Hlo darlings

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Not every time you need a huge mountain in your way to stop you from going ahead. In fact, you may conquer the peaks of mountains and go ahead, but words, are what can make it impossible for you to move, breathe, to feel happy or to do anything else. Shivaay’s words were one of those millions of words.

“Anika’s Dadi is no more. She died this evening.” Shivaay had to speak as fast as he could because Gauri wasn’t ready to listen to him. His words made it impossible for Gauri to take another step. For a moment she was frozen like an ice berg, then, she trembled as if it was melting, and when she overcame the shock, the medicine prescription fell from her hand. She turned towards him to look for any hint of lie in his eyes, unfortunately, there was none.

Savitri was like her own Dadi for her. She still remembers those days of their childhood before Savitri met with an accident and she used to live with her foster parents, in the colony next to the one where Trivedis lived. Those were the golden days of her life when Savitri used to tell fairytales to her and Anika, with their heads in her lap and her hands caressing their heads.

Surprisingly, not even one tear came out of Gauri’s eyes, because her sorrow was overshadowed by the fear she had in her heart for Anika. Anika was not in a state of mind to accept this bitter truth. Her life was already in a mess, and now, what will happen to Anika when her only family is no more.

“Her last rites have to be done today, what.. what will we do ?” It was Om who spoke this time. He was there with Shivaay when Khanna told them about Savitri. Shivaay had asked him to find Savitri’s whereabouts, but they didn’t know that they would have to hear this.

Gauri sat on the nearby chair, unable to think of a possible way to tell Anika about this news. Anika’s state of mind was not at all right, she was already burdened with so much to cope up with. The worst part was, that Anika was looking forward to meet her Dadi, she wasn’t as happy to be out of Oberoi Mansion as much as she was happy to meet her Dadi. What will happen when Gauri would tell her that she could see her Dadi but she won’t be able to stay with her, talk to her. Never, ever.

Gauri’s dilemma ended, as soon as Priyanka, Janvi and Dadi shouted Anika’s name and held her from falling on the floor. She had heard Shivaay’s words because the door was slightly open. Gauri’s fearful eyes looked at Anika’s blank face, her silence hurting her more than her sobs and screams would’ve done.

5 minutes.. 10 minutes.. 15 minutes.. 20 minutes.. but nothing happened, silence occupied the atmosphere. After some twenty-odd minutes, Anika’s eyes that were, till now staring nothing at particular, moved towards Shivaay who was looking at her helplessly. His eyes, his face, quivering lips, his trembling hands and numb legs clearly depicted that he wanted to do something to relieve her of her pain but he didn’t know what that ‘something to be done’ was.

“You’re.. you’re lying, right ? It..it’s one of your hundred ways to torture me ? Yo.. you want to see me cry, right ? I will. I’ll cry.. but.. for once, say that you’re lying, that my Dadi.. Dadi is fine.” Anika held the collar of his blood stained shirt and asked, with her hope melting into tears and dying each passing minute because of his silence.

Her grip on his collar loosened and she took two hasty steps towards her right, to come face to face with Janvi and said, “He respects you a lot.. he won’t.. he won’t deny what you would say. Please ask him to say the truth.. please.”

Her words soon, turned to sobs, her sobs to cries, and her cries to loud screams and she fell on the floor, with her hands covering her mouth and her knees drawn towards her bossom. Kalyani’s hand on her head, Janvi and Gauri’s requests infront of her to get up so as not to hurt her wounds once again went into deaf ears.

“Anika, you.. you have to get up, you’ve to be strong for.. for Dadi.” Gauri said, and continued while taking Anika’s warm and red, tear stricken face in her palms, “Meri Anika jab roti hai toh mera dil dukhta hai, Dadi used to say this, right ? She wanted you to be happy, and.. and we should be happy for her, because somewhere.. somewhere it is good for her, she was suffering. And God has ended her sufferings.”

“And mine ?” Anika’s simple question and that child like, innocent curiosity made everyone numb. Gauri’s words sounded hollow to her own ears, and Anika’s question didn’t increase the hollow but destroyed that whole structure of words.

Somehow, Gauri had to take Anika for Savitri’s funeral that Shivaay had arranged. Not that she wasn’t angry at him and his family, but at that moment she felt, to handle Anika was her priority. Turning this blue eyes man bald could wait.

Anika, whom Gauri had managed to calm a bit while on the way to the cemetry, became out of control again when she saw her Dadi’s face, and her body lying on the arthi ( funeral bier). She wanted to touch her face, kiss her forhead, hug her and cry and hide her head in her bossom, the priest didn’t let her do that and Gauri and Janvi supported her to stand on her feet, something that she was unable to do on her own, as if she had never done it ever in her life.

Seeing the flames of fire consuming the bier, Anika felt like her world, her dreams, her hopes, her smiles, her desires to live in this world were also being consumed by that fire. The two supportive hands holding her from either sides could no longer do that and she fell on the wet ground of cemetery, her eyes still staring the flames without blinking.

After a few seconds of wailing, Anika felt, calmness embracing her heart. Not that the pain had subsided completely, but she felt, she found something that could give her the much needed strength to fight with that pain.

Taking her in embrace, all Shivaay thought was to absorb her pain like a sponge would absorb the water. He wanted to keep her safe, from the pain and tears, from the cruel world, from Tej Singh Oberoi and to some extent, from himself as well. The sudden loosening of her hold onto his shirt made him look down at her face which was hidden in his chest, he found her eyes closed and no movement in her body, except that heart that was beating against the left side of her chest and he could feel it against the right side of his chest.

He caressed the length of her hair as he made her sit in the back seat of the car and sat beside her, with Gauri sitting on the other side of her. He could see Gauri’s eyes on him and his hands that were holding Anika’s hand and caressing the white bandage where the doctors had pierced her soft skin with needles.

But anyone else’s glances or presence didn’t matter to him, what mattered was, how and what was he going to do to make things fall in place in her life that he had ruined.

Gauri, sitting beside a sleeping Anika, wandered what would’ve happened to Anika if the blue eyed man had not embraced her ? And more than that, she thought, how Anika had calmed in the embrace of this man who was the reason she couldn’t even meet her Dadi for the last time.

“Will you do me a favour, Gauri ?” Asked Anika as soon as she woke up, and her words broke Gauri’s chain of thoughts. Gauri looked at Anika as she continued, “I want to start my life afresh. Dadi’s absence can never be fulfilled by anyone else, but I’ll have to live, with her memories.”

“I don’t want to go to Trivedi house ever again. That’s why, I want to get a job.. a decent job. And, till I find a rental house, can I stay with you, in your house ? I’ll pay you the rent.” Anika shared her plans with Gauri and Gauri sighed in relief to see her best friend trying to get out of this mess of her life.

“Are you mad ? You can stay with me forever, and that won’t be a favour and I won’t take rent from you. And you living with me will be beneficial for me, you know. I’ll get to have the delicious food made by you.” Gauri tried to sound as cheerful as she could so that she could make Anika forget her sorrows and she continued, “How exciting it will be, when you’ll be ‘almost’ asleep and I’ll startle you by rubbing my wet hands with your cheeks. And your beautiful hair that you never let me touch ! when you’ll be tying them into a boring bun, I’ll snatch the band away. And when you’ll...”

Gauri’s bantering stopped as Anika laughed and placed her palm on Gauri’s mouth because that was the only way to shut her up. “Ok. I got your major ‘benefits’. Now, can we leave from here ? I don’t want to stay here, in this hospital, and near him.” Said Anika, and the last part said only to be heard by herself.

Gauri exited the ward, and frowned as soon as she looked at Om. She was irritated, simply because this long haired man was the brother of that blue eyed man and both the brothers were not ready to leave her and her best friend alone. “Eavesdropping is a really very bad manner, Oberoi.” She said, not being polite at all.

“We can’t take her out of the hospital until she’s fine. And why will she go with you ?” Asked Om, not giving much attention to her frown and impolite manner of talking to him. “Why ? Want to torture her more ?” Gauri snapped back with rage and every member of Oberoi family really had no answer to this. She was impolite, but then, they had asked for it by torturing someone without trying to know the truth.

“We know we had done a mistake, rather, a sin. But will you not give us a chance to repent, to make it up to your friend ?” Asked Om, trying hard to hide his rage. This pretty girl was right at her own place, but he didn’t know why he was getting so angry. May be because the first ever girl he payed attention to, wasn’t reciprocating his attention.

“Chance ? Did you give her a chance to speak for herself ? Did you listen to her ?” Gauri asked, and everyone’s silence gave her the answer to her questions.

“I won’t talk to this Laal mirchi ( Red Chilly ) ever again. Never, ever.” Said the long haired man to himself, with his arms across his chest.

“I won’t talk to this long haired man ever again. Never, ever.” Said Gauri to herself and left from there to talk to the doctor about Anika’s discharge.
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