Abhigya FF: WOH HUMSAFAR THA last ch pg 76dt 9.4.16 - Page 41

Chapter 23

Pragya inhaled the morning air that was cool and fresh. She walked bare foot on the grass that had dew drops. Morning walks refreshed her mind and body although she hated waking up early but the grumpiness would remain only for a few minutes until the beautiful lush green view of the trees, bushes and fields captivated her eyes. The calmness and serenity of this place soothed her soul. Unlike ratnagiri that was turning industrial all thanks to abhi, this place was peaceful, Even though she missed being in ratnagiri more particularly with him but then she couldn't do anything about it. she sighed deeply at the thought.

" wow today's walk was amazing ." She said while keeping her hands over the belly. laxmi who was watering the plants, smiled and nodded her head in agreement, it was indeed a bright and pleasant morning. pragya stopped near laxmi and began doing her breathing exercises as instructed by shalini.

" mausi do you know ratnagiri is totally different from mahabaleshwar..its noisy and congested ." laxmi was born and brought up in mahabaleshawar and had never stepped out of this place hence took a keen interest in knowing about ratnagiri from pragya.

" but it's good to see ratnagiri flourishing.. .all because of sahab." she was proud of the fact that he was building a high school along with the shopping complex, he was not just concerned about filling his pockets but cared and did so much for the betterment of the people of his hometown . laxmi noticed that there was always a spark in her eyes whenever she spoke about him.

" over there people literally worship him ..and why not, he deserves all that respect ." A sense of warmth engulfed her whenever she thought or talked about him. A smile would spread across her lips that would light up her face. She turned to look at laxmi with fondness over him swimming in her eyes, expecting to agree or at least react to her but all that she got from laxmi was a " huh". What kind of a reaction was that, she failed to gauge hence inquired," meaning ?"

laxmi simply shook her head trying to brush aside the topic and replied," nothing ." But pragya wasn't convinced, there was something cold in her response and prodded," no, I sense something. Tell me."

laxmi took a deep breath after dropping the pipe with which she was watering the plants and then glanced at pragya.

" well I was just thinking , a man who cheats on his wife , impregnates another woman can still be worthy of so much respect?" finally laxmi had spilled the beans.

pragya stared back in disbelief, how could she think that sahab cheated on his wife? She curled her fingers and without thinking replied," sahab never betrayed di..in fact di herself brought me in their lives ." it was hard to believe that a wife would do something like this. She looked at pragya both confusedly and suspiciously, who was still fuming at the remark made by her and added further," di, can't conceive so I'll give this child to her."

laxmi's eyes turned wide, shalini was infertile hence pragya would give away her child to them! She was shocked to the core.

" but why?" why was pragya doing all this?

pragya who had already blurted out all that she shouldn't have wondered whether she should divulge more or not, maybe not but she didn't wish to see anybody pointing fingers at him. She lowered her head, she couldn't meet her gaze while speaking further," because ..i'm a prostitute ..and I need money to get out of this profession ." She had told her about her past, perhaps now she would understand all of them better, they were all into this deal not out of will but for personal reasons.

pragya folded her hands before her and requested not to share this with anybody. She had trusted on her and hoped that she wouldn't break her trust. Saying so she went back inside to have a shower.

laxmi was stunned, pragya's words reverberated in her ears, she couldn't believe what she had heard, instead of getting relieved after getting her answers she was now all the more worried for pragya as she was hopelessly falling in love with him, her world comprised only of him and the child. Though she was making it sound that she was doing all this for money so that she could lead a better life but that was hardly the case.

laxmi gazed down at the plants and thought, the seed of a new life was sown inside pragya and she was nurturing it with her love but was she forgetting that ultimately the fruit would not fall in her lap and she would have to leave the child and him forever?

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pragya took her mind away from the conversation that she had with laxmi couple of hours ago and began feeding her baby by devouring the stuffed parantha with curd and licked the mango chutney. She just couldn't get enough of this chutney and had it with every meal. The sweet and tangy taste of these mangoes transported her back to MM and why wouldn't they after all they were from MM garden. When he came the last time he had bought along with him a huge box of raw mangoes. A smile lingered on her lips. She didn't know that he noticed such a small thing about her and kept it in his mind...so sweet. Though he himself spoke less but his actions spoke louder than his words.

For more than a week or so, daily she had those raw mangoes, in fact she was quite possessive of them and didn't appreciate sharing them with laxmi, declaring that sahab brought them for her. Shalini never really enjoyed mangoes, according to her they didn't suit her skin so, much to pragya's relief she was out of contention. However some days later laxmi suggested of making a mango chutney out of those mangoes fearing that they might rot in days to come. The idea was wise enough therefore pragya accepted it.

pragya boringly wandered her eyes in the hall, she was having lunch alone as shalini was suffering from food poisoning and that too because of her.

pragya shrugged her head in disappointment, what was the need to force shalini to have junk food from the streets when they both went out shopping last evening. Indeed the pani puris were mouth watering but she failed to see that the area was so dirty and unhygienic.

" no di, I want to eat." pragya was behaving like a stubborn child, shalini tried to stop her but she wasn't willing to listen. So what if the area was heavily littered? At least the pani puris were clean and the man serving was wearing gloves! How much more hygiene was shalini expecting?

" di ..seriously these are yum ..at least try one ." It was only one paani puri that shalini had and that too on pragya's insistence which did the damage. The whole night poor shalini was shuttling in and out of her washroom. Shalini who always kept a strict eye on pragya's diet cursed herself later on giving into pragya's silly wish. The only thing that kept her temper in control was that thankfully pragya was hail and hearty otherwise her husband wouldn't have spared her.

These high class, sophisticated close to cleanliness freaks have such a weak digestive system, pragya concluded.

pragya covered the last bit of the chutney on the plate with her forefinger and licked it. Her eyes fell on the cell phone that was next to the plate. Picking it up she dialed his number.

He pursed his dry lips and wiped the beads of sweat formed on his forehead with the back of his hand. Standing under the blazing sun he observed the structure of the shopping complex. More than half of the structure was complete and he was quite satisfied with the way things were moving on. In the past one month he had single mindedly worked on only this project and the results were now beginning to show.

He creased his brows on seeing pragya's name flash on the screen. He had spoken to shalini in the morning after knowing that she wasn't keeping well so what happened there after? His pulse throbbed in his neck as he panicked. The thought that pragya might also be in trouble ran through his mind. How would these ladies far away manage everything on their own tensed him.

" yeah pragya ..is everything alright ?" he asked worriedly. pragya made a face hearing his tensed voice, what was wrong with him? Why was he sounding worried?

"hmm..di is resting and I'm fine." She replied casually, there was nothing to get hassled over, all was well.

" then?" he sounded surprised, if everything was fine then why did she call up?

" what then ?" she felt offended by his question. Before leaving had he not told her that she could call him up any day any time, then why was he reacting like this? Agreed she usually spoke to him in the nights thinking of not disturbing him while working but if right now she felt like talking to him then couldn't she? She remained silent and pouted her lips in annoyance.

Assured that things were okay he asked her calmly, " I mean do you wish to say something ?". Of course she must be having something to say otherwise why would she call up, but what? All of a sudden she went blank. Honestly speaking she had nothing to share with him, she was getting bored and had dialed his number on impulse. There was silence at both the ends. He walked slowly and stood under a tree, waiting for her to speak.

" yeah ..okay ..you know he's not at all like you ." She stammered while speaking, after all she had to come up with something. He furrowed his brows in confusion, who was she talking about?

" after every two hours he needs to eat something ." She added further after resting her hand on her belly. He ironed out his brows when it struck him that she was talking about the baby and its eating. A smile tugged the corners of his lips, obviously the baby was growing and would want to be fed more often. It amused him hearing how she was comparing his eating habits/ appetite with the child. He kept quiet as she went with her rattling that in a few days she would grow fat and chubby if she continued eating like this.

The project engineer came up to have a word with him but he signaled him to come later, right now he was busy dealing with the mood swings of the mother of his child. Of course these were mood swings arising due to hormonal changes...how did he know? Well the shopping complex definitely kept his days but the nights were devoted to his baby reading books on parenting as this was the only way he could keep himself connected with the baby. He still remembered the look on that salesman's face when he, Abhishekh mehra , asked for such books...his eyes were ready to pop out of the sockets!

laxmi with a bowl of lukewarm oil stood before pragya. As ordered by shalini she was supposed to massage pragya's swollen feet and aching back, the increasing weight was pressurizing her back and feet. She was ready with her task and waited for pragya to cut the call. Whenever she saw pragya speaking to him or talking about him it only annoyed her. Indeed she was an outsider still the growing closeness between the two of them was unacceptable to her. Surely pragya had cleared out many things but still she couldn't bring herself to see him in a good light. He was the god father of ratnagiri and earned tremendous respect in their eyes but that respect failed to find a place in laxmi's eyes. According to her he was only using both the ladies in his life for his benefit. In her eyes shalini was a great wife who was making a huge sacrifice for the sake of his happiness. The bitterness in shalini's tone and behavior now seemed justified to her after all its not easy to willingly bring a second woman in your husband's life and then protect and nurture the other woman's child as yours. That is not all, if after doing all this your husband ignores and disregards the sacrifices that you have made and the pain that you are going through then God only help you! Accepted that shalini brought pragya into his life but then that was only for sometime, his first priority should always have been his wife but sadly she wasn't and there was no regret in his eyes and no sign of complain in shalini's behavior. Getting close to the mother of his child was natural but that didn't excuse him to drift away from his wife. laxmi still remembered how instead of sleeping with his wife he had spent the night on the couch! As a husband how could he do that to his wife who was spending every moment of her life in taking care of his child. His hard cold exterior that exuded power might silence the world but it didn't succeed to impress her.

laxmi glanced down at pragya who was still talking to him. His wife was sick, rather than conversing with pragya he should be enquiring about her but did he care? How insensitive and selfish could one be!

pragya paused and gazed at laxmi who was still rooted to the spot, she was talking to him, couldn't she wait for some time?

" the oil is getting cold." laxmi stated flatly. pragya nodded her head, yeah the oil was getting cold and laxmi was getting hot!

" sahab , I'll talk to you later ." She disconnected the call and proceeded towards her room.

The strange silence between them was disconcerting pragya, she wanted to reason out with her, diffuse this unwanted tension between them after all she had cleared out everything then why this fuss? but then dropped the idea maybe, she was over thinking and there was nothing to worry about. Perhaps laxmi was worked up over her daughter's marriage that was fast approaching.

laxmi applied the oil on pragya's feet and massaged them gently thinking where pragya's feet were leading her, she herself was clueless. Her attraction towards him had no future and even if it had then it would destroy many things in the process. If she was here in this childless couple's life to give them a baby in return of money then she should stick to the deal, why was she investing her emotions in this professional relationship? It would only lead to heart break, either her heart would be crushed or shalini's. The possibility of all living peacefully was nil. Her wandering steps needed to be controlled and stopped as soon as possible otherwise they would only end up ruining someone's happiness.

The attraction that was turning into love was indeed fatal for everyone!

Thanks for reading

Rose