SS: Empty Vows-2! Part-12, Pg-10, LAST PART, Pg-11 - Page 2

Hey Dhani

That was a fabulous part........... Had read the ss earlier n was waiting for the next part................. So now Jai knows the truth about Bani.......... What wil he do??? Is he going to return home............... I know that Jai has feelings for Bani........... But waht about her??? Does she also love him??? Continue soon..............

Keep smiling 😃

very well written......just waiting for jai to go back to bani!

Here is the link for the previous parts!!!

Link: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/kasamh-se/1174899/ss-empty-vows-part-5-page-13-24-09

Jeenal dear…mera PA kaun banega…din bhar kaam hi karvati rahoongi main usse…I would be terrible…mere workaholism se mere friends pagal hogaye hain…gaali-waali dalte hain mujhe… Poor me…and again they take the journals from me…Unfair na!!!

Part-7

Bani smiled…it felt good to be in the warm embrace of her mother…she hugged Krishna even tighter… Krishna smiled, stroking her head…

"Kya hua beta…?" she asked with affection…bani broke away from the hug, still holding her hand…she shook her head lightly, letting her hair drift along, hiding her face…shielding her emotions which were forming on her face…almost a myriad of expressions…she was suddenly clueless of how to feel about the things gone by…if fiction was strange than truth was even stranger… today it had brought her to a crossroads again… she found herself standing at the same place where she had been five years ago…alone, a married girl who knew her husband would never acknowledge her, she was mature enough to decipher that fact unseemly, she had gladly accepted that as her unavoidable fate, she never fretted over it nor did pay attention to the details…she had moved on…at least she thought she had moved on…but somewhere today revising the langsyne she realized there was too much clogged in the past to move on…and for the first time may be she felt really bad when her estranged husband had again stoically refused to accept her identity…not even as a person…it somewhere tied her heart into knots… was she so unbearable that the bestowed look he had on his face till the time he didn't know the truth suddenly flipped into a naked canvas of nothingness…

"Bani…" her train of thoughts got disturbed by Krishna's endearment…

"Jee maa…" bani said not quite looking at her, pretending to look around…

"Kya hua…"

"Kuch nahin…baba kahaan hain…" bani asked…

"I am here darling…" uday's shaky voice boomed from behind and immediately a lovely smile emerged on her frowning lips… she quickly went towards him, bending to take his blessings…

"Ladkiyan pair nahin chute…" uday stopped her mid-way, hugging her lovingly…

"Kaisa hain mera bacha…" he asked…

"Bilkul theek…"

"Patli hogayi hain na…krishna…" he questioned his wife, analyzing his daughter-in-law…

"Haan…apne khayaal toh rakhti nahin hogi…" Krishna reprimanded her for her carelessness about her health…

"Maa…" bani whined turning into a child within moments…

"Acha fresh up…we will have dinner…"

"Jee maa hum abhi aate hain…" bani went towards her room

"Tony…bani ka samaan le aao…" Krishna ordered before disappearing into the kitchen…
******
Jai felt her fingers tracing his front in a tempting way…

"Jaii…" the low voice didn't do anything to him…he sat on the bed mechanically…he looked down as the long fingers unbuttoned his shirt…

"I am glad you left that bi**h…cheap woman, must have thrown herself on you…" roshni snorted in the most unlady like manner…nearing him…jai looked at roshni's face…it appeared ugly to him…the same face which attracted him initially…behind that pretty face there was another face…a face which was hidden from the world…a face mean and self-centric…

"These women I tell you…no class…" she remarked, trying to undo her top…

Jai kept staring at her for a complete moment… somewhere he saw his face in hers… juxtaposed over hers…uttering the same cruel words with vengeance… accusing an innocent…bani's face floated in front of him… abruptly he got up, buttoning his shirt…

"What happened Jai???" roshni got up…

"Bye roshni…I don't think we will meet again…" he said leaving her behind…

He drove as fast as he could…flying on the empty streets…cold winds hitting his pale face… he pressed the break with force, halting the car with a loud jerk…he came out flopping himself on the bonnet, looking into the dim lights sparkling at a far off distance…anger built inside him…for what he failed to comprehend… For pursuing his wife whom he had forgotten??? For knowing the fact that his wife remembered him even after so much???? Or For her audacity to mislead him and then tell him the truth???

The flashes of his wedding night swirled in front of him…

Now he was married to a minor, undergraduate, oily-haired, bespectacled, dehati servant of ' that man', who made her way from the floor in the living room to his bed. For god's sake he couldn't even remember her name or her face even if his life depended on it.

Jai looked at the girl hurled up on his bed. the flowers strewn all over irritated him. What were these people thinking? That he would be her husband tonight?

She seemed to have noticed him. Under the heavy veil a head turned his side. He heard the faint tinkle of bangles. Hearing that somewhere, something snapped inside Jai.
"You think you are so smart, don't you?" Jai hissed at her.
"Ow sorry, Angrezi to samajh me nahin aati. Kya soch kar tumne aur us aadmi ne yeh plan banaaya? Kya socha tum dono ne? Yehi na, ki woh aaram ki zindagi basarar lega Mumbai me. Yaha to sookhi roti tak naseeb nahin hoga usko. Oopar se tumhaara bojh. Ab mere ghar me jagah mil jaayegi? Meri biwi ban kar. Arre. Mere ghar me naukrani banne ki haisiyat tak nahin hai. Aur yahan bhi to sirf wohi ho, ek naukar. Tumhaare baap bhi wahi tha, aur tum bhi!" And stream of acidy words left his mouth.

"Tumhaare maa-baap to rahe nahin, na khaandaan ka koi patta. Pata nahin ghatiya khaandaan se ho jo ek aadmi ke ghar me itne dinon se pari rahi. Pata nahin Maa ko bhi kaise phasa liya. But I am telling you one thing. Meri zindagi me tumhaare liye koi jagah nahin hai. aur na hi us aadmi ke liye. Is janam me to kya, hazaar janam bhi le lo, to bhi mai tumhe apni patni maanne se inkaar karunga. I hate you and I hate that man!" With these final words Jai turned and left the room and loudly banged the door shut, not paying any attention to the frightened and shocked girl he was leaving behind. Not hearing the soft sobs that she couldn't control.

After that he had never looked back…not even once… when he left India he was boiling with rage…extreme rage…he had tied his past in a bundle and thrown away... separating it from himself…amputating it as if it was a rotten organ…nothing remained within him… nor his mother nor his father nor his imposed wife… …it was only after a few months, almost a year later that he answered his mother's phone…before he never picked up her calls…and to his surprise she didn't say anything except for asking how he was doing and was he taking care of himself or not…there was no mention of his ailing father nor the mention of that servant wife who he married out of his mother's insistence…he was glad it remained like that…the brief calls…which ended shortly… his life was smooth….good…he was happy being himself despite the occasional bouts of loneliness he felt…whenever he looked around he found hoards of people and those hoards of people had someone or the other to share things with and every time he looked around himself he realized that someone else's mistake had ruined his life…and his hatred multiplied even more…that one mistake made by his father…that one misconception he presumed to be true designed the person he was today, defined his cynical attitude towards everything… he wasn't like this…he was made into this…a part of him always wanted to break free…to let go…to forgive…to forget…but none of the things reached a possibility…he would always find himself enslaved by his basic human emotions and his pride and ego that kept him afloat… rendering him strength to sustain…

As he remembered the words he hissed that night, he cringed at his own cruelty… somehow his rational mind was tamed to believe Bharati…Bani…there was a certain amount of credibility in which she uttered her words looking at him directly… she wasn't lying…he was certain of thing… his cell phone buzzed disturbing his quaint…

"Haan ranveer…" jai said…

"Well…I have booked the tickets…we have a flight to catch in about three hours…" ranveer said…

"Are you going somewhere…?" jai asked…

"We are going to India…"

"When did I say I am going back…?"

"Stop it jai…end it once and for all…tujhe bhi shaanti milegi or unhe bhi…at least be fair to yourself…"

"No ranveer…"

"Bani se divorce lene ke liye toh jaana padega na…"

"It was not legal…she was seventeen then…" jai said shocked that he remembered every minute detail with so much perfection… …

"Well…Hindu Act ke hissabse you are married…divorce toh lene padega…it's a different thing if you want to remain married to her…"

"Shut up ranveer…"

"Why??? You like her don't you…?" jai remained silent after listening to this…

"We were planning to put up a branch in India…I think we should go…main kaam sambhaloonga…"

"Why are you coming with me???"

"Well, I am thinking pardesh main bohot reh liya…maybe we should go back home…aur fir you need me don't you…"

"Thanks ranveer"

"Oh!!! So we are back to formalities…Great" jai chuckled listening to ranveer…at least he was lucky to have a best friend like him…

"Cha lab bas kar… aata hoon…" he disconnected the line… … Yes maybe it was time to go back and pick up the scattered threads…he would have to stop running… …
******
Bani lay awake…the rotating fan hung to the ceiling looked a bit blurred without her glasses… she sympathized with herself to still believe that jai would come…the Jai Walia who tried to entice her with his lazy charm was so much different from the Jai Walia whose venomous words sent her into a fit of uncontrollable sobs…somewhere she for the first time thought from his point of view…yes how would a young child, especially a restless boy would go through if her father leaves them unceremoniously for unspecific reasons… the society was a cruel place…What all people would have hooted about his mother, about his father, about his family… it would have had a menacing effect on his growing brain and all of the negativity remained imprinted on his young mind which came out in form of rebellion arrogance and resentment…she got up, picking up her frameless glasses, a gift form baba…she walked towards her cupboard…she opened a deep drawer…there lay the proof of her identity a black-beaded mangalsutra, its small diamond pendant glittered in the absorbing darkness… feeling a lump in her throat she shut the drawer…no, it wasn't possible…he hated her… for him that hatred would last for births to follow… …she quickly returned back, closing her eyes tightly…avoiding any thoughts pertaining to him…
******
"I am not sure ranveer…" jai looked skeptical, standing in the line for the security check

"Jai…we have come till here…let's go…" ranveer said casually…

"But what will I say to them…I mean… How??? It would be so awkward…" jai pressed his words…trying to escape again…

"Jai…they are your parents…"

He went ahead…this whole thing of rebuilding relationships seemed too bizarre for his rational mind…they were fine as they were…happy and content in their distinct worlds which were poles apart… then what was the need to bridge this wide, wide gap and that too now…after years of non-existence… …

"Come on jai…" ranveer dragged him away…
******
God bless
Dhani