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SOME ARE JUST MEANT TO BE TOGETHER
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WILL WE EVER UNITE?

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This chap is affectionately dedicated to - priyal1508🖤✨

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"'I' and 'me' are always too deeply involved in a conversation..........
What to do???"

"Don't tell me that you too are hopping the wag?"

Folding her arms Ruchika turned towards Manjiri, who was busy in a persistent yet aimless traipse in every direction possible within an empty class. Skittering her hands in a lackadaisical manner, Manjiri strode back elucidating

"No way!
Not by any means I'm skipping Parekh Sir's class but......."

"But what?"

"Umm!... I guess after that class I'll not, I mean I might or might not attend the following other classes for today....."

"I'm not getting even a single bit of what you're trying to convey from last 5 minutes....
So for pity's sake stop beating around the bush!"

Ruchika exclaimed and fluttered her eyelids inquisitively, still installing herself on her bench. To which Manjiri could only nonchalantly rub her arms in conjunction. Hanging back for a second she raptly contemplated and spoke

"I'm saying that I need to be somewhere today at around 12....."

"So?"

Ruchika questioned. And hearing this Manjiri continued

"But I'm still uncertain that am I supposed to go or not...."

"What?
You know Manjiri, you're the most irresolute person I've ever met....."

Ruchika offhandedly taunted on Manjiri's ambivalent indecisiveness.
By which Manjiri, who was already submerging in utter dubiousness, got vexed up a little and responded despondently.

"Thanks a lot for updating my knowledge about myself....
Let it be, when I myself not getting what I'm gonna do then how can I make you get that... "

"Okay, okay, calm down your nerves a bit.
Kindly have a seat and then take the plunge, by then I just go and get my assignments submitted."

Saying this Ruchika got up from her bench and grabbed Manjiri by her shoulders to make her settle down on her place. After making her frazzled friend sit, she quickly picked up her records and rushed out of the class.

Thoughts!
Second - thoughts!
Conflicting thoughts!
An endless train of complex thoughts after thoughts was weighing Manjiri's mind since last night....
By which she was feeling too low in her confidence that even her personal thoughts were losing their clarity bit by bit in due course. Though in her mind and heart she very well knew what really she want to do, but due to some solid reasons she was tirelessly pushing herself back from taking the final decision.
Stretching her own thinking to the maximum, she analysed the risks on the cards discreetly. Whilst swinging between her intricate jumbled thoughts and emotions, she mentally made the list of possible pros and cons of her prospective meeting to that person.

Subsequently in the course of time after rattling, recollecting and sorting her own self - thoughts; she ultimately at long last got to the conclusion in the fullness of time.

A while later when Ruchika got back to the class, she spotted Manjiri scrutinizing her smartphone's screen with knitted eyebrows and slightly higgledy - piggledy expressions.

"Gosh!
What went wrong now?
You're still like this..."

"Oh, nothing!
I'm just checking the location."

Dashing her eyes from the phone's screen for a mere second, Manjiri replied simply.
To which astounded Ruchika inquired keenly

"So does this mean that you're going... Right?"

"Yeah!"

Nodding her head a bit indefinitely, Manjiri added a query inquisitively whilst bringing her phone's screen which was displaying a location of a certain place, in view of her friend.

"Umm! Do you know where is this Shyamli Nagar?"

"Shyamli Nagar?
Well that's too far from here, earlier my maternal aunt used to reside there only.... I must tell you that place is really a posh zone of our city. That's also a home to modern apartments and top - end malls. Majority of upscale hotels with restaurants are too located there."

Ruchika informed exhilarating animatedly.
But on the contrary Manjiri felt more timorous and unassertive after not only hearing but also setting her eyes on her friend's highly electrified and galvanized self.

"Oh!"

"Yeah!
But how will you go there alone, if you haven't been to that place before? If you want I can accompany you..."

Ruchika asserted concerned.
To which Manjiri considerately quashed her proposal by saying

"No, no, please don't bother yourself. I'll take a cab and it'll be alright. Nothing to worry about as such..."

"Are you sure?"

Ruchika inquired subtly only after taking a look at Manjiri's not so self - assured face masked with vague dithering expressions.
And after a minute of incessant consideration to her own undeviating decision, Manjiri got up giving a nod with her infamous half - hearted fake brief smile.

"Q. - What do you exactly want?
A. - Well, nothing much but a little bit of this and a little bit of that............"

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_

"How to stop endlessly analyzing your own behavior as if you are the toughest Physics numerical problem???.................."

"Ma'am we reached."

The cab driver punctuated as he pulled the brakes in front of the required yet pre - registered location logged by Manjiri whilst booking the ride in that vehicle.
Hearing him Manjiri darted her gaze from her mobile's screen to him, and then to the place around, through the window.

"Thank you so much Bhaiya!"

She expressed her thankfulness as she got down the taxi, adjusting the strap of her backpack on her right shoulder she took a glance of the huge hoarding in front of her - "Saffron Italia", the place where she was supposed to be at 12 in the afternoon. Though she was still contemplating and dwelling on both that is - the forthcoming occurrences and the prospective after - effects of this meet. But this time just for once she literally wanted to take a chance for her own sanity and heartsease.
The little voice inside her subconscious mind was relentlessly probing her certain things,
"What if your Dii and Jiju came to know about this?
Will they not get upset?
Or what if this person whom you came to meet cripple your newly born anticipations and sentiments yet again?
How will you manage at then, how will you be able to collect yourself... that to all alone?"

Dismissively slightly shaking her head, Manjiri took a deep breath in order to put an end to her obnoxious guesswork and hunches. And with a continuous chaos going inside her head, she unlocked her phone's password only to find Shaurya's new unopened texts.
And all of a sudden at then she took a defeated self - pitying sigh when she realized that at present her acts and she herself were now freshly accountable to one more person and that's him - 'her husband'.....
She right away opened his messages in a passive manner.

"Wassup?
I'm done here!
But after 12:30 won't get any spare time till 4 in the evening.
You free?"

Pausing for a moment she twitched a bit nervously as answering to his phone call or calling him, were certainly the least things she wanted to do, especially at present.
Unwillingly yet disapprovingly she typed out a single word consisting of two letters with a hell lot of hesitancy.

"No!"

She was about to close his chat but instantly she received another couple of messages from his side.

"Oh OK.
Then will catch you after 4."

"Hmm ok!"

Replying back to his texts, she straight away closed her phone and swallowed past the lump forming in her throat because she certainly felt like she was betraying him by being out here.

But before she could even dare to change up her mind, abruptly her gaze fell on a person approaching her with long strides.

Manjiri had thought that she would no longer feel any waves when she would meet him.... But pitiful to say that she was wrong cause seeing that face, that was so familiar that it could not be more familiar, all sorts of pleasant and unpleasant memories started flooding into her heart like floodwaters, ruthlessly ripping up the scar that which had just started healing.... How badly she wanted to turn around and leave at then, but the heavy pain from the past and also the undeniable powerful deep bond that they both used to share, collectively stopped her from running away. She couldn't move at all but could only stare at the man in front of her.

The man stretched out his long arms and pulled her into his embrace with all his strength. From the depths of his heart, he mumbled out these genuine words filled with deep emotion

"My God!
My Minnie Mouse has gracefully grown up into a sweet prim young lady...
How long has it been literally, you all right Miru?"

Manjiri at first really wanted to struggle out of his embrace with all her might, but somehow she couldn't.... cause she was meeting and hearing him in person after nearly five long years. And also his voice, especially the nickname by which he used to call her, struck her right in the face. Clenching her fists by his side, she just simply closed her eyes in his embrace, and when she opened them again then she quietly inhaled a breath of cool air and tried her best to maintain a artificial faint plain smile.

Although she tried her best to maintain her impassiveness and act normal but unluckily her voice still came out shaky when she muttered

"Yeah! I'm well.
You?"

The man didn't pay any attention to what she just asked him, as he started dictating her affectionately whilst placing his arm over her shoulders

"Come let's get in and have a good chat...."

"Umm! But....."

Manjiri wasn't understanding what should she do - agree or disagree to this thing? Feeling clueless, she tried hard to find suitable words which she can utter as an excuse... But much to her lucklessness she was cut by the other person in middle only.

"Oh come on Minnie, heaven won't fall on your this little head if you will have a cup of tea with your Jumbo Jafar...'

Manjiri examined his facial expressions as he uttered these words in a very low voice slowly but with high hopes; his eyes were reflecting nothing but only maximal genuineness, longing, expressions of regret and apology.

"Okay!"

Manjiri finally agreed with an abnormal calmness. Moreover, she also figured out that he must have something important to tell her cause otherwise he wouldn't even dare to meet her in person, that to in the city where her Shri Dii also lives.
And deep down she too wanted her confusions to clear up... so willing or unwilling she risked her everything just for this one meet.

Seeing the sudden changed alleviated calmness in Manjiri's eyes, which could not be hidden by her no matter how hard she tried, the person took a sigh of relief in his heart.

"May I have your attention please -
You won't be able to heal yourself, unless you distance yourself from what's causing you pain..........
Thank you!!!"

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_

"And then the feeling moves on!...........
It does not collapse,
it does not get whisked away,
it simply moves on..........
Like a train that stops at a small mere station, stands there for a while,
and then continues moving out of sight."

Invariably life evolves a certain hypothesis where it is always been believed that 'a gain is a delight' and 'a loss is a utter dismay'; just as certainty creates 'comfort' while on the other hand uncertainty creates a literal 'discomfort', also an unforeseen feeling of intense fright.
Moreover, it's absolutely mystifying that someone who has always been a part of your life or more likely a part of you..... on a random day, in an unexpected moment just casually vanishes somewhere and that to without even bidding a proper goodbye, leaving all their belongings be it living or non - living nonchalantly as if they were never their's.
And for the remaining ones recovering from that loss is becomes - Taxing!
Challenging!
Disturbing!
And at times Exhausting too!

Hereupon, recovering from a loss of life is terribly aching.
And by the same token correspondingly Manjiri too experienced and was even experiencing likewise, at then as well. But if truth be told she undergone sheer despair not only by her Dadi's departure from life but also by the attitude and egoistic behaviour shown by her elder sister Adishri and the person sitting right in front of her, her elder first - cousin Jai Rao.
Deep down she intently blamed both, that is her sister and cousin - brother's arrogance and nonchalance for all her losing.

Reasoning and reanalyzing such past events in her mind, Manjiri was silently sitting down on a chair whilst absentmindedly drawing some invisible patterns on the tablecloth with the help of her fingernails. That artificial fake plain smile which she was formerly carrying, was disappeared somewhere now... all thanks to her pondering frame of mind.
And on the other hand, Jai was busy talking to his daughter on the phone by that time. If someone's else would have called him right then, he certainly won't pick it up but this call was made by her daughter which he never avoids.

"Yes! Yes! Will positively bring all the things which you've demanded...
Now don't trouble your Mumma.
Will return soon... Ok? Now bye Vidhi!"

After uttering these words on the phone call, Jai disconnected the call with a dim grin pasted on his face. He diverted his eyes from his handset towards her little cousin - sister or can say his Minnie Mouse, knitting his eyebrows he immediately grabbed the glass of water which she was absently about to pick for drinking.

"Minnie wait!
This one is a little chilled for you, lemme call someone to bring the normal one..."

Manjiri couldn't help but simply nod her head in agreement. She would definitely lie if she doesn't agree that she felt a little contented in her heart with the fact that his brother still remembered her proneness to catch cold and cough easily. Maybe because this issue is with her since her infancy days.

"How is Vidhi?
And Jiya Bhabhi?"

Manjiri simply inquired whilst wrapping her right hand around the unrefrigerated plastic water bottle, which Jai just passed her from the tray that was being carried by an attendant.

Jai passed a genuine sly smile and continued the talk instantly just when the attendant made his way out of their private dining compacted cabin.

"Both are doing good.
Only Vidhi is turning out to be a utterly mischievous and naughty girl day by day,..... maybe because she bears strong resemblance to her Chhoti Bua.
My God as you too were hell notorious in your formative years."

Inadvertently Manjiri's lips curved up a little hearing and thinking about her cute little niece.
Distracting her sight towards the little girl's collage pictures displaying on Jai's lock screen wallpaper, she unwittingly probed

"She must have turned 3 on this 26th?"

"Yes!"

Jai replied but then he took a pause. After a few seconds, with a sad smile he continued

"You didn't even bother yourself to wish your niece even though you still remembered her special day..."

Immediately raising her head from the picture to peer everywhere but him, Manjiri tried to get the hang of the present situation which she was in.
She helplessly raked her right hand's fingers through her hair, which were slightly veiling her forehead from the top, when she made a failed attempt in finding the suitable words to vocalize in her defence.

Just as she raked her hand through her hair, Jai took a notice of her hairline marked red with a tinge of vermilion. And that sight immediately pushed him to jog his memory towards the fact that his Minnie is married now. Although this was already reported to him way before, but in the excitement of meeting her after so long, this thing had abruptly slipped out of his mind somewhere. That is why he didn't bring this topic in between before.
But one can't blame his teeny - weeny blackout entirely cause Manjiri's look was way too simple, unlike the other newly married ladies. She was dressed in a simple cotton sky blue and white tunic dress paired with a black ankle length legging. A plain thin golden bangle was encircling her both the wrists respectively and floral designed gold stud earing was attaching to her each of the ear.

"So, his name is Shaurya?
Right?"

Hearing Shaurya's name from Jai's mouth and that to out of the blue, Manjiri gaped at his cousin - brother in total stupefaction.
And before she could even open her mouth to answer his question, a well - known voice came from behind which kind of petrified her to the core......

"We human beings doesn't really demand for cheerful days........
But definitely just a little less pain!!!"

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This is it for now. Hope you liked it. I am sorry for the mistakes.

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