Part 4
I am sorry could not post last week so am making it up by another part. The being looked forward to Pratham Gauri encounter will be in the next part to be posted around next Friday.
How times change, Gauri mused as she ran her fingers through the wood panels in the hallway of the hotel. This place once had belonged to aristocracy, barring commoners such as her out of this place. But modern times gave way to modern demands and modern taxation laws, the reason why this place brimming with history of nobility had to be converted to a hotel to suit the needs of people who could afford it. Gauri always had a fascination for estates such as this. Old world decor with modern facilities came together to cater to both aesthetic sense as well as the modern luxurious necessities. Gauri had stepped out wanting only a moment of respite. But now she was lured by the aura of the place with its huge chandeliers and portraits. Within minutes she felt the presence of fresh breeze caressing her and found her way to a nearby balcony.
As she stepped out on the balcony, she inhaled the fresh air. The smell of fresh first rains
and blossoming soil teased her nostrils as she surveyed the vast landscape in front of her. One of the finer points of this hotel situated on an estate at the outskirts of the city was not lost to her. As far as her eyes could gaze, she was greeted with greenery. An old fashioned English garden, Gauri identified seeing the well maintained structure of the lawns. The darkness was pierced from the cluster of small lamps spread uniformly across the grounds. The moonlight took care of the rest soothing where the artificial lighting threatened to disturb the serenity. Here the cacophony inside the party was dimmed to a negligible level. Instead stillness reigned here, but it was far from being unwanted. To Gauri, the silence, the stillness and the calmness was welcoming providing her with a sense of peace.
Within minutes she was so entranced in her surroundings that she was oblivious to anything and anyone. She was so lost that she failed to pick up that within a few steps of her she had company. She would have missed entirely the couple lost in an intimate embrace in the dark shadows of the balcony, had it not been the suddenness of the giggle which erupted from a woman and an accompanying male sigh. It was like experiencing a jerk in midst of a smooth ride and its impact had Gauri jumping scared out of her wits. As Gauri turned to the source of the sound that had startled her, she was met by a pair of deep black eyes.
Gauri had always felt that people who raved about "moments" exaggerated. After all was it possible that there are moments in one's life where time just stands still engulfing its participants in a bubble, isolating them from the rest of the world? Could it really happen that in one second the range of emotions one experienced threatened to override any rational thinking involved? She had never believed in it but at this moment that was exactly what she went through.
She turned to the source, feeling herself blush with embarrassment. No matter what she tried to tell herself the rush of blood to her cheeks wouldn't stop, the red color deepening. In her mind she formulated the apologies that could save herself some dignity, at the same time praying that she had not inadvertently walked in on some deeper intimacy. But even as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and settled on a harmless embrace between a couple, with the giggling lady's back and relief flooded in her with an equal rush that her presence had not been noticed, her gaze was drawn to a pair of deep black eyes.
She could not break the gaze, even though her mind went in overdrive telling her to do so. Her excuse to put the action off was that she had never encountered another pair of eyes which were so mesmerizing. Deep, Black, Enigmatic, she thought. And then her eyes moved to the high cheekbones, haughty, she whispered back to herself. Her lingering eyes identified the aquiline nose as proud and arrogant before following down to a compressed set of lips which were curved in a smile. A smile which was taunting her gaze.
Being mocked for gazing like a star struck school girl was the trigger which ended Gauri's fascination with the well etched face of the stranger. And in one go Gauri ran out of the balcony to wherever her feet could take her away to.
Apparently emotional blackmailing does deliver results. That was a lesson Gauri learnt in the next few days when her father finally won her over having persuaded her to work under him. It was not that bad a deal, Gauri admitted to herself as she was lead in a beautifully decorated office now belonging to her and introduced to her very own secretary. She was looking forward to being given a personal tour of the office by her father, but as her luck would have it, he was bombarded with phone calls and stacks of paperwork as soon as they entered the office. And so the promised tour was postponed till after lunch. But Gauri being ever the impatient one, decided to take matters in her own hands. And so she embarked on a mission to discover the office layout with her first destination being the upper floors. She was just getting out of the lift when she dashed against someone and mumbled out a hasty apology.
"I am so sorryâŚ"
"Well I am not!" came the prompt reply, effectively halting her steps from going any further.
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Ye Hai Mohabbatein
Mangal Lakshmi
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