Folks - Thank you for the response and your lovely comments...
Happy Sunday and Happy Dashera Greetings!
Tara was still snuggled up in bed... ...the blanket half sticking out of it... cushions on the floor...after tossing and turning some more...the morning light breaking through the curtains...she wakes up, stretches herself and jumps out of bed.
"Tara bacchu woh shaitan idhar nahi hai...achha hua...nahi toh teri nikli, jaldi se kapde badllo."
Click!...the door to the bathroom opens and out comes Mrityunjay wearing a pair of jogger tracks and a full-sleeved body-hugging T-shirt.
He notices...what was that? The weirdest of whatever that was...a garish oversized shirt...maybe some pyjamas or something...
She runs into the bed and covers herself up with the blanket.
He walks out. Gosh! Yeh sportsman kahan se aaya! She had to be careful she couldn't be found wearing anything that made her look less feminine...I mean what if...
Whilst going down the stairs, his thoughts went back to her... he had come into the room to find his bed taken over by her...and cushions strewn on the ground. He had picked them up and placed them on the bed, only to be kicked back on the floor...he had seen her asleep, his eyes were drawn to her even without him wanting to...she looked like a silly young girl...breathing heavily...clutching the pillow... locks of hair covering her face...she was so messy...
Why was she in his thoughts? He needed to get out of here...
"Mrityunjay come here...join me for breakfast" he heard his father call out to him.
"Baba lekin."
"No arguments...don't know for how long we can share these times together, so please...make it a habit to join me for breakfast."
Mrityunjay sits at the table reluctantly.
Daijaan had come up to inform Tara that Baba had asked her to join him down.
What if the guy was around? She better be prepared. Ok now I have to deck up just so that he does not look my way. Yeah anything very feminine would do it. Yes a sari! And then she thanks Nandu for all those girly accessories. It did come of good use now.
She adorns a plain simple peach sari with a silver grey border...and pulls her long hair to one side of her shoulder...leaving some of the locks to frame her face. Tara bacchu gets herself transformed into a very pretty young lady!
She walks down the stairs only to notice his back to her. She had no choice so walks upto Baba and touches his feet.
Mrityunjay glances at the woman bent at his father's feet. So this was an act? Good actress! She rises...he notices the slim frame...that bare waistline...damn where were his thoughts moving to...
He looks away.
Jairaj, "I am so happy to see both of you here,sit down have some breakfast." and points to the chair right opposite Mrityunjay.
Who wanted to be around this jerk? "Nahi abhi nahi... bhook nahi hai?"
"I don't want to hear a word...if nothing just a glass of juice."
Jairaj thinks so I got to play cupid...these two aren't even looking at each other...
He insists, so she pulls out the chair and sits. He looks away and she too averts her face...where did he change his clothes? If not their room! Good for her though. He won't hover around her space!
"Are waah dono ne ek hi rang ke kapde pehne!"
Tara stares at the similar shirt colour and turns to Baba saying sweetly, "Kapdon se kya...insaan under se sundar hona chahiye!"
That insulting tongue, he drops his fork onto the plate and glares at her. She stares back angrily. A large pair of accusing liquid brown eyes and flared nostrils strike back at a pair of steely brown ones...told him this was for insulting her earlier. Tara bacchu wasn't someone who was going to take his nonsense and cry over it.
He does not know she was the Bhai of Bhopal. Oh no no no...not Bhai Tara...be careful...think and act like a female!...galat, galat, galat...think like a woman, act like one...
She lowers her gaze to the plate. Jairaj asks her to have some juice. The decanter is sitting at his side of the table. She raises her torso and reaches for it...Jairaj asks Mrityunjay to pass it to her.
They both end up holding the decanter...and the tip of their fingers touch. She withdraws her hand...His gaze is stuck at the black string of beads dangling around her neck and the diamond pendant sitting on her heaving chest...whoever chose that design of two peacocks entwined! Huh! ... He gulps hard...he had enough for today..."Baba...I'll be at the outhouse."
She gives out a soft sigh of relief, he gives her a stern look...and walks past her...she catches the whiff of his male scent. She gulps...
Tara lovingly tells Jairaj,"Baba aap ne kucch bhi toh nahi khaya...aur aaj kaafiyan bhi nahi? Today I will serve you."
Mrityunjay glances over his shoulder... She seems so comfortable with his father...Acting again ofcourse! Kaafiyaan my foot!
He walks out towards his shack...he needed to feel the fresh air hitting him...the warmth of the morning sun scorching him...the pain within just wouldn't go away... the hate, the rejection, the outcast that he was, ...this freedom...which was his just for a few more weeks or days...he wanted to scream, "Why me?"
He sat and spoke to his mare, "Why me? What have I done to deserve this?'
He kicked the stack of hay that went flying. The horse neighed seeing his master in distress. He realized his behaviour affected the animal who understood him better...and so calmed down... covered his face with his hands and sobbed bitterly.
In a way death would free him of his misery..., once and for all...there was no reason to live...Baba would be the only one to miss him...but then his own children would soon fill the void...No one remembers the dead for too long...
He would cook something. Faheem chacha has left some stuff for him to churn out. He would manage. Meals were now something he ate just to keep him going...
He loved his isolation...thank goodness he wasn't in the presence of that that...Spitfire! Her tongue was longer than her whole frame. Tiny that she was...
To be continued...
