Posted:
@all...okay i need to say, m going rather really slow here as usual plz bear with me😆
Part 11:
Mayank sat on th bike and waited for Nupur to sit behind him. He was glad she didn't sit down like a typical girl, with both her legs on one side. It didn't even make sense when you are not wearing something engaging as such a skirt or a Saree.
Nupur felt really odd to sit on a bike like this, she didn't knew Mayank well but she somehow knew him, he felt like a trustworthy guy to her. Still she was a girl after all, all her typically favourite movie scenes crossed her mind and she felt even more stranger coz of those. She kept her hands on his shoulders as he kicked the bike start and he instantly turned back to look in her eyes silently and turned back immediately. It was a brief moment but not so brief for them.
Mayank couldn't believe his bad luck, he wanted to come over all these extravagant and new feelings of his and here he was going deep into it. When he had looked back in her eyes, he saw a 'taken-aback' expression in them and so looking ahead and wearing his helmet, he started to drive her to her destination.
Nupur immediately took her hands off his shoulders and held the steel carrier attached behind, as tightly as she could. His silent gaze made her scared a little and it was somehow intimidating. She didn't like how strong his presence felt to her.
Mayank was happy that Nupur was now no more holding onto him. It was easier for him now. He drove smoothly so that Nupur could relax behind him without fearing the speed, since she was holding onto the carrier behind her.
He asked her for her complete address and she replied back.
The night breeze was cool and on the bike with some speed, it was almost chilling. The moon light tried to show them their path very easily and beautifully with a little help from the street lights moving along the road. Nupur's hair scattered all over her face, Mayank couldn't help but notice her in his rear view mirror. Did he just wish for holding onto this moment and freeze it for himself or what? Oh yes, he just did that!
Nupur fiddled with her dupatta trying to manage to hold it in one hand's grasp and in the process it tried at its free will to flow over Mayank's helmet as she tried to change its course. She once again got a little scared when she saw Mayank shifting a little due to it and said a 'Sorry' out loud. She wondered if he may think that she didn't even knew how to sit on a bike, but well she didn't. It was the first time she was sitting on a bike and she knew her critic was right in front of her. She wondered why she was so much concerned about his sarcasms suddenly, but well she was. Because, when you are in front of Mayank, however you argue and try to take your own side but the fact was that you will always ended up believing in what he had said. He made you seem he is ALWAYS right. Period!
Yes that's what all her thinking ended with.
After a silent period of thoughts, Nupur secretly wished to earn a praise for herself from him.Far fetched, she knew but still she did it.
In about 45 minutes, she was home as she smiled and thanked Mayank for a ride to her home. She had to admit, she had never earlier felt silence so strongly as she now again did. She usually was a very distant relative of silence but with Mayank in question, she didn't have much option now. Was it easier to listen to his sarcasms than this silence, she wondered. She didn't knew why she was trying so hard to not speak something that would displease him and the moment of their 'supposed-cordial' relation which she had calculated it just now, should break. Today, she tried it going out of her way.
Mayank smiled back before he knew it, as to approve her thanks and went back home.
He seriously felt the need to question himself coz his reactions were quite clearly evident to him now.
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Nupur went inside her new home and said a smiling, "Hi!" to her tenants as her uncle opened the door for her and her Aunty walked upto her and said, "Woh ladka bada Handsome hai Nupur...tumhara Boy Friend hai? Mujhe bataya kyun nahi?" and Nupur learned that they had seen her from the window, with Mayank on bike.
Nupur was so taken aback, something drooped in her and embarassed she turned red. She was not used to being asked such questions and that too from such elderly people to her. She clarified their doubt immediately and excusing herself from the situation, she went in her room where she lied down feeling embarassed still.
'Boy Friend' word sounded so alien to her. She was from a very small town and belonged to an even more conservative family. She knew all along that she was in for an Arranged Marriage and never once had she thought beyond those lines.
She knew how Arranged Marriages worked and she knew like her Mom, she will too fall for the man she marries. But the recent turn of events made her feel very odd, restless, if that was the word somewhere near it.
She reminded herself of not taking things the way they are not and gave in to the tiredness of her long journey today from Morena to Mumbai and from Mayank's home to her's and slept almost immediately skipping the dinner.
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Mayank had decided to overcome whatever he was feeling at the moment. He liked to be in control of himself and loosing it for a girl who was so oppsite to how he was, was not a good idea according to him, it challenged his ego that he actually wanted to move ahead with this. Stupid enough! he concluded.
It was he who was supposed to decide whom he wanted to give such a place in his life and whom not to. And so he decided. He wanted to wait for 'this' to wear off soon as that is how these infactuations worked he knew.
Nupur and him wouldn't be able to share anything more than what times were 'Co-incidentally planned together by God' and so being prudent enough with his smartness, he was fine now.
He reached home and got in when Shilpa Sharma smiled and asked, "Tum aa gaye Mayank...Nupur ko theek se ghar chod diya naa?" she asked smiling.
Mayank looked at his Ma confused, what kind of a question was this? of course he had done what he had taken up, she must be knowing this already too well to ask this. He replied in an obvious and plain tone, "Haan Ma...isme puchne wali kya baat hai?"
Shilpa Sharma smiled widely at his expressions and said, "Oh, tum nahi batana chahte toh mat batao" she turned around when Mayank asked even more confused, "Kya?"
Shilpa Sharma turned chuckling and said, "Poochungi nahi toh kya karungi...aaj mera Beta pehli baar kissi ladki ko bike par baitha ke le gaya tha...I was so excited!" and her expression did show excitement coz she saw it flicker in his eyes when she had plainly asked him to drop Nupur home without any such thought.
Mayank felt irritated coz his Mom was behaving as if he was a teenager and wanted to share that phase of him now? But didn't he actually think on those lines too earlier. Well, he finally told himself 'He was not at all too crazy to think like that earlier, after all his 'one of a kind' Ma had brought him up'.
Ignoring the fact he tried to reply with a straight face, "Ma...aapke Bete ke paas pehle bike thi bhi nahi aur please aise bachon jaisi baatein mat karo..." he wondered about his first sentence now, as if he would have been this excited to drop someone else home on his bike if ever he had one earlier...why Nupur?
She considered his words and replied thoughtfully, "Hmm...matlab Nupur tumhare liye lucky hai...usse milte hi tumne ek nayi bike le li...aur woh Tumhare saath bike par bhi baithi pehli baar!" Shilpa Sharma was so liking the silent reactions she saw on his face, she wouldn't have made it such a big deal if not for him.
Mayank couldn't believe her constant reference to Nupur as being special to him, she was making it difficult for him and he wondered if God had shared his stupid condition and God's own plan with her or was he making it so obvious?
Shilpa Sharma patted his cheeks at his varied reactions and moved away smiling on the pretext of some work. She knew Mayank was affected by Nupur, now for sure, she could just see it in his eyes and she didn't mind picturing them together too.
Nupur was a good girl and Mayank needed someone like her to live back like he was earlier, full of life before his Father had left them.
He needed someone to connect him to smaller minute things in life which slowly had become unnoticeable to him and he needed to have those back in his life. He did need someone to think beyond the larger picture of life as a whole and make trivial things important too.
She wondered whether he would will to think like that about himself or did he need a push from her in the right direction...
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Sorry for the mistakes, if any😆
😊
Cricket
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