Posted:
Hey! This is a oneshot that I had originally written about two years ago, not on Kis Desh. Not on any show for that matter. But I really loved it, and I sent it to Shabz to read because she loves tragic things, and she told me to adapt it (which I was considering already), and I talked to Bhav about it, who had already read it when I wrote it, and they both said to adapt it for the forums. So I did. The two of them will notice that I didn't change much, just the names and the area, and some sentences are now in Hindi, but that is it. 😆
Enjoy, and do let me know what you think!
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Meher adjusted the heavy dupatta. She smiled to herself in the mirror, but the smile looked fake even to herself. She heaved a sigh as she fidgeted with the blouse of her sari. Behind her she heard the door open. Whirling around, her eyes widened as she looked at the man standing in the doorway.
"You shouldn't be here," she warned. Her tone was frosty, almost acidic.
"You look beautiful." Not surprisingly, he ignored her. She should have known he would not be deterred by her words. He knew her too well for that. It was no use telling him to leave, because he would not. He'd read her like a book and know that despite her words and despite her tone, she wanted him to stay. Her eyes locked with Preet's.
"Tum yahaan kya kar rahe ho?"
"Main apne hone-wali bhabhi ko dekhne aaya hoon." She could feel the pain behind his statement, though his countenance betrayed none of it. She turned away from him, not wanting him to see that same pain reflected in her eyes, the same pain that permeated her entire being.
Suddenly tired, she pleaded, "Tum yeh sab kyun kar rahe ho?"
He strode up to stand behind her, and helped her adjust the maang tika on her forehead. She looked at his reflection, waiting for an answer. He looked up into the mirror and placed his hands on her shoulders. They stood there looking at their reflection, looking much like a picture-perfect couple. But neither was smiling, neither could smile as Preet replied her query with a question of his own.
"Are you happy?"
Her immediate affirmative response died on her lips as she caught his penetrating brown eyes. They seemed to look right through her, to the depths of her soul. Was she happy? She cared about Harman, that was sure, and it was obvious he cared for her. She knew that he would take care of her. She also knew that he would never love her. And she would never love him. Her eyes dropped. She couldn't look at Preet when she knew in her heart she wanted it to be him she was marrying. For so long she had dreamed of marrying the man she loved, and yet here she was in the house she had always wanted to be bahu of about to marry the brother of the man she loved, her hands adorned with the wrong name, adorned with the name that should have been linked to her sister's. No, she was not happy.
"Don't do this," Preet begged.
Tears pooled in her eyes. More than anything she wanted to listen to him. She struggled to control her emotions.
"I have to."
"No, you don't." Preet's eyes blazed in defiance. Stubbornly, he shook his head. "You don't." His voice wavered slightly. She almost broke down at the helplessness she could detect in his voice, and the sheen of tears in his eyes. Biting her lip, she swallowed thickly.
"Maine vada kiya tha, Preet," she whispered, broken, pleading with him to understand, to see reason. "I can't break my promise. I said I would take care of him. I promised my cousin that I would take care of him for her."
"Ash wouldn't have wanted you to be unhappy."
"We don't know what Ash would have wanted," she shot back, "because Ash is dead! I made a promise to my sister as she was leaving me, and I intend to keep it, Preet. I have to keep it."
In his eyes she could see that he understood her. But that didn't make what she was going to do any easier, for either one of them. The pain they were experiencing was never going to become any less. She turned to face him.
"What I'm doing today does not change the fact that I love you." Preet closed his eyes. "But we have to forget that. You have to forget that. You have to forget how you feel about me, Preet. Forget what we had because not doing that will only make things harder."
"That's impossible. I can't do that Meher, and don't ask me to."
"Preet-"
"If it makes any easier, today will be that last time you see me."
Her eyes widened, and her breath hitched. "Preet-"
"I love you, Meher. I'm always going to love you." He pushed a dark curl out of her face. "I'm never going to forget you," he attempted to grin, "but I can't see you anymore."
She tried to chuckle, near tears. "I love you."
He bent forward and gently kissed her lips. She savoured the feel of it for the last time. He pulled back, and with a long, last look at Meher, drinking in the sight of her standing there dressed as a bride (she should have been his bride, he thought to himself bitterly, not his brother's), he turned and walked away. Every inch of Meher was screaming at her to stop him, to call him back, but she didn't. He paused at the door, and not looking back at her, he whispered, "Good bye."
As she walked the love of her life walk out the door, imagined him walk out of the house and away from her and from his family, she realised that she had let him walk out of her life, Meher felt something in her die. A lone tear trickled down her face, as she prepared to get married to someone that was not her Preet.
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Yeah, I feel like a hypocrite. Here I am posting a tragic oneshot when I always complain about the tragedy in other people's work! 😆 And I'm planning another tragic one for Shabzie. That girl thrives on tragedy.
And if anybody is interested to know, the title is a direct transalation of the original title. 😆
Love,
Radz
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
Cricket
