This genius once again managed to do the impossible. Honestly though, who trips up the steps?
Suman Tiwari does, apparently.
Or so the clumsy 5' 7'' nuclear bomb in his arms claimed when he found her on the floor cursing his staircase.
"Gently!" she complained as he hurried her to the living room.
Drama-queen, he thought to himself with an involuntary smile. Grabbing a cushion for her head, he set her down on his couch, "I'm going to go get some pain-relief spray."
But even before his footsteps began to grow faint, she started looking for the remote to the TV. Tossing his golf magazines aside and carefully moving his law books out of the way, she finally found the remote next to his keys (which by the way had also been carelessly tossed on the coffee table--some things never change).
Flipping through the channels as fast as she possibly could, she finally found what she'd come here for in the first place.
She missed the beginning! Damnit!
Sigh...it's okay. At least you can watch the rest of it with him.
"So I couldn't find any spray but there is this Tiger Balm thing that coul..." his words trailed off upon seeing what she was so intently watching on the TV. "Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham? Really?"
"Chup! I already missed the beginning on my way here. Not another word from you," she shushed him before continuing to mumble under her breath, "Kitni achi dost hoon main waise, tumhare liye I missed the beginning to our favorite movie."
"Your favorite movie," he corrected sitting down next to her.
"Bachpan main tum bhi toh saath main dekhte the," she nonchalantly pointed out.
"Haan woh to..." he thought back to the ridiculous number of times he sat through her constantly squealing over how hot Hrithik Roshan was, or how perfect Shahrukh & Kajol were. Bringing a pillow to his chest he made himself comfortable. How every mention of family in the movie made her instinctively hold onto his hand--like he was the only thing she could truly call her own, the apna-pan that was the basis of their friendship, the vow to be-there-for-each-other-when-nobody-else-was...he remembered it all. "Kuch nahi," he finally completed his thought. "But let me get this straight, you drove over to my house at half past nine to watch a movie?" he was quite amused.
"Oh yeah," she lowered the volume, "Sorry!"
He shook his head in wonder, there truly would never be another Sumo. "That's not..." he said taking the remote from her hands "...what I meant."
Pausing the screen, he was finally able to command her attention. Upon him raising his Oxford-grad lawyer eyebrows in the form of a question, she sighed and finally decided to answer, but in the most casual way she could. There was no need to drown this moment with the weight of her heavy heart.
"Nothing too huge, it's just that...you're leaving in a few days, pata nahi wapas kab aaoge," her eyes refused to meet his. "Wapas aaoge bhi ya nahi," she gulped at the thought of never seeing him again. "And so I just thought...you know, why not watch a movie one last time...with my best friend," she smiled, emphasizing the words he'd gifted her, all while leaning back against the arm of his couch. Without much thought, she placed her feet in his lap, "Aur pata nahi aisi raat, aisa mauka, fir kab mile?"
Fortunately, or rather unfortunately for her, he was well-acquainted with every aspect of her--including the inflections in her voice. Her dismay was glaringly evident, but there was no way he was going to be able to keep his distance if he stayed in Delhi any longer. No way he was going to manage seeing her every day, and remain just a friend, the tag he chose to adopt out of respect for her feelings in the first place.
His feelings, as complex as they might be from within, were quite simple when you took a step back and looked at the larger picture. He loved her. And the very basis of love entailed putting the happiness of the one you love before your own. It had been 10 years, and he wasn't going to risk the loss of the one woman that meant the world to him, yet again. Especially not for the sake of unrequited feelings that he would in a heartbeat choose to suffocate with in solitude, if it meant keeping her in his life.
However there was no way he was going to stay away from her forever. He would visit! Most certainly! And with each moment he'd spend with her, he'd restock the loneliness in his heart with another batch of memories, adding to the collection of those that he'd already been holding onto for a lifetime.
But before he could provide any reassurance, she went ahead and pointed towards the Tiger Balm on the coffee table. "Aesthetic ke liye rakha hai?"
Shaking his head in a manner only Sumo Tiwari was able to bring out, he swiped it off the table, "Main laga deta hoon," he smiled unpausing the movie--purely to witness the way her face lit up upon seeing her favorite Shahrukh Khan on screen.
Trying her hardest to seem unaffected by his touch, she hopelessly tried focusing on her beloved Shahrukh Khan. So much for being her favorite movie. It almost seemed as if now a days, anything related to him arrested her ability to focus on anything else.
His touch was gentle, it had this inexplicable calming effect on her, much like him. She almost wondered if she should be accrediting the pain-relief to the balm, or to her masseur.
Twisting her ankle ever so slightly, "I'm going to try popping excess air out," he explained.
"Do what?"
"Just trust me," he addressed her concern, "This mechanic-cum-lawyer is also a part-time chiropractor," he answered with a smug smile on his face.
"Teekh hai, bas haddi mat tod dena," she teased, getting back to her movie. Knowing that he was very well aware of how much she trusted him.
But the movie wasn't helping ease her tension much either. Damn Shahrukh Khan and his romantic dialogues!
"Shh..." Rahul whispered to Anjali, "Dosti ke ilava bhi kuch rishte hote hai..."
Forcing herself to keep her eyes glued to the screen, she knew she couldn't afford looking back at him at this moment in time.
"Kuch rishte joh hum samajhte nahin."
He wanted to tell his zaroorat-se-zyada eager heart to go take a hike, there was no way she was interpreting those lines the same way his foolish brain was deciding to at this very moment. And it was best if he just stayed put and let the awkwardness, that he was confident only existed in his head, pass.
"Kuch rishte jo hum samajhna nahin chahte."
But it was right at that moment she made the mistake of glancing back at him, only to find that his eyes were focused intently on her.
"Chub toh nahin raha?"
Damn she caught him staring. He wondered if he could brush this off as a mere coincidence the way he used to back in the day. Back when things were simpler.
"Kuch rishte jin ka koi naam nahin hota, sirf ehsaas hota hai."
It seemed as if the two had become prisoners of the moment, neither one could manage to look away.
"Chub toh nahin raha?"
His hands were still mindlessly soothing her sprained ankle, though his stubborn eyes refused to follow. Keep this up and she was going to read through him like an open book.
"Kuch rishte jin ki koi deewar nahin hoti, sarhad nahin hoti."
She could've sworn she saw a hint of longing in his eyes, almost as if the distance they'd put between themselves, both literally & figuratively, was a facade.
"Chub toh nahin raha?"
Alright he definitely needed to get some fresh air after this because he was seconds away from believing that those beads forming in the corners of her eyes were signs of a whole different kind of exhaustion. Ones she probably always found in his.
"Aise rishte jo dil ke rishte hote hain, pyaar ke rishte hote hain, "
He noticed the first droplet making its way down her cheek, falling off instead of rolling. As if it had taken enough. Graciously falling in defeat, rejoicing with an elegance that seemed unbound by the very-humanizing laws of gravity.
As if it were unbound by the laws of the universe.
As if it had just been...set free.
"Mohabbat ke rishte hote hain."
"Ouch!" She whelped soon after hearing a concerning pop' coming from his end of the couch. Pushing herself towards him, in between the tears and her chocked up voice from earlier, she instinctively reached for his hands which were still holding onto the base of her foot.
"Chuba?"
Giving her a smile that was meant to reassure more than just this one concern, he gently turned her ankle, demonstrating her cured state.
With a glance reserved for perhaps the only person that was ever truly hers, she thanked him. For her ankle, and otherwise.
He wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes before deciding to reply to her silent query. Beating even her adored Shahrukh Khan to the chase, he gathered her face in his hands and answered, "Mujhe bhi."
What does Kriti do the night before an exam? De-stress with a long ShraMan OS apparently š.
I was actually working on a VM with this K3G moment, but since that is still in the works, my writing juices finally began to flow again and I ended up writing this. Shravan Malhotra & Suman Tiwari doing all sorts of things to my emotions, a ShraMan quasi-confession of sorts without words seemed to quite fit their bill š, and anyways, who needs words when you have Shahrukh Khan playing love-guru in the background šā¤ļø. Very sure about their own feelings, maybe they just needed some K3G magic to see into the other's.
With regards to the OS, this was more in line with the current track, I might do another version of this OS later that's a bit more AU (Alternate Universe) with the same K3G scene, just playing out a bit differently šš.
Till then, miss me! Got exams tomorrow, super nervous!
It feels so good to be writing! I know a lot of you missed me & my words, trust me I missed them too! They make me happy like nothing else can (well maybe ShraMan, but nothing besides that šā¤ļø)
Lots of love, always.
-Kriti ā¤ļø
PS. GIFs are not mine, credit to creators!
***
Mujhe bhi.
Jhanak
