sameer was ready to give everyone a ride back home. That was when Preeti's phone vibrated.

"Hello?"

"We are coming."

Everyone else was looking at Preeti for an answer. It looked like thunder had struck her.

"Asha ... Asha aunty ka accident ho gaya!"

Asha and Sonakshi were not just owners of the flat the girls rented. Sonakshi was their elder sister and Asha had never been less than a mother figure to the girls in this stranger of a city.

The news shook the three of them to the core and their boys knew what must be going on in their mind. They were ready to provide all the support needed.

Sameer drove as fast he could but it still took them half an hour to reach the hospital. Preeti called back on Asha's number.

"Hello." The man who had called picked up her phone.

He told them their exact location and all six of them rushed into the hospital. The lift was jammed, waiting for even a second felt heavy.

"Sameer ..." Naina held his elbow in tension.

"Stairs se chalte hai!" He shouted and all of them ran towards the stairs.

Asha was on the first floor. The stairs were steep, their stomachs were full yet they ran as fast as they could.

A bleeding Asha had been first admitted to the casualty ward. Her wounds were deep and lot of blood had been lost. She had multiple fractures in her ribs. Luckily, the diaphragm was safe and no internal organ had been damaged. She was wrapped in a white sheet which had soaked her blood.

Unpleasant thoughts crept in their minds as they reached the floor where Asha was.

Swati spotted Asha lying on the stretcher and a scream left her mouth. The other five heads turned in  the direction she was looking at. All of them, rushed to her side.

Police and few people were present already. The man who had hit Asha had been caught but she was not in a position to give a statement.

"Are you her family?" The inspector asked.

"Aunty humari landlady hai." Naina replied in between her sobs.

"Please call her family. There are formalities that need to be taken care of." A nurse told the kids.

"Sona di ko phone karo." Munna finally found his voice. He too was shocked to see the once healthy Asha, so ... lifeless.

Sonakshi didn't pick any of their calls. They called her one after the other for five minutes.

"You are wasting our time." The inspector was getting restless.

"Sir, Her husband will be here in 15 minutes. We can start with her treatment before that, can't we?" Sameer said.

He was the only one not emotionally attached to Asha. The girls had lost control of their senses. MunDit too were shaken to the core. He understood that he could either feel upset with Naina's breakdown or he could take the charge and try to handle the situation.

The doctors nodded. Asha was taken in a ward for treatment.

"What's next?" Sameer tried to analyze the condition and thought of the next move. "Money! We'll need money!"

"Wo uncle aa ke de denge." Pandit said.

"Hopefully. Just in case..." He recalled all the tiffs between Sonakshi and Bijoy at their set. "Just in case... "

He ran to the nurse's counter on the floor and asked about the modes of payment accepted in the hospital. They told him to contact the reception. Not even waiting for a second Sameer ran towards it.

Naina saw all this. Her eyes had turned red and her nose also adored an inflated look from all the crying. She realised how all of them had been behaving - irresponsible. She wiped her tears and tried to call Sonakshi again.

There was absolutely no response.

"Kaha ho Sonakshi di?" Naina was beginning to get worried.

When she next saw Sameer getting out of the lift, it was with a man. She instantly recognized him to be Sonakshi's Baba; Bijoy Bose.

Sameer led him straight to the nurse where Bijoy began doing the formalities. He got busy with the paper work and Sameer finally decided to take a seat.

He saw Munna and Pandit consoling, Swati and Preeti respectively. MunDit themselves looked worried. He kept his hands on their shoulders; one on each of his friends. They needed support and he was there for them.

It took a lot of time for Bijoy to complete his formalities and Naina had been observing the supposedly arrogant star, the irresponsible Sameer tending to his friends. Taking care of basic needs of Bijoy, so that Asha's treatment could go on smoothly. He ran to the hospital's canteen to get water and biscuits for everyone. He wasn't the same carefree school kid anymore. He had grown a lot, Naina could see it. It was time for her to get out of rigid judgements too.

Trust takes years to build but sometimes only a moment is enough to enable you to see through people. Naina could clearly see Sameer for who he was and all her inhibitions began getting erased one after the other.

Bijoy came back to face five unknown faces, crying for his Asha.

"Sonakshi nahi aayi?" He could only ask this question.

"Sona di phone nahi utha rahi." Swati said.

Bijoy grew tensed. She wasn't in the party either.

"Keep calling her she won't pick my call ... Probably." Bijoy said.

"You are Asha's...?" He asked them after a brief pause.

"Tenants." Preeti replied.

"Hmm" He nodded. "Asha ... Asha keeps a picture of Dakshineshwar Kali Mandir in her room. It is on her bedside table. Can you get it for her?"

Preeti was amazed. How was he so sure and correct about the picture's location, even after all these years?

"Asha'll need it" He added.

Pandit took Sameer's car keys and with Preeti he headed for her home.

Bijoy had genuine concern and sorrow on his face. He looked drastically different from Sonakshi's stories.
____________________________________

Dev was the one who brought Sonakshi back home. He was the one who fetched the house keys in her purse. He was the one who helped her climb the stairs and he was the one who dumped her on the bed of the first room he saw on the floor.

He tried to tuck her in and she kept blabbering about how much she liked him in half sentences or even in broken words.

"You ... Good.... Jokes..."

"Smile ... Smile ..."

"Remember shots? Dairy Milk shots?"

He tried to sush her but she clinged to his collar. He was getting frustrated. His mind kept rushing back to the conversation he had with Jatin that day.

He looked at the girl lying on the bed, not even realising where she was. She was broken, shattered and emotionally unstable. Her actions were usually driven by consent from people around her but whenever she was attacked on an emotional front, she would break out like a long tied river pushes a dam. Yes, he had noticed that and her antics too which she did just to stay closer to him.

She was like pieces of a shattered glass - too minute to pick up and too broken to be looked into. The pieces didn't reflect.

His heart went out to the little kid in her who was craving to be around her Baba but it was only pity he felt. 

He looked at the room closely. It had three beds and an almirah. The walls were white and looked freshly painted. He looked at the bedside tables, one was stuffed with books, another had an ipod only. The owner of that table might be carefree too. The third table had a book, an alarm clock and twisted ear phones.

The wall adjacent to the last bed had a few pictures on it. Most of them were of the girls Dev met the other day when they were looking for Sona's PG Girl. What was her name? Priyanshi? Payal?

All the other pictures circled one particular frame. It had Sonakshi with the three PG girls. If one didn't know the relation between the four of them, he would easily mistake them to be sisters by blood. The way Sonakshi stood with the girls looked protective yet caring.

Was it actually possible that the mess lying on the bed could be fierce, mature yet caring in love? Was it possible that she wasn't just surviving but also thriving through life, with  only a few moments of breakdown? Was it possible that he was missing something?

He heard a thud downstairs.

"Someone must be back home!" He told himself and after a brief look at Sonakshi he ran downstairs.

He saw two figures going out of the house in darkness. He switched on the light and the figures turned towards him. He recognized them from the day that girl went missing.

"Tum yaha kya kar rahe ho?" Preeti asked him.

"Mujhe ye pasand nahi hai." Pandit said loud and clear. He didn't like Dev right from the day Preeti went missing.

He told them about Sonakshi's state and they told him about Asha's accident.

"Can't she even get up?" Preeti asked him. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Where is she? I want to see her myself." Preeti commanded and Dev told her where he had left Sonakshi.

Preeti began climbing the stairs, Dev wanted to be right behind her but Pandit stopped the jerk.

Sonakshi was sitting on the bed with her head in her hands. She didn't look like she was in her senses. Preeti had lived long enough in their family to know that this was not what Asha would have been happy about. She too was naturally infuriated.

"Yeh kya hai Sonakshi di?" Preeti's voice was nothing more than a hurt whisper.

"Mai hu." Sonakshi chuckled but even in her drunken state she could read Preeti's disappointment.

"Hum chalte hai." Pandit held Preeti by her arm but she wasn't ready to leave.

"Asha Aunty ka accident hua hai Sona di." She didn't want to break it to Sonakshi this way but she didn't know what would be the right thing to do. What if ... What if Asha never comes back to them? Sonakshi's hangover could be toned down in the hospital but she had to be there beside her mother just in case it would be the last time they would meet her.

Sonakshi's eyes stopped moving. She couldn't understand much but she sensed the danger.

Precap - Asha and Bijoy's story.

Also, "Tum dena saath mera o humnava."

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