FF: Aftermath - updated part 4 on pg 10 & part 5 on pg 14

Aftermath (I will change the name soon)

Part 1 - The set up

Dev

His mother's health scare shook him. The fact that she took this step over his relationship with Sona, was too much for him to digest. He did not know how he broke up with Sona, the visual of her crying face would never leave him. All he knew was that he had to act. His mother's state did not give him any confidence that he and Sona could lead a normal life in his house with his mother and family. How could he keep Sona dangling when he had no answers?

His mother has returned home and her daughters and brother are putting in all their efforts to bring her back to normalcy. He made sure his mother knew that his love was as strong as ever, he could never let her feel guilty. The silences between them were difficult now so he installed a TV in her room which he turned on when he visited her and spent time in her room. He always made sure mamaji or one of the sisters were around when they were together. He had to avoid the silences and the searching eyes...

His workload was grueling given he had spent time away from work caring for his ailing mom. Thoughts of Sona are a constant companion. He has not even attempted to stop thinking about her...

Sonakshi

Sonakshi received a lot of support from her family in these trying times. Her parents were very upset and did not want to sympathize with Dev or even discuss this issue any further, their goal was to get their daughter to heal. Elena has focused on comforting Sona and refrains from passing judgement at this stage. Sourav dada avoids talking about Dev because he does not want to upset Sona. Only once he shared with Sona that he can see where Dev was coming from having known him for some time though he is in no way looking to justify his actions.

The Bose family is sure their daughter will pull through and will not let this experience hold her back for too long. For a change of scene the family went over to Kolkata for Puja holidays and thereafter vacationed in Darjeeling with their cousins. The idea was to keep Sona busy and they were happy to see that Sona was definitely making progress...

While on vacation Sona received an offer from an ex-patient (who was associated with WHO) to join a team that was working on a WHO sponsored project to put together diet recommendations for underprivileged pregnant women and small children across north India. Her family was skeptical about her moving away from home at such a time. Sona's instincts told her that this was just what she needed and the opportunity excited her, bringing back her interest in her career. The opportunity to travel was an added bonus. She would also get to experience her first overseas trip, to Thailand At the conclusion of the project, all the teams participating in this project across India and South East Asia were meeting at Thailand to present and discuss findings. The project did not pay well but this trip was a perk for her.

Next up...the actual story

Continued below

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Part 2

Sonakshi

Somewhere in rural North India ..

Sonakshi walked back to her room in the guest house accompanied by some of her project team members.

For Sona and other two on the team who had never been this close to the underprivileged and rural folk in India, the experience had been nothing short of life altering. Each time the three of them returned from their trips to the villagers' homes and village meetings, their hearts and minds were too full for them to speak. Instinctively by now they were attuned to each others' feelings and avoided conversation till they had a chance to let their thoughts settle. Witnessing the plight of the underprivileged villagers, their lives and worries seemed so trivial and far far away. It was humbling.

Only when they joined the rest of the group working on other components of the project in the dining hall of the guest house did they break out of their thoughts.

There was a heated discussion underway on how they were to spend the weekend. Some were in favour of staying back to participate in a local village festival. Others wanted to drive over to the neighbouring village to watch the latest Bollywood release and some others wanted to explore the hills nearby. It was an unwritten rule that they did everything together, nobody knew why so they had to reach a consensus.

"Sonakshi, what is your choice? I know you are a movie buff, please vote for movie" wailed Tripti. Tripti was a mother of two small kids and she rarely had opportunities back home to watch movies that did not involve animation.

Sonakshi and the other women readily supported Tripti. The menfolk threw them disgusted looks. It was a chick flick and they did not want to be caught dead in the theatre watching a movie they would have rejected outright on television! Why, the male lead waxed his chest and even plucked his eyebrows, sickening! They turned to Karthik, the team lead and a veteran of WHO projects.

His response - "Only if you do not insist on playing cricket with us, do not insist on commenting on the matches we watch and pretend that you know what LBW is" . With that it was settled..

At the theatre...

Sonakshi was watching the movie lost in her thoughts.

I hope ma is not waiting for my call. I will text her to let her know that I am in the theatre and will call later. She will start worrying and think I am low, because of Dev...Dev, Dev...

She said the name twice, thrice in her mind. Realized she was able to say it more and more easily, no not easily (never that) normally each time she tested herself. She called it her "wellness check".

Since she was able to say his name normally, she decided to expand her "wellness check". She allowed the memories she normally kept locked away to come to her freely. The first one (always, will that ever change?) was the last one, their conversation outside the hospital. The usual feelings which accompanied that memory were coming to her less forcefully these days. She was able to move on to other memories. There were so many.

She riffled through the memories to settle on one. Auntyji referring to her as Sona after her conversation with Neha. Dev professing his love outside Neha's room, his eyes full of love. That moment made her proud, yes proud of herself. Sona, girl you are worth it. Never doubt yourself. A line she read in a magazine, sounded trite when she read it, but she liked it.

Once again the memory of their last meeting came back. Emboldened by her composure, she let it come. Dev's face, stricken but determined, unshaven and with long hair. Long hair? Ok longish hair. She had never registered that before. Why did he not get a haircut? He looked like a ruffian! She laughed out loud. Of all the thoughts she could have about that day why was she thinking about his hair?

She saw that others around her were looking at her strangely. What was happening on the screen? The heroine was tearfully breaking up with her boyfriend, the hero (of the waxed chest and plucked eyebrows) because her parents did not like his family. She laughed louder much to the amazement of her friends around her. What an irony!

"Sonakshi what a nice laugh you have! Baby you should laugh more often but at more opportune moments" said Tripti.

Sonakshi laughed harder!

Up next..

Dev (updated on page 2)

Its beautiful.. I think you should continue.

Beautiful start .. Pls continue

It was such a relief to read that Sona is regaining herself and trying to focus on her career. Please do continue.

This was lovely and you must continue. I like your writing style and waiting eagerly for update.

Hi please continue and pls pm me ur next

Part 3

Dev

"Sir, you have a meeting at 5 pm today with Vithal Sir and his team as requested by you and the recording for the video updates to the company website at 6:30 pm."

"Fine. Let them know I need the final launch plan, no more drafts"

Everyone filed out of the room, except Tina. Dev looked at her questioningly. Why was she still here? He needed a break so he could think, no daydream. His last break was over 3 hours ago and he was getting impatient, it was suffocating...

He looked up to find that she was saying something. It sounded like "hair". He focused on her slowly, it was difficult to do that if he let his thoughts break away as they frequently did..

"Sir the barber is waiting outside, shall I let him in?" Did she say "barber" now?? "Sir, you need to cut your hair, so sorry to say something so personal but I do not want my boss to look like this in the video recording which will be viewed by so many people"

Hours later, Dev was back at home. He walked straight to his mother's room and turned on the television. He made sure she took her medicines, enquired about her dinner. No, he had eaten (that was a lie, he was not particularly hungry) and repaired to his room.

Once in his room, he finally breathed easy. Later as he lay down on his bed, he sighed. Finally he could settle down with his thoughts, the activity he looked forward to each night.

Thoughts of his Sonakshi. His?

Each night he selected a few memories and thought deeply about them, memorizing what they said, how she smiled, what she wore.

Today he focused on one of his most cherished memories. Their date at home. Sonakshi so breathtakingly beautiful in that sari. Making his heart race as she stood close to him. What had he said that day? "I love your lips, not because they are perfect, but because of the understanding words you utter". What a lie. They were perfect and he did not just love them. He was crazy about them and wanted to taste them. He wanted so many times to tell her that but held back because of her blushes. He did not want to rush her, they had their whole life ahead of them. What a fool he was to think that.

He grabbed his phone from the bedside table and pulled up Sourav's facebook page, another part of his nightly routine. Sourav rarely updated so he was always disappointed. Wait, a picture captioned "Bose meets Bose in Darjeeling on Oct 25" had been put up, how did he miss that??

With his heart in his mouth he scanned the picture for her face. There she was, almost hidden in a group of posing youngsters. She had her head turned slightly towards someone to her right and had a smile on her face. He traced her lips with his fingers.

Sona, are you able to smile without me now? As soon as the thought came to his mind, he was ashamed.

His phone beeped. It was a message from Tina - Sir, sorry to text you so late. Just confirming that you will attend the meeting in the hospital tomorrow morning.

Those stupid meetings. They were so boring with unrelenting talk of hospital enhancements and patient pass through rate. He attended each one of them with a hope that he would hear something about Sonakshi.

He had driven by her place so many times and saw the locked door. So they went to Darjeeling. He checked the photo again, it was taken in October apparently. Where is she now?

Finally he drifted off to sleep after dwelling on her crying face outside the hospital, the last time he saw her. He made sure to do that each night. The pain it gave him was his penance.

Next day at the hospital.

"Now that we have concluded the discussion on hospital enhancements, we should spend some.." ...

Dev tuned everything out. He was thinking of his meeting with Sonakshi in her cabin when he had just been introduced to her. She had to look up at him to see his face but that did not stop her from pointing to the door and ask him to make his way out. He remembered how her eyes looked as she gestured, that was new. Each time he thought about her, he came up with new treasures.

Wait, did someone just say Dr.Bose? Yes, there was a discussion underway on his Sonakshi!

"As some of you already know, Dr. Bose is working on a very prestigious project. There was an article in TOI yesterday about the project."

"Do you mean Dr. Sonakshi Bose?", Dev interjected. He did not know why he said that. He just felt like saying her name aloud. He was always saying her name in his mind, he wanted to say it aloud among a group of people who knew her.

"Yes, Mr. Dixit. I am very keen to get her to resume working with us. It is a matter of pride for us that she was selected for this project. I called her yesterday, she was able to speak only briefly and said she needed time to work out her plans. The project is nearing completion."

Dev put on an impassive face (the one he had now become adept at putting on everywhere outside his room). Inside, his mind was exploding with so many emotions. Love (always), confusion, despair, pride. He was feeling so proud.

If only he had the right to show how proud he was openly instead of putting on his stone face...

Next up

They meet (updated on pg 10)

Should I continue? Likes, comments and feedback welcome. Please be kind. I am writing for the first time after school which was too long ago!

Pls pls continue... Interesting storyy

Loved the next part too 👍🏼

So well written with humour weaved in nicely.
Loved that Dev makes Sonakshi laugh, not bitter - oh! His hair 😃
Loved that her thoughts are positive...

Waiting for Dev... 😊 ... Pls continue...