Fire and Ice.
Hello, everyone! 🤗 Finally, I am back. Shot Three's here! Ah, I was so waiting to say this - "Strap your seatbelts and brace yourself! Real action begins now!"
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"I am a broken soul. I'm an open book with many torn out pages. And I walk through fire. But I thrist for truth... for what I've never tasted."
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Fire and Ice - Shot Three.
Italy, Milano - Ranveer's Penthouse.
Just before the conversation.
Saturday. 01:30 PM Italian Standard Time.
"Emotions are wild horses*, Ranveer. Always keep them in check and under control. Otherwise, they'll run away before you catch them. And you'll have a hard time in gathering and getting them back." Kailash had told his beloved son with a wagging finger and a counselling tone when Ranveer was a mere teenager. That teaching was what Ranveer had always paid heed to and tried to follow. But at times like this, it was seemingly impossible to keep his assailing emotions in check. They just made their appearances and disappearances, each one of them assaulting him with cruel intensity.
Emotions were like seasons. They were kaleidoscopic pictures sliding in and moving away, taking their own time in doing so. They were dew droplets coming to fill the crunchy grass with softness and life and disappearing as fast as they'd come to replace the droplets with snow flakes which consumed all the life. They were great wild horses which always tried to break free from your nervous hold. Once they broke free, it was, as Kailash said, difficult to bring them back into order.
You had to struggle with those stygian black horses which blew you like a veritable gale before they allowed themselves to be subdued by you.
Ranveer struggled to keep those emotions in check as his hands slid his cell in a playful hold.
Unconsciously, and unaware, Ranveer's fingers were scrolling through her pictures. His phone was full of hers, wasn't it? He never used his phone that frequently (save for his long business calls). He didn't even click much pictures of himself. For his hands wounding his phone, as if possessed when around Ishaani, clicked only hers. He even did some awesome nature photography, okay? But the 4309 photos on his Camera Roll were only of hers. When she was unaware. Smiling. Spreading smiles and laughter. Tucking her culprit loose strand of hair behind her ear. Of playing her priced veena with eyes closed, singing with the precise raag and taal.
He smirked with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, eyes moving across those priceless photos as if searching and caressing them. His picture gallery was just like his heart, all right! She was everywhere, filling it to the brim and still able to contain herself. His index finger touched a particular photo as it enlarged. It was a selfie of both of them as Ishaani had clicked it - her face plastering a dazzling smile while her eyes glowed strangely. His eyes were focused on her with tenderness in them as he too had a smile. The picture was snapped after days of their marriage, he recognised, as he exited his gallery.
While his mind was lost in the lanes and bocks of those good old days, his traitorous fingers had opened the call book and pressed her name, calling her. The phone thrummed with rings as was he jolted back to reality.
His expression turning to one of nervous horror, he tried to cut the call.
But the mistake' had been done and at the fourth ring, the call was picked up. Rising his phone to his left ear as he prepared for the unknown, he instantly and subconsciously knew that this was going to bring in something new to his life. Or maybe, it was life throwing in one of her twists with precautious planning and he had to now face it.
Whatever it was, Ranveer Vaghela knew that either he was going to reminisce this or regret this.
+++
India, Mumbai - RV Mansion.
**Parkinsonism is caused by lesions in the basal ganglia and is associated particularly with damage to the interconnecting system between the substantia nigra and corpus striatum... associated with dopamine deficiency and... is of unknown origin. Paralysis agitans, it is. Paralysis agitans. Say it again, Parul... paralysis agi-what? Agitation?
URGH.
Parul closed her 843-page medical textbook and kept it on her table with a thud. She was studious and respectful towards her duty of studying, okay... but certain thick, fat and obese books with miniscule font and huge, huge content like the one on her table just pissed her off. Why were medical students condemned to death by studying like her? Studying, studying, studying... whoever crossed her path asked about how her studies were going on instead of how she was doing! Whoever crossed her during her break time asked her to go back and study. Whoever crossed her talked only about studies!
It's like, studying has become my occupation! Jinhe dekho sirf padhai ke bare mein hi puchta hai aur baat karta hai! Kar rahi hoon na main padai har waqt, aur kya?She thought agitatedly.
[Everyone talks and asks about studies. I AM always studying, right? Then... what?]
She glared at the pristine blue copy of Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine gleaming in the study bulb's light as she switched it of and flounced out of the room.
She needed some fresh air.
Ten minutes later saw Parul Nandakishore*** Vaghela roaming around the gargantuan corridors of the mansion with an abstract air around her. Admiring all the artefacts on the ornate tables well placed at intervals and the paintings on the walls, Parul looked at all of them like a person who was seeing all of it for the first time. Wasn't she here for a year? Yet, she'd failed to notice the beauty of the erstwhile Parekh Mansion. Now, RV Mansion.
Harshad Uncle has sure done an awesome job with the architecture, she surmised as her eyes skimmed all her surroundings with child-like greed. Her love for observing things was in her genes.
Nandakishore Vaghela... her father. She missed him.
Kailash's brother Nandakishore had always been the loud one among the two brothers. Kailash, in complete contrast to her father, was the always serious and docile one. Though Nandakishore had been the elder one, he had an aura and appearance which made people mistake him being the younger one. Singing old songs in his baritone and spending his time reading books and newspaper, her Dada had been cheery, yet serious. Loud, yet soft. Wise, yet cheeky. He could make her laugh at one of his jokes and yet give her his sound advice on matters which needed them. He threw her in the air when she was a baby and he was always the one who lulled her to sleep when she'd been a bubbly bed-time-story-demanding kid.
It had been a year without him in her life. Without her native where she had stayed all her life.
Some more years, girl, then you'd go in front of him as the neurologist Dr. Parul Vaghela, she consoled herself.
She smiled. How proud he would be when she would finally achieve her dream! Just some more time and-
Har ghadi badal rahi hai roop zindagi... chaav hai kabhi-kabhi hai dhoop zindagi.
Har pal yahan, jee bhar jiyo. Jo hai sama... kal ho na ho...
Bhabhi's phone! The source seemed near.
Kahan hai Bhabhi ka phone?
[Where is Bhabhi's phone?]
Parul searched for the source of the song as her mind travelled back to a particular snippet of memory of the past seven months.
"Bhabhi! You are an SRK fan!" Parul teased Ishaani as she got to know about Ishaani's cell's ringtone while Ishaani brushed it off. She wasn't anyone's fan, okay?
"Oh, yes! I got company...ooh lala!"
"Quite mistaken, darling. I am not your Baadshah's fan," Ishaani rolled her eyes. She, first of all, hated watching movies after her father passed away. After her extended teenage disappeared all of a sudden like a dream. And then, she'd stopped all of the movie-watching sessions though she liked some songs. But it isn't like she didn't like some songs and their meanings.
"Then why have you got the title track of KHNH as your ringtone?" Parul asked Ishaani with narrowed eyes.
Framing her thoughts, Ishaani spoke, "I love the particular lines which I have set as the tone as they have such wonderful meaning! Ever thought of what it says? Have you ever focused on what the lyrics of certain songs mean instead of their tune?"
No. Parul had never done that at all. She just knew the lyrics of famous songs by heart which she belted out on some crazy occasions. But she'd never stopped to wonder about meanings and analysis of lyrics!
Parul remained tongue-tied as Ishaani softly hummed the tune of the song before launching into the particular lines itself. Her singing was so beautiful that Parul felt, Ishaani had to belt out the official female version of the song. She knew that her Bhabhi was a wonderful singer. But had she known that Ishaani Vaghela sang so beautifully, Parul would have pestered her for coaching!
"Har ghadi badal rahi hai roop zindagi,
Chaav hai kabhi, kabhi hai dhoop zindagi.
Har pal yaha jee bhar jiyo...
Jo hai samaa... kal ho na ho!"
Every moment, life's changing,
Sometimes there's shade, and at times, there is sunshine.
Live every moment to the fullest.
For this very moment, may or may not be there tomorrow!
As Ishaani sang, the lyrics seemed to arrange themselves in a code and show their meaning. Then, she started to understand Ishaani Ranveer Vaghela for what she truly was and what she truly believed in.
Live life to the fullest for you never know when what happens!
Parul truly respected Ishaani as she came to understand her. Respect paved way for the love which sisters share. She now knew Ishaani truly and she resented (although she understood) Ranveer for leaving her Bhabhi.
And from then on, Parul could never quite stay without automatically understanding the lyrics of any song which reached her ear and which was sung in the languages she knew.
Instantly picking up the phone which lay on one of the tables, Parul's docile voice molded into a shout, "Bhabhi! Aapka phone bhaj raha hai. Bhai ne phone kiya hai! Jaldi aayiye daud ke."
As Parul swiped the green entity and spoke into the phone, she knew that her sister-in-law would just come as she said. Breathless and running.
+++
Italy, Milano - Ranveer's Penthouse.
Ranveer was greeted with Parul's voice which he, in the least bit, hadn't expected. He heaved a sigh of relief and all his anxiety melted away like a midnight dream.
"Hello, Bhai. How are you?" Ranveer sensed a bit of coldness in the greeting as he answered,
"I'm fine, Parul. I hope all of them are fine over there. How are your studies and college going on?" He knew that there were only four of them over there from his mother's long monologues on the phone.
"Yes, they are. Studies are going splendid!-" Parul said exaggeratedly, "-I've notified Bhabhi... she will be taking over the phone soon." Parul's each word had dry ice weaved in it. Great! He even made his cousin resent him. Good going, Ranveer!
Not knowing what more to say, both remained silent, waiting for Ishaani to come and that didn't take quite much time. Ranveer heard her voice just as he had imagined it in his dreams and nightmares, but it wasn't cold, it was hopeful and slightly breathless as her words travelled over to him.
"Ranveer...!"
And there! It had all begun again. Their story would either reach the happily ever after or...
+++
India, Mumbai - RV Mansion.
Ishaani heaved into the phone as her pallu fell back according to the laws of gravity. She had waved off Parul to talk in her room in privacy to Ranveer. "...How are you? I hope you're doing fine. Saath mahine se accha khaana khaya ki nahi? [Eaten good food from the past seven months?] I was thinking of calling you, but you did. I am so happy, Ranveer that you called me..."
Ranveer knew of the chatter and tirades which Ishaani blabbered when she was nervous. Nervous chattering. He cut her off, "-I'm fine. And don't worry about the food, it's splendid. How are you?" he spoke as his voice seemed muffled.
"I am doing marvellous!" she spoke in a low voice which faded away.
Boy, it hurt him. The truth hurts. She wasn't doing well. He knew. And it was always strange... the truth. Strange and mysterious, yet the truth sometimes could be the purest benedictions or the darkest secrets stuffed into corners and folded between lies.
"How are Maa, Baba?" Ranveer tried changing the topic.
"They're fine." Both remained still for while, not knowing what to say while only their breaths were heard on the phone.
Finally mustering up courage, which had been lost somewhere in those many months spent analysing and re-analysing her decisions and its consequences in life, Ishaani put all her emotions and the biggest one she felt - love, into her words, "Ranveer... everyone miss you here. I miss you. When are you coming back?" She knew that they had to have this conversation today. It had been too long. Too long since those words were being suppressed.
He closed his eyes as she said them. "Soon,"
"It has been seven months..."
"I know."
"And you never once thought of your parents here? Of how they will live without you? You never once thought... of me?" Ishaani asked, her voice quivering with various emotions.
"You never once thought of me and my feelings when you went to that-that..." There, he'd said it.
"His name is Chirag Mehta. And how many times haven't I told you, Ranveer? I was foolish, then! I never knew that you'd already stolen my heart. I never knew that it was you who I had first and forever fallen in love with. I never knew the truth, Ranveer. And now since I have known it all along, I LOATHE myself. I loathe myself for what happened and the loathing only increases everyday! I can't seem to meet my eyes in the mirror without detesting myself for what I did to you, for breaking your trust, for breaking your heart! I have thought and thought about everything plenty of times and every time I do, the fact stands out that it was mymistake... mine alone for doing that to you. I broke you. I did that to you. The day you were shot, Ranveer... you know, I feel like it's me who shot you by not choosing you. I chose you over him once, Ranveer, trust me, it willnever happen again. I will always choose you even I don't have a choice. I will choose you before anybodyelse! Please trust me! Our marriage can work again. Come back. Kya maine itni badi galti kardi ki tum mujhe apne dil mein phirse jaga nahi doge... kitne dino tak yeh sab chalta rahega, Ranveer? A year? Ten years? Our whole lives?" she spoke breathlessly into the phone as the voice at the other end remained still. Tears threatened to flow down her alabaster cheeks for the nth time in the day as her vision blurred.
[Did I commit such big a mistake that I will never regain your love and a place in your heart, again? Till when will all this continue, Ranveer?]
"I... don't seem to have an answer, Ishaani. I can't seem to forget that you believed that I killed Mota Bapuji. I wouldn't have been surprised if anyone else did accuse me... but you?" Ranveer tried to put his point forth.
Ishaani placed her head on the bed as she knelt, "Tell me what I should do to regain your trust."
Ranveer slid down to the floor as he heard her, not saying a word.
"Tell me, please. I hate the pain. It hurts a lot. I want to get rid of that. Tell me what you want me to do. I will do that..."
"I want to be alone for a while. Will you give me that? I want a moment in my life which isn't about you. It seems like you have printed your name and yourself in every mili-second of my life."
Ishaani smiled like a haunted doll as tears finally soaked the duvet, "When you have done the same with me, why should I help you in removing my marks from your existence?"
"I want to be alone, Ishaani."
"I love you too much to leave you alone. My love is a little selfish, Ranveer... ask for something else."
She whispered as she sniffled, "I hope that this woman can at least give you that."
With eyes closed, Ranveer whispered into the phone like a child who was too hurt to ask for more, "I want to be loved."
"Come back, then, please... I have always loved you. I always will."
"What if you go away like before...?"
She sighed, "I won't. Trust me. You'll not regret it. Please, one last time."
Ranveer didn't know where the conversation was treading towards. So, he did the only thing possible.
He hung up with a mumbled "I need time".
Ishaani's phone fell to the floor as her eyes watered endlessly. She was still slumped near the bed with her head rested on the duvet as her eyes closed. What was going to happen, really? Couldn't he trust her one last time?
Her Ranveer had never been like this before. As the cruel, cruel reality dawned on her, Ishaani realised with agonised horror that it was she who had turned him to a vulnerable and confused person. It was she who always had broken him and maybe, she'd broken him with so much vigour this time that the pieces of him were entangled with hers. And even if she managed to restore him back, there would forever be a void.
She realised that he'd never again blindly trust her.
He'd always have his guard up around her and the walls, this time, were invincible to be penetrated through.
They'd reached a cul-de-sac. And neither of them knew where to go.
Ishaani immediately picked up her phone, which was a trifle wet with tears as her thumb traced the message box. An idea had flashed into her mind, however humorous it was. Hope had flashed again like a neon colour attracting everyone's attention in a room. Hope was truly that bird which always and traitorously sang that tune which forced the heart to look at the brighter side of some things. Quickly typing a note, she sent it on to him immediately.
Ishaani Vaghela hadn't come so far only to suffer and cry. No, sir! She indeed was made of some sterner stuff!
I have promised to not leave you alone in this world. So, I am back to disturb you a multiple choice question. The question is -
Do you still love that girl who broke your heart?
A. Nope, she's nutty.
B. AGH! Don't mention her again, okay? I hate her. Sick of her.
C. Yes, sigh... stupid me still loves her.
Ishaani smiled with a mischievous gleam in her eyes on reading her own typed message. She was truly - what they called it? Ah, yes! Pyaar mein pagal aur pyaar mein andhe. [Madly and blindly in love]
+++
Italy, Milano - Ranveer's Penthouse.
As he sat with his eyes closed, Ishaani's words slashing and impaling him with despair, Ranveer sighed. His phone pinged. On checking the message, Ranveer too had the same smile as Ishaani did when she had read her own nutty message to him.
Option C. He typed and pressed 'send'.
+++
Probably, they still had some hope after all.
They say that a cul-de-sac is either the end of things or the beginning of things. Or sometimes, it fooled people to believe that there was some hope left when in reality, there was none.
___
"Some people are meant to fall in love with each other, but not meant to be together!"
___
Notes and References:
*This quote is by Paulo Coelho.
**These words are taken by the same book mentioned. One of my cousin's medico books.
***Tada! Nandakishore is one of my brainstorming sessions' result. 😊
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