She couldn't take it anymore. After packing him off to office she went straight to her room and pulled her suitcase out of the closet.She filled it with her clothes and other things.She placed the house and cupboard keys on the table on his side of the bed .She then went her sister in law Payal's room and knocked loudly.
Payal was a college student who also worked part time teaching animation at a nearby computer centre.Sleepily she opened her door,"Bhabhi, what happened?"
"Nothing.Only that I am leaving home.Tell your Bhaiyya if he is conscious enough to notice my absence". replied Roshni angrily.
"Bhabhi, don't do this.Don't leave home this way.Bhaiyya loves you so much", pleaded Payal with her Bhabhi.
"You must be blind as a bat then", retorted Roshni and walked off.
Payal followed her pleading but Roshni wasn't having any of it.
She walked out of her marital home.
Payal ran to the house phone and frantically called her brother.
"Mohini...", answered Arjun filled with bliss.
Payal slammed the phone down in anger.She left for college in a huff.Let him find out himself, she thought angrily.He deserves this.
Evening came and the house was deathly silent."Moh...err...Roshni?" Arjun called into the empty house."Chai milegi kya?"
He searched the whole house and finally figured out she was gone.Despair rose in him as he sat on the bed thinking of her and their life together.
Arjun was a businessman and a very successful one at that.But fortunately or unfortunately depending upon how you see it he was also endowed with artistic inclinations.He was a poet and a gifted artist.He frequently escaped into fantasy worlds and saw the real world with rose tinted glasses.
Roshni was Arjun's wife chosen by his parents.She was born and raised in a business family that had little use for sensitive feelings and outlook. Theirs was a practical family where frivolities of all kinds were strictly forbidden.The men worked hard and earned a living and the women worked hard and looked after home and hearth. Roshni strongly believed in these values.
Two such diverse individuals were binded together in holy matrimony. And now that bond was about to be broken.
Roshni had called a joint family meeting to complain about her philandering husband.Arjun was summoned to her family home and he walked in with trepidation. All members of both families were present and looked on tensely. Roshni sat near her mother sobbing. Arjun looked at her pleading for understanding but she didnt even glance at him.
Arjun's father ordered his daughter in law to say whatever was on her mind.
It was the cue she needed.She got up and at length decribed Arjun's every trangression and sin against her in complete detail.
His parents looked at him in shock.His father in law stared at him in disappointment. Roshni's brothers wanted to beat him black and blue.
Roshni slumped down on the sofa at the end of the recital and continued sobbing in her mother's lap.Arjun again gazed at her willing her to look at him but she would not have mercy on him.He felt miserable.
Both his & Roshni's mother charged at him at the same time.
"Kaun hai yeh Mohini? Pehle kyun nai batay Arjun?" demanded his mother
"Arey us kulakshani ke saath rehna tha toh meri beti se shaadi kyun ki? Kya mila uski zindagi kharaab karke?" screeched his mother in law.
"Batao Arjun.Bol Arjun.Kaun hai Mohini?" 360 degree angle and dhin dhin dhan dhan background score as a heart broken Arjun stands speechless in the middle while being assaulted by these oldies who are then joined by other oldies.
Every time he bit into that juicy Tandoori chicken leg he never gave thought to the time that poor chicken must have spent roasting in fire.He felt exactly like that as of now."Dont do this to me,Roshni.Dont make me narrate my love life so publicly.They'll sent me to a nut house," he pleaded silently to his wife.She kept ignoring him.
"Ruko! Mai batati hoon kaun hai Mohini!" thundered Payal and every one went silent. She marched into the room.She had the red scrap book under her arm. Arjun's heart slammed in his chest.Roshni curled her lips as if she smelt something awful.
"Lo Bhabhi.Dekh lo.Yahi hai Mohini," she handed the book to Roshni.Roshni pouted and turned away with a "Humpf"
"Lo na.Ek baar dekh toh lo." Roshni first glared at her sister in law and then at her husband and took the book and opened it.
Her mouth fell open.
Pages after pages Arjun had drawn her in various avatars from a heavenly apsara to a Kashmir ki Kali.The paintings were so beautiful they belonged in a renowned museum.Roshni till that time had never realised what a beautiful woman she was.Arjun's strokes gave her that celestial and divine look. Anyone who glanced at the drawings would find it very hard to pry their eyes off the paintings.Even more beautiful were the lines he written below each work of art.They were all addressed to her, his Mohini.It filled her heart with so much love and warmth.She looked up at her husband with renewed love and respect.He looked back at her with blazing passion.
Payal turned her bhabhi towards a mirror and said,"Yehi hai Bhaiyya ki Mohini." Roshni burst into fresh tears.She realised how cold she had always been to her die hard romantic poet husband.And now she had dragged him here to humiliate him infront of so many people.She could not bear the guilt.
Arjun's mother snatched the book and saw what was in it.She look amazed and exasperated.She began screaming at her son."Bheja kahin girvee rakh diya hai kya? Haan? Apni hi byaata ko chori chori se dekhne ki kya zarrorat hai? Patni teri hai ya padosi ki? Yeh sab baatein usi se kaha kyun naahiii?'
"Aur tum Sun Bai. Ek baar usse pooch toh leti yeh mari Mohini kaun hai? Suitcase uthaya aur chali aayi maike.Aisa koi karta hai kya?" Roshni sobbed
some more.
"Roshni" hearing her husband calling her she looked up.
"Mujhe maaf kar do,Arjun.Mai tumhe kabhi samajh nahi paayi.Tumpe itna ganda ilzaam laga diya." Roshni said tearfully.
"Maine bhi toh kuch samjhaane ki zyada koshish nahi ki na.Meri bhi galti hai" he replied.
"Ghar chalo,Roshni"
Without caring about her in laws or her uptight stiff necked family Roshni rushed in to Arjun's arms.He too embraced her passionately.
And they lived happily ever after.And this time passion and romance ki koi kami nai thi!
Inspired from an ancient movie I had seen which moved me immensely. šHope you liked it!š³
Edited by -Carrie- - 11 years ago
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Udne Ki Aasha
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