SS: The Broken Nest, Last part,pg-7 - Page 5

Sorry for the delay, I was busy cooking and then eating!!HE!! No jhootas and chappals for the ending…

PART-6

Sometimes like a dream, sometimes like a truth, life met her like a stranger and the very next moment like a friend or a foe in disguise…

She wondered how life could be so unpredictable and unprecedented…who knew that living in a small village she would meet raghu and marry him leaving her father…and that she would fall in love with jai…but such was life…an unsolved mystery…
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Bani hurried, pushing away the small rickety wooden gate…it was lunch time, and her father had forgotten to take his lunch and rushed to school…walking inside his small cabin she gave him his lunch… …

She came out…watching the children sitting in huddles and sharing each other's food, some were busy playing…her eyes fell on a young man standing afar, distributing some sweets to the children who eagerly ate them… …bani went near him…he was an unfamiliar face…

"Aapko pehle kabhi yahaan nahin dekha…" bani asked…raghu looked at her without blinking; she was beautiful, very beautiful…

"Haan…woh…" he remained tongue-tied…the peon rang the bell and the children ran off to attend their respective classes… …

"Kya…" bani asked…

"Bas, kuch kaam se ayaa tha…"

"Kahaan rehte hain aap…"

"Mumbai…"

"Mera naam bani hain…"

"Raghu…"

"Theek hain raghu main chalti hoon…" bani walked away…

"Bani…" raghu called out…bani turned back…

"Aap, aap bohot khoobsurat hain…" he said unabashedly…bani simply smiled and went away…

Their first meeting, lead to many others…raghu was clearly mesmerized by her beauty and smartness, while bani liked his ruggedness…he was honest enough to tell her what he did and that he had come to Nashik to overlook the delivery of guns and arms…instead of hating him bani was deeply influenced by his past, how he was left an orphan, how circumstances lead him to become what he was today…it was enchanting to her, being brought up in a principled and secure childhood, she had always been the conformist, no matter what…but raghu seemed to be an outlet to her, to the rebellious side which was struggling to break free from the shackles of her father's strict, futile righteous fundamentals… …and before anyone could comprehend they were standing in the local temple exchanging garlands… …
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Bani opened her eyes…but who knew, her escapade from her father's golden cage would turn into an overbearing saga…she hadn't planned it…not at all, that she would start loving jai and this love was slowly becoming into an obsession…the want was so dire that she could go to any extent to claim it, she mulled whether her deep sense of want towards jai had somehow lead to raghu's untimely death and her child's termination… … did she so longed for him that she lost what she had… in pursuit of what she never had…
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Jai checked the roomsas he walked through the streets of the red light area…he needed to find matre…urgently…

"Ehh…handsome chalna hain kya…" a woman dressed in skimpy clothes called him; jai ignored her…finally locating matre, drowned in alcohol lying on the bed…the girl shouted and ran away, gathering her clothes…

"Matre…saala uth saale…" jai shook him roughly…but he was knocked out…

Jai dragged him out, throwing him in his car, he sped off… …to a godown, it was a ruined factory…their secret hide-out…

Jai sat on the empty barrel…playing with his gun…matre was tied onto a chair in front of him…jai splashed a mug of water over his sleepy face…matre flapped open his eyes…

"Raghu ke saath kya kiya…" jai's voice was dangerously steely…

"Jai…mujhe kuch nahin pata…aai shapat… (Mother promise)" matre said terrified…

Jai punched him hard on his face; the skin around his eye-socket got blackened…

"Bata ta hain ya…" jai trailed off…

"Jai…mereko kuch…" another punch came his way; this time it was the other eye…

"Dimaag short mat kar…matre…seedha bata…warna tu maraa…tu jaanta hain mujhe, main raghu nahin hoon…main jo bolta hoon wahin karta hoon aur jo karta hoon wahin bolta hoon…"

"Batata hoon…"

Jai listened…

"Raghu ayaa tha abubhai ke paas…keh rahaan tha ki usko yeh line chodne ka hain…abubhai mana nahin…raghu ne bohot bola par abubhai ko gussa agaya…raghu ke bhaagne ke kuch din pehle usne abubhai ki baaten sun li…"

"Kya suna…"

"Ki…ki…" matre gulped down…

"KYAAA…" jai's shout reverberated in the deserted place…

"Ki, Abubhai dubai se drugs supply kar rahen the…aur tum sabko jhoot bol rahen hain…unka terrorists ke saath bhi connection hain…" matre completed, jai looked astounded…they did certain illegal things but not drugs, they had some rules and regulations that they would never ever get into drug-trafficking and destroy the lives of innocent teenagers and youth…but terrorists…God!!!! He never could imagine to this extent…no wonder Abubhai lead a reclusive life… …

Now everything was clearer…Abubhai came to know of raghu's reluctance to continue…and moreover he stupidly eavesdropped over his conversation…there was only one way out, to kill raghu or else he would confess to the police, raghu would eb left since he helped the police but they will catch Abubhai…raghu in a state of hurry and nervousness ran away…but Abubhai was smarter than him, got him killed by the police while his hands remained unclouded…but the very next second another thought crossed him, was it a trap…a trap deliberstely laid for raghu, so that he himself falls into it and perishes… …jai stood there helpless…What could he do?

Nothing…nothing at all…for the first time he felt weak…very weak…Abubhai was too big to even think of touching him…they would all meet the same fate as raghu if at all they even tried to plot against him…

He released matre… matre fled in seconds…
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Jai dragged his legs into the house… repenting his fate…when a crying tabrez approached him…

"Bhai…apun ka gang…" tabrez hiccupped…

"Kya hua…" jai got alerted…

"Gang pe hamla hua bhai…do teen mar gayen hain…Mathew hospital main hain…"

Jai banged his fist on the wall…he stomped his leg…and marched inside…to see bani consoling the widows of the dead…

"Tabrez…" jai shouted…

Tabrez went to him…

"Aurot logon ko bees haraaz de, unki zimedari apni hain abhi…ghar chodke aa sabko, aur ek do logon ko rakh wahaan pe…" jai said as he handed him the cash…

"Ji bhai…"

"Mathew theek hain…"

"Haan bhai, khatra toh nahin hain…"

"Hmmm…jaa ab…" jai said…

Bani stood by the entrance, watching jai… he was sitting with his head bent…was he crying…she neared him, and kept her hand over his slumped shoulder… … jai clutched her around her waist and burryign his face, he sobbed… …

"Main kuch nahin kar sakta…kuch nahin…" jai wept…and narrated what had actually happened… …

"Ladna hoga jai…hume ladna hoga…" bani left him alone…
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"Suddenly, as if the heart, by two enchanting eyes
Is beset by a thousand deceptions and robbed of tranquility;
But who cares enough to go and report
To my darling my state of affairs…"

It was well past midnight, almost the pitch of the night…the sore cries of the women echoed in her ears…bani sat on the edge of the bed, her fingers moving in a robotic fashion, switching on and off the bedside lamp… Decisions seemed to hang, demanding her attention, yet her brain couldn't seem to keep up with her body…she needed something else or rather she needed someone…the flash of orange light fell on her face then blanked out…she heard footsteps…

"Kya soch rahin hain…" jai asked…standing at the doorway…he seems to have become normal…

Bani glanced at him; she got up leaving the lamp switched on, the only source of light in the dull room, his handsome face unmasked in the dim glow… …

Jai's body tensed watching her walk towards him in a trance…

"Aap…" he tried to speak up…his Adam's apple dilating…

"Tum…" bani said…jai's confidence vanished…Why was she making it difficult for him? She was like a scarlet hibiscus plucked as the offering to the holy idols and he was an impious devotee… no matter how great, pure and sacred his love was but she was bound by the powerful black beads, to someone else…for seven births…

Bani reached him, jai stood like a statue, she leaned towards him lightly, lifting up her hand she bolted the door…

"Tum jai…" bani said looking up at him… their eyes held in a captivating engage… the moving…slippery silence between them became unbearable…

"Abhi tak tum mujhe raghu ki biwi hi maante ho…" bani spoke up not shifting her eyes from his…

"Sach toh wahin hain…" jai said…his confidence back in place…

"Ek aur sach bhi hain jai…raghu mar chukka hain…"

"Usse koi farak nahin padta…"

"Chodke bhaag gaya tha woh…mujhe…" bani shouted…jai kept quite…bani held his collar…

"Jaiii…" she clamored…

"Aap jo suna chahti hain…woh main kabhi nahin keh sakta…kabhi nahin…"

"Tumbhi chale kyun nahin jaate, raghu ki tarah…jao…chale JAO…" bani pushed him away…

Jai drank her appearance…he had only endured emptiness and loneliness since his childhood, out of desperation and self-preservation, he refused to let himself even consider looking at bani the way he felt…she had always been his best friend's wife, but he loved her profoundly was another hidden truth altogether…

Bani stood there equally desperate and self-preserving, needing his caring touch like the sun-parched earth needed the rains…

Jai neared her in quick steps and pulled her roughly into a tight hug…

"Main tumhe kabhi chodke nahin jaoonga, kabhi nahin…" he whispered into her open tuft of hair…bani sighed…

They knew this was disastrous, but on that deeper, more intense level, they couldn't turn away from the emotions that drove them…

"Bohot pyaar karta hoon…bohot…" he verbalized again and again…bani almost collapsed in his sturdy arms…she smiled to herself…her eyelids drooped…
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The morning warmth spread…bani squinted her eyes open…she was on her bed…covered by the blanket…she randomly saw around, he was nowhere…she got up…

Jai stared at the man who gave him this dark life…

"Jai…raghu ke saath aisa hoga…socha nahin tha…" abubhai said feeling greif, at least pretending to feel…

Jai remained silent…

"Aur yeh gang pe hamla kisne kiya…woh bhi mere gang pe…"

"Aapse ek zaroori baat karni thi Abubhai…" jai spoke up for the first time…the coldness in jai's voice threatened afzal ali…

"Haan beta…" jai flinched…

"Abhi ataa hoon…"

Jai disappeared inside…

Bani felt the weight of the gun resting harmlessly in her hand…it was raghu's…it smelled of a peculiar odor…

"Jab badla lena ho toh do kabr khod ke rakhni padti hain…ek dushman ki aur ek apni…" she heard jai's flat baritone…bani didn't turn back…

"Jaanti hoon…main nahin haaroongi…" she said…

"Ek baar fir soch lo…"

"Soch liya…tum saath doge…"

"Marte dam tak…"

They walked out, side by side… …
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"Namaste abubhai…"bani greeted him, jai stood behind her…

"Beti…bohot dukh hua sunke…" abubhai said…

"Hmmm…mujhe ghuma firakar baat karne ki adat nahin hain…ek seedhi baat boloon…"

"Haan beti…"

"Hum alag horahen hain abhubhai…" bani said seating herself on the sofa…

Afzal Ali looked at her, shocked out of his daylights…he always knew this girl had something fierce in her, a burning fire to fly, the first time he saw her when raghu brought to introduce her to him…but this decision was totally out of the blue…a minute later he broke into a cynical laughter…

"Chokri…tujhe andaaza bhi hain kya bol rahin hain…" he said…

"Hmm…huamre gang ko kissi bhi baap ya bhai ki zaroorat nahin…" bani said bitterly…afzal went quiet suddenly…he neared her…

"Gang war main sab ko marwa doonga…samjhi…"

"Dekhte hain…par abhi se na aap humare sarkar hain na hum aapke gulam, hafta, loot, wasooli sab supply band…"

"Kal ki chokri hain tu…aisa giregi na kabhi uth nahin paayegi…Afzal Ali se takkar acha nahin beti…" afzal said in a warning tone…bani smirked…

"Aapne hi kahaan tha yaad hain…Mumbai ek samundar hain…yahaan har machli ke liye jagaah hain…aur rahin girneki baat, toh meri fikar aap mat hi kijiye…"

Bani stood up…

"Tabrez…Abubhai ko gaadi tak chod aao…Namaste…" bani said…

"Chalen…Abubhai…" tabrez mocked…jai grinned…bani looked at jai through the corner of her eyes…with a small smile…

The nest which was devastated by the violent storm was ready to be rebuilt…they would 'together' make their broken nest… …but… …

Now let it work. Mischeif, thou art afoot,
Take thou what course thou wilt!

(William Shakespeare…Julius Ceaser)

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EXEUNT… … (Exit)

God bless
Dhani

P.S.: I know the ending was quite abrupt but there couldn't have been a better end and an apt one that too, for a story so divisive as this…well, you may find the ending a happy one but it may take a different course, bani might go into a guilt trip, jai might end up feeling repulsive to have betrayed his dead friend, bani and jai may have ego clashes, how will other gang members take bani and jai's relationship, will they accept bani as their leader and don't mind being lead by a female, bani might turn into an arrogant master, abubhai might not let them live in peace…etc… so that's why the 'but' in the end…

P.P.S: There might be a possibility of writing a sequel to it, if I get a future plot, which is interesting enough… any suggestions are welcome!!!!

P.P.P.S: A BIG BIG THANK YOU!!!!!

Note: I am going on a holiday AT LAST!!! I will be leaving on 13^th and will return by June 25!!! I have written the first two parts of my next story, if you want I can post it or else after I come back I will post it… …

when i was posting i didnt see the uopdate ....end already .... let me read first will come back