A/N : Inline comments are love, so are your final comments on how you feel about the whole story after you read it. Looking forward to lots of both as you read each chapter!

Happy Reading!

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It had been five decades now - five decades of patience and longing and a loneliness that stung - five decades of weariness and dedication to wake up in the morning to cater to the chores that required her. A lot of people touched her life in this span, some stuck by her and some left - but this was only the last five decades of her second life, her real life was over even before this second innings begun - life was what she felt in those twenty-five years before the second phase and bliss lay cramped further in that one last year for this phase - life truly lay with her Abhi - she never found anyone since.

She had left him with Tanu when she had conceived his child - she had left him before screaming out before his family that she had aborted his child - she still gapes at the clarity with which she remembered his daadi's maimed face at the news - maybe she had died that day itself, but her body lived till sometime longer. She remembered Abhi's expectation - he was shocked and outraged at her life and deep down there was hurt too - for she hadn't let him in this plan of hers. Pragya had seen it from the corner of her eye that he was stepping up to put off the charade, but Tanu had stopped him and had taken her hand to place it on her stomach - Tanu had won, Abhi had stopped, his child and his responsibility towards the unborn child stopped him from stopping her - as he stood there with clear dejection in his eyes - Pragya had seen it that day - he had accepted defeat - he wasn't going to fight anymore. Their cruel fate had won.

She continued with her charade for a little longer and as she had planned, for once things worked that way - she had most unceremoniously lost her place in the Mehra Mansion that night - when the doors shut behind her, she knew there was finality in that thud - there were many unsolved claims behind those doors for her. She had never told Abhi that she was the one to fix his favourite guitar before the most prestigious rock show of his life, she had collected evidence against the corporator for his bail when he was taken in lock-up for beating the corporator when he tried sealing Kumkum Bhagya Marriage Hall. She had said the truth that night in the jungle when she told him she loved him, she would always realize before him that they were sharing an eye-lock but she would continue to stare till he realized, so that she could look at him a little longer - so many unsaid things.

The five decades that stretched after that wasn't unpleasant completely - she had moved to Shimla and she taught in an orphanage - she loved the children there as her own - they were her family then - her real family had also held her guilty for ruining Abhi betaji's life - she belonged to no one, but all those children seemd to find home in her. But with attachment came separation and hurt - as one by one her new family found their own loving families, she couldn't help feeling happy for their bright futures, but separation ate at her soul. Over the years some grew up and came back to find her, and greet her, some got busy with life, she didn't hold grudges against anyone of them - what hope did she have from them when after all those years, no-one from her real family ever came to ask for her?

Weeks had given in to months and months to years - years turned to decades and still no news of their loved ones - no one came looking for her - life went on - memories and faces started fading with age - there was only one face that stayed as clear as if she had seen him yesterday - it was Abhi's - his memories were what Pragya clung on to for life - they never faded, each small details remain etched, and they were etched to perfection for five decades now. The only news that had followed her ever since was one news that came five years back - it came on the national television - of the demise of a certain rock-star due to old age and health issues. The news was given out by his son - a man in his late early forties - he looked different, Pragya would have expected a little bit of Abhi in him - but he didn't resemble Abhi at all - he had some features of Tanu though. The news didn't break her - her Abhi was no more, but she smiled as a silent tear roled out of her wrinkled eyes and clouded her "chashma" - Abhi was gone, chashmish was left behind - but she smiled, at least the distance between them had diminished - he was not bound to any earthly relations now, he was all hers now, watching over her - Abhi felt closer, in the winds she felt his presence, in the rustling of the leaves in twilight - and with renewed faith she waited, for her wait to get over - for her to discard her body and join him in nature, in spirit.

A letter had found her a week after the airing of that news - it was from Abhi. When Abhi's lawyer handed her the letter, she had accepted it with fumbling hands - she didn't have the strength to ever open it - she feared the content - she would lose either ways - if it said he missed her and yearned for her, she would lose by keeping him unhappy - and if he wrote he was happy with his life, she would be plagued with the reinstallation of the fact that he never loved her anyway. She had kept the letter safe along with her engagement ring with him - safely in her locker - her only two precious properties. Five years had passed and every morning she walked halfway to her locker and came back.

Yesterday, or was it day before? When she was lying on her bed at night and she couldn't breathe properly? She thought it was yesterday - when the attendants in her old age home came in and helped her into an ambulance - on her way, something told her she wasn't going to return to her room again - she looked at Mansi her foster grandchild hovering around her stretcher with worry clearly wriiten on her face - she was adopted off too at a tender age and separated from her, but Mansi, Neha and Atul, these three never forgot their dear old Pragya daadi who had taken care of them in the orphanage - Mansi were here already, with her in her last hour - she knew the other two were on their way already - maybe only they were family - she wanted to tell Mansi something and she understood, she leaned close to her and waited, Pragya had one last wish - that her engagement ring and a certain sealed letter from a certain Abhishek Prem Mehra be cremated with her.

Now when she opened her eyes, it was all a blur, the white light and the stench of medicines told her she was in the hospital - as she tried clearing her throat, she felt a lot of tubes coming out of her mouth - then a sudden movement and someone was pushing her glasses back on her eyes - her focus cleared, it was Mansi, behind her was Atil and Neha - they all had red eyes - weeping she thought - lucky these children were to have had their loved one around them whilst their loved one lived - some were so unlucky that in death some felt their relations were closer - she sighed.

"Daadi, we want to tell you something." Mansi stopped and gulped and then continued, "We read your letter from Mr. Abhishek Prem Mehra" she whispered.

Pragya smiled, "Didn't I teach you it's bad manners to read personal letters you monkey?" she responded feebly with tubes in her mouth.

Mansi laughed and a fresh tear escaped her eyes. "Daadi you need to know this, please let us tell you the truth of the letter?"

"No" Pragya replied, fear evident in her weak voice, "I don't have the strength to know".

"Maybe it was Mr. Mehra's last wish?" whispered Atul

"And this is mine"replied Pragya, as she felt a tear trickle down her eyes.

"Daadi, as usual like always, I have found a mid-way - that way you will know the truth and that will fulfil his last wish and also not know it, fulfilling your cracked demand that came with old age" she tried to laugh.

"How so?" asked Pragya humouring her, Neha was the brightest amongst the three always.

"We will each tell you, one version of the content of the letter - of them, two will be false and one will be true - we won't tell you which one is true and which are false - that way you will know and yet won't know" replied Neha meaningfully.

Pragya frowned in amazement and Neha took that as consent.

She began, "Daadi, the letter said that he was guilty of his deed and could never muster the courage to meet your eyes -but he was around you - he was there around you when you came to Shimla and looked work".

"Daadi it said he was there to attend your investitures when you became headmistress, he was clapping from the shadows, but he couldn't come forward, he feared meeting your eyes" whispered Mansi

"Daadi he was also there when you were admitted in the hospital for the cardiac arrest, remember, he had prayed for you and left after you were out of danger?" mumbled Atul.

Pragya looked at each one of them - each content looked probable, but only one was true - she didn't try wondering which one, she just closed her eyes understanding, even after all these years, he always loved her - Abhi was always his - he was always around.

"You three monkeys, go home now, I need to rest in peace" she replied without opening her eyes. All three filed out with tears leaving their departing Pragya daadi behind without and without Abhishek Prem Mehra's last words.

"Pragya Abhishek Mehra" those were her last words.

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