Chapter 19
"Relax, Ms. Parekh," Puneet said who had accidently turned up to the office at late night to fetch an important file while Ishani had lost her senses on what to do or what not to. He luckily came up and Ishani and Puneet brought Ranveer to the hospital as well as informed his family and only his father was coming but his mother could not be informed since she always fretted over her son's health. Ishani looked at Puneet nervously while he only smiled slightly to assure her Ranveer would be alright.
"But why aren't they telling us anything?" Ishani asked impatiently.
"Because they're just attending him," Puneet replied.
"Oh, it's been so long. Why don't they come out and let us go to meet Ranveer?" Ishani said, frustrated.
"It's been only 15 minutes, Ma'am, they'll be coming anytime. And we have to see Mr. Vaghela too. He'd be arriving soon."
Ishani still kept strolling from one side to another, impatiently looking out of the room towards the doorway hoping for something to happen. After few minutes Kailash and Rishi arrived, both wearing worried expressions on their faces. Kailash saw Ishani and for a moment Ishani saw a sign of relief in his eyes while she herself looked at him with guilt-stricken eyes, and swallowed hard.
"What happened?" Kailash asked Ishani. Ishani could not say anything and shut her eyes and few moments later she heard Puneet explain everything to Rishi and Kailash.
"What did the doctor say?" Kailash said.
Ishani shook her head. "We just got here half an hour ago, they're still to clarify what happened to him," she said trying to catch her breath. "I--I think you should be done with the formalities of the hospital already. They said they needed a family member."
Kailash nodded and rushed towards the reception followed by Rishi while Puneet still stood by Ishani's side. The time seemed to have rooted at one place only as it refused to move forward, it felt to Ishani. She felt she had waited for hours while it was not even one hour that had passed.
"He's fine," Ishani heard the doctor say sympathetically. "You don't have to worry, and no need to fret for sure."
Ishani was not in mood to listen to the doctor's jokes as she retorted, "What happened to him, doctor? Why did you guys have to take so long?"
Looking at Ishani's impatient state Puneet jumped in between and took matter in his own hands as he gestured Ishani to calm down which she did very reluctantly.
"I'm sorry, sir, yes, please. How's RV sir?" he said.
"He is fine. He had fever already, and workload took a great deal out of him as well as some emotional stress, it seems. Oh, and I need not mention Alcohol, the real culprit here. He shouldn't have taken it at all. He must have felt suffocation due to lack of air and perhaps smoke in the room that is quite common because of winters now a days. And it all caused disorientation in his blood circulation and that's why it all happened but he is doing quite fine now. Though we had to sedate him for a couple of hours, now once he wakes up he'd be fine. But make sure he takes rest for atleast one week," the doctor said all this looking at Ishani. She could but nod slightly.
"Can I...can I see him, doctor?" Ishani insisted.
"Sure. You can go to him." With this Ishani ran towards the room Ranveer was kept in.
*
Ishani entered a large hospital room, the white walls of the hospital welcoming her and the glassy windows were shut to keep the chilly wind from penetrating through, and the curtains were drawn tightly. She smelt the smell of the medicines which she always ran away from until now; but it didn't matter today. It didn't matter that she was in the most unpleasant place she always thought it was. All she could see was a figure draped in a light blanket breathing as his chest rose and fell softly under the blanket. Ishani sighed as she found her heart clenching in herself at the sight of Ranveer. She could not feel anything for still her mother's words rang in her ears, yet the strong was the moment in which she had found Ranveer in, his eyes accusing her on mistrusting him. Ishani steadily moved towards Ranveer, sat beside him on a chair and stared at his pale face while he still did not stir. She deep down wanted him to wake up and talk to her for she still remembered how he used to spend hours sitting beside her when she used to have fever or needed him. She had hurt him and she could not run away from this fact; and to ease the anguish, if it was possible, she took his feeble hand in her and squeezed it gently as the tears of regret appeared in the corners of her eyes.
"Ranveer, wake up, please," she said, but he did not move. "You never liked being in hospital, don't you remember that? Why don't you just get up and see you've been here longest ever? See, it's going to be dawn in a few hours. Wake up!" she said and broke in tears.
Ranveer made no movement while Ishani continued, her voice cracked and quivering, "I miss our old days, Ranveer, when we were together and nothing troubled us like it does now. Everything was so beautiful and peaceful. And you know what, when I"I fell in love with Chirag, for a moment I thought my life was complete and I needed nothing but then you left and I came to realize in my life only years existed and nothing else. I missed you! I missed you so much that my own family, my siblings and their company fell short. I don't know why I'm telling you this, I don't know if I should be saying anything at all, but I wanted to let you know. I don't know if the accusations on you were real or false, I don't know your intentions for separating me from Chirag but all I know is I missed my friend more than anything else. My friend Ranveer. Can we not go back to being the same again? Can we not gain the years back and relive our life again? I know you're not listening. Not now anyway, but I am content this way telling you this, trust me on this."
While talking all this she stroked his hairs and felt the fever had toned down considerably and his breathing was regular now. After months and years of lies to herself Ishani was able to admit everything to Ranveer though he did not listen to anything said to him. Ishani kept staring at his face, sometimes a pleasant or sometimes unpleasant memory striking her. Ishani spent entire night there, sitting next to Ranveer, caressing his forehead and telling him of everything she wanted him to know. The time passed and the finally the dawn broke, spreading the purple and orange colors in the sky and the rays of the sun made their way through the curtains. It was then a nurse showed up and asked Ishani to leave since there were few checkups that needed to be done before Ranveer was discharged. Ishani reluctantly turned to leave, taking a final look at Ranveer, and was surprised to see Kailash standing there.
"Kaka, you here?" she said in a low voice.
Kailash nodded and signaled her to come out and they both walked towards the waiting room.
"Are Puneet and Rishi gone?" she asked when Kailash did not say anything. He nodded.
"Though they'll be coming back in a while to take him home." He said and at no reaction from Ishani he continued, "Ishani, I appreciate those who heal the wounds. It's a very rare quality. Thank you for getting him to the hospital at time."
"It wasn't me, it was Puneet. I had no idea what to do until Puneet showed up." Ishani said. "And I haven't healed any wounds, Kaka, but made them bleed again."
Kailash put his hand on her shoulder. "Ishani, in ordinary circumstances if I had overheard you I might feel guilty or bad but today I felt relieved."
Ishani looked at him in surprise and no words came out of her mouth and they stopped walking too.
"Ishani, the time has been hard for us, for all of us; but you cannot give up on life or stop living it. Ranveer has chosen the second way to live"or I would say spend -his life. Yet since last month we could sense a positive change in him and thus in our own lives and I don't want to let it go. You get what I'm trying to say?"
Ishani stared at him, trying not to cry or show any emotion to Kailash she was feeling, she said, "Kaka, can you please do me a favor?" He nodded. "Please don't tell Ranveer I was here with him."
"But why? He deserves to know."
"I know. But not this time. What I said to him I do not wish to repeat or even think again ever. Kaka, please promise me. Please?"
Kailash nodded and they began to walk again and neared towards the waiting room. Ishani picked up her bag and glanced at Kailash who smiled back at her. For the first time ever since she had met Kailash, Ishani saw the old warmth and affection in his smile.
"It's time to leave now, Kaka. I need to go before it's late for the office as there are few meetings to attend."
*
The curtains were drawn aside and the white sunlight made its way into the hospital room as Ranveer still lay there unconscious. Kailash and Rishi waited for him to wake up and around 8.30 in the morning Ranveer opened his eyes. The white painted room seemed to be blazing in the morning light. Ranveer shut his eyes immediately as he found his head spinning and aching badly.
"Oh, you're awake," he heard a voice. "Good, good." The voice was unusually kind and had a surprising friendliness in it. Ranveer struggled to lift his head up but it was too much of a hard task in that moment so he drew himself back and sank on the bed. He wished to speak but could say nothing, his throat felt dry. Unable to either move, speak or think anything he finally calmed himself down, not understanding the cause why he was feeling so internally wounded and somewhere empty, and what made him end up in the hospital like this. He tried to remember if anything happened last day or in the evening and gradually the memories of the previous day came back to life again and agitated the old painful sensation again in him. His head hurt more as he wriggled on the bed to make his body move and leave. He wanted to run, escape as the burden of the memories became heavier with each passing moment.
The Doctor noticed this and ran towards him. "Don't!" he shouted in a concerned professional tone. "You're still not in condition to walk and here you're trying to dance, huh?" Ranveer recognized the voice he heard few minutes back being that of the doctor's but he could not laugh at his stupid joke, or so he thought the joke was.
"How come I am here?" he asked irritably.
"You had planned to suffocate yourself to death, it seems. Be thankful you were brought to the hospital at the right time or..." the doctor replied.
"When can I leave?"
"You can leave now but you'll have to look after yourself, Mr. Vaghela."
Before Ranveer could speak any further Puneet and Kailash entered the room, and Kailash took Ranveer in a tight embrace. "We're going now." He smiled while Ranveer remained silent.
After few minutes Ranveer, Kailash and Puneet came to their car as the driver drove them home swiftly.
"Does Maa know about..." Ranveer started but dropped the question halfway as Kailash grasped the question and shook his head.
"We needed to know what happened to you first or she might have panicked badly."
"Don't you feel guilt for not telling her the truth?"
"I do. But circumstances did not allow me to. Don't worry, we'd let her know now. She won't fret as much."
*
Ishani came back to her house and collapsed on the bed feeling tired, her body aching and her spirit low yet she felt her heart was devoid of a burden she had carried for years. She glanced up at the watch and it showed 8 O' clock. There's still some time,' she thought and went off to sleep. She woke up after nearly two hours and remembered there was an important meeting in the office today and she had to leave.
Once in the office, Ishani found her heart getting heavier at each step for she could not still get anything out form her mind. She took a deep breath and walked on and came to the conference room. All the people were there as well as Puneet who she thought might have first dropped Ranveer home and came for the meeting on time. It was him most of the times who attended the meetings or sometimes it was Rishi; Ranveer rarely went for them. The meeting ended in a couple of hours for it required few more information as well as approval of a few sustainable communities of the country for the extension of their project. However many of the things were already done while few needed time and the experts in the field were entrusted with the task.
After the meeting Ishani met Puneet who was now tired as his eyelids seemed to be drooping low.
"Hey, Puneet!" Ishani called him.
"Hello, Ms. Parekh. How are you? You were not seen for too long except yesterday."
"Yeah. I was stuck somewhere," Ishani said. "How is Ranveer? I hope he's been to home by now?"
"Yes, yes. We got him home and as you know he's been asked to take bed rest for a week, but he wanted to come back today itself. It was his mother who scolded him for drinking too much and still not listening to her so he half heartedly agreed to stay back," Puneet said.
"Did he say something?" Ishani asked in an unexpected anticipation.
"No. He didn't. He's been behaving like he was all fine and all our worries are just useless to him. I tried even telling him how you were there whole night but he wouldn't listen to anyone," Puneet said with disappointment.
"I'm sure he appreciates what you and Rishi do for him and his family. You don't have to worry about that; he just doesn't let anyone know that. And a request, Puneet, please don't tell him anything about me." Ishani was expecting another question from Puneet but was relieved to see he didn't ask any and nodding he left.
"One week," she whispered to herself and engaged herself in her work.
Hey, guys! Well, yeah! Did this chapter too and again it's quite nervousness causing stuff and all. So hopefully this one won't be any disappointing too.
Cricket
