(AU track anyone ? So this version of the story has no Nalla-Raavi track. It begins with a 19 year old Raavi who has had her heart set on Shiva since time immemorial, which in her case happens to be around 7th grade. This OS is inspired by the pre shaadi "Haan toh jaake marr" scene.)
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2 years older than her, Shiva Pandya was her neighbour, her playmate and as the years progressed, the light of her life. Unfortunately for her, her feelings were not met with the same enthusiasm by him. At first he laughed it off but when she kept insisting that she was serious, Shiva put his foot down. From the very moment he found out how Raavi really felt about him, Shiva shunned her completely and cut off all contact with her. He blocked her on WhatsApp and forbade her from showing up at Pandya Store. She held his hand and told him that she was in love with him only to have him shake her hand off unceremoniously. He had termed her heartfelt confession as acute verbal diarrhoea resulting from watching too many dumb b-grade films and reading too many trashy novels and wanted nothing to do with her until she was over this ... phase.
"Douray parh rahe hai" as he so eloquently put it. Not that it dissuaded her at all.
At first, Raavi was inconsolable. Her spirits crushed, she curled up into a fetal position feeling utterly dejected and cried her eyes out. Her body wracked with sobs that came in waves as her heart broke into smithereens. It made no sense. They were doing just fine until she told him she was in love with him. Why were her feelings laughable to him? Was it cuz he thought she was dumb ? Are simple folks not allowed to love ? She wasn't really interested in doing well in school or as focused on a career prospect like the rest of class mates - is that why he dismissed her as an airhead bimbo? She mentally beat herself up in a million different ways thinking about all the reasons why Shiva didn't think she deserved love.
This went on for 3 days straight. On the 3rd evening however, she sat up straight and wiped her tears. Her resolve had taken on new life. Either Shiva Pandya acknowledges her and validates her feelings, or ...
As naive and guileless as Raavi was, she was relentless in her pursuit of Shiva, chasing him to the world's ends. Despite all of her subsequent advances being rebuffed in the same cold, dispassionate manner, Raavi was unshakeable in her convictions - while Shiva Pandya wanted nothing to do with her, he was all she has ever known and loved and she has had just about enough of her feelings being spurned by him so she had gone upto Suman and told her how she felt about Shiva and that she wanted to marry him. While Suman laughed it away, Shiva was livid.
This time, Raavi had crossed a line by involving his mother and something had to be done about this girl, once and for all. He dragged her out of the house and told her to get lost and never bother him again.
"Over my dead body" came her defiant response to which Shiva's dispassionate retort was "Haan toh jaake marr"
As with everything else Shiva said, this too she took to heart. Ishq bina kya jeena yaaron right? If Shiva did not value her feelings, this life had no meaning. It might seem laughable to the rest of the world but to a 19 year old Raavi that right there was .. the end of the world. There really was no point in living anymore if Shiva didn't want her so she headed for the highway where speeding trucks would help her with her cause.
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It dawned on him as he watched the truck approach.
Uski hansi ki jhankaar, uske chooriyon ki Khankhan, uske saanson ki sargam, uske chanchal nainon ke betahasha sawaalon se se saaz-e-dil ko ched de na .. in sab ke bina toh zindagi bayzaar, bayniyaaz hai. Sur taal ke binaa awarara sa eik nazm jaisa.
He closed his eyes for a moment and pictured his life without Raavi in it and watched all the colours slowly fade away from the canvas that was his life. The silence was deafening and he suddenly felt lost and lonely in a way that caused his chest to tighten even as this unknown fear gripped him.
His eyes flew open as he lunged forward, grabbing her waist with one arm and in one swift motion, leapt to the side of the road and landed on a pile of dried leaves as the truck missed them by a fraction of an inch.
His breath caught in his throat as he watched her raise her eyes to look at him. How had he never noticed how beautiful her eyes were ? The flecks of golden in them as the sun's rays caught in the warm pools of hazel had him bewitched. He couldn't look away. The way the mere thought of losing her knocked the wind out of him shook him to the core. It was at that moment he knew that unbeknownst to him, the girl he had once written off so carelessly .. had now become the center of his universe.
He got up and held out his hand for her. Raavi hesitated as she remembered how he had shaken her hand off the last time she tried to hold his hand after telling him how she felt about him. She tried to get up on her own and fell right back onto the heap of leaves.
--
"Theek se baith" he indicated towards his waist for her to wrap her arms around which she mistook to be a rebuke about how close to him she was sitting.
"Shiva itni si jagah mein jitna door baith sakti thi baithi hoon. Maine tujhe touch bhi nahin kiya, bike seat ke peechay ka hissa pakad ke baithi hoon. Yeh bhi tujhse bardasht nahin ho raha hai toh mujhe utaar de. Mai paidal chali jaoungi." Tears threatened to spill, her voice cracking as she choked back a sob.
Shiva's heart broke thinking about all the times he had neglected her or worse, hurt her feelings. He reached for both of her hands, pulled her towards himself and wound them around his waist securely, all the while clutching her right hand in his.
"Theek se baith, aise"
He looked into the rear view mirror to find her face break out into a smile that could put a thousand splendid suns to shame. She really wasn't kidding about being Somnath ki sab se sundar ladki, goddamnit.
https://twitter.com/BarsaygaSaavan/status/1512301765462536193?t=Q8iWNy9YLvHu9RPq-QM5zA&s=19
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