A tired Kabir entered his house to be greeted by the darkness and silence, just like everyday. He tip-toed to his room to see his wife sleeping peacefully. On a closer observation, he saw the dried up tear stains on her rosy cheeks. He sighed and dropped his laptop bag on the couch and went to freshen up. He came out after a few minutes and lied on his side of the bed. The wall clock showed the time as 2:30am. A sigh of longing and pain escaped his lips accompanied by a lone tear. His eyes seeked the only sight that could soothe his heart and mind.
"We are so close yet so far Nisha! Why are you doing this? What is this wall between us? The more I try to bring this to an end, the more you go away from me. I know you're in the same pain as me. Please hear me out for once Nishu! Give me a chance to explain please! I cannot go on like this Nisha! I'll fall apart without you!" Another painful sigh escaped his lips, as he cursed that dreaded day for the umpteenth time. It was exactly a month ago.
~~~Flashback~~~
Kabir had started his own dance academy. Nisha helped her taujis and Sukku at the shop and also worked as a part time archery coach in a school. Both were busy in their respective works. Kabir was trying hard to get funds for his academy and Nisha was busy in the arrangements of the upcoming 50 years celebration of the shop. Both hardly had time for each other and dozed off the moment they reached home and hit the sack. This continued for a week and Kabir got busier by the day. His schedule became tighter. He started coming home past midnight and left early morning, and many a times he had to sleep in the academy due to excess workload. Nisha's patience had started wearing out. But, she kept mum thinking this was just a phase, and once everything was set, her old Kabira would be back.
"Kabir yar! You come home so late and leave early morning even before I wake up! When I come to the academy in the afternoon to give you lunch, the watchman says either you're in a meeting or in a class! We don't even get time to talk!", complained a sad Nisha.
"I'm so sorry Nishu! But you know how important these funds are for the academy na? You know Nishu? I'm planning to launch a website for our academy so that we can have a wider reach to the public. With this, the number of students enrolling in our academy will go up drastically!", said an excited Kabir with a happy gleam in his eyes. She forgot all her complaints seeing his happiness and excitement.
"I'm so happy for you Kabir and also very proud!" she said with a smile that could light up his whole world.
"This wouldn't have been possible without your support Nishu! Thank you so much for being by my side", he said looking at her with love and gratitude.
"Oye! now you have started to thank me and all ha?", she said faking anger.
"Acha baba no thank you, no sorry! Ok? Now lets sleep. I have an early meeting tomorrow with that website guy!.", he said kissing her cheeks and lying on the bed.
"Good Night Nishu"
"Good Night Kabir", she kept staring at her adorable hubby till sleep engulfed her.
******
"You had promised to come to the fest Kabir! Do you know how eager my students were to meet you?!", huffed an annoyed Nisha. There was a sports fest at the school she taught in. She had told Kabir about her students wanting to meet him and he had promised to come. But, had not turned up.
"I know Nisha, I had promised!. You have all rights to get angry. But, you tell me what can I do? The academy has only two trainers, Vikas and myself. Vikas has not come since three days due to his health issues. I've already cancelled a week's classes and if I had cancelled today too, the students would have lost interest.", he tried explaining.
"Let it be Kabir! I think I must get used to this now. But listen, saturday is the 50 years celebration of the shop, so don't you even dare miss that! I will not listen to any of your reasons then!", she said throwing a warning look at him.
"As you say my lord", he said bowing down to his wife. When he received no response, he looked up to see that she had already slept. Shaking his head at her authoritative yet cute nature, he retired to bed.
******
Finally the day for celebrating 50 years of Gangwal's successful business journey had arrived. The entire Gangwal House was decorated with beautiful colourful flowers and fairy lights. A soft melodious flute theme played in the background. The who's who of Jaipur were invited for the bash, as the Gangwals were one of the famous jewellers of Jaipur. The Gangwals were all dressed their best.
The party was in full swing, but, the Gangwal family was waiting for a certain person to arrive.
"Nishu di! Where's Kabir jiju? Half of the party is already over and he has not yet come!", complained Bunty. He was already angry with Kabir for giving his birthday party a miss.
"Haan Nishu, where's Kabir? He did not attend Bunty's birthday party and Dolly's baby shower also last week.", asked Ramesh.
"Nishu beta, is everything alright?", asked a worried Lakshmi.
"Offo, Lakshmi relax me! It's just that Kabir is very busy nowadays. So, he may come a little late but will come for sure!. You guys enjoy the party and stop worrying unnecessarily", she said assuring her parents and cousins.
*after 3 hours*
"How much more late will he comes Nishu? The party is almost overs and there is no sign of him yet!", asked an irritated Dolly.
Nisha did not have an answer this time. Tears welled up in her eyes. Tears of hurt and anger.
"Dolly di, tell everyone I went home as I was feeling uncomfortable here", she said and moved towards the main door.
"Where are you going Nishu bro?", asked Jwala.
"Kabir's Academy", said Nisha, gritting her teeth to prevent the tears from falling.
***Kabir's Academy***
"Oh God! Nisha will definitely kill me today. Please save me lord! Let these investors like their dance and get out of here fast!", prayed Kabir.
The investors had turned up 2 hours late for the meeting and when Kabir had requested them to finish it up a little early as he had other errands to run, they had threatened to take back all their funds. With no other option left, he was sitting there bearing their nonsense and praying god to save him from his wifey's wrath this one last time.
"Pick up the phone Nishu! Damn! why is she not answering my call?!"
"Okay Mr.Kabir Kumar, your students were pretty good and it's nice to see that you're training them in various dance forms. We'll discuss with our committee and the funds will be sanctioned tomorrow.", said one of the investor. With a fixed smile and a brief nod, Kabir went to see them off.
"Good job guys! You can go home now. Lets meet tomorrow for the class", he said cheerfully to his students and sent them off.
"You seem worried Kabir! What's the matter?", asked Vikas sensing Kabir's restlessness.
"Dude, there was a very important function at home today and I had promised Nisha I'll be there at any cost. But, I have missed it due to all this. I don't know how upset she'll be!", said a scared Kabir.
"Oh! Then no one can save you from becoming late Kabir.Kumar' today.", laughed Vikas.
"You find it very funny right? Wait till you get married. Only then will you realise the extent of a wife's torture. Neither will they understand us nor will they hear us out during such situations.", said Kabir pouting like a kid. After a few seconds both burst out laughing at Kabir's state.
"Is it?", an angry female voice put an abrupt end to their laughter.
A scared Kabir turned around and gulped in fear when he saw a fuming Nisha standing at the entrance with arms crossed tightly against her chest and eyes throwing daggers at him. Without another word she turned on her heel and barged out of the academy.
"Vikas lock up the academy and go home. I'll see you tomorrow.", said a serious Kabir. Vikas just nodded understanding the seriousness of the situation.
***KNH***
Kabir opened the main door with his spare keys and entered the house. He was greeted by pitch darkness and pin-drop silence.
"Nisha?". No response. He switched on the hall lights and saw an extremely angry Nisha sitting on the sofa with eyes closed as though trying to calm herself.
"Nisha, I..", before he could complete, she got up to go to her room to avoid fighting with him in this enraged mood of hers.
"Nisha please hear me out for a minute", he said holding her hand, trying to stop her. She jerked off her hand from his hold.
"Stop it Kabir! I've been hearing all your reasons from past one month. I told you not to miss it but still you did. You did not come to Bunty's birthday party and Dolly di's baby shower last week. Still, I kept quiet. But this? You knew how important this was to dadaji! Are you so busy that you can't spare a few hours for your family? Do you have any idea, how hurt all were because of your carelessness?", asked Nisha trying to control her anger.
"Carelessness?! Do you think I am doing this on purpose?", asked Kabir, anger slowly rising in him.
"It definitely seemed so from Vikas' and your joke!.", she snapped at him.
"Oh please Nisha! That was just a joke done in a good humor. Stop behaving like a typical wife ok?! And you too stay with your cousins and be at the shop all day! But, do I complain? There were many instances when the investors wanted to meet you, but since you were busy, I handled them giving silly excuses! Did I shout at you the same way then?", he snapped back at her.
"Am I behaving like a typical wife? What are you then? A typical husband who doesn't want his wife to go out to work or meet her family after marriage!. Who wants his wife to sit at home and be at his service at his beck and call?! Such a hypocrite!," she seethed.
"Shut up Nisha! When have I ever said all that to you?", he shouted, his anger reaching its peak.
"Don't shout Kabir! You may have not said that but, your behaviour is clearly implying it!", she shouted back.
"Look Nisha! This is going nowhere. Let's please sit and sort it out.", said Kabir trying to bring his temper down.
"First sort out your priorities Kabir and then talk about sitting and sorting out our problems", said Nisha, hot angry tears clouding her vision. With that, she walked to their room and shut the door with a loud bang.
A tired Kabir sat on the sofa and heaved a shaky breath unable to grasp the sudden turn of events.
~~~End of flashback~~~~
Bigg Boss 19
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
