PART 3
Mishti slammed down on the breaks - why was there a huddle in her usual cycling route - that too this early? Parking her bike on the corner of the road, she got down and started walking towards the crowd - feeling very unsettled, but not understanding why.
She knew why the minute she saw the man on the ground, blood flowing from a deep gash on his head
"ABIR!"
****
She plopped on her knee and lifted his head on her lap
"Abir!" She cried, tapping his cheek, "Abir. Can you hear me?" Tap.tap.tap
He wanted to tell her he could. He wanted to tell her not to worry. He wanted to tell her so many things but he couldn't speak. He couldn't even nod
"Abir please" she continued.
His eyes fluttered open one last time as he saw tears cascading down her cheeks and onto his face before his entire world went black.
****
Mishti couldn’t believe how her day had turned out. Tired, mentally and physically, she plonked on the hospital chairs, waiting for the doctor.
“Yeh kya ho Gaya, Abir” she muttered, pressing her hands to her head, worried for her friend.
Kuch nahi hoga her heart assured her. He would be alright.
He had to be. She couldn’t sit anymore, she pushed herself off the chair and rushed to the OP emergency. It was closed. He was inside.
Closing her eyes, she muttered every prayer she knew even as she held back her tears.
She was aware of the looks she got, she was aware that she must be quite a sight even without the tears flowing down her face.
If it was some other time, she herself would have been startled at the depth of her own feelings, but not now.
Now all she wanted to know was that her best friend was fine.
He had to be.
He was the one everyone turned to in trouble. He was the one who took care of the entire family. He was the one who saw that everyone he cared about was happy. He was the one who put a smile on the faces of people he loved. He was their joy. He was their mirth.
And in the short time she had known him, hers too.
The tears that she had been fighting back threatened to escape.
“If it lightens the burden on your heart, it’s okay to cry. Just like laughter in happiness, tears in sorrow is normal. It's completely okay to cry”
OF COURSE!!
Why didn’t she see this before? That stranger at the Kutch utsav. It was Abir! She should have known. She should have known that it couldn’t have been anyone else. Only Abir would stop when a girl was crying and offer words that would lighten her heart when he was looking for his own sister. Only Abir would put other people before himself and his needs.
Hit by the epiphany she just had, Mishti shook her head, irritated with herself that she didn’t place this earlier and amused that her and Abir’s paths had crossed long before she knew.
Fate finds ways to make two people meet when they are meant to meet.
Abir and his gyaan. For the first time since she found Abir on that road, unconscious and blood covered, Mishti smiled.
In that heartbeat, she knew. She knew that nothing would happen to him. He would be fine. It was their kismat.
****
It was a good one hour before she heard the doctor call out her name, “Miss. Mishti”
Startled, she looked up, puzzled that the doctor knew her. She didn’t remember giving her name. In fact, now that she thought about it, when they had rushed in, the doctor took one look at Abir and rushed him into OP emergency.
Maybe the doctor knew Abir. Maybe he was a friend.
She stood up to look at him, “is he -?” she trailed off. The doctor smiled and nodded, “absolutely fine” he confirmed, “every scan is normal. The wounds are superficial. Needed a few stitches, but he is going to be fine”
The breath she didn’t realise she had been holding in, gushed out. “thank you” she exclaimed, relieved.
The doctor nodded, “no need to, Mishti” he said, “I was doing my duty. And besides, he is a dear friend” he said, confirming her suspicions.
Seeing her brows crease in confusion, the doctor said, “ there have been so many destitute woman Abir has brought in over the years. Helping them with treatments, rehabalitation and then helping them find a foothold in their lives. Special guy right there”
She couldn’t agree more. Newfound respect surged for the man she considered her best friend. But it also didn’t surprise her, “of course he did” she replied, smiling.
The doctor nodded, and then chuckled, “ so imagine my surprise when he brought you in that day”
Mishti nodded absentmindedly, when the doctors words sunk in, “ me – what?” She asked, confused.
“You are Mishti Agarwal, right?”
She nodded, “you were admitted a couple of months ago. A small wound on the head” the doctor trailed off.
She could only nod. Yes, she remembered, her father. Badi ma and she had gone to get a phone for kuhu when she had seen her father. And then someone had snatched her phone, she fell down and the next thing she remembered was waking up in the hospital bed.
Badi ma had told her it was Kunal who had saved her.
“Imagine my surprise when he brought you in”
Shaking her head, she looked up at the doctor, “dr., You mean Kunal. Kunal Rajvansh” he shook his head, “No. I mean Abir. I remember because I joked to Abir that brings only his NGO women here, not even his family and he said that – “
The doctors voice trailed off after that.
So Abir was the one to save her – then why would Kunal say he did?! She remembered badi ma agreeing to the alliance only after this. Because she thought Kunal was the one who saved her, who took care of her.
Mishti pressed her fingers to her temple, but it was Kunal. When she opened her eyes, she saw Kunal.
Did she?
“Please don't leave me”
“I won't”
“Promise me you won't leave me”
“I promise. I won't go”
That day she had held someone’s hands, and in her vulnerable state, pleaded that they would always be there for her. Would never leave her like her own parents had. And he had promised that he would always support her. That he would be there for her no matter .
When everyone told her it was Kunal who had saved her, taken care of her, and when she saw Kunal talking to the doctors and nurses, she had told herself that she had had this conversation with kunal. Her heart didn’t agree even then but she had goaded it to agree.
Mishti closed her eyes. How couldn’t she have realised this earlier. Her heart had known. Had known all along, but she had always convinced it that it was Kunal.
Just like she had with the flowers. She knew that Kunal couldn’t have written the poetry. She also knew who could have, but still she brushed it away.
Just like she had with the garden view. She knew that Kunal used his secretary to arrange meetings, even with her. She knew who's actions were led by the heart, but still she brushed it away.
Just like she had with the home-cooked lunch. She knew that Kunal had asked his secretary to send her flowers that very morning. She also knew who valued the simple joys of life more than grand gestures. But still she brushed it away.
She had asked herself this morning – that how it could be so difficult with kunal, but so very easy with Abir. Now she knew why.
Because it was never Kunal. Not then. Not now.
Because it was always Abir.
*****
Abir woke to a sharp pain on the right side of his head. Wincing, he lifted his hand to touch it.
“What do you think you are doing?”
Surprised, he looked at Mishti as she sat beside him, holding his hand from going near his wound.
His eyes travelled to his hand in hers, “trying to see what the hell happened. Mera haath chodo” He mock-snapped at her, trying to keep the mood light
“tumne kabhi choda?
Their eyes met as the layers behind that simple question was not lost on either.
“What?” He asked, feigning ignorance. " Angry chorni” he remarked, “why are you so angry now?”
She glared at him in response, “I don’t understand….” He trailed off.
“you don’t understand, Abir?!” she snapped, standing up harshly, pushing back her chair in the process.
Standing beside his bed, she looked down at him angrily, “ it was you. It was you all along"
And just like that the mood in the room changed. Abir understood what she said, all right, but he didn't understand why she said it now.
His eyes met hers, an emotion she couldn't understand, couldn't name, clouded his. He quickly lowered his eyes, confirming her suspicion.
"At kutch. Saving me here. Getting me to the hospital. The holi party. The dates. The flowers. My father. The lunch"
"It was you, Abir"
At that, Abir looked up. Her voice was muddled with emotion - emotion that he had felt ever since he had met her, but didn't dare imagine would be present in her voice - for him!
And her eyes, God, her eyes, "Mishti" he managed to mutter before she lifted her hand to stop him.
She looked angry now.
"Why?!" She asked flatly
"Because I wanted it to be your decision" he tried to explain. God, he had run this a thousand times between last night and today morning. A thousand ways to tell Mishti why he had done the things he had. And every single attempt sounded lame, even in his head. But this – not in his wildest dreams had he imagined this. And an angry Mishti standing over his hospital bed, her pretty eyes clouded with anger, but also displaying concern and anxiety for him made this all the more difficult.
Pretty eyes? Focus, Abir!
He tried to open his mouth to explain -
"By adding kunal's name to whatever you did?!"
Now that she put it that way, it sounded stupid
"No! Yes. No" he said lamely
" Then it should be YOU I marry"
*****
Abir’s heart beat against his chest at her words. His mouth was dry. He knew that she didn’t mean what she said. She was just angry. He knew she had no romantic inclination towards him. But also knew that she meant that she needed to rethink her courtship with kunal.
Mishti stopped thinking. Stopped feeling. Her eyes met Abir’s, as the weight of the words she had just uttered hung between them, making the air around them suddenly uncomfortable. And it was never this way between them.
She quickly looked away. Deciding that she needed to get away from him and sort the mess that her life had become, she quickly turned around.
“Mishti” Abir’s soft call for her was drowned by a much angrier louder tone, “MISHTI!!! HOW DARE YOU?”
****
Coming up.
“I already told you once, mishti. My son is not some car that you can test drive. This courtship is over”
***
"Mishti" he called, laying a hand on her shoulder.
His voice held so much pain. Her pain.
That did it. She turned around and flung herself into his arms, letting her tears and her sorrow flow freely onto his chest.
He wrapped his arms around her, " I'm here. I'm right here" he said soothingly, stroking her hair with one hand and holding her securely with the other as she shook with tears.
All she could mutter was his name, "Abir" she cried, over and over and over again.
***
PHEW: OVER AND OUT!!!
eagerly waiting for your comments people. :)
Mridhu
Edited by mridhu - 6 years ago
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
