FF: KUCH LUV JAISA - LAST pt pg-72 NOTEpg-75 - Page 14

She pulled the curtains and opened the windows allowing sun light to enter and illuminate the room. He squeezed his eyes tightly not to let the bright light disturb his sleep even though it had been more than a week since Ganesh chaturthi had gotten over for which he had to wake up early only for two mornings to attend the arti still today he was in no mood to open his eyes. She unwrapped the towel around her wet hair and as per her routine habit started rubbing them vigorously. The water droplets from her hair once again fell on his face, he grabbed the bed sheet firmly in his fist and said " tu kuch bhi kar le magar main jaldi uthne wala nahin." Then turned his head to the other side, she bit her tongue on realizing her mistake, why did she always forget not to dry her hair in front of him and disturb his precious sleep. She walked closed to him and covered him with the duvet properly, " koi baat nahin ..main neeche nashte ke liye apke intezaar karti hai..apka jab man kare aa jana." And left the room.

Two hours later he came down to have breakfast. She was pouring juice for him in the glass when his cell rang and he picked it up " hello ..namaste ?jee main theekh hoon..hmm yahin hai ek minute." He handed over the cell to her and said mockingly," nakku ..teri aayi phir kuch keh rahi hai." She took the cell excitedly but didn't fail to notice that he was teasing her, she narrowed her eyes then brought the cell to her ear ," haan aayi ..main acchi hoon ?tu kaisi hai? ..kisne kaha teri yaad nahin aati? Aaungi milne ?hmm sab theekh hain yahan ..tu apna aur baba ka khayal rakhna..ab rakhti hoon." And gave him back the cell, he chewed on the sandwich and asked " tera man hai ghar jaane ko?" she nodded her head in response," toh chali jaa hafte bhar ke liye kisne roka hai ?" her face beamed in delight on hearing this but the next moment it lost its color," main aise kaise ja sakti hai ..phir is ghar ko kaun dekhega?" he knotted his brows and asked in surprise," kyun is ghar ko kya hua? Pehle bhi toh ye chalta tha." She shook her head lightly in acceptance, of course this house did function before her and would continue to do so in her absence after all she was not indispensable. His rude but honest confession broke her myth that if she was not around then it would make a difference to anybody. She lowered her head and smiled inwardly thinking she had not been staying here forever, it had just been a couple of weeks, nor would she be in this house forever in the future, again just for a couple of months then why expect them to miss her . He snapped her out of her thoughts," chal jaldi se taiyaar ho ja ..mujhe tere ghar ke pass hi kaam hai ..chodta hua chala jaunga."

The drive was absolutely quiet although when alone he spoke only when it was need but she would often initiate a conversation, her silence was disturbing him. The fact that her absence would not affect him somewhere did hurt her. He gave her a side ways glance, she looked upset even on being taken to her home after so many days but why? This kind of a reaction he was not expecting of her, he thought she would be overjoyed but "no" she appeared sad. He was lost in thinking about the reason of her being gloomy when all of a sudden a small boy came on the road, he applied the brakes hard just in time and managed to avert the accident but didn't realize that in doing so she had ended up banging her head against the dashboard. He saw a cut near her parting which was bleeding, he took out his hanker chief and pressed it on that cut and asked in annoyance," tera dhyan kahan rehta hai? Seat belt kyun nahin bandh kar rakhi?" he began rubbing her wound gently when she stopped him and said " sahab mang ke pass chot lagna accha shagun hota hai ..isse poncho mat." He clenched his jaw tightly and shook his head in disappointment ," abhi pair ki chot theekh hui nahin thi ki sar par bhi lagwa li." He gazed at the cut, thankfully it was not bleeding any more, he leaned on her slowly, she moved back in surprise and held her breath, he pulled the seat belt from her left and fixed it securely then went back to resume his driving. He halted the car outside her house, she gave him the hanker chief back and unfastened the seat belt to get down. She shut the door and glanced at him through the open window he was busy reading a message on his cell, she lowered her head and turned to leave when he called her out from behind " nakku !" she looked back at him " apna dhyan rakhiyo." With that he left and saw her standing with a smile on her face through the rear view mirror.

Soon the mother and daughter busied themselves in chatting. She had lots of things to share with her worried mother about her new home and family especially her husband. Babi was relieved to know that her daughter was welcomed with open arms there, she thanked bappa for that. In the evening nakku got a call from roops asking her to teach her how to cook daal and sabzi the way nakku did. Nakku was pleased to hear from her and instructed her step by step how to do so then before keeping the phone down she reminded roops about something important. When dutta and baaji came back from work they found the dinner laid out with all the dishes looking just the way they did when nakku cooked. Roops began serving them excitedly and informed that all this she learnt from her vaheni today on phone. Both couldn't stop themselves further and started eating , with the very first morsel he realized though the food looked great but taste wise it was no where close to what she used to make, he smiled within thinking " all that glitters is not gold" roops looked at both of them expectantly to know their reactions then asked " bhau khana kaisa hai?" He gazed at her then nodded his head " accha hai" but baaji had a totally different opinion and gave his friend a surprised look when he said that the food was good, the rice were half cooked, the vegetable was over salted, the chapatti's were burnt and the dal had no spice but even then the food was good because it was made by his sister. He stared at roops cheerful face and said " ae roops tujhe itni mehnat karne ki kya zaroorat hai , jab tak nakku nahin aati cooks ko khana banane de, tu aaram kar." But roops felt even more proud of her cooking after hearing this and dismissed his suggestion " nahin baaji mujhe accha lagta hai tum logon ke liye khana pakana ..dekhna dheere dheere main vaheni se bhi accha khana pakane lagungi." Both dutta and baaji looked at each other helplessly on hearing this. Roops on remembering what nakku had said slapped her forehead "bhau , vaheni keh rahi thi ki AS ki dawai kal khatam ho jayegi." Baaji interrupted in between and said " tu mujhe list de diyo main mangwa dega."

He went back to his room and looked around suddenly it appeared "different" without her, he didn't want to use the term "empty". He had gotten a little used to of seeing here in the room, considering she had been there for some days so it was quite natural to feel that way, his mind stated. He tried to brush off the thought that she wasn't around and began taking out his wallet which he threw it on the couch then unclasped his watch and dropped it on the bed next came his hanker chief he was about to throw it somewhere when he noticed it had blood stains, he traced his thumb over the stain and recalled how she had got hurt. She was so careful in handling AS and other members of the family but when it came about taking care of herself she was absolutely careless. He still remembered the scene where she had pushed him aside when he was about to collide with the lamp and in the process burnt her feet. Why was she so prone to accidents? He sighed and hoped she began thinking about herself as much as she did about others but in no time she crashed his tiny little hope when his gaze fell on the bed side table, she had forgotten to take her ointment which she applied on her burnt feet. He shook his head and thought she remembered that AS's medicines were getting over but to carry her own ointment slipped out of her mind. He bit the inside of his cheek and scanned the bed for his night clothes, they weren't out, how could they be? When she was not around, he went to his cupboard and opened it. This he was doing after a very long time, ever since they had gotten married she would take out everything he needed without him even asking for them. He changed into his night clothes and laid on the bed gazing at the ceiling then at her side of the bed with his hands resting behind his head. There was pin drop silence in the room which would hardly be when she was there to share it, she always had some story or the other to tell him and most of them were related to her mother. He didn't know that her mother had left such a deep influence on her till one night he found her murmuring in her sleep " meri aayi kehti hai?" he smiled broadly on recalling that night.

She pulled the blanket to herself and tucked it under her chin, tonight the whole blanket was hers which was something rare because With him she was supposed to share the blanket but would often find it difficult to do so as no matter how many times she covered both of them with it he would in the middle of the night kick it off to one side leaving her trembling in cold and if that didn't happen he would end up sleeping on the blanket making it impossible for her to pull it from underneath his heavy body. She tossed and turned on her single bed that appeared so spacious but still failed to fall asleep, with him even that large king size double bed looked small because he had this habit of sleeping in the middle of the bed leaving just that much amount of space for her where she could only manage to lay down straight on her back and once she was even about to fall off the bed due to lack of space but survived thankfully because he always wrapped his arm possessively around her waist, this was something she was missing tonight and probably that's why she was wide awake.

He opened his eyes lazily and looked at the watch, it was 7 AM, he still had one more hour to sleep but didn't feel like doing so especially when she was not there to wake him up by pulling the curtains to brighten the room which would make him squint his eyes and the tinkling sound of her bangles which he could hear and enjoy whole day but in the morning they disturbed him to no extent. The fun of sleeping more was when there was someone stopping you from doing so but you were also determined from not letting that someone hamper your sleep. He woke up and glanced at the empty side of the bed drowsily for a few moments then pushed himself to start his daily chores after opening the door of his room making it clear that he was awake. He came out of the shower with the towel hanging around his neck and saw roops bringing in his breakfast tray. He sat on the couch and poured the tea out of the flask, roops picked up the watch from his bed, took out a hanker chief from the cupboard and placed them with wallet on the couch. He gazed at his belongings and then at her, she smiled and said " who vaheni ka phone aaya tha unhone kaha ki aap apni cheezein idhar udhar rakh dete hain toh main apko woh de doon." He nodded his head and thought so she had the time to call her but she should have called him instead why bother roops early in the morning. He sipped on the tea and raised his brow if she had to tell something to roops then she should have told her to add ginger to his tea just the way she used to do at least then he could kick start his day with a nice refreshing cup of tea. His eyes fell on the plate of half burnt toasts and then on his sister, he didn't want to dishearten her so had them quietly then said " jab phir baat ho toh apni VAHENI se keh dena ki woh apna ointment yahin bhool gayi hai ..bazaar se aur mangwa le." Stressing on the word "vaheni"

Thanks for reading

Lots of love

Rose