Manan FF - Kaisi yeh Yaariyan season 3 - Chapter 123 & note - Page 67

A gigantic drop of tear sat atop his palm "I knew this was coming." Manik had reached just in time to catch it before it could land on the floor.

"Manik!!" A helpless sigh escaped her mouth as his hands and the scent of his familiar cologne surrounded her.

"Nandini...Nandini...Nandini!!!" Without a word, he lifted her in his arms and twirled around. "Gosh, I missed you like hell man. Finally...finally you are here, in my arms...I swear to God, I am not leaving you ever again."

"I missed you too" She barely managed to utter. She knew she was falling apart. Neel's abuses were still ringing in her ears, ripping her soul apart. He had called her a wh**e. He had lecherously lusted over her, molesting her with his eyes. His filthy stares refused to die down, even though he himself had left quite a while ago. His abuses had struck her so deep, that even though he hadn't touched her, she could feel the remnants of his scratches all over. She had been mercilessly raped of her dignity and the feeling was just as frightful as of someone, who had been physically violated. No one could hear her screams, yet they banged so loud in her ears, no voice could break through it, not even Manik's.

She quickly wiped away her tears, and put up a brave face.

All of a sudden it occurred to Manik that in his excitement, he hadn't even taken a good look at her. And it was funny, because all this while, he had been literally dying to see her as a bride. He placed her back on her feet and stepped back.

"Waise plan kya hai miss Murthy? Kanhi murder ka irada to nahi hai?" He just couldn't move his eyes off her, she looked so resplendent in his favourite colour. Covered from head to toe in dreamy red velvet, his little girl had completely transformed into a woman. Everything about her was beautiful, Her feminine curves, her long slender arms, peeking from under the see through fabric, her beautiful face, flushed cheeks & her slightly lowered doe shaped eyes. Her long silky tresses were accentuating her softness, and her demeanor was poised & graceful. This wasn't the bubbly little Nandini he always teased, this woman in front of her could give him sleepless nights.

If he didn't have a plan to execute, Manik would have perhaps spent the rest of the day simply staring at her.

He inched a little closer towards her and hesitatingly placed his hands on her waist. "Waise... I thought... you would...umm.. choose the sari... & I would ...umm...get to be a little playful here." He was fumbling.

She didn't retort back. She didn't shout at him or roll her eyes. "Tumne kaha tha, you wanted to help me drape one...so I didn't want to wear it today." She was barely audible.

"Are you ok Nandini? Why are you sounding so low?"

"Nahi to, wo thori tired thi, and this lehenga is very heavy." She cleared her voice, and spoke louder. Inwardly, she was suffocating, but on the outside, she kept up her pretence, as if nothing had happened. She was afraid, if Manik came to know of what had just happened he would freak out and spoil the very plan, he had so painstakingly put together over an entire weak. She further lowered her gaze to avoid an eye contact and made no efforts to tuck back the hair, carelessly spread across her face.

"kuch to missing hai Nandini...but what." Manik thought hard, and then it struck him.. The earrings. She had forgotten to put them on. He recalled how, he had chosen the earrings first, even before selecting the dress and the woman in the boutique was giving him one those 'you-don't-have-any-freaking-idea-about-shopping-for-a-wedding-trousseau' kind of looks. He searched through the pile of clothes on the bed and pulled out the jewellery box.

"Come to me, let me..help you with these." He took her hand and gently tugged at her. Then tucking the wayward strands behind her ear, he carefully inserted the jhumka and hooked it.

Nandini flinched a little as the Jhumka hung heavily from her earlobe and Manik got concerned at once" Does it hurt Nandini? Listen, you don't need to wear it ok.. Main hi stupid hoon, excitement mein couldn't judge ki yeh thora zyada hi heavy hai. Aa jao nikal deta hun"

She nodded "nahi, its ok, let it be". Nandini was trying her best to hide the pain and perhaps she would have even succeeded, had Manik not kissed her ears tenderly and her tears started rolling down involuntary. It was an old habit of hers, from her childhood. She never cried, when a teacher scolded her in school, or when someone pushed her in the playground and she got bruised. She used to act cool, as is none of it made any difference to her, but the moment her mother found out, and tended to her wounds, she would break down and cry inconsolably.

"Nandini...kya hua tumhe?" He cupped her face in his hands, shocked and frightened at the sudden shift in her mood. Why was she crying?

"Kuch nahi hua Manik" She knew it was a lost battle now and yet she tried once for the very last time. Half sobbing, half gasping she said foolishly "kuch nahi hua, sab thik hai."

Why had he not noticed her silence. Manik was cursing himself for having wasted so much time in the playful banter. How could he not see the sadness in her eyes."Nandini" He grabbed her by her shoulder and asked her with dead serious eyes "Nandini, don't ok..don't test my patience...just tell me right now what happened."

The more she denied, the more he insisted, till it reached a point where she had no more energy left in her to fight & she collapsed in his arms. He held her as she sank on the floor against the bed and he knelt down, next to her, giving her all the support he possibly could. His heart was throbbing. What was she going to tell him? And then little by little she told everything that had transpired between her and Neel a few minutes ago.

"Mera dum ghut raha hai Manik" She finally spat it out.

Without a word, Manik got up, locked the door, dragged the curtains closed and pulled Nandini up. Like a maniac he searched for her clothes and opened the knots on the backside of her lehenga. It was now, that he realized, that while he had been mesmerized by her beauty, she had been dying inside and eventhough it wasn't actually his fault, he felt guilty. He closed his eyes and helped Nandini change out of the heavy lehenga into the white kurti she had been wearing earlier. He was quiet all the while, but from the swiftness of his hands Nandini could easily understand how badly he was burning inside.

"Are you feeling better?" He asked calmly, masking his inner turmoil. He wiped her tears and ran his fingers through her disheveled hair.

"Why did I fall so weak Manik? why could I not stand up for myself ? He kept on assaulting me and I let him do it every time...Main to bohot bahadur banti thi na college mein, campaigns kart thi, secret ballots arrange karti thi, fir when it came to myself, why could I not do anything Manik? Agar tum Switzerland se nahi laut te to...to aaj meri shaadi ho jati usse? Aur fir kya hota, wo psycho hai Manik, he is like a vulture, he would have nabbed at me and tore me to shreds and main hamesha ki tarah chup chap tamasha dekhti rehti"

He wanted to sit her down and explain to her that no matter how resilient we are, sometimes it's just not enough. Some battles are harder than others, some people are so evil, we can't fight them alone, for they possess the power to ruin us.

He wanted to tell her that he understood her desperation, because all his childhood he had been a victim of his mother's atrocities & though the nature of it had been diagonally opposite to what Nandini had been through, the intensity of the pain he had suffered had been alike, if not more. It had taken him a good 16 years to finally put his foot down and stand up for himself. And for those 16 years, she kept on bullying him, and he kept on absorbing the bitterness, growing into a bigger monster with each passing day.

But he also knew, noone of what he wanted to tell her would stop the bleeding or numb the pain.

He looked her into her eyes with dead seriousness "Get up Nandini & hit me"

Nandini gaped at Manik, wide eyed. Had he lost his mind, she thought. It was all her fault, she should have controlled herself.

"Hit me Nandini" He repeated.

"Why? Why should I hit you? Why should I hit the person I love most, after being a lamb to that son of a bitch?"

"Because you need to flush it out of your system. I won't let you slip into the same darkness that you pulled me out of. Come on, don't question just hit me." he took her hands and hit them on his chest and kept on doing it till Nandini could think no more and her reflexes took over. She punched him, once, twice, thrice... till it fell into a routine. With every punch, a part of him was getting sore, but all he could think about was how little by little, every punch was relieving her of the pain. Now he understood, why she had fallen so sick in Panchgani, why the doctor had told him, she was stressed, why she had taken so long to tell him about Neel and why she had vented out on him when he had gone to Delhi.

After a long while, Nandini stopped, gasping for air and drenched in sweat. Exhausted, she clung to Manik. They both sat on the bed, in silence, till her ragged breathing came back to normal. She wiped the sweat off her face and hugged him with all her strength. "Why did you do that...why do u do that Manik? Why do you always do that?"

Manik wasn't in one of his mushy moods. Far from it, he was trembling inside. He was looking at the wall and these words casually fell off his mouth. "Because that's what you are supposed to do in love...When someone breaks the person you love, you gather the pieces and glue them together." he turned his gaze towards her and said "And guess who taught me this? You, Nandini..you took my anger on yourself so that I could feel light...remember that night in the resort...you let me be the monster and tamed me with your love. You mean more to me than you would ever know...you were the only one who saw that scared little Manik in the monster that my mother had created."

Song link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG3pRVmUL5Y

"Are you ok now?"

"Hmm"

"Then come with me" and he dragged her downstairs.