A/N: Hey there everyone! :D :D Here is the next update. :D :D
Happy Reading! :D :D
Ranveer sat at the Sydney International Airport, staring at the hubbub happening in the wee hours of the morning. Sitting near the gate entrance after the completion of their security check, Ranveer and Finch remained silent for several minutes before they spotted a honeymoon couple discussing the itinerary of their trip animatedly. Finch smiled at the couple fondly while Ranveer gave them a distant look, thinking about a woman with whom he had been to on a similar trip. A woman who was no more a part of this world.
He opened the diary in his hand where the photo of a girl in her early twenties sat as a bookmark, an innocent smile plastered upon her face while her eyes twinkled with the joy of living. Both the women in his life had been in vast contrast, and yet both had left such a huge lasting impact upon him. Ritika Zaveri could be best described as a girl who knew how to live life like a child as well as an adult. The joie de vivre was something very few possessed, and she had been one of those rare.
He remembered the first time he'd met Ritika. He had shifted to Australia to complete his MSc in Financial Economics from the University of Sydney on the basis of a scholarship he had won for writing a thesis paper. He had to make two ends meet in an expensive city like Sydney where hotdogs costed more than the wardrobe he wore, but he managed it alright.
Harshad Parekh had given him the reference number of a particular Sanjeev Zaveri, a popular stockbroker in Sydney, in case he wanted part-time job. He went for an interview and was selected as a delivery boy after a lot of suspense, his general knowledge of the stock market a goldmine for the man. He attended the lectures during the day and worked with Mr. Zaveri from noon till the markets shut in the evening. He was paid a reasonable salary and was quite happy with the way things went.
And then one fine day when he'd been to Mr. Zaveri's house to deliver a note, he'd met Ritika. At that time, he didn't know that she was his daughter but there was something pulsating about her aura that made him smile. Mr. Zaveri had arrived moments later behind her and had smiled genially, inviting him inside the house. He'd introduced the two of them and that got the stone rolling.
In those two years, if he ever had a friend after Finch, it was Ritika. She was kind, sweet and simple to get along with. She was no Ishaani when it came to nature or looks (even though she was beautiful, kind-hearted and smart), but then again, Ishaani never had any competitor. But somehow, it was very easy to talk to Ritika in spite of his introvert approach for she provided him solutions to a lot of his problems in ways unexpected, brilliant listener that she was.
Through the course of time they became good friends, two people who could share things with each other without any fear of being judged. Ritika soon knew about his love for Ishaani and supported him in all ways, always giving him tips about how best to put forth his feelings to her the day he decided to confess. He always told her pessimistically about how their social status would come in the way of his love in spite of all his efforts, and that probably she never even saw him in that way, but Ritika would always optimistically wave him off.
"It'd be a disappointment if you ever got over her," she'd always tell seriously.
After seven months of working with Mr. Zaveri, he'd been promoted from delivery boy to Mr. Zaveri's personal assistant that had brought in more income, experience and dedication in Ranveer's work. By the end of the next six months, Ranveer had mastered the working of the stock exchange shrewdly, along with a degree in Financial Economics. And with this, he'd made up his mind to finally speak his heart out to Ishaani.
And calamity struck them both.
He and Ishaani parted ways forever upon Harshad Parekh's death, an incident that had been the turning point of their lives. Too much damage had been done that night and for once, both of them had let their egos come in between an already-losing battle. She was already engaged to be married; he was heartbroken. Alcohol let his tongue go lose, her cowardice undid it all. He never knew the impact that one word could have upon an entire relationship as close as theirs, but he learnt a lesson by paying a huge price. He had developed a particular hatred towards the word 'servant' from that point forth.
Returning back to Australia permanently, he let alcohol become an intimate friend for two painful months until Finch managed to turn things around. He'd barely picked up the shattered pieces of his heart when Ritika faced the loss of her father over a trekking accident. Mr. Zaveri had remained alive long enough to give Ritika his love and blessings, asking him to marry his daughter as a dying wish.
There was no comfort for him as he lost his other benefactor as well, that year had been the hardest he had ever faced emotionally. Ritika gained the inheritance of her father's company while he had managed to retain his job at the last minute as a saving grace.
The two of them had reeled out of the shock of the emotional calamities that had befallen upon them slowly, yet steadily with each other's help. They mourned their personal losses and nursed their heartbreaks softly for four months before Ranveer finally decided to comply with Mr. Zaveri's dying wish, something that his parents had been asking of him as well in those four months as well. It was common knowledge that Ishaani had gotten married to Chirag three months post their parting of ways, and since then he'd broke off all remaining contact from Mumbai.
With the blessings of his parents (who now led a respectable life back in Surat), the two of them got married at a small ceremony on the 8th of August, 2009. Strangely enough, when he had decided to marry her, it wasn't because he actually loved her or was being sympathetic to her, but because he wanted a companion and to be one to her as well, apart from fulfilling Mr. Zaveri's dying wish.
They left for a month-long honeymoon soon after their marriage where they got to know each other much better and started appreciating each other more for who they were. Ritika knew that he would never be able to move on from Ishaani, but she somehow understood. She never denied that she did not love him, but she accepted the fact with a grace that made Ranveer's heart gain a little more respect for her with every passing day. "Yours is the real deal," she would always say whenever Ranveer's love for Ishaani was mentioned.
The two of them had barely gained stability in their new relationship when Ritika was diagnosed with a rare heart ailment known as the Danon disease. It could very well be fatal, the doctor had said, and there was no cure for it. It was a heartbreaking moment to see her cry the way she did, and she nearly brought on an attack with the same. The doctor gave her the time of a year, and said that she did have to take utmost care of herself without any stress or anxiety. Something nearly impossible with what they'd been through in those months. But he'd agreed nonetheless. She was his friend and the least he could do was to make her last days memorable.
And for the year and three months they remained married, they'd made a heaven within the confines of their house. Ritika had officially transferred the company into his name and he had taken over all the activities of the company with full diligence. The company had been facing heavy losses when the 2009 recession hit the Australian economy terribly and it took quite a while to steer it into the right direction.
But somewhere along the line, their marriage never consisted of the usual elements of love, compromise and sacrifice. Theirs was different - it survived on the sole basis of friendship, trust and companionship. Ritika knew that there was no woman who Ranveer could even remotely love as much as he loved Ishaani and she respected the fact. To say that the occasional pangs of jealousy weren't there at the thought of how lucky Ishaani was would be folly to believe.
No love stuck true unless there wasn't jealousy in it.
But Ranveer more than compensated for it. He loved her as a friend and companion and there was never any denying it. He had the utmost respect for her, marvelling at how well she had handled the news of her terminal illness after her initial outburst. But not just that, he loved her for the person she truly was. There were times where she did fall weak and the fear of death swelled up her heart, but he was there at those points to break her fall.
But if he was there for her at times, then she was there for him at all times. There was a finesse with which she could handle him that left him awestruck at times. There were times where she would simpley let him put his head upon her lap and cry for hours at a stretch when the pain of his heartbreak became too much to bear. And there were times when she could make him spit his blackest of rages away with nothing more than an understanding smile. She was the closest he had ever come to remotely loving anyone after after Ishaani, and it felt good to be loved like that.
She had given him the inspiration to fulfill his dream of publishing the novel he'd already completed long ago. The manuscript lay abandoned in the study room, and so Ritika had asked him to publish it as her dying testament to him. She had even willed him to go back to Ishaani after her death and to reconcile with her, but the promise he had taken upon the ashes of his Mota Babuji held more value. He refused to do so.
Their last conversation had been filled with pain and tears, just like all last goodbyes were meant to be. They hugged each other and slept through the night. And the next day she was just an empty shell, her essence long departed during the wee hours of the night.
Her death broke what little of him remained after Ishaani had shattered him into smithereen. Since her death, he'd lost the ability to trust anyone or let anyone close enough to him again. Post her death, he'd not just lost the ability to love, he'd lost the ability to enjoy a night's sleep as well. After a month of her death, he was officially declared as an insomniac who could barely sleep for two hours a day or who slept in direct intervals of seventy-two hours. Her death had driven him to achieve new heights of success; Ishaani's heartbreak had driven him to transform his personality entirely.
He stared at Ritika's photo with a strange ache in his heart. There were a lot of realms and dimensions to love that could justify the different intensities of the emotion felt, each having its own perception and view. People often viewed love as a matter of a yes or no, that's all. Either black or white, but few could see the several shades of grey that hid in between. Love wasn't as simple as whether you loved or a person or no, it all depended upon the in-depth with which you loved a person, and the kind of love you held for a person that mattered the most.
Pyaar ek se zyada logon se ho sakta hai, par aashiqui sirf ek hi se hoti hai. One of his Mota Babuji's most priced words to him when it came to love.
Most failed to understand that tiny line between love and love, and those who understood the latter found themselves holding the key to various secrets in life. The perception of marriage being the official sign of having moved on in life was what he believed to be foolish. There was no greater pain that not being able to give your best into a relationship and reciprocate the love of your partner that you held so dearly for someone else. It was a twisted agony that ate at a person who was in love, and the final outcome wasn't pretty.
But then again, another common perception that came along with the notion of marriage was the fact that you eventually fall out of love with your old love and fall for your spouse. It's not that easy, and it never was meant to be. Love was a sacred emotion, and true love nothing short than a holy grail. True love was something that always remained in your heart no matter what, and the world could love you with that passion but the heartache would remain forever. True love wasn't something you could give up in a jiffy; it was something that even an eternity would fall short off for accomplishing.
Rare were people who found spouses willing to accommodate the fact and take it into their stride happily. Even fewer were those who always pushed their spouses to reconcile with their old love and make a happy ending out from their broken love story. Ranveer could only thank his stars that Ritika was among those women who did appreciate love and was willing to sacrifice her love for him as long as he remained happy.
For him, marriage had been far less about love and much more about the friendship and companionship that he enjoyed with Ritika. Intimacy was never the focus between them, and yet, they could say that they had a decent marriage. Love was the base of every relationship; marriage sought trust and faith. The good heavens knew that he could never truly love Ritika even one percent of the way he loved Ishaani, but he did love her in her own way. Love never stood alike; it changed form with every relationship, every person. Love was a complex realm that no mortal man could understand for it was as multi-dimensional as the Universe itself, each realm in it a universe of its own.
Love was such a strange emotion, he thought, as he remembered something that his Love had once quoted to him:
Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet, understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.
He was twiddling the ring upon his left ring finger absent-mindedly when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to look at Finch who was already standing, staring at Ranveer curiously.
"Time to board the flight, mate."
Ranveer nodded his head as the two of them stood up and handed over their tickets to the checker, while he directed them towards the air-bridge. Getting themselves aboard the A380 of the Singapore Airlines, Ranveer and Finch took seats in the luxurious business first class flight, the latter sighing sleepily while Ranveer still stared at his ring uncomfortably. After an indefinite amount of time, Finch spoke softly.
"I see that you've been wearing Ishaani's promise band again."
"I've been wearing it since three years, Finch. What's new about it?" asked Ranveer testily, not ceasing his play with the ring.
"Your hesitance," stated Finch simply while Ranveer looked at him, blank.
"I don't expect you to get it, Greg."
Finch was momentarily taken aback for Ranveer only called him by his Christian name whenever he was greatly upset by something.
"That bad, is it?"
Ranveer chose not to reply to the question. He instead started out from the window where the first rays of dawn had already broken out, making the horizon a playground of colours. Not breaking away his gaze from the outstanding view, he asked softly.
"Do you think I'm doing the right thing? Going to meet her?" Finch gave the question a minute's thought before replying back with another question.
"Didn't Ritika want the same thing?"
"Ritika wanted a lot of things, but she didn't get any now, did she? Neither a loving husband, nor children, nor a happy family, nor proper health. The only think she may have gotten was an early death, although she's even suffered for that."
"Now there," started Finch, knowing the dangerous waters the conversation was about to tread. "We've been through this line of conversation several times, and I don't want you turning back to it, alright? What's happened has happened. Embrace the present, not the past."
"Easier said than done," said Ranveer, annoyed.
"Hey, you needn't have to take this so badly. If she wants to meet you so desperately, it must be for a reason." It seemed like Ranveer was banking upon the exact same response, because the next moment, he finally looked at Finch with a paranoia that the latter could decipher from the overly obscured look in his eyes. Finch could not deny that it unsettled him for a moment.
"And you do realize that it may only be a very big co-incidence that she wants to sign the contract with our company? That she might be seeking RV, and not Ranveer? My identity is not known to the world, you know," he added lamely as an attempt to a saving grace.
Finch remained silent for several moments, trying not to push Ranveer in the wrong direction by carefully trying to analyze a response. After five useless minutes, he realized that nothing he would say would make Ranveer see his point of view. Finally, he contended himself with another question.
"What are you nervous about?"
"Nothing, but I'm just saying," replied Ranveer evasively, while Finch scowled.
"Don't say nothing, because I know what you fear. But you aren't meeting her as Ranveer now, are you? You are meeting her as RV," taunted Finch but Ranveer felt too defeated to take any notice of the jibe. Instead, he spoke absent-mindedly.
"RV and Ranveer are two different entities. People always love the former, never the latter."
"You aren't making any sense to me now, Vaghela. You need sleep," said Finch finally, deciding that it was more than enough conversation for seven in the morning. Snapping out of his reverie, Ranveer looked at Finch apologetically.
"Naah, you take a nap," said Ranveer graciously. "I don't need sleep anyway."
"You've formed a very bad habit of the insomnia, you know. Sometimes, I really wonder whether you want to do away with yourself with this excuse of an illness."
"Shut up, Greg," was Ranveer's instant response and Finch could sniff the guilt from it.
"Don't act too smart, Vaghela, or you're going to Monica first thing once we get back. I don't think she'll be too happy with your intentions either."
"Fine, I just pop some pills and sleep after some time, alright?" barked Ranveer in a dangerously silent tone, while Finch laid back upon his seat and relaxed.
"That sounded better." Ranveer gave a non-committal jerk of his head an opened his carry back, from where he retrieved one of his old diaries. Finch looked at him curiously.
"What are you doing?"
"Reading an old diary," replied Ranveer plainly.
"Diary?" asked Finch, incredulously.
"Yeah, I wrote diaries as a kid, you see. For fifteen years," he added with pride. It took Finch a lot of effort to not laugh. At the end, he settled himself with a comment.
"You're such a geek, I swear," he piped in with exasperation, while Ranveer ignored him once again. Unable to maintain his curiosity for longer, Finch asked again after some time. "So, how old are you in this diary?"
"Fourteen," replied Ranveer instantly, a small smile finally crossing his features again.
"I just hope that your fourteen year old self had more confidence to woo his girl than what an almost twenty-nine year old Ranveer lacks."
"She's married, man!" yelled Ranveer loud enough for the neighbouring passengers to wake up in fright. Giving them all an apologetic look, Finch turned to look at Ranveer irritably.
"Whatever on Earth is wrong with you? They'll throw us off the plane mid-flight!"
"It's not my fault if you say stuff like that," said Ranveer defensively while Finch slapped his head and growled.
"Just shut up and sleep already, Vaghela! You're driving me bloody insane!"
"Alright, alright!" said Ranveer apologetically as Finch turned to his side and fell asleep almost instantly.
Ranveer looked around at the flight of peaceful people that had half of its passengers asleep. Waving away the airhostess silently after taking a blanket to cover a now-sleeping Finch comfortably, and ordering himself a whiskey on the rocks, he opened the page of the diary that had Ritika's photo as the bookmark and sighed tiredly as the first phrase on the page made brutal contact with his heart.
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."
He was definitely going to need the whiskey now.
Constructive criticism will be more than welcome and sorry for any typos. :D :D
Next chapter:
Interlude 6
Bade Achche Lagte Hain Naya Season
Bigg Boss 19
Real Estate
