𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘩, 2017
𝘋𝘪𝘷𝘺𝘢𝘢𝘯𝘵

I was still in the mayhem that whether black magic exists or not when Ambika Bhabhi appeared again in front of me with a tongue-in-cheek kind of stupor. I couldn't pinpoint what was running inside her agile mind but one thing was undoubtedly true that something was brewing inside it, I could smell it with my experienced nose.

Reclining beside me on the green bed, she nudged me, "You didn't tell me, what's the name of that girl who was able to break the records of infringing an ascetic like you?". I frowned at her question as even I wasn't cognizant of the name of that girl, I had just called her kid or black magic girl, I wasn't sure of her original name.

Must be Phoolan Devi or something, the way she used to frighten people with her antics.

I pursed my lips for a moment and belatedly stated out the truth, "I don't know, Bhabhi, I never got the chance to ask it and I wasn't even interested too". Humming in deep thought, she responded, "Wasn't interested, hmm. Now, are you interested to know her name?" her tantalising tone was starkly unambiguous but it was awkwardly making my heartbeat rise faster and faster as it had just gotten itself installed on a running hippo.

Would those secrets of my heart be out that even I wasn't aware of?

Before I could've pondered over for that particular question, Bhabhi snatched away my phone with which I was playing swirl-baby-swirl and opened the lock using my index finger on the fingerprint sensor and stood up from the grass bed. What was she trying to do, I wasn't honestly conscious about it and I didn't even put an iota of interest to see what she was doing with my mobile as my topmost priority question was; what was happening with me since that girl had made an entry into my ex-normal life.

"Chutku, why don't your brain works in such matters? Here, look. If I am not wrong then this girl who's hugging Meera, Rudra's would-be wife is the girl with whom you've been hooked and here, her name is Pritika, wow such a ..." I didn't even let her complete as I snatched my phone out of her hands in my overexcitement to see that boo girl. My inquisitiveness was higher than any toddler, my subconscious rustled against my head and I lastly gazed into that one face which was able to make my eyes adhered to it, for the first time in the history of Divyaant's Jain life.

There was something about her lizard-like face which had always made me look at her again and again from day-one but I couldn't pinpoint what was it. Was it her child-like zest, her dainty parrot's beak-like nose, her puerile liveliness, her pumpkin-sized eyes or her two Rasgullas stuffed cheeks?

The staring competition with me and the virtual lizard was broken by a throat clearing and I was awkward would be just an oversimplification of any simplification which I was going to give to Bhabhi. "Playing lovestruck puppy, already?" stifling her laugh, she managed to say out mischievously. I didn't know why my body was suddenly out of bounds, I couldn't control my expressions neither could I stop the game of fast and furious that my palpitating heart was playing right now.

"Stare, stare, after all, Pehla Nasha, pehla khumar," I was a lawyer but I wasn't even able to explain my case to my own sister-in-law who had now left the garden leaving me on my own with hundreds of questions in my mind. The first one was about the abrupt absence of my voice, was my vocal cord ruptured or was I a voiceless now?

I put my hands on my larynx and choked out, "Hello, hello, mike testing". I heard my voice and yelped in utter joy, yay, it was working but why wasn't it working in front of Bhabhi?

Was I really having a crush on her or was I in love with her?

Did she really make me a dumbfounded lovesick puppy in her love?

Was it really 'Pehla Nasha, pehla khumar' for me?

And after twenty-nine years of my existence, why the sudden knocking of love on my door-like heart? Where was it earlier?

Having countless questions and no answers just like a clueless student in the exam hall, I dragged my feet towards my room, re-examining the picture of the girl whose name was very beautiful just like...no no. Not like her.

****

Pritika, Pritika, Pritika!

The name was spooking enough to bring a blush from the land of blushes and love that I didn't even know existed. I didn't know what love was but what I felt for her was very heartwarming and invigorating, I believed this was love only as I was having a failed certificate in the matter of love straight from the University of Love and Feelings.

She had suddenly become the Sun of my solar-system like life; my professional life, my personal life, my thought process, everything had just started revolving around her 24/7 and the beams of happiness and smiles she used to shower on me though hypothetically. She didn't know how many saplings of love she had photosynthesized inside me. She was bereft of any consciousness about all the somersaults, roller-coaster rides that my heart used to do whenever her name was spelt or whenever she emerged in front of my retina.

But I know how far-fetched she was, I couldn't make her mine, she was just a forlorn dream of mine that I could only cherish in my reminiscences.

She was a Sikh and I was a Jain, inter-religion and inter-caste marriage was still a taboo in the society where I grew up, my community was against such things as they say and I quote, "The 'purity' of a community is more important than marrying a person who's out of the community".

My grandparents were the most orthodox and conservative people you'd never like to meet, they'd never agree for this marriage, and talking about her, who knows she too would be having such relatives like mine for whom marrying out of the community was no less than murdering someone and whose punishment at rock-bottom was expatriation from the house along with the cutting of ties with the whole family.

I was an attorney-at-law and I had seen how all the laws of morales and humanities were smashed inhumanely in the past and even now whenever the idea of star-crossed lovers reached a monstrous and morbid mob.

Cases were many but every time it was demonstrated through them only that how loving someone out of caste and religion was still an impending thing for many Indians.

Honour killing was a truth, an ugly, stark truth.

Mob lynching was a reality, a dirty, impudence reality.

And I had always dreamt about one love, one marriage and one woman, I couldn't play the roles of a playboy, not even in my dreams.

I might be in love with her but who knows about her feelings for me? I didn't know and even prayed for her to shower just hate and antipathy to me, we were not meant to be, our destiny was different, our paths were diverse just like our religion.

I would never interact with her, I promised myself and respired heavily; the thought barely was too shuddersome for me but maybe that way I would escape her memory little by little. Who knows if it was love or just an infatuation!

Lamenting wistfully, I shut my eyes and embraced the taciturnity of those dreams where she was mine, mine to worship and adore.

If not in real life, I could have her with me in my dreams at the least.

****

There's one famous quote; the more you want to run away from problems, the more it'll web around you.

I had pledged against interacting with Pritika, but like she had taken the exact opposite pledge. I hadn't even entered inside the venue and she was all set to play around me and my heart that had turned silly and idiotic from many days.

But every time she had met me, each of those memories had become my long lost best friends that I'd harbour till my last breaths.

Grumpy grandpa, I chuckled at the nickname she had yielded to me and I peered at her who was standing just opposite to me across the holy pyre. She looked beguilingly pulchritudinous in her peach lehenga and her open, long tresses made her look more dazzling. The dangling earrings were like those naughty Ninos which was ultimately giving her an adorable look. I took a breath and glanced towards my friend.

The conjugality rituals of my best friends were belatedly performed and the photo session had already commenced. I too got on the scaffold and after proffering my best friend a bro hug and of course, a much-needed gift to the newlywed couple, I fake glittered at the camera and got down the stage as I needed to leave precocious for my residence.

Dance and disco wasn't my cup of tea, so I paid no heed towards the pulpit where people were dancing like Junglees straight out of some jungle.

Rudra was already aware of my whereabouts so, I left without informing anyone. I was just crossing through the garden when I saw the back of a very similar girl. It was Pritika, but what was she doing here and that too alone, I pondered tensely and looking closely at her, I saw that she was talking with a man. But, why here like this, away from everyone?

Who was he?

A sudden qualm of jealousy and despondency cut through me, making me clench my fist in extreme irritation and anger.

But he could be her brother too? A part of my mind reasoned and I relaxed a bit but there was still an uneasiness within me which wasn't making me leave her alone with this man.

And the uneasiness was the ominous intuition I was getting off from this man as he tersely proved how repugnant and nasty he was.

He had dared to pull her towards him and I could clearly see how forced and threatened it was as Pritika's face manifested the raw emotions of repugnance and hostility.

Before he could've ravaged anymore of what's mine, I rampaged towards them with my grappled fists and infuriated temperament.

"LEAVE. HER." I barked out in a domineering way and that made both of them to stare at me, one in exasperation and another in contentment.

"Who are you to talk in our matter?" that scoundrel of a man dared to retaliate against me, making me hotter under the collar than before.

"I am a no one but who are you to mishandle her?" my gaze was fixed at that man but I knew the looks Pritika was delivering to me. Instead of giving me those My-hero-has-come-finally looks, if this girl would've punched and plunged this guy, I would have been much more content.

"I am her fiance, I could do anything.." before he could've shot another blow of heart failure to me by saying those heartwrenching words, Pritika kneed him on his side-waist and managed to come out of his disgusting arms.

BRAVO!

She was undoubtedly a fierce, strong and a black magic girl.

"You're not my fiance. This union was never my choice and I would never want to be with a person like you," siding with me and taking my hands in hers, she vocalised courageously with her eyes blazing thermogenic ardour at that man. He just kept watching us like those villains of movies do when hero and heroine are irrevocably together.

I was still staggered of the fact that this man was her fiance, but it got asphyxiated away the moment she tightened her hold on my palm and said something which made the ground under my feet slip, "I am betrothed to him and he's my love, my life and my would-be husband. Do you get it? Or, should we kiss baby to prove it to him that we are a couple?".

Was she high on weeds or what? What was she saying, I kept looking at her dumbfounded?

I was voiceless again, twice in the period of just seven FREAKING days.

~**⁕**~

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