SS Ankahee: For Kanta(Divan) the end part 15-pg40

Hello guys!!!!

The white, sterile hospital room slowly became a grey whitish whirlpool. The sound of the beeping machine faded away............

Feeling the vibration of her mobile, Bani Dixit slowly opened her hazelnut brown eyes with a smile. She sat up in her bed and stretched her petite and curvaceous body, yawning excessively. Looking at the buzzing piece of instrument next to her pillow she picked it up and switched the alarm off. Bani got out of bed and walked to the bathroom to take a quick shower so she could grab a bite before she left for work. Forty-five minutes later she was ready, exactly when the red light above her tv-system, underneath the clock in the kitchen and above the door blinked. Bani opened the door of her apartment, swinging her big purse on her shoulder and with her mobile tucked in the back pocket of her jeans. The taxi driver who was waiting downstairs to bring her to her massage clinic greeted her with a smile.

'Hey Bani!' Anna cheered. Bani waved at her receptionist. 'How was your weekend?'

Bani smiled, showed her two thumbs-up and pointed at Anna.
'Mine was okay. My boyfriend was just being a fool. His mother was going some place and he had to go with her. I know she is just trying to set him up with a girl so he will get married to someone she chooses, but he just cant see it.' Anna answered with a face like she was biting in a sour apple.

Bani shook her head in sympathy. It wasn't a uncommon topic of discussion between Anna and her boyfriend and more then once Bani had lend Anna a shoulder to cry on.

Anna handed Bani a few files and her schedule for the day. Anna waited till Bani looked her way before she continued to talk. 'Bani you have a new client today. A man. He will be coming half an hour earlier so I can do his intake conversation and then I'll give you his file okay?' You can have a look before his session. Ow...wait.' Anna looked around on her desk. Finding the object she was searching for she turned to her employer again. 'Yeh lo. Great numbers. Specially ten and eleven. It will help with massage therapy or when you do Reiki.'

Taking the CD and piling it on her files and her schedule, Bani smiled at Anna and blew her a kiss before she entered the massageroom, put her belongings on her desk in the corner and took of her jacket. She looked at her schedule while putting on her white coat and switched on her computer. She still had fifteen minutes till her first client came. Bani took a box of matches out of the drawer of her desk and lit the candles, strategically placed in the room, after which she opened her purse and set up her small speech computer, her voice when she had none.

Bani Dixit was the 24 year old proud owner of her own massageclinic, VedKiran alternative Healing, named after her late parents Kiran and Nishikant Vedant Dixit who died in a road accident. Bani, now quiet successful, was just 22 when she had set up all this on her own, without the help of anyone. Who would be ready to help an orphaned girl who had limited funds, no one who agreed to be her guarantor and on top of that was deaf and mute?

Bani was barely 11 when she lost the ability to hear, after she fell from the terrace of her parents' house. Waking up after four days, the doctors had to announce to a worried mother and father that their little girl will not be able to hear anything anymore for the rest of her life. An infection during the treatment had caused damaged to Bani's hearingability, who already could not speak since birth even after the countless treatments. Fate had dealt another blow to the innocent girl who had done no harm to any living soul in her short life. Nishikant and Kiran, worrying for their daughter, had asked help from every doctor they could get hold of, every doctor they could meet and see. Bani, who realized that she couldn't hear anything, was crying for days. She longed to hear her father's voice. She folded her hands in front of her mother to speak louder and louder, in the hope that some sound may reach her ears and she wouldn't be deaf at all. Bani was isolated from everyone. Her mother, her father, her friends and the rest of her family. She already was the different girl, now she would be the girl that was a burden on her parents for the rest of her life. Many months of crying and hoping that everything would be a bad dream later, Bani one day decided that enough was enough. She wrote a letter to her father, saying that she wanted to learn lipreading and continue with the signlanguage classes she was taking all these years. Her parents were happy. There was at least a tiny ray of hope that their baby would be like any other girl. This tiny ray of hope became their sole purpose of living. They wanted to make a strong and independent woman of the girl who was their life, the proof of their love for each other.

Bani's father came from a family of vaid's. traditional medicine men who worked with herbs. Nishikant Dixit had a fascination for herbs and became a student of botany early in his life. In his classes he learned the other qualities of plants while from his father he got the knowledge of his ancestors, who knew about the healing power of the different plants, spices and herbs passed down generation after generation But he decided to join the police force after he finished his study. He became one of the most respected officers in the police force, Nishikant married the daughter of the police commissioner after a few years and were blessed with a daughter who entered their lives. She was their only child. Even though Nishikant was busy in his job and with his family, in his free time he treated people from illnesses doctor's couldn't cure, or patients wanted to try the old treatments, along with the medical ones. From diarrhoea to pain relief of cancer patients, Nishikant had a wide variety of patients who reached out to him. It grieved the man all the more that Bani, his own daughter, could not benefit from the things he learned over the years. Instead he chose to pass on his knowledge to his daughter, which was a rarity on it's own as it was a tradition to pass the knowledge on to only the male members of the family, but Nishikant and his brother agreed that Bani was more worthy then her two cousins who saw this wisdom as quackery and old fashioned foolery. Bani mastered, with the help of her father and the lip reading she learned, how to make different types of mixtures, oils, herbaldrinks and got lots of knowledge about the human body and how to treat it. It was after her father taught her all this, that her parents, who were on their way to a wedding in a different city, met with an accident. Bani was orphaned at the age of sixteen. She had to face the world alone to the best of her abilities but luckily she had the tools to make her own way in it, lipreading, writing and sign language. Bani stayed with her uncle for the next two years. Her house was sold at that time and she used the money to educated herself in different fields, related to health and alternative healing, coming forth out of her fascination with her father's teaching. Bani learned Yoga, ayurveda, chiropractic methods, western and eastern massage therapy, which was a difficult task as she also had to learn how to communicate with teachers and her clients, and she set up her clinic by the time she was 22. Anna, Bani's friend and secretary, functioned as the voice and ears in the clinic, handling the intake conversations so Bani could make a diagnosis and decide on how to treat the client.

Bani now lived alone in her apartment with all the facilities like a speech computer that had a computerized female voice that made the sentences after she typed them, lights that blinked when there was someone ringing the bell, a mobile phone that was also connected to the front door to warn her, along with using text messages like other people used phonecalls, to make her life easier. The sign language and most of all lip reading helped her a lot, and people in her neighbourhood who knew her adored her and didn't give her pitiful looks anymore. A handicapped girl living all alone was bound to be pitied, but what made Bani's neighbours question God's ways even more was that this girl, this handicapped girl was friendly to everyone and was a beauty in her own rights. She had a dignified beauty of a girl who would mature gracefully into a woman. Her beauty would be with her in all stages of life, making men turn around and look at her a second time and making their mothers wish that she wouldn't be handicapped so she could be their daughter-in-law. Her long black hair, delicate features, curvaceous but petite frame and slightly dusky complexion was nothing like the conventional, model type of beauty people nowadays liked. Bani made everyone remember the images of Ajanta, the idols in faraway south Indian temples, and the best compliments were from people who she reminded of their mothers.

Bani turned around to the door and received her first client. She shook hands with the plump woman and suddenly it came back as a rush. The white room that turned into a whirlpool of grey. In her mind she heard the beep of a machine.

'Not yet.' Bani thought. She took a bottle of oil from the shelf and indicated the woman to take a seat, with just one gesture of her hand. Bani switched on the CD player and chose a random track, knowing that Anna liked all the numbers for all the sessions. The woman took her seat in front of the full length mirror on the wall. Bani walked to her desk and switched on her speechcomputer.

'Ma'am, do you still have the same complaints? ' A computerized, female voiced echoed through the room.

Bani looked at Mrs. Sharma who was nodding her head and focussed on her lips.

'Yes, but the pain isn't that intense anymore. Ab araam milta hai mujhe. Raat ko so paati hoon.'

'That is great! Do rub the oil in before you go to sleep.' The computervoice said again. 'I am going to start now okay?'

Bani walked behind the woman and reached out for her hand to massage the stiff hands, affected by arthritis. Touching the hand, Bani had the same feeling again. She saw the hospitalroom, this time she with a man lying on the bed, his hand was bandaged. There were sensors placed on his heart indicating maybe..... a heart attack. The green lines on the screen were gone, as was the sound. Mrs. Sharma was sitting next to the man on the bed and her bangles were being broken. Bani's petite frame shuddered, the room dissolved in a vortex of different colours in front of her eyes and in less then a second she was back in her massage room, massaging Mrs. Sharma while her head was spinning. Bani finished the session as calmly as possible. Before Mrs. Sharma left Bani let the computerized voice speak again.

'Ma'am, don't leave the house tonight alone okay. Massage yourself with the oil and stay indoors. Maybe have a nice dinner with your husband.' Bani typed and turned to the woman and winked mischievously. Mrs. Sharma blushed and left.

'Bhagwaanji, agar unka waqt abhi nahin aaya hai to unko bachaa dena warna mujhe maaf kardena.'

Bani saw something blink on her computer. She enlarged the screen. 'Bani your new client is here, andar bhej du?'
Bani typed back: 'Yes please, send him in and ask him to bring his file with him. Have you explained what will be happening here?'

Anna, who was behind her desk in the waitingroom smiled, knowing what Bani meant.'Yes I have explained him everything. He will get your attention when he has to talk to you although it might take him a while before he gets used to it okay.'
'I know..' immediately blinked on Anna's screen ended with a broad grinning smiley.

Anna was now quite used to working for Bani. She knew how to deal with Bani's hearing and speaking disability, which both of them refused to see as a handicap. Bani just had a different way of communicating and Anna explained to all of their clients how they had to speak to Bani, get her attention when they wanted to say something. The full length mirror, placed on the opposite side of the massage table and chairs was a help to Bani as she could see when they were speaking and she learned how to lipread with the help of the mirror. Bani was stronger then any other person Anna knew. Next to being Bani's friend and secretary, Anna was one of Bani's biggest admirers. Anna, who was lost in her own thoughts, forgot about the client who was sitting in the waiting room until she saw something on her screen blink again. A message from Bani. 'Is he coming?'

Feeling guilty Anna typed in a rush. 'In a minute.'

'Mr. Shukla, you can go in. The third door on your left.' Anna spoke to the man, sitting in front of her.

very different concept- i eriously dunno wat to expect! shukl kyun? walia ko bhejo na!

VERY different story renu

wow sounds nice

Renu, first thank you for the dedication.

I love the story because I have a niece who is deaf and dumb and she is quite independent too, so your story showing disability of any form in positive way is great.

I already like how you have set the stage...it seems Bani can see what is going to the future. I like supernatural minus too much violence...

Thank you...Thank you...look forward to the next part.⭐️

I am already liking this. Very different. After being used to Jai always I was expecting Anna to say Mr Walia but Mr Shukla was a big surprise :) if you know what I mean.

omg ranju.. that was agreat start.. awwwnnn bani mught be disabled but ur right she has aright to live int his world however she wants.. anywayz contineu soooon yaaar.. and thanx to kanta we get to have a SS from u.. lol.. continue soooon yaar.. and i agreee y shukla y not walia.. lol...

hey ranju,

Very intresting and intruging I would say. A very different Bani well in all your stories we have had a different shade of Bani. So waiting to see how the story is going to shape up

hey ranju....