MehBeer OS:Kabhi Shaam Dhale

There is this one corner in everyone's house, which is their favourite place in the whole wide world, which is their go to place for finding themselves. A place that makes them feel secure, comforts them in their sorrows, and applauds them in their victories, which has truly seen it all.

Abeer Malhotra sat in his corner' of his house, guitar in hand. It was the day after he had returned from staying at meher's house.

The MLA threat was no more present so abeer had to unwillingly leave his favourite pass-time of irritating the daylights out of meher and come back home. His father for some unfathomable reason protected him, and saved him. Kuber Malhotra had a heart and cared for something other than money!!! Who could have guessed? Abeer for sure couldn't.

Everyone got out of the drama unscathed. Everything was OK and back to normal in a manner of speaking, his mother couldn't stop praying to and thanking every diety she could name. But for some reason nothing was making sense to abeer, everything felt weird and out of place, like something was missing. He had no idea what it was. He tried playing his guitar, but even that came out weird. He shoved his guitar away in frustration.

Kabhi shaam dhale to mere dil mein aa jaana
Kabhi chaand khile to mere dil mein aa jaana
Magar aana is tarha tum ke yahan se phir na jaana

He went to the kitchen to have something to drink, maybe that would freshen his mind up.

"Thanda pani daloo ya filter pani. Cheeni ya namak. Kaisa nimbu pani piyoge abeer" her voice rung in his ears. Pushing the refrigerator door shut in anger he left the kitchen.

Deciding that a cold shower might help clear his head and that all this was just an effect of overdose of the meher syndrome' he walked into the shower discarding his clothes, closing his eyes he stood under the shower letting the water wash away the memories which were nothing but sheer pain. Everything got washed away except for her memories, realizing it was pointless running away abeer came out of the shower and got dressed into something comfortable throwing away the towel on the bed.

"Geela towel, eee tumne geela towel phir aise daal diya" he could hear her shrieks even before the towel hit the bed.

Tu nahin hai magar phir bhi tu saath hai
Baat ho koi bhi teri hi baat hai
Tu hi mere andar hai, tu hi mere baahar hai
Jab se tujhko jaana hai, maine apna maana hai

"Peecha kyun nahi chorti tum mera" Abeer shouted to the air around him in frustration for carrying her voice to him.

Making his way to his corner' he hid his face in between his hands trying to hide from her memories which he was sure were haunting him. Even her memories took pleasure in torturing him.

Magar aana is tarha tum ke yahan se phir na jaana
Kabhi shaam dhale to mere dil mein aa jaana
Kabhi chaand khile to mere dil mein aa jaana

It took him 8 years to learn atleast faking' to live and smile for the ones around him, 8 years to be able to confidently tell everyone that he had indeed moved on,

what a big fat lie that was' his heart scoffed.

The stories i have tell differently, all you ever do is talk about her, think about her or sing for her, even your hatred is only for her, just like your love' the corner would have said if it could speak.

8 years of his hard work was un-done by the 8 days he had stayed with her, what cruel joke destiny was playing on him, he couldn't even fake to himself now. She' was the one who was missing. She' not being there was the thing that wasn't right. He would have to start getting over her all over again from tomorrow.

Did you really ever get over her' his heart asked

He never did.' Would have been the corners' reply if it could speak. Even non-living things could understand his feelings better than him.

He lay down on his bed and tried to sleep.

"Tum mere bed pe kyun soye ho. Utho yaha se" he could hear her shouting at him.

Raat din ki meri dilkashi tumse hai
Zindagi ki kasam zindagi tumse hai

Realising sleep was a lost cause he walked to his old bedroom, their' old room, where they had stayed together as husband and wife, he had changed his room unable to take the memories anymore, but madhvi had kept the room intact. Every day he would act tough in front of the whole world but in his weakest moments he would seek out their happy memories in this room and for a few moments forget the reality of their life.

Tum hi meri aankhen ho sooni tanha raahon mein
Chaahe jitni doori ho, tum ho meri baahon mein
Magar aana is tarha tum ke yahan se phir na jaana

He hated her yet she was his only love.

She tormented him but she was the only one who could bring him peace.

Everywhere he looked in the room he saw only her. Frustrated by his inner conflict and unable to take this weird concoction of feelings that was brewing inside him, abeer subconsciously dialled the one number that could give him solace.

-----

Normally she wouldn't have recieved the phone, normally she would have started scolding him since the moment she lifted the phone, but today was different, nothing was the same after he left, every little thing from coffee to her bed reminded her of him.

"Abeer" she called out softly, getting worried now when he hadn't spoken after 10 minutes.

"Please phone mat rakhna" there was a desperation, a helplessness in his voice, like he was asking her not to cut his life support.

She was too overwhelmed to speak.

"Hmm" was all she could respond back.

A ghost of a smile appeared on abeer's lips as he settled into their' bed and fell asleep holding the phone to his ears feeling her near him after 2 days of restlessness.