CHAPTER 34
The worst battle , a person finds himself fighting is between his own heart and mind. Right now , Manik was fighting the same battle. His mind was saying that what Cabir said was somewhere true but his heart was not been able to accept the fact that he can love someone else other than Veebha ; and moreover , that can he love someone again.
But does love happens with numbers? Never.. !! Love does not sees that it's happening for the first time or the tenth time. It just happens. What matters is where we find our peace and our solace irrespective of the fact , where we find , in whom we find it and after how many attempts we find it.
Manik found all of them in Veebha. She was his first love , but she was not destined to be with him in his entire journey. But now , Nandini was there , to fill all the vacuums which where created in the absence of her existence.
He was falling for Nandini , and there was absolutely nothing wrong in it. No matter how much we loved a person , but when they are gone , we should not loose ourselves in their absence.
Nothing holds wrong , in loving someone again. He loved her with all his heart till he could. But now it was time for him, time to move ahead and look around. If we lose something special , we gain , something more special than it.
Veebha was gone , but to fill the void , Nandini was there ; of course ; they never sensed it.
Veebha Anand , Manik's best friend from the time they didn't knew what friendship actually meant. His first love , whom he loved truly , madly and deeply. And not only him , she too loved him like crazy. He meant life for her. She always said that he had the most beautiful smile on this whole earth and how she loves the fact that she is one of the main reasons that he smiles.
A careless young lad without any aim in life and an aspiring cardiologist , well indeed a rare combination. Their life was not perfect yet it was beautiful. Though he was careless and carefree but always encouraged her to be successful. He was waiting for the day when she would be the city's most renowned cardiologist and very soon country's also.
But destiny and the great almighty has some other plans. Their beautiful story could not witness a happy ending. She was gone , gone from this world , and left behind a destroyed , vulnerable , culpable Manik behind. The day he lost her , he lost himself with her.
The moment he saw her on pyre , he forgot to breath. Holding the torch , when he moved to burn the pyre , he burnt himself in the flames of that pyre. As the flames of the pyre were burning his life , to make her meet the almighty , he felt he himself was burning.
The trauma of losing her had hit him so hard that he collapsed the moment the pyre was completely on fire. Shock of losing her , affected him so badly that for one month he went into temporary coma , where his brain was working , but heart was not responding.
And how could it actually respond , his heart was with her , and she was gone. Doctors declared it as a rare case. But he had to survive , he had to live , so he came back , again in the world , where he could not ever see her again.
Manik was all lost in thoughts of his past life and the days which he proudly calls the beautiful and golden days of his life. Holding the tiny crystal heart pendant which had their picture in it ; a gift which she gave to him on his 18th birthday, a proud possession of his, which found its place in his wallet as her loving memory after she was gone ; he was walking down the memory lane , but at the same time, he was also confused with the thoughts that was hovering his mind since last evening after the counter he had with Cabir and after his dream.
(imagine names engraved inside it.)
Veebha's words were echoing in his mind. The way she was asking him to let her go and accept the fact that he has feelings for Nandini. Though he didn't wanted to believe it but the battle he was fighting between his heart and mind was actually making him go all insane what he should do , what he should say and what he should accept.
His chain of thoughts were broken by the ring of the doorbell. Due to the dream , he woke up even before the dawn. It was very early for anyone to come up to his place at this hour. He walked up to the door and opened it only to be suddenly attacked by lady storm.
It took few minutes to him to register the fact , and then coming back to his senses, he held her to avoid her from falling. Moving apart , she shouted ; " Good morning ... brother..!!"
"Mukti.." he finally had a smile on his face. "Oh my GOD , what a pleasant surprise.! You here... wow man.. really..I missed you.." saying this he again embraced her.
They entered inside and finally Mukti charged him . " I really thought I will have a hard time in waking you up. Muhje laga pata nahi kitne ghante I need to stand outside , but I am amazed that you are up so soon ! Now say , how's this change all of a sudden."
Manik's mind immediately rushed back to the hour when he saw that dream , which made his slumber flew away from the window. But he composed himself , not to let the inner turmoil of his heart and mind , come up on his face and answered , "nothing much , just that I woke up , and then didn't felt like sleeping again."
Satisfied with his convenient lie , they talked about random things when Manik asked her the most obvious question , I his brotherly concern ; "Mukti ; you here so early morning , I mean all good na.?"
Waiting for this question to arise from her ever concerned brother , she smiled on her own thoughts that how much she is right in knowing her brother. "Haan Manik , all good. Its just that I have a surprise for you." She replied calmly yet excitedly which made him uplift his eyebrows as the gesture of I-SEE ; and asked ; "surprise..? and what's that.?"
"Ok then , surprise ye hai , that my company has transferred me to their another branch , and that branch is here , in this city , which means that I have shifted here. " she exclaimed happily and Manik's happiness had no boundaries. Out of sheer happiness , he hugged her and replied happily ; "that's so good , actually its awesome. Finally you are here."
"Yes , finally I am here , and you know ghar par bhi everyone is so happy that now finally we both will be close to each other , which they wanted from so long." She replied.
"Yeah , I know , they must be happy and more than that relaxed." He replied stretching the last word which did nothing but start a laughter session all over again.
"OK ok.. now finally coming to the serious topic , Manik , I need you find a good place for me stay. I toh don't know anyone here , but I am sure you must be having contacts for sure , so please arrange a good and nice home for me. " Mukti said after taking a pause from their laughter session.
Hearing this , Manik looked at her with a T-head expression and replied ; "hello.? What are you saying..? I mean you gone mad or what.? You have a home , and you want to live somewhere else.? No way.?" He retorted back.
"But Manik , I very well know how much you love your privacy , if not then you and Cabir would have shared an apartment , I know it very well and trust me I have no issues staying somewhere else." She tried to make him understand.
"Ho gaya ? Or do you have something more to say? Listen stop all this nonsense ok, you have a home here, your brother here, and you want me let you stay anywhere else ? No way..! You are staying here and that's final." He declared his decision in a stern tone, not leaving behind any room for argument.
Knowing the stubbornness of his brother, she accepted her defeat, by raising her hand in air and replied , "ok brother , as you command." They both smiled on her statement and Manik got up to leave the living area.
"OK then , I have to leave now for office , you take care , have rest , and call me in case you need something." He instructed her.
"Sure. I will" she replied smilingly.
He got up to get ready for the office when she stopped him , "waise Manik , how's Nandini.? " And he was again dragged and drowned in the same pool of emotions in which he was feeling himself lost since the last evening.
"ha..an.. haan.. fine , she's ... she's good." He replied keeping his tone and expressions as casual as he could but yet fumbled on the talks about her and moved towards his room.
...
...
AFTER 1 HOUR...
He walked in the office , fully drowned in the bewildering thoughts of Nandini and Veebha , and crashed into the most untoward person of that hour ; Nandini .
.
"Manikkk ..what is wrong with you.? Where are you lost ? " She asked rubbing her head which just now witnessed a collision with his broad and muscular torso.
.
"I am sorry.. I just didn't saw you. You ok.?" He asked her in agitation , rubbing her head on his own .
.
"That's exactly what I am asking ? Where are you lost ? " She asked him again looking straight into his heavy eyes where she could easily see his twitchiness.
He looked at her , and found her looking at him without even blinking her eyes. Once again , he was getting captivated in her deep doe eyes and forgot about the surroundings. All the moments they spent together, which always managed to bring a smile on his face , again flashed in front of his eyes.
But the next moment , he was back to face the reality. His smile vanished behind his long and stern face and he withdrew his hand from her hand.
"Manik , what happened.? Why are you sulking.?" She again asked getting weird vibes from his actions and his expressions.
"Nothing.." he said in a loud and cold tone , without looking at her and walked to his desk.
She kept on looking him as he went towards his desk , as this behaviour of his , was something new to her. She knew something was bothering him. It happened many times earlier too ; but never did he spoke to her in such cold tone and tried to avoid her.
Unlike other days , when he would be in a jolly mood and meet everyone before staring his work , he sat down in front of his system , to start off his work but his mind was occupied elsewhere.
In no time , Cabir also arrived. He greeted him as usual but did not received the same from him. He had no idea that his last evening talks would affect him to this extent as it was not new when Cabir talked to him about the matter.
"Aaj humara personal lamp post itna bhujha kyun hai..?" Cabir asked Nandini when he went to greet her on her desk.
"I don't know , what's wrong with him. He was all lost when he entered and banged into me." She complained to him like a kid and they both had a small laugh.
They decided to talk to him but suddenly , a call for immediate meeting diverted their mind and they all moved towards the conference room to attend the meeting.
During the meeting , Manik not for once talked to anyone. He did not even bothered to look at his friends or even talk to them. The turmoil in his heart and mind was not letting him behave normally to anyone , so to avoid any conflict , he decided to cut off from them until he becomes normal.
After the meeting was over , everyone came out. The first to leave the room was Manik , but as soon he left the room , his eyes fell on a peon , who was trying to fix a broken window all alone. He sensed that the window will fall on him if it does not gets another support.
Without thinking twice , he went towards him , and held the window pane from the top as the peon was holding it from the bottom. But to his dismay , as soon as he held the pane , the broken glass accidently got pierced in his right palm.
"Ahhh..!! "he shrieked in pain but still did not left it as if left it would fall on the peon , hurting him more badly.
This shriek of him , did not got unnoticed by his friends and they both came running to him.
"Manik..!!" Nandini felt a strong stab in her heart as she saw the blood oozing from his palm.
Cabir and some other boys helped to get the pane down , so that the glass does not hurt anyone else. The moment his hand was free , it was in Nandini's hand , who held it very carefully to stop the flow of the blood.
He looked at her and saw her rheumy eyes , that was clearly describing the pain she was feeling , seeing him in pain.
For a moment , he again forgot about everything and was getting drowned in her eyes ; but soon he was bought back to the shore of reality by Cabir's tap on shoulder.
"Manik , get up , this needs dressing ." Cabir said , to which he only nodded his head and the three left for the infirmary.
Nandini for once did not left his hand , and this was not getting unnoticed by the boys. No one said anything , as the doctor did the dressing.
After a while , they moved out , and at that moment Cabir broke the silence ; "Manik , what's wrong.? You are behaving different since morning. All ok.? "
Manik looked at Cabir who again with eyes gestured him what. His gaze then , moved towards Nandini and again all the things started rewinding in his mind. But when he himself wasn't sure what he's feeling and what's actually wrong with , how come he share it with his friends.
"ahmmm...woo.. nothing.. nothing as such.. it's just I wasn't able to sleep yesterday night and it's just a little headache." He tried to cover up himself.
"Are you sure its just the headache and nothing is bothering you.?" This time Nandini asked him. He looked at her but soon he looked away as he was feeling a strange magnetic pull in her eyes.
"haan.. ofcourse.. it's just the headache , nothing else. You guys carry one , I'll just get a black coffee for myself. I am sure it will help. I'll catch you up." Saying this he moved towards the canteen , as he was actually in the need of it to calm his nerves.
...
After few minutes , all were engrossed in their work ; when they heard the fire alarm and in a jiffy there was a big chaos as everyone wanted to be safe so where running out of the building. Nandini got up from her seat and found Cabir rushing towards her.
"Nandini ; come on , let's rush , there's fire in the building. " he said panting and Nandini moved out with him. They came to the lobby and asked a peon what was the matter.
"sir canteen mein shayad se short-circuit hua hai , wahin pe aag hai." He informed.
Both were listening to him when something stuck to Nandini's mind . She looked around and finally getting failed in her search , she grabbed Cabir's arm ; "Cabir , Manik kahan hai.?"
And that's when their mind seemed to get bowled. Their bit worried faces suddenly turned pale and with wide eyes both looked at each other ; " Freakkk...!!! " "shitt..!!" both shouted in unison and ran towards canteen.
CID
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
