Lift to a life
It was almost the late hours of evening when Raghav’s car broke down in the middle of the highway, shooting up his frustration level to another height. If he had a choice he wouldn't have gone out of Hyderabad, despite being a well known business man and having more than two hundred showrooms around India he preferred to stay in Hyderabad avoiding the business trips as much as possible. It was not that he was afraid of flights or heights; he just loved the comfort of his city. Though he barely visited his other ventures he made sure that everything was going smoothly and only after running through him. Nevertheless three days back he got a call from his Mumbai showroom demanding his presence and he had tried his best to send Farhad but the associates were adamant.
After a number of failed attempts to restart the car he got out, dialling his only trustworthy companion.
“Farhad, my car broke down near street 24, come and picks me up.” He ordered as soon as the caller tune died.
“But Anna, I’m stuck." Farhad responded.
“Where?”
“Jam,”
“Jam?”
“Traffic Jam, Anna. Let me do something,”
“I will only wait thirty minutes,” He replied exasperated.
For three days he was away from the city, something kept bothering him and he knew what it was but was not ready to accept.
He missed someone.
...
In that half an hour he waited, he had called Farhad more than 20 times, each time the irritation escalating.
“Farhad, Where are you?” He repeated the same thinghe had been asking in all the previous calls.
“Anna, I think you should get a lift,” He said into his ear piece while trying to manoeuvre his way through the sea of cars.
“Lift,” Raghav looked around him, “There is no vehicle in the vicinity Farhad and for the half an hour you made me wait here only one or two cars had passed me.” He cursed his fate.
“Anna, there have been some problems and some riots are going on so that the police are blocking all the ways,” Farhad added, “I don’t think I can reach there before morning.”
“What, I have to wait here for more hours, not happening.” He thundered.
“Why don't you...” Farhad’s next words fell on the dead ear as Raghav cut the call with a ‘call you later’ when a headlight fell on his face blinding him.
He raised his hand in the gesture asking a lift, making the two-wheeler stop near him.
“Saree ka dukan,”
When he was asking for a ride he didn’t know that the person he missed the most in these three days would suddenly pop up out of nowhere.
“Gamandi Rao,”
The way she said his least favourite nickname lacked the usual animosity, confusing him. His gaze travelled from her head to feet, scrutinizing her.
“Why are you sweating?”
It didn't go unnoticed when she curled her fingers around the handle of her scooty, her eyes peeping into the rear view mirror, trying to look behind her. His eyes casually followed her but he found nothing unusual.
“It's April, Gamandi Rao, people tend to sweat in this hot weather.” Satisfied with her tone he ordered her to give him a lift to his house with a smirk adorning his lips.
“Do I look like your driver? And why should I when you order me?” She snapped back.
“What do you want me to do then, beg you on my knees?”
“Maybe not on knees but ask politely.” When he didn’t, she threw him a glare. “I know it is too much for you since you don’thave that word in your dictionary but sometimes you need it,”
“Saree ka dukan and her lectures,” He murmured under his breath, turning to take his wallet from his car.
As he faced her again two bikes carrying four men slowed near Pallavi before taking off simultaneously and it only took him a look into her eyes to know why she was sweating before and he mimicked her. “What a hot weather,”
"Didn't you want a lift? I don't have all the time in this world like some people." She snapped back trying to hide her embarrassment and anxiety but he saw through that.
“Will you please give me a lift, Madam?” He asked, politeness dripping in his voice.
“Yes,” Suddenly she beamed at the don of Hyderabad, patting her shoulder for making Gamandi Rao does what she wanted.
He kept his face neutral fighting off the smile that came to his face watching her antics, but as soon as he noticed her saree his face twisted in discomfort.
“Get down,” The polite Raghav had vanished into thin air.
“What?”
“Get down from the scooty,” He said and she did. “It’s not safe to keep your saree like this while riding two-wheelers.” He pointed his fingers towards the end of her saree.
“What are you saying?”
“Don’t you understand simple english?” He said to her face.
“I do Raghav but I don't understand your intention.” And she replied to his face.
“I don't have any wrong intention,” The softness in his eyes disappeared as soon as it appeared.
If it was any other person he wouldn’t have minded those words but where Pallavi Deshmuhk is concerned Raghav Rao often takes a 180 degree spin. He moved closer to her and she leaned on the metal object trying to avoid the body contact with him. She couldn’t afford to be affected around him; once he knew that her respiratory and circulatory systems go crazy over his scent she would be doomed.
His left arm went around her back and he took the end of her saree which kept flying in the wind, not once taking his eyes off her. She barely could understand what was happening around her, and she didn’t realize when he tucked that end into her waist.
"There, now it's safe," He took a step back.
Her eyes went soccer like and she slapped his chest starting another lecture about women and their personal space.
"I don't want you to die," Those words silenced her but the shiver that ran down her spine dimmed as her brain registered his next words. "I personally want to give you a lift to the Hyderabad railway station when you lose our challenge."
She opened her mouth to give him back a nice reply but decided against it, and got on the scooty starting it. "Let's go, Gamandi Rao,"
He enjoyed riling her up and he didn't know why. He had met a lot of women in his life but Pallavi Deshmuhk was something extraordinary. He would never dare to say this to her face but he admired her will power to fight against him. He had met women who threw themselves on him, women who got attracted to him in a blink of the eye and women who did everything under the sky to please him but he never had the fortune to meet a woman who was as head strong as Pallavi till now and he liked that. He knew that she was different and he loved that.
He sat behind her leaving as much as space between them and the first five minutes passed in silence something they were never acquainted with in the presence of the other. The view of them together on her ride would have made people laugh at them if they had any witness in the road but they were lucky. A small girl riding with a giant sitting behind, due to his large figure he could see above her head and it boosted his male ego. If he had a chance he would have made her sit behind him but then that would have been too intimate for them.
Raghav made a sound when her hair fell on his face breaking the serenity of the night; he had an obsession with her hair and the way it smell. Pallavi found it weird but somewhere deep inside she liked the effect she had on him.
His fingers moved its own accord to her neck; he collected the mass of her hair and pushed it aside, setting them on her right shoulder. Despite leaving lots of space between them, in the process of moving her hair he made sure that the tips of his fingers touched her bare neck and she took a sharp breath, he could see her blushing face in the mirror.
He didn’t know what attracted him towards her but he knew that he was. Something about her excited him, something about her enchanted him. Moreover he was aware that the attraction was two sided. One more thing that had printed inside his heart was, the attraction was emotional not physical which he found strange as for the first time a woman had pulled the strings of his stone hard heart.
His fingers moved fluidly from her right shoulder to her waist, his eyes following the action till he kept his palms over there and he chuckled as soon as she lost her control over the vehicle, stopping it. “Take your hands off me, Raghav.” She commanded; there the Pallavi he admired, the head strong girl who takes no nonsense from an outsider.
“Fine, there is nothing to hold on to,” He casually replied.
“Keep your hands to yourself.”
And they started the ride again.
“You were giving me lectures about a woman and her space and safety before, don’t you know that it’s dangerous to stop whenever someone asks for a lift in the middle of nowhere in night,” He brought the topic that had been troubling him since he realized it was she who stopped to give him a lift. “Moreover you were being followed.”
“I knew it was you.” Her voice was timid.
“What?”
“I knew it was you, Raghav, I could see you.” She raised her voice and that time he heard her clearly, and the hulk of a man went quiet.
“Take the left,”
“Did you forget the way to your home, Gamandi Rao? It’s the right.”
“Do as I say,”
The next ten minutes Raghav could scarcely take his eyes off Pallavi. He could feel the way his heart beat around her was not a joke anymore, he realized that the barely there heart had begun to beat for a woman.
“Stop,” He said when they reached near her house. Raghav got down a few meters away from Deshmuhk house and signalled her to go to her house.
“How will you go?”
“Don’t worry about me saree ka dukan. I can take care of myself.”
He waited a couple of minutes watching her walk away and turned to leave but not before shouting, “I prefer strawberry to orchids,”
They didn’t see the smile on other’s lips but they knew it was there.
Hours passed, Pallavi fell asleep, Raghav reached his house and he fell on the bed but his sleep was far away, one thought stuck in his mind, she trusted him.
...
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Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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