Chapter one
"And he rises again like a phoenix from the ashes"
He folded the newspaper without reading the article that told the story of his life. Shivaay Singh Oberoi closed his eyes in satisfaction and sat on the recliner letting the morning rays caress his face. The newspapers and the news channels were talking about how he had managed to save his businesses which were a sinking ship and managed to get them on the top position once again. The journey had not been easy. In the past one year he had seen the real face of every person who had once called themselves his true friends.
His fiance, Tia Kapoor had left him the moment she realized that the ship of money she had decided to sail into had met turbulent seas and was on the verge of sinking. And sunk, it had only to rise again now. But in the process some things had drowned forever. His relationship with Tia and the promises that she had made to him were now gone forever. Promises of love, trust, friendship and loyalty. Promises that were as fake as her love for him, he realized that now. Other than his family, there were a few others who had faced the storm along with him and even though he had come out of it all successfully, there was no satisfaction of triumph. For the first time, the money, the materialistic pleasures seemed meaningless.
"She wasn't worth it billu" said his dadi, walking inside his room with a tray laden with a mug of hot coffee. Shivaay kept the newspaper down and gave his grandmother a sad smile. After years of chasing her since college days, he knew that now- that Tia wasn't worth it. Had never been.
"I know dadi" he said softly "I learnt it the hard way that true love does not exist. I guess I will never know if someone will love me for myself and not for the money and the status that comes with me. "
"That's not true. Someday you will meet someone who will love you for who you are., who will hold your hand even when you have nothing to offer her..."
As she spoke another face swam in front of his mind- a bracelet of dangling moon, the bright coloured clothes, the weird language, waist length hair, a pair of laughing kohl lined eyes and a wide smile- Anika Rai Chauhan.
Though he didn't think about her often, he had never forgotten her the way he wanted to forget her. It had been eight years since he last saw her and yet even now her face would swim in front of his eyes and a rush of guilt would follow. Maybe it was the guilt that made it impossible to forget her. May be it was something more
"Billu!" his dadi interrupted his train of thought "I think it's time you shift your base to India. You promised me you would. It has been eight years. London is great but it is not home. We need to go back"
"I know my promise dadi and besides I was about to tell you to ask the servants to start packing- We will be going back to India next week."
He watched his grandmother shriek with joy as she kissed him on his cheek and rushed out to tell the remaining family members. He picked his wallet from the table and fished out a silver locket with a crescent moon shaped pendent hanging from it. As he looked at it, words said long ago floated towards him
I hope that you find light in the darkest times. I hope you find all the happiness in the world'
Chapter two
"Ansh, beta the floor is still wet, if you run around, you will fall down" said an exasperated Anika, who was in the process of sweeping the floor. Her seven year old son stuck his tongue out and jumped on the couch grabbing the TV remote from the table.
"Ansh, no TV this time. Papa is working and he will get disturbed. There is a new colour book and crayons in the right drawer of your table. Go to your room and colour the cartoons in there and I have ordered for your favourite pizza."
"Pizza?? Thank you mom! You are the best mother in the whole world."
Anika smiled and watched her son run to his room. Wiping the beads of sweat from her forehead, she walked inside the bedroom with a mop and a bucket of water and was greeted with a sight of Omkara sitting on the bed with the laptop. He looked absently at her as she entered and smiled. She returned the smile and got back to her work. She cleaned the floor and dusted the book shelves and some of the canvas paintings. She covered some of his fresh paintings with a cloth to protect them from sunlight and drew the curtains. When she looked at Omkara again, he was leaning against the bed with his head on the headboard, eyes closed. She walked up to him and was about to nudge him awake when she saw an image on his laptop. It was a photo of Omkara feeding ice cream to a beautiful girl in sky-blue salwar- his ex-girlfriend and only love- Gauri.
She put her hand on his shoulder causing him to open his eyes with a snap.
"Anika?" he said startled straightening up and brushing the hair from his eyes
"Are you in pain?" she asked him softly
He saw her glance nervously at the picture of him and Gauri and smiled
"Physically no, mentally"well, it hurts less now."
"I still think you should tell her." Said Anika quietly, her eyes focussed on a point near his laptop.
"Anika, it has been eight years. For all I know she is married. We have discussed this before and besides you could have also called SSO all these years but you didn't."
"Shivaay loved Tia. I was a mistake but in your case, both you and Gauri loved each other. You took the decision for the both of you and that's hardly fair." Anika said protesting
Omkara smiled ruefully and adjusted his glasses before catching her wrist and making her sit beside him.
"Anika, we have discussed this and besides we have moved far in this relationship. For the world you are my wife and Ansh is my son and it will stay that way. I took this decision eight years ago and I knew there was no going back. And we can't think about ourselves. We have Ansh to think about and even a slightest crack in our relationship is going to affect him. Besides, to love is to let go, Anika, especially when it means they will be happy. We both chose not to tie them to us. Not because we didn't love them but because we loved them far too much."
Anika felt tears gather in her eyes. She turned her head away and concentrated on a spot near the door trying to swallow the lump in her throat. She could feel his comforting hand on her shoulder. She turned around and caught his hand and held it to her cheek
"Omkara, words are never enough to thank you for all that you did for us. For a single unmarried mother, it is a very difficult life and you stepped in and took away all our troubles- It's just that I want you to be happy and I know only Gauri can give you that happiness."
"I'm happy Anika. I have an understanding wife and an amazing son- what more do I want? And besides I didn't "step" in your life, I "wheeled in"" Omkara said with a laugh but the laugh was wry and held a world of pain.
Anika sniffed and jumped up from the bed giving him a bright smile.
"You continue your work and I will start preparing lunch. Shout if you need something."
Omkara nodded watching her go. If circumstances were different he could have fallen in love with her and if circumstances were different, maybe she could have fallen in love with him. But here they were in love with people they could never have and had people they could never love and yet they shared the best relationship in the whole world. She was his best friend, his companion and the person because of whom he had survived the biggest storm in his life.
He knew he would never find the happiness that he had found with Gauri but he was content. He had a woman as his wife who was had the most pure heart. He had a boy who called him papa. They both earned enough to afford a middle class lifestyle. Life hadn't been fair to him and yet he was gifted with far more than he had expected. Omkara Roy had never been this content.
***********
A week later, Shivaay found himself travelling on the familiar roads of Mumbai after eight long years. As his car passed by the familiar red building, he asked the driver to slow down and glanced out of the window. He watched the building with longing as another part of him that resided in his mind, walked out of the car and ran along the grounds of his college laughing with a girl he had once thought was the love of his life.
Chapter three
As Shivaay looked at the black metallic gates of the college, the gates of his own memories opened. Every memory he had of college had the image of Tia attached to it. She had been an obsession as far as he was concerned. Having fallen for her the first time he had seen her, he had pursued her endlessly till she had agreed to be his girlfriend. His cousin and best friend Rudra had seen right through Tia even then. If only he had listened to him, he would have saved himself a lot of heart ache.
Asking the driver to speed up, Shivaay flipped open his phone and dialled Rudra's number. The call went on wait for an instant before Ruddy answered,
"Hey bro- finally you are back for good huh? All settled? Do you want me to come over?"
"Thanks to you we had a well-furnished bungalow waiting for us with staff that seems too eager to please. It was thoughtful of you to choose all the servants from Jalandhar. Dadi is pleased." Shivaay replied with a smile
"Perfection is my middle name." said Rudra laughingly and Shivaay couldn't help but smile. Time and distance had failed to change the bond of friendship that he shared with Rudra. It hadn't been because he valued relationships. It was because Rudra did.
"Did you cut any important call to attend mine?" he asked remembering that Rudra had been talking to someone when he had called
"No that was Anika"remember her?"
Anika
His heart did a strange flip on hearing her name. His mind conjured an image of a skinny girl with long hair which seemed to be permanently oiled and braided, gaudy clothes and a bright smile. Anika- the girl who had loved him.. whom he could never love.
"Yea what about her?" he asked, his voice sounded hoarse to his own ears
"She provides tiffin for most of your staff at Oberoi travels and Oberoi pharmaceuticals. She is an amazing cook."
Shivaay quickly stirred the conversation to a different topic lest Rudra continue the ramblings about Anika Rai Chauhan. Hanging up soon after, he closed his eyes and let the thoughts consume him. He would be lying if he said Anika always stayed in his memories but he hadn't been able to forget her. And yet he couldn't deny, that her face had always flashed before him when someone spoke of emotions like love, contentment, happiness..
But that happened rarely. He was SSO. No one spoke emotions with him- not even Tia. His family were the only ones who used to but that had been rare given that they had never liked Tia. But as far as he was concerned, if someone had asked him to define love he would have only one answer- Anika.
Not that he loved her. Till Tia had shown her true colors, that place of a lover and girlfriend had been hers alone. But he was not blind to the fact that Tia never shone from that innate goodness that Anika was made up of. Anika had always been the person who lived for helping others. She had an ability to see good in people even when those people lacked goodness entirely- like him.
And yet he had wronged her- terribly. It hadn't been his intent but it had been the result. He had broken her heart just so that he wouldn't lose Tia's. Ironically, he never possessed Tia's heart in the first place. The only person Tia loved was herself. He should have known.
Even though he had wronged Anika greatly, Anika had never held it against him. He remembered her meeting him after that incident. It had been his last day in India. When she had asked him to meet her he had been prepared for her tears and accusations. Instead she had surprised him by giving him a locket with a moon pendant which she had always worn. She had smiled brightly and said
I hope that you find light in the darkest times. I hope you find all the happiness in the world'
It was then that he had known that contrary to what Tia had said, Anika hadn't loved him for his wealth and status- she had loved him for himself. Something that other than his family-no one had ever done.
Chapter Four
Anika passed on the huge container having palak paneer to the worker from the Oberoi Travels. The staff had hoisted a welcome party for their boss and she was given the catering contract. She preferred to cook at home and carrying it to the destination rather than cooking at the party venue. That was the only way she could reduce the hours she spend away from Omkara who needed her much more than her clients did.
Another worker joined the former as he helped carry the huge hot container. Anika watched them carry the load out of the house when she saw Omkara near the door.
"Bhayyiya wait a minute" Anika said and ran towards Omkara swiftly wheeling him out of the way. Anika watched the workers smile at them but she didn't miss the glint of pity she saw in their eyes when they looked at her husband.
An accident had left Omkara confined to a wheel chair.
Omkara gave her a quick smile and retreated to his room and Anika felt a rush of helplessness. Omkara hated when people pitied him and Anika knew that at such moments he preferred to be alone. Sighing she gave a quick glance at the watch and the action had her running in the bathroom for a shower. She quickly dried her long hair and dressed into a white salwar with a silver border going for a traditional look. Leaving her hair loose, she quickly applied kajal and a red lip gloss and a silver bindi. Sliding silver bangles on her delicate wrists, she grabbed her handbag and said her farewell to Omkara and rushed towards the waiting elevator
******
Shivaay sat inside his office going through the numerous documents, contracts, emails and calls. Since he had shifted his base to India, he had anticipated the amount of workload and hadn't been surprised to see the numerous things that needed his attention. Grabbing his cell phone, he handed his file to his secretary and stood up. He had a business meeting and the party had offered to meet him in a hotel. Shivaay walked out of his cabin, followed by his secretary, employees, his lawyer and bodyguards giving him the look and aura that Aamir Khan had in the Gajini movie. He was walking towards the door when he was distracted by a lone tiffin box at one of the staff tables and he remembered Rudra's words about Anika's tiffin service.
His curiosity caused him to collide into a lady who lost balance and would have fallen had he not caught her. His arm snaked around her waist taking most of her weight and he watched as her head fell back exposing the expanse of her creamy neck. His gaze travelled to the face and as he met her eyes, his breath was knocked out from his body
Anika Rai Chauhan
Gone was the girl who faded in the background for being pale and skinny. Gone was the girl whose hair remained permanently oiled, not a hair out of place. Gone was the girl who wore gaudy clothes making her an object of ridicule in the college every time.
In her place stood a woman who was so beautiful that she could have given the models like Tia a run for their money. Her beauty wasn't more in her delicately carved perfect features as in her simplicity. Face having minimal make up and yet with the kind of skin many would envy, Anika had grown into quite a beauty. He saw her eyes flicker with an indefinable emotion but that was gone swiftly and she straightened up and moved out of his arms making him feel suddenly empty.
She then looked at him and gave him a smile that seemed to light the entire office. Perhaps it had
"Hello Shivaay? How are you?" she asked, her voice sounded delicate and musical, just like her.
In that moment Shivaay wouldn't have responded even if his life had depended on it. Dressed in a white and silver salwar , waist length straight hair left loose, sparkling eyes fringed with thick lashes and a bright smile flashing through plump red generous lips, Anika's presence caused the whole world to fade away.
Aware that he was staring and cursing himself for the momentary lapse of control, Shivaay managed a short smile and extended his hand
"Anika- Nice to see you again." He said kindly causing many heads to turn his way in surprise. Kindness and SSO was a rare combination. But their surprise was short, because the recipient of that kindness was Anika. Anika was a force of nature... who spread affection and love like the wind. She could melt a stone with her love. SSO, for his entire hard exterior, was after all, human.
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Indian Idol 15
