Chapter 10

[MEMBERSONLY] [NOCOPY] Part 10 updated on 04/04/21

"So I don't love my brother? Am I a bad person? Am I?" Virat looked into the mirror on the side fearfully, "who am I?"

Virat's whole body was shaking. For the first time in his life, he felt unsure of himself, unsure of everything. Vineet put his hand on Virat's trembling hand.

He looked up.

"Mr Chahvan. Look into my eyes. Relax. Unless there is disruption, unless there is chaos, things won't truly settle down. Let it out. Don't keep anything in.

"I can't cry. I...I don't know what to feel." Virat thought aloud.

Vineet looked around and saw a djembe lying in a corner.

"You play djembe, right?"

Virat looked up at him and then at the djembe.

"Y..Yes."

"Take it and go to the terrace."

Virat took it absent-mindedly and left the room.

---

"Pata nahi kya ho raha hai?" Bhavani rubbed her forehead.

"Main Jake dekhta hu" Ninad was about to leave.

Suddenly everyone saw Vineet climbing down the stairs.

"Kya hua?"

"Hamare Samrat ki sthiti condition haalat theek to ho jayegi na?"

"Kyun hua aisa?"

"Aap kuch bolte kyun nahin?"

Vineet was bombarded with questions as soon as he came down.

"I have yet to meet him. But first I want to meet Patralekha, Mrs. Chahvan." Vineet looked at Bhavani.

Everyone including Patralekha looked at him.

"Why are you all looking at me like this?"

"Karishma, Patralekha ke saath..."

"Akele" Vineet interrupted.

Everyone looked at him like he had grown horns.

"Chahvan khandan ki bahuein paraye mardon ke saath is tarah akele kahin nahin jati." Bhavani said.

"If I'm not wrong she is Samrat's wife aur Virat ki..."

"Stay within your limits doctor." Ninad tried to keep his anger in check.

"Aap log is tarah gussa kyun kar rahe hain? Kya ye Virat ki dost nahi hai?"

They looked at one another sheepishly.

"aap logon ko kahin ye to nahin laga ki main inke beech koi prem sambandh ki baat kar raha tha?" vineet looked at them curiously.

They all looked around.

"Ek minute. Agar maine pyar bhi bol diya hota to kya ho jata. Pyar koi paap nahin hai. Aisi shaklein kyun banayi hain aap logon ne".

Their eyes widened at this statement.

"AYE DOCTOR," Ninad yelled.

"Dada. ise to main abhi." Omkar stepped forward.

"Look Mr Chahvan." Vineet raised his finger towards omkar and looked at him with a stern expression. "I know my job. I am the best doctor you can find for your son. I can save anyone. Anyone. But. I have a way of doing things. I had talked to Mr Virat Chahvan alone. I will talk to Patralekha alone. If you don't like my method you can call someone else. I shall take your leave." Vineet was about to go.

"Please stop." Sai interrupted. "Aap log kya kar rahe hai?" Sai looked at them, "Virat sir had told me he is the best for Dada. Ye Samrat Dada ki zindagi ka sawaal hai. Please." Sai looked at them pleadingly.

They thought for some time.

"Lekin"

"Badi mami. Aapko mujhpe bharosa hai? Agar hai to jane dijiye." Patralekha looked at Bhavani.

"Kitna pyar karti hai ye apne pati se. Our Samrat is very lucky Mujhe garv hai tum par...Jao," Bhavani looked at her with pride.

Vineet looked at Patralekha as she gave a fake smile.

He gestured her towards the stairs and followed her.

He suddenly turned towards the family.

"And yes. Mr. Virat Chahvan is on the terrace. Whatever he does and for however long he wants to, let him be. If you want to see your Jeeva Shiva ki jodi back, don't disturb him at all. At All." He again looked at them with a stern face and left.

The family looked at him with a mix of confusion, helplessness and rage.

---

There was only one chair in the room.

"Baithiye." Vineet sat down on the bed and asked her to take the chair.

"Nice room. Is it yours?"

"Kya baat karna chahte hain aap?"

"Do you want to save a life?"

Patralekha looked up at him.

"Isn't this exactly why you were ready to come with me?"

Patralekha was quiet.

I hope he doesn't ask anything about Samrat

"So, you will have to tell me everything I ask you. Everything whether you think it is relevant or not. If you are ready, we shall start."

Patralekha trembled inside

"Ok. Tell me, when you were little what did you like to do?"

"I...I used to like painting when I was a kid."

"What did you paint?"

"Mountains, rivers, trees, leaves, flowers, many things." Patralekha replied still fearing the impending question.

"Hmm. So your life was quite happy." vineet looked at her face and she gave a small smile.

"What about your friends? Do you have any friends?"

"Yeah! My best friend's name is Neha."

"You have done your M.A. right?"

Patralekha nodded.

"Hmm. When you were little, what were your dreams?" Vineet said further without waiting for an answer, "Mujhe to bade hokar Doctor banna tha. Logon ko dekhta tha unke doctor wali uniform ke sath to khud ko imagine karta tha. Lekin khoon dekhkar ulti kar deta tha isliye psychiatrist ban gaya" Vineet smiled, "What has been your biggest dream?"

Patralekha shook her head.

"Hmm. But there must be something that that you used to like? Like you know I loved to play with dirt."

Patralekha made an annoyed face and Vineet laughed.

"I used to be engrossed in playing with dolls."

"Gudda gudiya ki shadi right?"

Patralekha nodded, a smile passed through her features.

"What was your dream man like?"

Patralekha shook her head, "No. I never thought about an ideal type ever."

"Aah! I don't believe this. Everyone has an ideal life partner in their minds. Like I had. aah! she was beautiful," Vineet said lost in thoughts. "but thank God. Apne pyar mohabbat ki baatein main aapse keh raha hu. Bahar un sab logon ke saamne kahi hoti to...zinda wapis nahin jata." He laughed. Patralekha looked at him. "Anyways I cannot believe that you didn't have an ideal type. Tsk. Main nahin maanta." Vineet shook his head in denial.

Patralekha was amused.

"Did you really never think about an ideal type?" Vineet narrowed his eyes.

Patralekha shook her head in no again and Vineet opened his mouth as wide as he could.

"I. CAN'T. BELIEVE. THIS."  Vineet impressed upon each word dramatically and Patralekha smiled.

"It is not necessary that every girl has an ideal husband." She was still smiling.

"I still can't believe it. I mean I have never met a girl who doesn't have an image in her mind of how her future husband should look like or feel like to be around. You know like his eyes should be intense. When he looks into my eyes, I feel chills down my spine. He should be tall, so tall that whe..."

"When I embrace him, I can hear his heartbeat."

"See! I told you. You do have an ideal type. YES. " Vineet punched the air in excitement and pulled his feet on the bed.

"My friend Neha used to say that. She wanted to hear his heartbeats."

"What?" Vineet slapped his forehead in disappointment and Patralekha laughed.

"Hey Bhagwan. Ye aaj main kaisi ladki se mila hun? My life feels like a lie." Vineet said disappointedly.

Patralekha smiled, "Waise koi ideal type to nahin tha but I wanted to marry someone who I can love."

"Aaaah! Thank God! At least you had thought about marriage. Had you told me that you never even thought about getting married, I would have burned all my degrees."

Patralekha started laughing, "no,no,no. Don't burn your degrees. I did have an ideal marriage type, if not an ideal husband type." Patralekha was still laughing.

Vineet chuckled, "Hmm. So you do have a marriage type. And you want to do love marriage."

"Hmm."

"Pata hai main bhi... Can I talk about myself? wo kya hai na doctor se sab apne bare mein baat karte hain. Lekin doctor ki baat sunne ke liye kisi ke paas fursat nahi hoti." Vineet sighed.

"Main sunungi" Patralekha smiled.

"Thank you. Thankyou so much. Finally someone is ready to listen to me. Pata hai main bhi love marriage hi karna chahta tha. Thi ek ladki college mein." Vineet looked in his distant past and smiled, "The moment I saw her, I knew she is the one. You know, there was a...a spark." He had a glint in his eyes while talking about her, "You won't understand." Vineet shook his head.

Patralekha felt that glint in her own eyes as she was returned to her first encounter with Virat.

Virat

A faint thump resounded in the distance. Too faint that Patralekha thought it was her imagination.

"The first few meetings felt like an unsaid attraction between us." The thumping of djembe was gaining a bit of speed.

"I was swept off my feet. It felt as if I was on clouds. My feet were not on the ground. I was floating." Vineet took a pillow and placed it on his lap.

Patralekha remembered her falling and Virat catching her.

She heard thumping like a heartbeat getting faster.

"You know there was an unsaid chemistry between us. Everyone who used to meet us thought we were a couple." Vineet smiled widely.

Patralekha was reminded of the same thing happening to herself and Virat.

Aisa kuch nahi hai

We are not a couple

"With her each moment felt like a dream, a beautiful dream." Vineet seemed to look into a past that was still singing for him, "It felt as if...as if..."

"... as if I didn't exist before." Patralekha was in a trance.

"As if that was the first time I breathed. The whole life before her coming into my life felt like an illusion. The real was before me." Vineet said and looked at Patralekha.

She nodded absent-mindedly as she remembered dancing to his tune and djembe thumped passionately in the air.

"Then one day she told me that she had something to tell me...I was dying to hear that. It felt as if.."

"I will be complete." Patralekha murmured to herself.

"But she vanished. She never came to the place where I felt my life would finally be complete. I didn't know what I was feeling at that moment but something...something just broke inside of me. I wanted to teach her a lesson. I wanted her to feel the pain I did. So I decided to marry someone else." vineet said further, "But she returned and I found my lost hope but she refused to get married to me. She married someone else in front of my eyes." Vineet's eyes got moist.

Djembe was now thumping like sinking heartbeat as Patralekha was reminded of Virat getting married to Sai.

"My whole life stopped and crashed before my very eyes. My family decided to get me married and I went with the flow. My wife got to know about it and left but I couldn't care less."

Thumping was growing faster and faster. "I myself was in pain. I wanted my love to be back in my life. But she never came. I saw her moving on, making a beautiful life for herself while I was left alone completely. She cheated me. She cheated me so badly that there was nothing left in me but rage, an uncontrollable rage. Usne mere saath aisa kyun kiya? Kya galti thi meri? Yahi ki maine usse pyar kiya? Yahi ki mujhe usse kuchh ummedein thi? Bas? I wanted to ruin her life. Har baar jab use kisi aur ke sath haste dekhta tha ya sochta th ki wo us ladke ke sath kitni khush hogi, mere ghav hare ho jate the. I felt so much rage...so much rage that I could've killed someone." Vineet gritted his teeth.

Patralekha felt the rush of blood in her veins as she remembered the moments Virat broke his promise gradually in front of her eyes and she was pushed aside by Virat and sai and djembe now started thumping with untamable chaotic force.

"Little did I realize that I was no different. I myself was a cheater." Patralekha looked at him confused. "I had actually killed someone's soul. I was the same as the person who cheated me. She cheated me, gave me pain and didn't even look back for once. I did the same with someone else. In my pain, I had destroyed an innocent soul. I could see now the rage and hurt I was feeling inside of me for the one who cheated me, she must be feeling the same rage and hurt inside her. For me. Uske mann mein bhi wahi sawaal honge jo mere mann mein the. Kay galti thi meri? I wish I could ask for her forgiveness but she was gone. I wish God had given me one chance to apologise and rectify my mistakes. Just one. I wish." Vineet closed his eyes and a tear trickled down his face.

Djembe now stopped all of a sudden and a face appeared before her eyes.

"Samrat..."

---

Patralekha's feet trembled as she stood at Samrat's door.

She slowly came inside and sat down on the floor beside Samrat's bed where he was sleeping.

There was a silence.

Patralekha, aap is rishte se khush nahin hain kya?

He had asked her in the very first meeting.

Why couldn't I tell him the truth that day?

Patralekha was suddenly reminded of his innocent face and hopeful smile that she had seen but didn't care before.

She started sobbing as she remembered every time she told others and herself that she didn't care about his return. His wide smile when he saw her during the marriage rituals was seen but not registered by her heart that was too engrossed in her own pain.

I felt cheated by the whole world. Lekin main ye nahin dekh payi ki maine bhi kisi ko dhokha diya hai. Maine un sapnon ki maut ka maatam to mana liya jo maine dekhe the, lekin un sapno ki lash ko undekha kar gayi jinki maut ki zimmedar main thi. Kaise kar diya maine. Kya bann gayi hu?

She looked into a mirror on the wall and tried to recognise herself.

Samrat's innocent eyes frozen with pain as he was leaving home resurfaced in her memories and she closed her eyes in pain. Soon she found herself crying bitterly.

"I am sorry." Patralekha cried in pain. "Mujhe...mujhe maaf kar dijiye. Main...apko..dhokha..nah..nahin dena chahti...thi. Lekin...us waqt...main apne hosh...mein...mujhe pata hi nahi chala ki main aap ko kitni taqleef de rahi hu...mujhse...galt...Please mujhe maaf kar dijiye" She kept crying for some time.

When she looked up she found Samrat staring into her eyes.

Djembe now thumped once again.

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