TVAM, MAMA JEEVANA HETUNAđ§ż
Part 2:
A pale, frail and sick-looking Priya looked at the staircase that would lead her to the man who she loved, the man who loved her, the man who would be waiting near the staircase of his office floor knowing she'd show up at the top of his floor on top of those ascending steps at around 5.05 PM with the gait of a confident and feirce Alpha Woman(which she doubted she'd have today given her exhausted state of mind and body), the man who she proudly called her husband and could not wait to meet and hug after a long tiring day. Weird as it may sound but for the past few days, she had found herself clinging onto him a lot more than usual which kinda felt absurd to her. She has taken a sudden liking to his natural body odour mixed with his Armani cologne. She had always loved his odour mixed with his cologne but never the way she has started loving it now... Something felt special about his scent these days. Just a whiff of his body fragrance was what she craved for all the time these days because it brought calm to her heart and made her feel a wave of relaxation coursing through her body everytime she inhaled that citric fragrance of his cologne mixed with the smell of his own body.
Two days ago, she had gone home a little earlier than usual... partly because she was tired and partly because she knew he'd be late because of a meeting with a foreign delegation which was scheduled at 6 PM- an hour later than the time she usually got free from office. The meeting would have taken at least three to four hours... and while Ram enjoyed having her beside him in important meetings, she had opted out of it because she didnât have it in her to stay up and in the office till 10. So she skipped going to office altogether that day. She took a half day from her college and went home to rest up and see if she could make him his favourite Rogan Josh for the dinner. She hadnât really been cooking for almost a week now because the smell of certain spices in the kitchen were pricking her senses and making her feel uncomfortable, not that she thought too deeply about it or told Ram. When Ram asked her why wasnt she cooking she just shrugged and said âI didnât feel like cooking... maybe itâs just my tirednessâ and Ram too simply hummed. Wasnât a big deal, right? But ram loved the food she made for him... it made him feel special to have someone cook for him. And so he had asked her very cutely just that morning if she could cook him Rogan Josh that night. And how could she ever refuse her beloved of something he asked of her.
Upon reaching Kapoor Mansion, she literally felt her body sag as she dragged herself to their room, she just kept her bag on the table and thought to close her eyes and rest for a while before she went down to cook. However, she didnt realise when her hour long nap turned into a 6 hour slumber as she passed out like a log on the bed in no time and that too without even changing her clothes. She had thought to wake up in an hour but the sleep fogged her brain a little too deeply that day and she slept the whole afternoon and evening, only to wake up to Ram lightly shaking her. Waking up, she smiled at him and took in her surroundings as looked around groogily till her eyes landed on the clock that showed the time to be 9.30PM. Her eyes widened as she realised she slept for more than six hours. STRANGE!
She looked at Ram and her eyes still widened as realisation dawned upon her that she even forgot his Rogan Josh... she didnât cook it for him, especially when he had asked for it. Her breathing got swallowed for a moment before she got up in a frenzied motion from the bed muttering gibberish about what's wrong with her and how careless she can be. Ram... the befuddled Ram looked at her roaming around their room in frantic movements for a few moments before he caught her by her hand and held her back by her shoulders to make her look at him.
âPriya, what's wrong? Kya kar rahi ho yeh? Shant ho jao! Kya hua hai... mujhe dekh kar itna pareshaan kyu ho rahi ho and why are you running around the room like a mad man?â
And thats it! His words opened the gateway of tears in her eyes as she began crying. It wsnt new for her to cry these days, so even though it felt weird to Ram, he hugged her and said,
âHeyyyy, whats wrong gorgeous! Why are these precious pearls dropping from your eyes. Kuch hua hai kya? Batao mujhe"
"I am sorry!*
"Sorry? For what, honey?
âWoh... I... I forgot"
Ram made her look at him and asked,
âWhat did you forget sweetie?â
âYou asked me to cook you your favourite Roghan Josh for dinner... I even came back home early for it but then... then, I slept and missed getting up on time to cook you your favourite dish... I am sorry!â and saying so a fresh set of tears started flowing out of her eyes.
But it made Ram to chuckle...
âAap hans rahe hai?â
âToh aur kya karu? Priya, its just a dish and i just randomly asked you to make it. You are not my gulam that you need to do EVERYTHING i ask you to. Nor am I a zalim husband who will act angry or beat you for not complying to my wishes. So what if you couldnât make it today? So what if you overslept? I know the workload on you, with the new project in progress, is on an all time high which must be wearing you down so its fine to rest, love! Its fine. Tarun ne kuch toh banaya hi hoga. Hum wahi kha lenge... Roghan Josh for kabhi aur sahi. So stop crying"
âBut I feel bad... you rarely ask me for anything and you did today but i couldnt give you what you wanted so much.â
âWell biwi, there is still something you can give me...â
âKya?â
âA hug and a soul-searing kiss"
And with that ram captured her lips in a deep passionate kiss. Here they were standing in their room, in each otherâs arms lost in kissing each other with a fervor that made them forget the rest of the world. It was only when ram felt priya getting breathless, that he left her lips.
âNow that was very satisfying... more than the Roghan Josh... i must say! I mean khana toh tarun bhi bana sakta hai... but yeh sab ab mein uske saath toh ni kar sakta na! This is the kind of fixation I can only demand from you and the fact that you match upto my passion is what makes me happier than any food item in the world."
She chuckled listening to him throw in a stupid joke in between and smiled hearing him say that he cherishes her. His words were like a balm to her frenzied state from a while ago. And that is when she felt her body sag with the need to hug him as she had been dying to do all day. And so she did. She hugged him like her life depended on him. She craved for his fragrance and so she stuck her nose to his neck to take in his special odour and the minute she took in a whiff, she felt the kind of peace surge through her whole body and soul... the kind she'd heard addicts felt when they got a fix of their drug. Perhaps her obsession with his fragrance meant that he had now officially become her drug and she had no intention of ever getting rid of this addiction.
.........
Now, as she looked at the stairs that would lead her to him, the thought of hugging him immediately to take in his odour clouded her mind but she knew she couldnât hug him in the foyer of their office. She, however, intended to take him to his office and hug him there for a few minutes before they head out for their "exciting movie and dinner date night". She JUST needed it. She wondered if that would help infuse in her the energy she needed to endure a long evening outside her bed. But for that she had to go upto his floor taking the stairs in front of her. Normally, she loved taking stairs over elevator and would have taken the stairway by now, for, it was just two flights of 21 steps each that she needed to take to reach his office. However, today, the horrendous idea of taking 42 stairs to reach her husband, who she knew would be waiting for her near the stairways, made her legs to wobble a bit. She just didnât have the energy in her body to go up those hideous steps. She looked at her watch and realised it was already 5, which meant that he must have made himself free by now because she said she'll see him at 5. If she does not show up by 5.10 he'd make his way down the stairs to meet her at her floor. She wondered if she could just stay back at her floor and wait for him to come to her by 5.15. That would give her a good 15 minutes to simply sit and relax, the idea of which she found very tempting. And so she sat on the couch in the foyer of her floor.
The moment her back hit the plush leather back of the couch in foyer, she felt a surge of relief course through her body as she sighed a very exhausted sigh. Oh her exhaustion was killing her! She slipped her feet out of her sandals and twitched her aching toes to relieve them of the tension she felt in them. She had ten minutes to relax before her husband would come to take her out. Her husband... He really had no patience in matters that concerned her, which included waiting to see her after a whole day spent away from each other at office, making him reach her floor as soon as he would get free, which is around till 5PM. He was a changed man now... not a workaholic who stayed back in office till midnight, amidst his files and folders, but a man who willingly wound up his work by 5-5.30 on most days to be able to take a ride with her back home listening songs they mutually loved. Not a lazy man who chose elevator over stairs anymore, but a man who willingly took stairs and with an unmissable sprint. Seems like roles have been reversed, for, while her husband loved taking stairs now, those hideous stairs were now scaring the hell out of her. She sighed and opened her phone whilst she sat there waiting for him. The first sight that greeted her upon opening her phone as usual was that of her wallpaperâa portrait of them posing candidly for a photographer who he had hired for their personal photoshoot whilst they were on their summer vacation in Italy last year to celebrate their wedding anniversary. He really did things the grand way and her wallpaper was a proof of that... The picture on her phone was of them in Rome as they stood in front of Castel Sant'Angelo... on Ponte Sant'Angelo... beneath the 10th angel of the bridge- "the Angel with the Lance" which had inscribed on the pillar beneath it the quote âVulnerasti cor meumâ which means in Latin âYou have stolen my heart"- a quote that resonated what they felt for each other and were protraying in that moment as they stood beneath the angel with Ram, dresed in a white and oik dual tone shirt with its sleeves folded upto his elbows, lightly pecking her lips with his hands around her waist, as he had slightly dipped her towards the ground to make sure the angel and the inscription and them got captured in the frame properly, while Priya, dressed in a pin and white floral summer dress with her beautiful curls casacading down her back, had her hands wound around his neck. The man really knew how to make things romantic so much so that he made sure to even be precise about the location of their pictures like this one to ensure that they echoed their eternal love for each other that filled their hearts. Ah! She was literally blessed to have him and she loved him just so much. Just the thought of him, his love for her and her love for him, brought back in her the urge to see him, hold him, hug him, smell him and just be in his arms. She was craving now to feel her eternal choice of drug... her Mr. Kapoor and no! She couldnât wait for next ten minutes for him to show up on her floor. She needed to see him right at that moment. So she got up with a rekindled vigour and willed her exhausted body to comply with her excited heart to take those steps to reach upto him, even though her body refused to do so. But her logical brain was quick to settle the conflict between her head and her heart, as it gave her the idea to take that elevator she usually avoided. So she dragged her tired body but excited soul to the elevator and pressed the button that would take this addict to her drug.
She knew he would be worried and ask her a million questions seeing her coming from elevator but she decided it would be better to deal with those questions than wait any longer to see him or take those hideous stairs. She was in the middle of her thoughts when the elevator pinged and itâs doors opened on Ramâs floor. She quickly took in the scene in front of her the minute she stepped out of the elevator only to see Adi and Kunal headed towards the elevator, while Ram indeed was standing near the stairs tapping away on his phone⌠probably playing his favourite game, she thought.
Before she could call out to him, Adi and Kunal, who also had seen her, hurriedly reached to her to greet her with a smile. Urgh! She felt her plan to whisk away her husband to his office for a few moments in his arm, before he took her out to his movie and dinner plans, going down the drain. But she loved Adi and Kunal too so how could she not talk to them despite her dire need for her husbandâs arms around her and his smell enveloping her senses.
âHi Priyaâ, they greeted her with a smile⌠but before she could even reciprocate, she saw their smiles fade away from their face just as soon as it had spread out on on seeing her only to be replaced with deep frowns, which made her to mutter a confused âhello" to them with furrowed eyebrows and confusion cloudong her brain. They looked at each other and then back at her with a worried expression⌠She heard Adi speak to her, then, âPriya, tum theek toh ho why do you look so pale.â
Kunal was right after him in asking her yet again, âHaan Priya, are you sick? Please tell us. We can call in the doctor.â Urghhh! The doctor again! Why was everyone asking her to see the doctor? She wondered if she really looked so miserably pale that everyone was noticing it now. She had hoped her husband, who started approaching them when he heard his friends greet his wife, wouldnât have heard them. But his expressions told her that he did listen which made her to prepare herself in her mind to wave off his frenzied âletâs go to doctor commentsâ but she was surprised when he simply came to her side and slid his hands around her waist and told his friends⌠âArey kya bol rahe ho tum dono! Yeh Priya hai Priya! She cannot ever fall sick! What are you guys even saying⌠she must just be tired⌠Haina jaan!?â He asked her. She simply nodded as she kept her head down because her eyes were starting to brim with tears thinking how her husband understood her need to not being told that she looked pale, frail and sick. His friends simply grinned and laughed a bit, agreed to Ramâs word as they muttered a little âtake care, then, Priyaâ before hugging her and going into the waiting elevator.
As they saw Adi and Kunal vanishing behind the closing elevator doors, Priya felt her body giving up. She literally had no energy left in her body, and, so even as her mind was warning her against doing it, knowing it could bring Ram to a red alert, she uncharacteristically put her head his shoulder as her one arm went around his waist from behind while the other reached up to grab his shirt in her fist. She knew she just broke her âNo PDA in office" rule, but damn she needed a fix of her favourite drug and nothing in the world mattered to her in that moment more than her incessant need for her husband's one whiff. And, just as she took in his smell, she immediately felt herself and her sick self find some form of solace⌠somehow she again felt that scent of Ramâs sweat mixed with his Armani cologne soothing her senses and bringing a calm to her exhausted body right that instant. She closed her eyes for a moment to just soak in his warmth and fragrance, unbothered about the fact that they were, in fact, standing in the foyer of Ramâs office.
A few of their employees passed by them, but they knew better to respect the privacy of their boss and his wife. So, they midfully ignored looking at Priya, who was hugging Ram in the foyer, and at Ram, who was still conscious of his surroundings and mindful of their âNo PDA" rule, holding her lightly but securely, as they simply passed by them without as much turning their eyes towards the couple. Ram really couldnât have been more thankful to them for that, for, he knew when his wife would gain a perspective of her impromptu actions, she would have been deeply embarrassed with the prying eyes set on them. But the uncaring eyes would save her from that embarrassment.
But that was not what bothered Ram. What bothered him was her PDA. MRS. PRIYA KAPOOR FROM BANDRA⌠who liked to maintain her stoic demeanour in the office, who never let PDA be a part of their office romance was now hugging him so publicly. Something wasnât right with her. And her exhausted sigh and slouching shoulders just confirmed that. And thatâs when he heard her voice âChalein Mr. Kapoor aapki movie ka time Ho Gaya Hoga.â She was trying to sound enthusiastic and excited but her eyes, face and slouching body were betraying the pretence she was trying to portray to make him happy.
Ram, who made her look at him, now, could see her eyes betraying her words. No, she wasnât interested to go out. She looked pale and sick and in dire need of some sleep. She didnt look like she would enjoy being out for movie and dinner date but she sure looked like she needed being in their bed taking some rest. But, knowing his stubborn wife, he knew she wouldnât agree to cancel their movie and dinner plans for the inhibition of disheartening him, especially because she also said no last week. But to him, it was she who mattered the most. She, however, knew not to care of her own self but she sure looked like she needed to be tken care of now. So, he did have to take matters into his hands now.
From the look on his face, she knew her husband had a lot going on in his pretty head, mainly about her health. She knew her husband wanted to question her again like he did in the morning⌠but to her surprise, he didnât say a word. He simply took her hand, led her to his office, made her sit on his plush sofa and brought her a glass of water with, what she assumed, glucose in it. He forwarded the glass to her and said âPee lo, Priya! Youâll feel better.â
He watched her drink the whole glass and then he sat down on the table in front for her and gently held her hands⌠he didnât say anything, but she knew he wanted to say a million things to her in that one moment to express his concern but he wasnât ready to let her have another meltdown.
She sat there looking at her husbandâs face, anticipating what he might say next. And as if he heard her plea, he spoke, "Priya⌠I know you say you are alright and itâs just work pressure and I know you can handle it. I also know you donât wish to see the doctor. And I wonât force you to do what you donât want to do. But you really look sick and weak. Earlier it was just me saying that. Now you also heard Adi and Kunal point it out to you. I alone could have been wrong but when so many of us are saying the same thing, perhaps its actually true, baby. We just want to see you healthy and so we are worried and concerned for you. And I admit I want to take you to the doctor's clinic right this second. I also had planned to talk to you about it over the dinner. But as I promised, NO PRESSURE! But in return, now, I need to ask you for something. Can you please take the next week off and rest up at home? Just one week. And maybe youâll feel better. Donât worry about your project. Iâll make sure no one touches it because from the looks of it, you are progressing very well. And a week off from work wonât make any dents. So please just one week?â
Priya, who neither had the heart to deny her husband nor any energy to argue, simply nodded her head in agreement, to which her husband muttered a sweet âthank youâ before taking her hands upto his lips to kiss them tenderly before shifting from the table to sit beside her to hug her side-ways with her head nestled in his neck. And there she had it once again... the smell of her favourite drug filling up her nostrils and bringing a calm to her raging heart that was fearing his myriad of questions but was now relieved at him settling down for no doctor, just rest! It would be hard for her to stay home 24*7, away from him for the major part of the days but he was right! Perhaps, she really needed to take a break. She wondered what she would do to spend her time- probably read some books from her collection or binge-watch Friends. But she need not think about that now. She could figure out a way to vile away her free time at home, later. But for now, she just wanted to soak in his fragrance and listen to his heartbeat that felt like a mellifluous melody to her soul.
Oblivious to the fact that his wife was in a euphoria under the effect of his fragrance and of the still unknown reason for it, he gently kissed her forehead and sighed as he spoke again⌠"now that, that is sorted. Tell me do you want to go out for movies and dinner or do you want to just go home and rest up?â
She started to say something- probably raising a protest that she was fine and would love being out with him for the evening- but he interrupted her before she even spoke anything as he continued with his words, "uhm hmm! Donât think Iâd get upset or anything like I did last week. I can see you look tired and if you please not to go out tonight, we can always just stay in our room, have a quiet dinner and snuggle up in our balcony. Thatâs pretty much romantic too. Haina? And on the brighter side, that would save us the time to drive back home from the restaurant and give me more time to frolick with you under our bedsheets."
She chuckled a bit, nodded her head and muttered a little thank you to which he asked her âkiss cheez ka biwi?â
Priya, who was already a ball of emotions found herself getting choked but she cleared her throat as she said âFor understanding me⌠for taking care of me⌠and for being the best husband of the world! I should literally thank my stars and Akki for bringing you into my life, Ram! You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, I love you.â
Ram just cupped her face and took her lips into a kiss as he whispered âThe feelings are mutual, my lady! You too are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I love you too, biwiâ and took her lips into another one of their soul-searing and heart-melting kisses.
Precap: Briyani- to eat or not to eat... that is the question!
...just beautiful. Let's just say I'm going to remember this part of your story for a very long time đ âşď¸
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