ONE RAINY DAY ...
Chapter 1:
August 11, 2016, 4 PM:
Dr. Sonakshi Bose held a cup of hot steaming coffee and by the window of her clinic on the ninth floor of the South Mumbai Hospital and watched the rain drops falling on the glass. It had been raining incessantly for the last few days and the city had almost come to a standstill. As a young girl growing up in Delhi she was very fond of the rainy season - it all changed two years back when she fell in love deeply and madly with a certain handsome young man with intense brown eyes..."No Sona don't think of Dev now..." She told herself. Rains now reminded her of the times they danced in the rain and the kisses they shared in the rains. They decided to break up because his mother could not accept the fact that he decided to marry someone of his choice. Dev and she were working towards convincing Dev's mother when his Maa overdosed on sleeping pills one night. That night Dev and Sona took a very tough decision of breaking up and never keeping in touch again.
Although Sona promised him she found it very hard to keep her end of the promise and dialed his number sometimes and disconnected the call. He did the same thing and Sona got random missed calls from him sometimes. It had been two years since they met. Sona decided to move to Mumbai one and half years back and with the help of her school friend Ritwick, she managed to land up this job. Her parents were still in Delhi.
There were days like today when she wished she had the courage to pick up the phone and talk to Dev. But probably somewhere deep down she did not want to think that Dev may have moved on with someone chosen by his mother. That she knew, would hurt her much more than not speaking to him or hearing his voice ever again. She knew she was beig foolish but that's how it was...
At the same time, in his twentieth floor office in faraway Delhi, Dev Dixit stretched his arms and got up from his chair...He was preparing for an important meeting at Mumbai scheduled for later that week. He was tired and had worked tirelessly for the last few weeks for this meeting.
Ria walked into his room with a cup of coffee and told him "Aap ko thodi der rest kar leni chahiye. Yeh lijiye coffee". Dev smiled and thanked her and took the coffee cup from her hands and walked to the window and looked at the overcast sky outside. He sighed deeply and Ria understood that Dev was thinking about Sona di again and knew that he wanted to left alone for some time. She quietly walked out of the room softly closing the door behind her.
Dev looked at the sky and closed his eyes and the first thing that came before his eyes was Sona's face... As always. His mind played the same scenes again like a movie roll - their faceoff in the car park the first time, the fight in Dr Sinha's office, the time he forced her to work for him, when they finally fell in love and when they broke up at the hospital when his Maa took an overdose of sleeping pills... He went back to the conversation he had with the doctor then who suggested that the reason for the sleeping pills overdose was much more deep rooted and that he should probably get professional help for his mother. Dev had been stunned that his mother probably had physiological problems and that she needed help with it. Those were difficult and heart breaking times for him and he didn't have his Sona by his side then. He managed to convince his mother to visit a psychologist with him by her side. Dr. Khushi Gupta was wonderful and she was able to diagnose the root cause of his Maa's insecurity. Over the years, Ishwari had come to depend so much on Dev that she also did not realise when the dependence became an obsession. She kept feeling that if someone else came into the space between Dev and herself, she would lose control over him and the fear of pverty never really left her even after all these years. She felt that now that her son was an adult and successful financially he would no longer need her in his life. Dr. Gupta helped Ishwari overcome her fears and after a year's of counselling sessions, Ishwari finally realised that her son would not love or respect her any less when her were to marry. But she also realised that she was the reason that Dev and Sona broke up also.
About six months back, when Dev came back from work he saw that his Maa was waiting for him. Keeping his bag down, he went upto his mother and asked "What happened Maa? You needed something?". Ishwari told him "Please sit down here I need to speak to you". She twisted the end of her saree between her fingers nervously and she said "I am sorry Dev that you had to break up with Sona because of me. I want you to speak to Sona and bring her back. I can see that you still love her a lot and that you miss her, isn't it beta?". Dev looked at his mother and said "Haan Maa I still love her a lot and miss her also but we promised that we will not get in touch with each other ever again so I don't to break the last ever promise I made to her. All I know is that I will always love her till the day my heart beats and as long as I am breathing I am living with the hope that one day I will see her again". Dev couldn't continue further and he abruptly turned and went to his room. Closing the door he sat down on the bed and after several months allowed himself the luxury of crying out for what might have been. In the last few months, Dev just jumped into his work and worked himself hard to the point of exhaustion so that he could sleep at night for a few hours. Ishwari realised what was happening but did not say anything. She thought several times about speaking to Sona directly but understood indirectly from Dev that she shouldn't interfere between them again.
Hearing the door open, Dev turned around and seeing Ria he smiled and said. "Come lets finish the work. Thanks I needed the break".
Dev sat down and checked his mobile for messages and then out of habit his fingers went to photo gallery and he saw Sona's smiling face and just ran his fingers over her face. Ria noticed and told him "you should really speak to Sona di once". Dev just said "I have also been thinking about that ... I will speak to her once we are back from Mumbai".
<<End of Chapter 1>>
Chapter 1: Page 1
Chapter 2: Page 3
Chapter 3: Page 4
Chapter 4: Page 6
Chapter 5: Page 8
Chapter 6: Page 9
Advocate Anjali Awasthi
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