BA FF: The Gilded Cage: K, K, aur P = UPD PG 147

At the same time, she looks down; he looks up. They see each other; she is caught in his intense gaze, he is captured by her innocent eyes. They are transfixed, staring at each other, completely blind to their surroundings, aware of only their own heartbeats and each other.

The car behind honks insistently, obviously annoyed that now he is pacing the bus, instead of racing to try and get in front of it. At the sound, they break their long fixed gaze. She blushes in embarrassment, he looks surprised; and both are astonished at the very sudden, unexpected and intense attraction they felt in those long seconds of awareness. Again, the horn blares. Resigned, he flashes her a flirtatious smile, winks and blows a kiss as he drives off.

She watches until she can no longer see his car; unwillingly flattered, yet disgusted with herself for being so mesmerized by a handsome stranger. He stares in the rear view mirror until he can no longer see the bus; baffled how just the innocent eyes of a stranger could mesmerize him so completely.

Slowly, she opens her eyes, lets out a shaky sigh, brings the papers away from her chest, flips open the cover page to read: Aditi Daya Lali Khaarma Choudry - Karan Ramesh Choudry - Final Divorce Decree. Final, final, final, she repeats over and over in her head.

Just then a man came up on her right side and stopped beside her. He placed a heavy hand on her right shoulder, reached around the back of her small waist to grasp her left elbow, hard. Aditi knew she could not get away, and did not need to turn her head to look to see who it was. She already knew, that initial ebb of relief was swamped by a quaking fear. That fear she had come to know only to well, surged forward to tell her, it was Karan. Her her ex-husband. Even through all the fear, Aditi felt a small short burst of satisfaction just saying those words to herself: ex-husband.

Karan leaned in closer; and in a controlled and very angry, quiet tone; a tone that Aditi had learned quickly to abhor, he said "this is not finished Aditi. No matter what a court, judge, or attorney says; or sheaf of papers reads, you are My wife! Do not think you can change that with that worthless document you are clutching so tightly."

Aditi was paralyzed by the fear, but only for the moment it took Karan to utter his threats. From some forgotten place came a wave of courage. Aditi pulled her elbow from Karan's grasp, resisting the urge to rub away his touch, pushed his hand from her shoulder, turned to face him. She said in a somewhat shaky voice, "Karan, you may not want to accept the decree, but our marriage is over, done! Accept it or not Karan, you cannot change that with your threats - move on with your life Karan. I am." With that said, Aditi calmly walked away from Karan with as much dignity as she could muster, though in her head she was chanting, don't run, don't show any fear, don't run!

Aditi arrived home, her parents home, where she had been living the last six months while waiting for the final decree. She leaned her head on the outside of the door for a moment, let the breath she had been holding out in a "whoosh" and tried to steady herself before opening the door and going in.

As Aditi opened the front door she saw her parents, Ajay and Smita Khaarma, sitting on the sofa in the living room, having tea. She went over to them, greeted them by touching their feet. And with a bit of trepidation, said as sedately she could, "it's done, the final decree came today. I am divorced. Karan is no longer my husband." She squeezed the divorce documents she still held in her hand so tightly they crackled. Aditi realized she was holding on to them as if they were a talisman that would keep evil from her.

Both her parents looked up at her, with pained looks on their faces, and her father said in an aggrieved tone, "you will have to live with your decision your whole life Aditi. Who will want you now, a divorced woman? No one!" Aditi let out a breath, took another, held it, counted to ten, slowly released it, and calmly asked if they were ready for dinner. When they did not answer, Aditi turned, walked upstairs to her room, opened the door, closed it, locked it and slowly slid down the door to the floor and began to cry.

She let herself cry for a few minutes, out of relief, anger and yes, grief. Aditi knew her parents could not understand that this divorce gave her a very simple thing, a chance. A chance to live without fear, fear of constant abuse, and yes, fear of death. Even if no one ever wanted her again, she still would have a life worth living. Because, at last, it would be on her terms. Aditi rose from the floor, headed to the bath to take a shower, change and go back downstairs to start dinner.

Aditi cleaned up from dinner, put the dishes away, took one final look around to make sure everything was just right, turned off the light and walked out of the kitchen. She proceeded upstairs, knocked on her parents bedroom door and stepped inside when they said, "come in". She looked at both of them, almost memorizing their faces, walked over the small couch where they sat, leaned down to take their blessing, kissed each of them on the cheek and said, "good night Mama, good night Papa, sleep well". Though her parents thought this was a bit odd, they said nothing as they watched their daughter leave their room.

Aditi knew as soon as she closed the door this would be the last time she saw her parents for a very long time. She walked slowly into her room, closed and locked the door, pulled out a suitcase from the wardrobe, placed it on the bed and opened it. Methodically, Aditi went through all the things she had placed in there a week ago. In anticipation of the decree, she had packed one suitcase with as many essential items as she could think of, knowing once the decree arrived, she would leave her parents home for good. She had thought long and hard about this decision, and knew, it was the right one, the only one she could make, to have a life of her own.

Aditi then went over to the vanity, picked up her purse and took out the tickets she had purchased. One, a plane ticket to Mumbai, another, a train ticket to Kolkata and the last, a bus ticket to Delhi. She was unbearably sad to be leaving her beloved city of Bhopal; but she knew if she stayed Karan would continue with his threats; hounding her, and giving her no peace.

Her plan was to take the bus to Delhi, rent a cheap room in the hostel she had located on line, and then find a job, in that order; as quickly as possible. With the purchase of the three tickets she hoped that Karan would be confused as to where she had gone. Hoping against hope that he would not be able to find her, no matter how long he searched. And he would search, she knew that without a single doubt. One part of her, the practical, logical part said it was silly to purchase all those tickets, look at the money, her precious savings, she was spending, wasting. But the deep seated fear she had of Karan overrode her common sense and said, LEAVE! RUN! HIDE!

Aditi carefully placed the tickets back in her purse. She then went into the bath, gathered up the last of her toiletries, put them in the suitcase, and laid down on the bed to wait until she knew her parents were asleep. Once she was certain her parents were asleep, she quietly left her room, walked downstairs and placed the letter she had written them on the coffee table.

With serious qualms and dive bomber butterflies making loop de loops in her stomach, Aditi left her parents home. She hoped that her parents would eventually understand her decision, but at the very least they would know she was going some place safe. She did not tell her parents her plan, made no mention of where she was going for fear they would tell Karan. Once she was settled she would call them to let them know she was fine, but that was all.

Aditi was completely sure that whoever invented travel buses had a sadistic streak a mile wide! She was exhausted, sore, grumpy and grubby. All she wanted was to find the hostel, rent a room, drop off her bag and hit a cafe for a newspaper and a grande' muddy chai. She consulted her map of Delhi again, found the street she was looking for, and trudged down the road with her shoulder bag banging her hip and the end of her suitcase gouging a dent in her calf.

Finally, she located the hostel - it was not in the best part of town, but it did not look like the worst either. More like an older, middle class neighborhood that was a bit run down; one a realtor would tell you "had character". Aditi smiled wryly at the thought and pushed open the door to the hostel. After viewing several rooms, she settled on one of the few that had it's own bath, a large plate glass window in the front room, and paid a month's rental.

The room included a hotplate, two decent looking tufted chairs, coffee table, wardrobe, bookcase, a small table with two chairs (she assumed was the "dining" table) and praise the goddess, a double bed! Aditi dropped her suitcase, and checked out the room and the bath again. After the survey, she knew once she finished that grande' muddy chai and a perusal of the employment section, the first thing she had to do was buy cleaning supplies. While the room was not dirty, being a fastidious woman, she just had to clean everything top to bottom before she would feel comfortable in this new place.

Once she had cleaned every surface she could reach; she cleaned like it had never been cleaned before, Aditi unpacked her belongings. In the wardrobe she hung up the 5 new suits with matching blouses (she had been purchasing the suits over the last six months), plus saris and salwar kameez outfits she had brought with her from home. Aditi was not sure when she would wear the saris, but she could not bring herself to leave them.

She told herself, you have to be a "modern" woman Aditi! That means skirt suits, jeans, pants; not saris everyday. She was not entirely comfortable wearing the skirts, but knew if she wanted to present herself as a professional woman, she would need to wear them. She had always worn saris at home, Karan - she shuddered just thinking his name, had insisted upon it. But really, she loved saris, they made her feel feminine and delicate. But this was Delhi Aditi! Not your small neighborhood where everyone knew each other, you need to fit in with all the other professionals she told herself sternly. In her head she repeated: look forward Aditi, not back, only forward from now on!

Aditi shook off that feeling of depression that was trying to creep over her and headed to the bath to take a shower and at last, crawl into bed. Earlier she had sprayed the mattress on both sides, turned it and flipped it over. While she knew she could not afford a new mattress, she did everything she could to make certain it was as clean as possible. Once that was done, she made the bed with sheets she had brought from home, covered the pillows in her favorite lacy white cases. She adjusted her pillow, turned on her side and placed her hands under her cheek; her favorite sleeping position.

As Aditi lay there waiting for sleep to over take her, the face of that too handsome man in the convertible suddenly popped into her head. She had really been too busy to even think about him before this moment, she was not sure why she was thinking of him now anyway. As much as she tried to banish him from her thoughts she couldn't and she drifted off to sleep remembering how he had blown a kiss at her as he drove off.

ATB GANG !😊

Are ... ye GG kahan bhaag gayi???

Where are you GG??? If you're making pies for me , then its ok !!

Vidya