Title - She Isn't Just A Dream
"Ishita I love you"
Raman woke up with a husky murmur of those words against the soft pillow cover, clutching the pillow tightly and feeling it up like her sexy waist which had always enticed him.
He expected and waited for her reply but it never came because she wasn't there with him. He waded his hands around, scanning the sheets and bed spread in the hope that their love making wasn't just a dream but she was really there with him last night. He hoped that her taste which lingered on his lips was real, her touches which scorched him wasn't just a dream.
His eyes opened but the disappointment vanished and he smiled. She was there around smiling at him. Nothing was a dream atleast for him. None would understand this ethereal state of his but for him, she is real. Nobody knew her like he did.
Their desire for each other and their passionate lovemaking wasn't a dream. He had lived a happy dream like life with her and her absence wasn't going to undo any of it. She was still with him and some day she would come back to prove her existence to all around him. It was his strong conviction and reason enough for his pulling on.
"Mr Bhalla, I understand your son's problems...he isn't ready to believe that the woman he loved has gone away from him..."
"Dr Mishra...he is going mad with each passing day...how do we make him understand that everything is a dream, a mere hallucination? We are fed up of telling him that there is no woman called Ishita in his life"
Bhalla ji was very apprehensive about his son's state but the doctor didn't have a ready made solution for him, "Mr Bhalla, agar woh paagal hota aur yeh saari baatein usski vehem hoti toh easily treat kar sakte teh...but you and I know that its not so"
[If he was mad and all this was his imagination, then we can treat him easily]
Mr Bhalla flared up all of a sudden, "Doctor, woh aurat mere Raman ke life mein waapas nahi aane waali and I don't want my son to go behind her nor go mad thinking about her...do whatever it takes but get him out of this mess...she was a curse in his life, ek bhoori saaya aur ab woh chali gayi...ab bas"
[a curse she was and she is gone now...NO MORE OF HER]
The doctor didn't want to anger him more and so told him a solution but he also knew that it wasn't going to work as he had talked to Raman and counselled him so many times in the last 6 months. Ishita was a name which was deeply rooted in his heart and soul. Weeding her out of him was just impossible and his family was hell bent on a mission impossible. They were dead against the woman Ishita and couldn't even tolerate her in their son's life. They had tried so many methods of getting Raman to forget her and move on but all went in vain.
He ignored his own judgements and said, "Either bring her back to him or make him believe that there was no woman and it was all his imagination but mind you Mr Bhalla, with the second option, you are trying to erase and undo a part of your son's life which he is crazily in love with...and so it might have so many adverse consequences that you can't even predict now"
A year before...
Raman lived in Mumbai away from his family who were settled in Delhi. He had planned this relocation just to get rid of some bitter, haunting memories of his past life. Now, nothing other than business and money interested him or probably he put on a mask of that attitude. Mumbai was a perfect city, busy and happening one to get absorbed into without any memories to worry him. Even his interactions with his parents were minimal and only when absolutely required. Mr and Mrs Bhalla, his siblings were worried for him yet they gave him that space and hoped that some day, he would revert back to their Raman. They lived with that hope while Raman minted money in his ever flourishing businesses. A complete business empire under his wings was his ultimate goal. There was no stopping nor looking back.
It was a day of hectic schedules, meetings, audits, client problem and so on. Raman was busy but there was an urgent need to meet his lawyer too. Pathak wasn't responding to his calls and messages. He concluded that Pathak was in the court and set out to meet him there.
It was on the corridors of the court that he first saw her. Something in her made him take a second glance at her. She was in a simple cotton saree.
She was accompanied by a lady cop. Another look made him realize that she was in police custody. He was curious to know what she did. The handcuff and the commotion around her made him all the more curious. Inspite of all that, her eyes were calm and quiet, gracefully bowed down in complete acceptance and surrender. She wasn't revolting or even crying over her miserable state.
The first sight of her probably tried to pull out the suppressed humane side of him. He forgot all his urgent work that moment. He enquired and found out that she was being convicted of planned murder attempt and that too her own husband. He was in the ICU struggling for his life after a series of harsh blows on his head. Raman was shocked knowing it because, the moment he got a glimpse of her, his intutions told him that she was innocent!
Her lifeless, dead calm eyes had the proof of her innocence, her purity, her truth.
Leave alone a human, she couldn't even kill a fly. He was damn sure. He felt an urge to help her but he ignored it.
All she did was silently accept every crime thrust upon her but he was determined to bring her out free. He made further enquiries and found that her own family had abandoned her. They were an orthodox middle class family who kept their family pride before anything else. They detested her for the disgrace she brought to them. They disowned her and refused to fight for her.
Her helpless state didn't seem to affect her at all. She was in a state of shock or was it plain indifference to everything around her. A careless attitude that give me whatever punishment and I am ready to take it lurked in her lovely eyes. Tears seemed to have dried up and no repentance at all. He couldn't contemplate the reality of her mind state but he just believed that it was shock.
Though she intrigued him too much, he shrugged it all off and told himself that he was far from such human emotions. He walked away without giving her a second look, fearing that another look might just corrode away his mask.
Destiny had other plans though and they had to meet again very soon. This time, he had to save her from a pack of ruthless men who were behind her. He saved her and she pleaded with him to give her shelter for the night. He could sense that she was on the run and trying to escape from someone but who?
He wasn't too open to taking her to his place but he did. He also didn't want her to assume that she could manipulate him with her tears and so told her sternly that she had to leave the next morning.
She nodded as she didn't want to trouble him for long. She didn't ask for anything more but just thanked him next morning before turning to leave.
Contradicting his own logical side, he stopped her. He knew that she had no place to go. He held her hand and told her that she could stay there.
He was her guardian angel and she had already started believing that. He didn't care of anything or anyone and told her that she could stay in his house till she finds a good place for herself. It was mere sympathy that he felt for an orphaned woman or perhaps he kept convincing himself saying that.
Days moved on...He started liking the way she did chores for him, cooked food for him, waited for him when he came back exhausted. He felt that she was converting his stone mansion into a home in the real sense. Her simplicity was her ornament and her beauty too. She didn't need expensive clothing and jewellery to look enchanting. Even her simple smiles started making his heart skip beats. She had come like a quick dream and swept him off his feet.
Lots of things changed inside him and he couldn't hold back his real feelings for her but for her, nothing seemed to change. She worshiped him. She adored him. She trusted him. She respected him...but she couldn't think of anything more.
Love happens only once in life and she had already done that once...she loved the man whom she got married to but he wasn't worth her. He broke her heart and soul beyond repair and that made her immune to Raman or probably she felt worthless and never could think about such an emotion to a gem like Raman.
But for him...was it sympathy? Was it attraction? Was it desire? Was it lust? Was it LOVE?
Perhaps everything...everything that a man could feel for that special woman in his life!
Yes she was special! But it wasn't easy at all...it was next to impossible to win her love or rather get her to love a man again.
[To be continued]
so how was it? pls do reply...and I really hope I havent confused you all with off track plot!
Anupamaa
Health and Fitness
9