VirMan SS/Winds of Desire- 10th chap updated! - Page 11

I rubbed my palms and pulled the woolen cardigan even closer to me as the November breeze grew wondrously cold. The car now seems to be entering the "city of hopes" Mumbai. I stretched my head out to see the tall buildings, big malls, and busy people storming to their offices. The car screeched to a halt as the red light fell on. The city looked like a big puzzle to me; everywhere there were either people or big tall buildings. The car moved forward as the green light fell on resulting into thousand of vehicles moving releasing fumes and making the city polluted. As the car moved by Juhu Beach a cold breeze blew, the silence of the sea and the dancing waves made me so badly jump out of the car and feel the moist sand. But I retrained myself from the wish and looked on further, I figured out children begging alms on the roads. I felt uncertain about how a life in a metropolitan city would be there would be people either too poor or too rich, exactly opposite to the place where I'm used to live. I grew tired of stretching my head to see the tall buildings, it sort of started to ache my neck. So, I sat back least interested to see the flat roads and buildings. The cold breeze and the fact that I was already tired made me drift into a deep slumber.

I jerked forward as the car stopped outside a big villa making my deep sleep vanish in a minute. The guard came running to open the huge rim gates that obstructed the car to enter the villa. As the guard opened the gate he whispered a "Good Morning" as the car drove to the nearby lawn. As the car stopped Vanshika mom along with Jeevika got out the car making me realize that life has changed, it is no more going to be Beeji holding my hand and dragging me to the house. I got out of the car and shut the door as I was the last person to get down. I looked at the lawn where the car had stopped; it was a perfect garden with small bushes all over the lawn with few trees spread out with huge branches. The scent of the green and fresh grass made me sit on the bench over the lawn and enjoy the nature.

As I moved forward Vanshika mom took me by my hand, "Manvi I know you're mesmerized by the greens but first you need to enter the house and then you can go back to the lawn". I liked the way she understood my desire of spending some time in the lawn. "The winds of Desire" to feel the greens blew on me as I entered the villa. The huge hall made me open-mouthed. The whole hall was dipped in ruby pink with beautiful interior designing. The combination of the ruby pink walls with dark brown furniture matched well. There were stairs extending to the rooms on the upper floor of the house. I stood in admiration of how the designer could perfectly match everything. I wish if there was something perfect about my life too; but unfortunately there is no designer in our lives, we've to be the one whether we know the art of designing or not. I sighed at the thought of this and as I was going to move forward when Jeevika stopped me putting a tika on my forehead as well as on Virat's too. After the aarti, I pushed the kalash filled with rice lightly with my foot and dipping my feet into the red liquid I made footprints on the sparkling white floor of the Vaderas. As I stepped into the house I was greeted by warm smiling faces that mostly I knew except a lady in her early 40s adorned in a cream salwar standing at the stairs watching me. I felt uncertain of her looking at me intently; she slowly descending the stairs came into the hall.

"Hello Manvi! I registered her eyes outlined with dark kohl as she spoke. The long straight hair looked artificial to me. However I didn't intend to ask her about it.

"Hello Aunty! I smiled back the same fake smile that she had gestured me with. "Aha you can call me Buaji, I'm Virat's Bua. She flipped the sides of her hair as a vamp in a daily soap. As she mentioned Virat, I looked around to find him, I found him next to me least interested with the introductions. Well I looked pleased as I've something common with him. I too found it too artificial, fake smiles was all I'm not used to. After a while Jeevika took me to Virat's room which is mine too now. The room was colored in reddish brown with light maroon interiors. A king sized bed with furniture looked a suitable one for a guy like Virat who lives much in parties than his own room.

"Manvi don't hesitate to ask for anything you need, my room is the one next to the stairs. I nodded at her. "I know that life has been unfair to you so far, but try to give it a second chance Manvi. I know Virat is a kind of stubborn and somewhat immature but he's not a bad guy, the thing is he lives too much into the social life but I feel you can change him. And I feel you are tired right now So, I ain't going to give you lecture. I reflected back the amused expression on her face. I pretty much started liking her. "So rush to your bed and sleep peacefully". She kissed my forehead and waved a final good bye. I felt at ease, sure that life has changed but it changed into something sensible. When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny but I got just a day to accept my destiny. Time for me looked like a race in Olympics, too fast even to catch with it. I moved the pastel colored curtains to a side and looked outside at the glimmering sky with stars. Before I had only two stars to talk to but now I have two more added to my list. I figured out four brightly shining stars and smiled at them. I feared that life doesn't make me have any more stars to talk to. The loss of four is unbearable and something more would mean my strength collapsing.

I paced around the room, checking out each show piece, trophies and photographs of Virat for the rest of the time. Some of the pictures had Virat being centered on by a bunch of tall skinny girls and some other had Virat in a fancy dress competition as a child, dressed up in a tight sky blue dress with red wings, somewhat like superman. I laughed so hard looking at the picture that I felt my cheeks pain. Who knew a funny child in his superman dress could grow up like an arrogant brat? The door opened at a reflex as I turned around revealing the person about whom I had been thinking about. Think of the devil and it appears before you...

He didn't talk much and marched straight to the bathroom with his clothes. I considered sleeping as the best option to escape the hateful gazes I will receive shortly. I pulled the duvet over my face when the door creaked open. In my haste I forgot to ask where he would be sleeping, as I'm now on his bed. I felt banging my head over anything, it wouldn't be right if I pull the duvet now and ask him, it'd look silly. Now I couldn't even see what he was doing as I had covered my face fully. I realized how much ears are useful to us when I heard the sound of his large footsteps fading away and banging the door shut. I pulled up the duvet and looked at the clock; it was nearing 2 pm, what work could have been that he had leave this late at night? If he had left the room prolly cause of my presence, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. Sleep embraced me as my mind switched off its thoughts.

I pulled up the duvet off my face as the rays beamed on my face making me stir up for a while and finally giving up my sleep. I tried to get up when I felt something heavy on my waist, something that had held onto my waist. I turned the other way to look at the means of my disturbance early morning as I figured something unusual. I sat up with a jerk as his hand slid on the bed from my waist. I felt uncertain of him sleeping beside me. Maybe he was too tired to take even a spare pillow and rest his huge body on the sofa. I shook my head away with the thoughts and folding the duvet I neatly arranged the sheets of my side. My face twisted as I noticed I hadn't even unpacked my belongings. I unzipped the bags with all the strength I had as the bags were tight with the stuffed up stuff. I dragged it over the table nearby and started unpacking everything.

The loud noises I was making stirred up the person on the bed and he woke up in an instant putting up a disgusted face at me. I felt terrible looking at him, his messed up hair, with the clothes that one usually doesn't wear at night times. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion at him.

"Will you ever let me live in peace? He punched the pillow near him tossing it on the bed and getting up in a reflex. I carelessly ignored him and moved further with unpacking my things.

"Damn what do you think of yourself? Answer me. He raised his voice and stormed towards me and in a reflex he caught my wrist nuzzling it and causing me intense pain.

"I don't consider answering an arrogant-selfish-bloody-freak-who-cares-less-about-other's-feelings, I spat out the divine words stressing on each alphabet which he had asked me for. This made the anger in him stir up to an extreme level. He pinned me to the nearby wall facing me at an instant probably 3 inches away.

"You try to be with your same bloody attitude, see what I am going to do to you" He warned me through his eyes. His orbs were covered with intense anger, hurt and betrayal. I moved my head sideways without giving attention to what he was saying. I know when things change; it takes some time to accommodate with the change but that doesn't mean you run around hurting people on your way. I carelessly ignored him waiting impatiently for him to loosen his grip on me. But to my dismay, none of them happened. We stood in the same position for ten minutes before he whispered

"You are not aware to what you're married to" saying so he grabbed the towel on the dresser and banged the door shut behind me. I'm the most stubborn person I've ever known, but someone competing me in this matter is new to me. I sat down on the bed applying an ointment on the hurt region. Tears formed in my eyes as I looked at the pink crimson region radiating the hurt I had gone through. No one until now has hurt me this much, not even Beeji. I wiped the tears immediately as I heard the bathroom door opening. I may not be able to hurt him; but I won't give him the satisfaction of hurting me. I sat cross-legged on the bed pretending as if there is no one in the room.

Though I pretended to care less about him but I found myself staring at what he was doing. I heard Vanshika mom saying that he works in their own Ad agency, something I'm unfamiliar with. I took the towel from the closet and stormed towards the bathroom without much looking into his direction. It is 8.00 in the morning and I should get to the other family members by 9.00 as told by Jeevika.

After showering I tied the towel to my body and took out the maroon red sari that I had been asked to wear by Buaji. I rolled my eyes at the thought of her. So much artificial who cares much about her status. I wondered if she even like me or not, but I couldn't care less about that as I've earned a lot of haters in a short time in this home. I came out and looked around to see if he was present in the room. I felt at ease as I figured out he had gone. The next few minutes I worked on my hair, makeup which I normally don't do but I needed it as per Buaji's instructions. After dabbing myself with makeup, I looked at my reflection. I looked horrible. Somehow adjusting it, I came down uncertain at how the others would react seeing me.

A hand reached to me as I climbed down the stairs. "Manvi, I see you're ready. My NGO members and friends would arrive shortly to meet you. Buaji patted my back and left leaving me nervous. I badly needed someone to calm my nerves. I looked around frantically only to find a person who worked well for my nerves to break.

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First of all thank you for all the comments and likes. 😃This is pretty long, ain't it? 😉 Okay I took half an hour to write this thing; not very much impressive I agree. You'll were excited about official VirMan conversation, but I kind of feel I've screwed it 🤢.