It was almost mid-night and he came to the gym sit-out to check up on Nakul when he found her stretched on a raised pool chair, her feet playing hide and seek from the ruffles of her sari, partially giving away a pair of studded anklets. She had her back to him and he couldn't tell if he would be intervening on a private moment she was having in the sprawling moon light that had lit up the place with a pearly glow. His eyes shifted to the silver glint of a thali that rested on the adjacent pool chair and it seemed as if it was food on the plate she'd been upset with and had turned away.
"If its the food that you are mad at, then I can ask Nakul to fetch a new plate..." He said sitting down next to the thali and picked it up in his hand.
She twisted around and helped herself up on the chair. "No...its not" She didn't meet his eyes, but had a smile on for good measure.
Cut it out, he wanted to tell, You couldn't hide all that hurt even if you wanted to. But he said none of that and instead offered her the plate.
The wind played mischief and lifted her sari's end into the air, in the space between them which she pulled back and balled in her hand.
"Then eat..." She took the thali from him when he was practically shoving it into her hold, "Its almost mid-night. If the wind quiets down, I might even hear your stomach staging a protest that you eat..."
She picked on the roti, tearing it into the smallest pieces possible, her eyes still lowered onto the plate while she balanced the thali on her knees as she'd drawn them up to her chest. "If the wind quiets down, you can hear a lot of things...sometimes its things you wish you didn't hear..."
Her voice was a low, soft whisper, with a tinge of melancholy that imprinted something on heavy and tugging at his chest.
He smiled, but she still didn't raise her head to him. Surely, the day and the party had done a number on her.
"How would you know?" Finally her gaze met his, "Perhaps its all that is there to hear..."
She smiled in response - a full endearing one and the first one of the evening - and he noted a mild look of amusement in her eyes, "Indeed...And you will never fail to surprise me..."
He didn't answer and instead watched her break a piece of Kalakand into two and taste it. "Ah!..." Her lips pressed tight and her face twisted. "This is too sweet" She shook her head, her long pearl jhumkha sweeping the hair away from her neck and he heard her bangles clink against one another, releasing a melody that felt broke the still of the night.
"I don't think so..." He said and reached into her plate to take a bit of what was left over.
She choked and forgetting she still had traces of the milk sweet at the tip of her fingers, her hand chased after him. But without haste and unsuspecting there was anything wrong with that gesture, he jerked his head back as the sweet dissolved away on his tongue.
"Hey Babaji..." She shook her head again and slapped her forehead, "I'm not to share today's meal with anyone, Maan...don't you know that?" She appeared pained, even scorned.
Before he could muster any response, Meera came looking for her and moments later after exchanging smiles and good night wishes, they were gone. It was a good thing she had left him with a smile, or else there was no telling if he would have slept any length at all, wondering what had offended her that moment he'd eaten the rest of her sweet.
He didn't bother explaining that he'd only grown up seeing Daadima keep the vrath for his Daadaji. But that had been ages ago and despite that Daadima had of course shared her meal with Daadaji all the time...
With Daadaji...That was the catch, wasn't it?
Oh! lord.
Sometimes its things you wish you didn't hear...
She'd been right all along. He didn't know if he liked what he heard of the night whispers then and wished the wind hadn't quietened down after all...
Book Talk
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
1.1k