Drabbles: 30. Episode XXXI- Return of the Jallad (Pg 95) [Note Pg 98] - Page 24

Originally posted by: IronButterfly

Beautiful pieces.

Originally posted by: kdsubs

This little nugget was perfection personified. Sigh...

You know, i am starting to confuse your story with the show's story... hypnos here too my friend 😊.

Originally posted by: shagun-rocks

i'm at a loss for words..it was THAT good...take a bow, girl 👏

Originally posted by: Amanram

This has come highly recommended by Meera30 so it just had to be read. An indeed what an awesome jo you are doing- you have an incredible way with words. I do not promise to follow updates regularly but will certainly drop in on and off

Originally posted by: meera30

I have to agree with Exprimere - there is something about the way you've painted Rudra with his silence...It seems apt - a little like the God he is named after - And Parvati is playing right along, silence for gestures...Sometimes I feel like the flame is only flickering, the storm only hinting at a gentle breeze...Is there a tempest around the corner? Or a blazing inferno?

Time will tell

For now, let the insomnia mate with the silence and play cupid like none other.

Ishtiaq

Rudra Pratap Ranawat had a problem.

He had been dragged willy-nilly from his home after his mother had abandoned him at the age of 13. Singlehandedly bringing up Rudra, his father had been sarcastic at his best-- and his worst wasn't really worth mentioning. He had been handed the most challenging task of his career when he'd been assigned to the border district of Ganganagar in Rajasthan. He had spent months cleaning up the arms-dealing racket in the area, constantly facing one obstacle after another. After a wedding that he had not wanted, and being forced to live among people he barely accepted as family--he had recently escaped from the Jaws of Death (theatrical though that might sound), and was slowly recovering from multiple sprains, strains, a fracture, and knife wounds.

None of these things, however, bothered him as much as one slip of a girl-- whom the entire village of Chandangarh respectfully addressed as 'Bhabhi Sa' by virtue of her relationship with him.

It bothered Rudra when she hovered around him, quietly proffering a strip of tablets or a glass of water. It disconcerted him when she sensed his discomfort and rushed to his side to help him with some menial everyday task. It disturbed him, how easily and effortlessly she could sooth his restless spirit.

But it bothered him a thousand times more, when she was not there-- when Kaki Sa called her away from his side to help out with household chores, or when she went to the temple or to the marketplace with the other women of the house.

The faint tinkle of her anklets and bangles alerted him to her presence in the room. Without looking up from his report, Rudra knew that she had brought him a warm glass of milk flavoured with haldi and badam. She was dubious about the efficacy of the tablets prescribed by the BSD doctor but she was convinced that haldi cured everything.

A faint whiff of sandalwood and smoke assailed his senses as she came to stand by his side and offer him the glass.

Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, Rudra gritted his teeth and accepted it with a curt nod-- inhaling and exhaling heavily as she walked to the wardrobe and started preparing for bed.

What bothered him the most however, was how desperately he wanted her. He hated this crippling need to hold her close to himself, to touch her and make sure that she was real and his, to make love to her until her eyes glazed over and she couldn't leave him if she tried.

He knew that for his own sanity he needed to stay away from her, but he couldn't control this masochistic desire to have her close by. He would not touch her-- for fear of shattering the illusion, of discovering that she was repulsed by him after all. But he would look his fill. He would savour her presence. Sleep was an insignificant price to pay.