FF:You complete me-4!updtd pg144 - Page 72

Part 89

He smiled and said, "geet!" in a very low tone and geet's eyes sprang open. She switched on the lights and there he was, sleeping beside her. She touched his face to make sure, she was not hallucinating.

She smiled at him and moved close to him, "ek baar bhi baat nahi kiya mujhse. Itne din ho gaye!" she said and hugged him.

Maan did not say anything. She looked at him and asked, "abhi bhi gusse mein hai, aap?"

Still he did not speak anything. Geet came back to her senses with the ringing of her alarm. For the last six years she has been waking up with this dream that maan is with her and still angry with her. Though the second part held true even today, the first part was no longer true. Maan was beyond angry with what happened six years back, that not once did he respond to geet's emails, phone calls or text messages.

Geet got out of her bed and put on her robe. She stood by the huge glass doors in her bedroom and looked outside, at the roaring waves. She had to move out of Delhi, six years back and move into Chennai. Though she had hated the city in the beginning, she had gradually got used to it. She realized the people, around her are warm and co-operating and never bothered to interefere in her personal life. Something, she thanked them the most for. She then got ready for office. Six years had changed her life to quite an extent. She had finished her CA course successfully, after she moved into Chennai and now, worked as a chief chartered accountant for a lot of reputed companies. She was respected and liked by her colleagues at work and the clients too, enjoyed working with her, for she was very hardworking and also very jovial. She had managed to establish a very comfortable lifestyle for herself, all these years. She had all the comforts, Maan always wanted her to have. And the most important thiung was that she was independent and strong, just like what Maan wanted. But he was no longer a part of her life, to see her success or appreciate her, as a professional. Her goal, even today, after all these years and all the successes, is to work for the MD of Khurana Constructions-MAan Singh Khurana.

As she had breakfast, she read the newspaper, which had become a routine for her. Earlier, it was Maan who always did that and she would get annoyed that he never concentrated on his food. Her gaze fell on the date, and a tears rolled down her eyes. It was her daughter-Muskan's birthday. She threw the newspaper away and tried calling Maan again, but as usual, he never took her call. Had he blocked all her calls, was the question she had ever since both of them separated? She sent him an email from her iphone- the one that maan had gifted her, right after his proposal.

Maan,

Kam se kam aaj ke din meri call receive kar lete? Anyways, wish Muskan, "A very happy Birthday!" from my side. Lots of love, hugs and kisses for my sweet little girl and offcourse you!

Geet

She drove to office but her mind, wandered in Delhi- around her husband and daughter. She had not seen their daughter for six long years. Infact, she had not met anyone in the Khurana Mansion- all these years, be it, Daadima, Vicky-Kia or even Maan and their daughter Muskan. She had not been in touch with Adi-Pinky who were happily married for six years now. She had also heard from some of her common friends that Sasha and Kia's brother Kapil were happily married too. Initially, though she was shocked when she heard the news, she was happy that everyone who had been a part of her life, were all settled now, with their loved ones. But she was miles away, from the one she loved and has been loving for all these years.

She drove into the parking of her office. She walked in with a smile. She had mastered the art of leaving the Khurana's, her friends and her other delhi connections, behind, in the car, everytime she walked into her office or her clients offices. That was probably what made her successful. She greeted people, and walked into her chamber. She had a couple of messages. She listened to them carefully and responded to each one of them patiently. She was checking other documents of some companies when her boss walked in. he was a man in his mid fifties, with a tall and lean physique.

"Good Morning, Geet! I have a surprise for you!" he said, smiling widely and taking the chair opposite to her.

"Good Morning, Mr. Narang", she said, smiling, "SO, what's the surprise?" she asked, excited. These days only office surprises made her happy, as she had no personal surprises.

"We are in talks with a company in B'lore. So, you will be very soon, working as a CA for them as well. The company is based in Delhi, but their main operations in the South, are from B'lore".

"Oh good! I don't wish to extend my contract with Beckman Coulter anymore. SO, this will be a good time to start working with the B'lore firm", she said.

"Hmm, well, you will have to travel to B'lore and Delhi, a couple of times!You okay with that?"

"Yes!", she said, blankly.

She had a couple of meetings, for the rest of the day and got busy. She was out of office for the most of the day and returned at 8 in the night. She had messages waiting and she listened to them. She made notes and smiled at some of the messages she had received. Her collegues would leave funny messages at times, when she would be out of office and that would put a smile on her face. She drove back home and her thoughts again went back to Delhi- to her maan and her muskan. Maan would have been busy with his daughter's b'day, she thought to herself and smiled.

Khurana Mansion, Delhi:

"Papa!Aap hamesha late. Meri b'day party, sham ko paanch baje shuru hone wali thi, aur aap ab ghar aaye?", screamed a six year old girl, who was wearing a pink frock. She had curly hair, and dimples. Her fair complexion and her eyes were very much like her mother.

She stood in the living room of the khurana mansion, and glared at her father angrily. Her father looked at her, regretfully. The man who had never answered to anyone, now stood with his head hanging low. Her great grandmother, her uncle and aunt (Vicky-Kia), her masi and mausa(Adi-Pinky) were giggling at the plight of the Maan Singh Khurana.

He slowly walked to her and took her in his arms, "Sorry, baby. I went to get a gift for you. Aur main thoda late ho gaya!Chalo lets celebrate now!" he said, kissing her, on her cheek.

"Nahi, mujhe ab kuch nahi karni. Neeche utariye mujhe", she said, angrily. Maan made her sit on the couch and knelt in front of her. He caught his ears and made an innocent face, "I'm really sorry, my cute little baby. Chalo, cake cut karte hai. aur phir ice-cream khane challenge".

"Hmmm!" she said, standing up, on the couch and holding out her arms. He smiled and carried her. They cut the cake and then all of them had dinner. As promised, Maan took her out for an ice-cream. Though there was ice-cream at home, Muskan, wanted to go for a ride with her dad and he had no choice. She sat beside him, in the car, while he drove and kept giving him instructions in between, "Papa, thoda slow jaeye na!", "Papa, kya kar rahe hai, aap?Road is empty, speed a little!" "Papa, road pe doggie hai, dekhke chalaeye!" and maan only smiled at every instruction she gave. He stopped the car, at the ice cream parlor and kissed her cheeks. She was too too cute, he thought. he then took her inside and made her eat an ice-cream. She had icecream all over her nose and upper lip.

"Muskan, can you please eat a little slowly and carefully, baby?" he asked, wiping the ice-cream, off he rnose and lips with a tissue.

"Papa, ice-cream aise hi khate hai!" she said, gulping a big scoop of ice-cream into her mouth. He smiled and thought, "apni ma pe gayi hai!" and clenched at the thought. he turned away to look around, in order to divert his thoughts. She finished the big bucket of ice-cream and looked at him, with a mischievous smile.

"No, you've had enough for the day!Lets go. I have a surprise waiting for you", he said, sternly.

"I want more ice-cream, this time, different flavor!"

"You'll catch cold, honey", he said, geasturing for the bill.

She looked at him, very innocently and he smiled and said, "kal ayenge!ek hi din itna ice-cream nahi khate, beta!" he said. She nodded her head and jumped off the couch and walked with him, holding his fingers. She then jumped into the front seat of the car and asked her dad excitedly, "Papa, gift kaha hai?"

"ghar pe", he said, driving.

"theek hai!" she said , getting excited. They got back home and she turned to look at him. He understood her look and said, "Its in your room, honey!" and she ran away before he could complete his sentence. On her way, she screamed out to Sasha, "Sasha aunty , main abhi aati hoon!"

He walked in and found everyone, sitting in the living room and talking. Sasha and Kapil had joined them, too. He sat with them for sometime and spoke on various issues.

Sasha said, "I'm so happy to be here. Main aur Kapil, New York, gaye the and I was worried I would miss muskan's b'day. she would probably kill me. But I'm glad we made it on time!"

Kapil agreed and Daadima said, "Yes sasha. We're all happy that you could make it. Otherwise my muskan is much more short-tempered than her dad".

Everyone laughed and maan rolled his eyes. Vishal said, "hum sab yahan hai, par sirf geet bhabhi ki kami hai!" Everyone fell silent at the mention of geet's name. Maan walked out of the room, and daadima had tears in her eyes, "sab ghalat hua! Despite taking so many pre-cautions and drastic decisions, my geet and maan are not together".

Vishal sat by her and said, "Granny, pareshaan mat hoeye. There must be some way out". He kissed her and then winked at Sasha.

Sasha nodded her head and said, "ji daadiji. If there is no way, we'll create some. Aap pareshaan mat hoeye!"

"Jo che saal mein nahi hua, ab kaise ho sakta hai?dekha aapne, ek baar geet ka naam, sunte hi, yahan se uth ke chala gaya. Har baar wahi karta hai. Because of Muskan he has been talking to us, a little, these days and spending time with us. Otherwise, there have been instances, when he had not spoken to me for weeks together, until I reminded him, that I existed".

Vishal hugged her and said, "Granny, relax. Muskan ki wajah se, maan bro humse baat karne laga hai. Ho sakta hai, Muskan ki wajah se hi, Maan bro, geet bhabhi ko wapas le aaye!"

Daadi looked at Vishal, hopefully, "Mere bacche, tere muh mein ghee shakkar!" she said, kissing him on his forehead. He smiled and Kia spoke up, "Haan Daadiji, kya pata, is choti si bacchi unhe phir se ek kar de?"

Sasha spoke up, "Maan aur geet ko ek karne ke liye, kisi ki zaroorat nahi hai. Mujhe lagta hai, unh eek baar phir se aamne saamne le aani chahiye. They have not seen each other for six years".

"Sasha, how is it possible?We do not even know where geet is, how she is and what she is doing?How will we bring them face to face?" asked Pinky.

"Okay all of you need to chill!" said Kapil, speaking up for the first time. "Lets do everything, in a systematic manner. We've tried searching for geet, but never got any information about her. And after that, maan came to know about it and fired all of us, for it. SO we stopped searching for geet, because we knew it would hurt him. I guess it is time to resume the plan of searching…" and paused when he heard Muskan, screaming her voice out , running down the stairs, "Look what Papa got me!"

The servants in the house, stood rooted in their places with her voice. And every one in the living room, turned to look at her, carrying a blue color basket with a few red ribbons on the top. Maan looked at her from the first floor and smiled. He knew she wanted a puppy every since she was three. But he wanted her to grow a little older, to be able to handle it.

She ran to them and placed the basket on the floor, "It's a doggie, a Shih Tzu", she said, carefully, removing the doggie from the basket and holding it in her hands. Kia and Pinky moved towards her to take a closer look at the puppy in her hands.

"Aww, your birthday gift is chooo cute, sweetie pie", said Kia, taking the puppy into her hands.

"What name do you wanna give it?" asked pinky.

Muskan thought for a while and said, "Cookie!"

"yeh kaisa naam hai?" asked Vishal.

"Boyfriend, aapko jalan ho rahi hai na, ki ab mere paas doggie hai? Main isse cookie bulaungi, kyunki mujhe daadi ki cookies bahut pasand hai", she said, running to daadima and hugging her. Daadima said, "aaw mera pyaara bacccha, tu jis naam se bulana chahti hai, bula le, Vicky pagal hai!" she said, kissing her.

Muskan, then started playing with the puppy and with the people around her. Maan continued to look at her, from the first floor with his hands crossed across his chest, "such a pampered little brat", he thought and laughed to himself. She ran around , with the puppy and made the others run around too.

Maan kept looking at all of them. He wanted to join them, too, and was about to talk down the stairs, when he received a message. He knew, who the message would be from. He walked slowly, clenching the phone, tightly in his hand. He did not want to see the message. He lifted it up, to switch the phone off, but heard Muskan roll in laughter. He looked at her and for a second, saw Geet laughing.

"That's it!" he thought and walked back to his bedroom. He sat on the couch and opened his laptop, to start working. He worked for 10 minutes, but he could not concentrate. He picked up his phone frustrated and looked at the message which read, "Maan, did our baby have a nice time? Can u please kiss her good-night, from my side, too? Can't believe she is six years old".

Maan wanted to call her and hear her voice. He had not done it for six years. he wanted to tell her, how happy muskan was and how well her day went. But controlled the urge. He did not want to go through the same pain and grief , he went through, six years back. He switched off the phone and walked into the hallway again. He stood near the stair case and called out to muskan, "time to go to bed, baby!" he said, with his hands on his hips.

She greeted them all of them good night and ran up the stairs with the puppy in her hands. "Papa, cookie mere paass rahega na?"

"Only for today, after that put him in the pen for a few days, in your room. when he's big enough you can keep him on your bed".

She shook her head and ran into her bedroom. She put the puppy carefully beside her and gave him a small toy. Maan pulled the quilt over her and slipped in beside her, "SO what story do you want to read today?" he asked, picking up a few story books.

"Cindrella!" she said and he read the part of the story to her and turned to look at her. She was playing around with the puppy and maan switched off the lights, "you don't want to listen today?go to sleep! Should I sleep here, tonight?"

"No, papa. If you stay here, you will not let me play with cookie", she said, laughing.

"GO to sleep,honey! You have swimming class tomorrow morning-remember?Saturday morning, you said you'd go for swimming",he said and hugged her and kissed her on her forehead. He got up and was about to walk out of the room, but remembered geet's message. He walked back in, and kissed her again.

"kya hua papa?aapne kiss karne ke liye wapas aa gaye?" she asked, with her eyes closed.

"Hmm, one from me and one from ma…" and stopped, and cleared his throat, "one from daadima!" he corrected the statement and said, "good night!" and walked out of the room.

He made his way into the bedroom and sat on the couch, with all the lights, switched off. He had shifted to the mansion, ever since geet left him because every corner of the outhouse reminded him of geet! and he could not take it. He got up and walked to the closet and pulled out a folder with some papers and photographs. He removed a picture of geet with their muskan, immediately after she was born. He looked at it for sometime and closed the folder and put it away. He then walked to the bed and laid on it.

Back in Chennai, too, Geet looked at a picture of MAan and Muskan. She held it close to her heart and tried to sleep, but could not. Maan, too, on the other hand could not sleep.

He picked up his phone and changed the sim card, so that geet would not identify the number. He dialed geet's number and geet took the call in one ring, "Maan!" she said, softly but clearly happy. Maan did not speak. Geet uttered his name again but did not get a reply, she disconnected the call , with tears rolling down her eyes. She looked at the number again and realized it was not maan's number. She said to herself, "kaash hota!"

Maan hung up and changed the sim card back to his previous number. He sat up on the bed. Her voice had created some unknown discomfort in him. he had stayed away from her for so long. He had managed to not hear her voice or reply to any of her messages or emails. He had not maintained any contacts with her and had refused to hear anything about her. But today, he had actually called her, just to listen to her voice- after six long years.

He snapped out of his thoughts and told himself, "she is no one to me- except for my daughter's mother. Maan, she does not trust you and you are not going to make the same mistakes again!" he assured himself that he was happy with his daughter and that he did not need her. He rolled off to sleep, whereas geet cried her life out that night, "ek baar mujhse baat kar lete, maan!" she thought.

She went to office early the next day, unable to bear the pain. Her colleague, Jenny noticed how tired she looked. Later during the day, Jenny came into her chamber, when Geet was talking to some client on phone.

She waited for geet to finish the call and spoke up, immediately, "Geet, main nahi jaanto ki tumhare saath kya hua. You are very independent and very strong, girl, so just go get want you want!"

Geet looked at her surprised. Jenny held her hand and said, "I know it is something connected to your loved ones. Trust me, geet, just go back to them again. I'm sure everything will get better!"

"But he is not ready to accept me, main kya karu. Baat tak nahi karna chahta, tuo main agar saamne gayi tuo mujhe maar daalega!" she said, for the first time, discussing her personal life , with a person at work.

"Geet, you are the one who taught me, to never give up. And you always said, that a very special person in your life has taught you to never give up in life! Then why are you giving up, now?"

"This man who cannot stand me, anymore, is the one who taught me to be strong and independent. He is the one who taught me never to give up!" she said, sadly.

"Great! Then it is time to implement all the lessons he has given you, to bring him back into your life again".

"But…!", Jenny cut her and said, "geet, don't give me any excuses. Just go and bring him back, into your life, honey!" she said, patting geet's cheeks. Geet smiled weakly and Jenny was about to say something when her phone rang, "Good Luck!" she said and walked out of her chamber.

Geet thought about what Jenny had said. It is true that maan refused to speak to her, refused to maintain any contacts with her. He was angry all this while because she had not trusted him or because she had given him so much pain. But, how can she let him go so easily?How had she given up on him, so easily?was her love so weak that she did not have the courage to face his anger?

"No!" she said and nodded her head in denial.

She looked at the air tickets and said, "after I finish signing the contract in B'lore, I will have to take some time off and seriously re-think everything again".

Geet looked at the photo of Maan and Muskan, placed in the drawer of her table and said, "aaj tak wahin hua, jo aapne chaha, Mr. Maan Singh Khurana. Lekin ab, woh hoga, jo Geet maan singh khurana chahegi!"

ALright, people a lot of you were surprised at the change in track. But I say, hold on and bear with me, the exciting parts are yet to come.

Thanks for all the comments. It was nice reading each of your point of views. ALl i can say, is, I will not let you down. There might be some pain and a little bit of sadness as of now. But the last line of this update, should give you an idea of what could happen!

SO, that's it for now. I will not be able to update this weekend. I'll try my level best, but cannot promise anything. I might do an update, sometime next week.

Loved all your comments and thanks a ton for being such lovely readers.

Soumya

*Edited*

Hi,