She walked into their room after giving the whole family some milk as no one had dinner after the day's events. She had just gotten off the phone with Romi who was staying in the hospital with her sister-in-law. And now as she wanted to crash on the bed after this tiring day, she found her husband with tears streaming down his face as he looked out the window.
Knowing it was hard on him seeing his sister in the hospital right after he had barely dealt with the fact that her life could have been in danger, she rushed to him and held his shoulder bringing him out of his thoughts. Being himself, he turned the other way and wiped off his tears as if she would never know he had been crying.
"Raman...are you okay?" She wiped off the remaining tears on her face.
"I'm fine, just Simmi..." His voice cracked and he couldn't talk further remembering his sister's unconscious state.
"She's going to be okay...and Raman you have to keep yourself strong, because only you can handle everyone right now. Mummyji...Papaji...they're only looking to you for support and assurance, so you have to keep yourself together for them..."
"Ishita, I saw you and I was only thinking of one thing. My wife, my Ishita is safe...I could only think of you. I didn't think that my sister would be danger." His tears began to run down his cheeks again and this time he didn't bother trying to hide them.
"It's okay Raman. No one ever thought that Simmi could have been attacked."
"I know, but I should have known, if not you then someone else had been hurt. But I could only think of you. Ishita...the saree, if it was your bl...blood...I would have died!" He couldn't hold back his tears anymore.
He pulled her close to him and threw his arms around her. He cried on her shoulder sobbing continuously with flashes of that dreaded saree and then the brutal wounds his sister had. It was for her, his Ishita would have been in that state and he sobbed louder as he couldn't imagine if she had been attacked with such cruelty.
"Raman!" She became really worried for him as he wouldn't stop crying and he continued to tighten his grip on her. It was as if he was trying to fight with something in his mind, he was so disturbed by something and it was almost scaring her. She started to pull back from the hug and he didn't want to let go and continued to bring her more into him. Finally she gave up on moving away from him.
Instead she held onto him as tightly as she could. He was trembling in her arms and she onto clung onto him. Stroking his back, she closed her eyes wanting to take away whatever what was bothering him. As she tried to hush him, he began to loosen up as it sunk in that she was okay. That she was in his arms, and safe with him. Slowly and reluctantly he began to move back from the hug.
Wiping off the tears on his face, she kissed his tired eyes as if asking him to stop crying. He listened to her and began to hiccup as he suddenly held back his cries. She walked him to the couch and they sat down as he never let go of her hands. His shaking hands, his sweaty forehead, and his trembling body scared her and she couldn't stop from asking him what was so difficult for him to overcome.
"What's bothering you so much Raman? Simmi's going to be okay and I'm fine too."
"I know, but I can't forget it. Ishita, you know I'm nothing without you...I can fight with you Ishita, I even hurt you many times, but the one thing I can't do is stay without. I need you to breathe Ishita...I can't tell you, I felt lost...almost like I was suffocating as minutes passed and I didn't see you in front of me, perfectly fine..."
"I'll never leave you...I'm here to stay and annoy you." She tried to make him feel just a bit better since she could only reassure him and tried to make him smile a bit by trying to lighten up the situation, but in vain. But she was glad that he was pouring out his feelings as he continued to cry holding her hands...
"You know I cursed myself for sleeping and missing your calls, I went to Pammi aunty's house...I prayed Ishita...I prayed for any miracle to happen that would bring you to me safe...I cursed myself for challenging that very God, thinking he was punishing me for those words that night...Ishita I just felt so dead the moment I found that saree and your name...on...on the letter. I thought I would have lost you...that I wouldn't see you Ishita...that I was going to...lose you..."
"I'm so sorry Raman...I wished I could go back and have changed anything to contact you...I'm sorry..." She caressed his face wanting to see him devoid of all this tension and tears. He rested his head on her shoulder while she only patted his head stroking his hair, while he put his arms around her neck.
"Don't be sorry, just stay." He quietly mumbled against her chest while she kissed his hair. She held onto him like her life depended on it, letting him know she was only with him and she wasn't going anywhere.
Suddenly she felt him loosen up in her arms as his weight fell on her, his arms fell from her neck and he became silent. She called out to him and got nothing in response. She looked down at him and found his eyes shut. Patting his cheeks, she called out to him a bit louder, but he still didn't respond as he had fainted in her arms.
"Raman! Raman...open your eyes! What happened to you? Raman!!" She tried to hold back her tears and onto her sanity as she laid him down on the couch and ran to their bedroom door.
"Mummyji! Papaji! Call a doctor!" She yelled out and ran back to him. She held his hand continuously calling his name. She knew he was upset and stressed over all the recent happenings, but never had she even thought that he would fall sick due to everything.
She held his head close to herself and kissed his forehead asking him to get up. Tears made their way down her face while she hugged his head. She tried to call out to him again while she hoped there was a doctor on the way for him. And that's how her in-laws found her as they rushed up hearing her yell. As her mother-in-law rushed to her, her father-in-law called up the doctor.
"What happened?" Santosh asked as she kneeled down by Ishita seeing her unconscious son.
"I don't know...we were just talking...and he..." She hugged her mother-in-law and cried in her arms as she could only try to console her.
"He'll be okay." And they both only hoped that he would...
~~~~~
She was sitting on the bed as she cried and talked to his unconscious figure hoping he would open his eyes when the doctor walked in. Refusing to leave his side, she sat by him as the doctor examined him. After a few minutes when the doctor was not saying anything, she was becoming restless.
"What happened to Raman? Will he be fine? He was just talking, then how did he suddenly-"
"Ishita, please calm down. Let him check first." Toshiji tried to calm her while she was just becoming more and more anxious. Finally the doctor spoke up letting her sigh out of relief.
"Dr. Bhalla, there's nothing to worry about. But he's clearly stressed about something. I suggest keep him away from whatever is bothering him otherwise this much stress is not good for him. For now I've given him a tranquilizer and he should regain consciousness in a few hours."
Her father-in-law went to drop off the doctor while her mother-in-law asked her to take care and sadly left the room as she could only think about the horrible time her family was going through with her daughter in the hospital and now her son falling ill as well.
Left alone with him, she sat by his side for the next 2 hours. Brushing her fingers through his hair, she simply adored the peaceful look on his face even though it was the effect of medications. He had given her the biggest scare in these past 2-3 hours and was now laying peacefully. But she wasn't complaining, all that mattered was that he was okay.
The moment he collapsed in her arms, she felt everything become so still and it wasn't until she was reassured by the doctor that he was okay, that she was able to think clearly. And now all she needed was for him to wake up and say he's okay with a smile that her still worried heart would calm down. She snapped out of her thoughts as she felt him move under her hand and she heard him mumbling...
"Ishita...no...don't...no...please...stay...don't...go..." Slowly he began to open his eyes as she called out to him. She smiled at him relieved he was awake as he looked at her. Helping him up, she handed him some water which he refused. As the lines of worry appeared on his forehead again, she encircled his arm and held his shoulder as she tried to tell him she was with him.
"Raman, why are you so worried? I'm fine and with you..."
"I know, but..."
"What is it?" She cupped his face making him face her. With sad eyes he looked at her as he told her everything that was on his mind that worried his heart.
"Ishita...I'm scared. Of losing you...it's happened twice in a week...I almost lost you due to that time bomb, and now you nearly escaped this attack...Ishita, I can't lose you. You know what you are to me and...and if anything happens to you, my life has no purpose then. I can't be without you, there is no me without you."
She knew everything he was saying. Though she couldn't understand exactly what he felt because thankful she didn't have to go through what he did, but she had just went through a small fraction of his pain and turmoil and that was enough for her to relate to his worry. She wanted to cry and her world stopped as he fainted while he was dealing with exactly that just that he had gone through it so many times and the incidents just seemed never ending.
But she knew that she couldn't leave him with so much stress and pain to carry with him. She needed him to know that no matter what it was, she had come back to him safe and sound each time. Though it couldn't lessen those moments of desperation and anguish that he faced, it couldn't lessen his pain. And so she told him everything she genuinely believed...
"And that's why I'm still here. Because I am not meant to be away from you. We're meant to be together Raman. That very God you questioned the other day and prayed to today also knows that. That's why I've always come back to you. Whether it was surviving that earthquake, that bus, or this attack, nothing has happened to me...because we are supposed to be together, never separated. And that's how it always will be..."
"Promise?" She smiled at him. The tough Raman who everyone knew was really a soft childlike man who after all this turmoil and pain, just wanted assurance that you would give a small child, she thought as he simply asked for a promise after everything.
"Pakka promise...no! Raman promise this time. I am not going anywhere. We're going to be together no matter what..."
He pulled her into a hug with a small smile. Her words gave him a sense of peace that he needed badly. Because no matter what happened in their crazy lives, they were always together at the end. Safe and happy in each other's arms. Because they were meant to be together forever...
__________________________________________________________________
That was all! Please do like and leave your feedback! Looking forward to reading it!đ
Members Lounge
Sports
1.2k