Ok I have not given any translation this time. Not much conversation anyways. However if anybody wants translation do tell me, I will add it in.😃
CHAPTER 23
It was just past midnight when Maan entered through the double doors of the Khurana Residency. It was very quiet except for the muffled sound of his footsteps as he made his way upstairs towards his rooms. It was a series of interconnected rooms, at the beginning of which was a gym equipped with the state of the art exercise equipment. Beyond that was a fully functional home office and the last room was his bedroom. He entered his bedroom, shut the door, leaned against it and closed his eyes. Geet's image floated before him. His eyes popped open immediately. He exchanged his clothes for a pair of track pants and began a punishing routine with the punching bag. He was determined to exhaust his mind and body until he could not hold on to a single thought. He punched the bag rhythmically for 2 hours straight, then went into the bathroom and freshened himself up. He walked into his bedroom, drew back the covers on the bed, slid in and closed his eyes. And there she was again. The joyous eyes, the silver tears trailing down her cheeks, the laughing lips, the outstretched hands. He pushed back the covers, picked out yet another pair of track pants and this time practiced some martial arts moves. Another couple of hours later he slid back into bed and Geet Handa's joyous face greeted him yet again behind closed eyes.
"Ahhh." He punched his pillow in frustration and jumped out of bed yet again. He changed into a pair of jeans, pulled on a white shirt, grabbed his car keys and pounded down the stairs. The guards at the gate on night duty saluted him. He acknowledged their greeting with a nod as he drove off into the darkness of the night.
********************
Geet was fast asleep when she felt a small hand shaking her awake.
"Mmm. Kya hua Miri?"
"Mumma su su jana hai."
"Thik hain chalo."
"Nahi main jaaongi, tum bulao."
"Mmm thik hai. Jao."
Miri walked out of the room and started walking down the corridor which was dimly lit, towards the bathroom.
"Mumma"
"Miri"
"Mumma"
"Miri"
"Mumma"
"Miri"
"Mumma"
...
"Mumma"
...
Miri, who was almost at the bathroom door, raced back to the bedroom and wailed out loudly.
"Mumma Mumma tum ruk kyu gayi? Main dar gayi na phir."
Geet who had fallen into a drowsy slumber while calling out Miri's name snapped awake at the accusing note in her daughter's voice.
"Sorry bete. Mumma is really sorry. Su su kiya?"
"Nahi kiya. Tumne mujhe awaz nahi di toh main bathroom ke darwaaze se waapis aa gayi."
Geet bit back a grin hearing the irritation in her daughter's voice.
"Accha chalo main aati hoon tumahre saath."
"Nahi tum idhar hi raho, par uthke baith jao. Nahi toh tum phir se so jaaogi"
Geet arose from the bed and leaned against the pillow. They started the name calling routine all over again. Her daughter was slowly turning independent and was determined to do things on her own. She had started going to the bathroom on her own since the past couple of weeks, but she needed to hear Geet's voice, during the whole journey. The bedroom was feeling slightly stuffy to her, so she arose from the bed, drew back the curtains on the window and opened one pane to draw in some fresh air.
A familiar looking car with its headlights turned off was parked directly across the street. The street lamp was a little ahead and it's light faintly touched the car. She saw a vague movement in the driver's seat and frowned. It looked similar to the one that Maan had driven her and Miri back in the day before; but, since it was parked sideways she could see neither the make nor the model.
Geet you are crazy. Why will the Khurana's car be here at this time of the night?
She leaned out of the window to take a closer look at the car when she heard Miri's voice from behind.
"Mumma kya dekh rahi ho bahaar? Mujhe bhi dekhna hai."
"Kuch nahi bete, koi gaadi hai udhar usse dekh rahi thi.Chalo chodo so jaate hai."
Miri raised herself on her tiptoes and peeked outside the window.
"Arey Mumma yeh toh Sheru ki car hain. Mumma andar koi hain." She suddenly gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes shining with excitement as she looked at her mother.
"Mumma kahi gaadi mein Sheru toh nahi?"
Before Geet had a chance to stop her, Miri leaned out of the window and started yelling loudly, while furiously waving both her arms.
"Sheru...Sheru.
Geet clasped her hand over Miri's mouth and pulled the window pane shut and drew the curtains against it.
"Miri woh tumhara sheru nahi hain. Woh yaha iss waqt kyu aayenge?"
"Ye koi rah chalta gadiwala hoga, jise gaadi chalate chalate shayad nind aa rahi thi, toh thodi der ke liye ruk gaya."
She thought it was a more likely a drunk driver loitering there unable to drive the car properly on the roads.
"Pata nahi ye log sharaab pike gadi kyu chalate hain. Bilkul nikkame." She muttered under her breath.
She heard the squeal of brakes and she assumed that the car had taken off.
************************
Maan Singh Khurana you are a patient eligible for the psyche ward. What the bloody hell were you doing parked outside the Handa household. You were almost caught in that criminally foolish act of yours by the little pixie.
All evening his mind had been a jumbled mess. His eyes refused to let go off the picture of Geet he had seen on Brij's computer. However his mind refused to accept the pure, unadulterated gut wrenching emotion he had felt in that moment. He had been driving aimlessly on the streets of Delhi, past 4:00 AM in the early morning, trying to bring some order to the chaos in his mind; when he found himself involuntarily parked in front of the Handa house.
He had been rattled hard at this unconscious act of his and had been getting ready to drive off, when a light had turned on in the bedroom facing the road. He'd held his breath unconsciously, when suddenly the window had popped open and there she had been again. Loose curls, ruffling in the breeze that gently washed over her. He'd frowned and wondered why he could not see her face properly. The whole evening she had been clearly visible whenever he had closed his eyes. He had been drinking in her silhouette hungrily, when suddenly a tiny voice had yelled the words "Sheru, Sheru" and he had seen two tiny arms waving at him furiously. That is when the reality of his situation had hit him hard. He had also realized that the Geet standing in the window was not a figment of his imagination, but the real deal and the reason he had not been able to see her face was because the light was behind her.
He had taken off from there like a bat out of hell. Had Miri seen him? It was impossible. The car had been in the shadows and the lightly tinted windows had surely masked his identity. Perhaps it had been the familiar car that had prompted the little girl's outburst. He hoped that it was so, coz he could not bear to think of the embarrassing alternative.
He took a deep breath and slammed his hand on the steering wheel.
Damn it!! Enough was enough. He was not in love with Geet Handa.
He got out of the car in front of KR and handed the keys to the guards there for parking. This time as he went up the stairs, his footsteps rang with determination. He made his way to his home office, pulled out his laptop from the bag and opened up an Excel spreadsheet. He was not a person given to emotional decisions. Logical reasoning had always been his approach to seemingly impossible problems and he decided to approach the emotional confusion he found himself facing, as he would any other problem. He started listing the events that had led him to the emotional downfall on seeing that picture of Geet..
It had all started with seeing a distraught Geet hurt herself on that glass. He had a perfectly logical explanation for that. He had been brought up by his parents to respect and protect the members of the opposite sex. Instead he had been indirectly responsible for her injury. That had been the first step to him being shaken up.
Secondly, Dev's outburst and the revelation of his misplaced guilt had dragged Maan's emotional barriers even further down. In that moment when Geet Handa had been able to reach out to his brother, when nobody else could, he had felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude towards her.
Thirdly, he could not deny that there was an intense physical attraction between them that fogged up his logical thinking, whenever he was in her vicinity.
Fourthly, on hearing that she had been shot by her very own father... He got out of the chair and punched the solid wall behind me. How dare any man try to hurt her. How dare anybody take a shot at her. She was just a soft vulnerable...
"Ahhh!! God Damn it Maan. You are losing focus again."
He ran his hands through his hair in frustration, gave his head a hard shake to snap out of the lingering anger, settled back in the chair and focused on the list once again. He carefully deleted the fourth item on the list. He was going to deal with the fact that she had been shot at, at a later time.
Finally he listed the last item...The picture. What was it about the picture that had gotten to him so much, he wondered. He let his mind drift back to the photograph. Seeing that look of sheer triumph, of overcoming had been a pure joy to watch. Suddenly a light bulb went off in his head. That was it. That look of triumph was the one that he someday wanted to see on his little brother's face. That desire to see his brother overcome his handicap and seeing the manifestation of it, right in front of his eyes in the form of Geet's picture, was what had shaken him up so much. It had not been the image of Geet Handa herself that had impacted him.
Maan glanced at the clock on the laptop. It was 5:30 AM and finally after a long and restless night he had it all figured out. He had not lost it after all. Everything was slotted into back into it's proper place and finally he was at peace.
The only thing that did not make it to the logical list of Maan Singh Khurana was the actual source that had started it all. The photograph in his mobile of the screen saver called, Geet's Victory.'
He neither deleted it, nor acknowledged it. It was there waiting.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
A short narrative:
It was actually my sister who was the source for Miri's bathroom adventure. She was three at the time and it was my father who had to call out to her, coz the bathroom was at the end of a long corridor and my mother's voice did not make it all the way to the bathroom. She would come back racing and jump on my baba's stomach to wake him up if he fell asleep in the middle of calling it and if she had not completed her peeing business.
Edited by Susegad - 11 years ago
Book Talk
Cricket
471