FF: New York times with Maan&Geet Thread 4 09/13 - Page 97

Originally posted by: 6thElement

Thanks so much my dearies...
I should be back soon but I don't know when I can start writing...but definitely one update by wednesday (even if its only a short one)

Hasini

Go meri sherni friend 😉😆

Since many days I could feel a vent in myself. When searched for what has gone missing, I could'nt point one anything in my life which is gone missing. I still work for 9hrs a day( which I always do) and laze out rest of the time.But when I saw your post recently, I just recognised what happened, the absence of your updates caused all these. Thanks to your post.

So, without delaying to confess that your updates are like rainbows in my life I request please update soon, as you can count on me that I am literally thirsty for your writings, Do write anything( and I mean it), just reply for posts, comment on present state of story in the soap, but please do write. My situation is like Sharukh in MNIK without seeing Kajol. Please appear with your writing and vanish my heartache.

😊

Waiting for the next part

I'm sorry...The update will have to be tomorrow. I doubt I will be able to finish it off today and my half-lidded eyes are giving up on me already.

Hasini

will be waiting

do continue soon

Part 102: It's complicated... Update 1

He brushed past Maan at the store entrance who had entirely missed his sister rushing out of the store into the pattering rain. As he stepped past the glass doors, he turned on his heels with his hands raised, noticing his brother-in-law's confused looks.

"Where are you..."

"Maan" His words came out in a rush "Daadima will explain...go inside"

He dashed off holding a hand against the slant of the pummeling rain, looking for his wife on either sides of the road. He was certain she couldn't have gone far, given that he'd noticed her just as she'd stormed out. Seeing her walk off with welling eyes, he'd taken in the stunned looks of the women inside the store. Without stopping to get any details that had triggered to show an impulsive, emotional response on his wife's part, he'd stormed behind her. It no longer surprised him that he hadn't enquired around before rushing out. His instincts had molded long ago to place her affront everything else, even when amidst circumstances where she nearly didn't deserve his unquestioning bias.

She was tucked away into a shabby awning of a chaat shop, rubbing her elbows to keep herself warm. No doubt, she appeared lost and her face painted a clear picture of her inner turbulence. She spotted him hurrying towards her and without losing another moment, her feet picked up a swaggering pace.

"Abhi..." Her voice came out as a yelp "I'm sorry...I was..." She pushed the free locks that the scattering wind shoveled over her face "I think I lost it in there"

He'd not gathered the details of the incident and he was still unaware of what she'd lost her calm over. However, it mattered little to him as he saw her shivering self and he hoped it was just the weather. There sure were far worse things that could stir up a similar physical response and he didn't need them to surface now to be handled in the middle of a mired street.

"Let's get you home first and then off these wet clothes. I don't want you falling sick now" He gave her arms a firm squeeze first and his eyes softened with an understanding that told her he didn't brush away her statement earlier.

He strode off into the shop to get steaming cups of tea for them and led her in the direction of the public parking lot where their car was parked. They drove in silence with Naini shuffling and warming her hands over the heater occasionally. As they approached home, her uneasiness gave way to an unnerving placid expression he couldn't quite decipher, like a part of her was giving up on whatever struggle she was waging inside of her. The turmoil she was in was the last thing he needed for their baby and for her. His time to act was running out even before he could find out what was eating her.

Dropping her at their door, he went downstairs to grab himself dry clothes. By the time he returned she'd changed and was lying limp on her bed.

He paused at her bedroom door, leaving his shirt buttons he'd been buttoning on his way up and his hand braced the door frame "What is happening Naini?" His voice drew out slow, showcasing his painful yearning to put an end to whatever that was surging inside her. "You are almost scaring me here" He moved to the edge of the bed and sat next to her. She hauled herself closer and shifted to lie on his lap.

His wife was anything but a woman who could be swayed by sentiments. She'd donned a tough exterior the day she'd walked out the Khurana mansion at a tender, unknowing age of eighteen. It had been a slow change for him as he saw her go from a timid, nave girl to move up to a persona who cussed and even rebelled at everything normal and conventional. Once her family had disowned her after her marriage to him, she cared less for anyone except for him. He thought he was in the verge of knowing all that made up his wife with their approaching tenth wedding anniversary, but her abrupt outburst left him shaken, unable to place her uncharacteristic behavior, neither of the past nor of the present.

His hand ran through her hair and she go up to face him. "I'm glad you didn't blame it all on the hormones" She smiled bitterly.

"I don't want to know what happened at the store...But really..." He hesitated a bit "What is going on? I know what happened at the store is only a symptom that surfaced of all that you are bottling up"

She looked away as if she was carefully choosing her words. He suspected she might go for a cover than coming out with the real answer he was looking for. Strangely his patience was giving up on him as he silence deepened and she sat back on the headboard.

"I'm just tired" He heard her say and his questioning brow arched up the same instant.

"Tired of trying to act as if I don't care about all that should have been due fully mine"

She didn't cry but her features hardened with deep contempt and for what he hated she was still keeping him in the dark about it. Something told him this was not the first time she was raising the issue with herself.

"Tired..." She gave out a ragged sigh "And now finally my self-disgust has eaten away all these years of resolve not to care...perhaps a good thing"

He watched her without interrupting, giving her the needed space in silence and lent her the understanding she was asking in not so many words.

"Abhi...would you believe me, if I say I couldn't stand there watching everyone pick out wedding jewelry and not because I hated being part of it..." She paused for emphasis "but because I was finally giving in to my true self"

She regarded him keenly as she went on, devoutly praying he wouldn't break into barrels of laughter over his confused twenty eight year old wife. Her handles fumbled from the nervousness in her lap, as she sat cross legged.

"You were jealous?" He asked suddenly and he didn't know who was more surprised. For reasons she didn't know, she must have been secretly hoping at least her husband had her all figured out. She was slightly upset with the edge of bluntness his words carried.

"But you wouldn't even wear sari, let alone..." His words trailed off as his mind picked up the faint traces of what his wife was trying to convey.

"I always thought having a penchant for tradition and customs wouldn't make me much of a rebel that I needed to be...to go against people at home...and somewhere along that path I think I lost my identity there"

All the while he thought he'd understood the changes that he'd noticed that night she'd worn a sari to come see him in his room. Although he realized now that it did not fall into place for him like the way it did now. He placed a hand on her cheek and gave a small smile as the memory of their wedding day came back to him. They had placed signatures at the registrar office without so much as the ceremonious garlands. And in fear of her, knowing her endless hatred for all things that symbolized religion or customs, he'd walked into the government office not bothering to pick up a ring or mangal sutra. How seriously misunderstood his sweet little wife was? He was unable to offer his sympathy for all that she had missed out in life for he strongly concluded it was her own doing of promoting the farce for far too long. He strangely felt relieved. He had to give it to her for pulling herself together this quickly.

"But I always wondered if you had perhaps...may be...known that side of me existed..." She exhaled loudly and met his eyes with a look that made him feel it was him who had let her down.

"Oh! Let's not make this about me alright?"

He was right. She didn't expect him to guess this side of her, when it had been excruciatingly hard for her to come to terms with it after all these years. Just as she'd expected, he didn't perceive her addled or throw snide remarks at her. According to her, he had once again proved to her that he continued to accept her wholly, despite her revelation being at direct odds with who she has been all this while to him. She felt a strange peace creep into the corners of her heart.

He saw the beginnings of what seemed like her usual smile and he didn't even know he was missing it, until her mouth kicked up the corners of her lips.

"It's not fair Abhi..." She turned sideways and leaned on his shoulder "I have always been a closet traditionalist. How else can you explain the fact that I have not even gone to dinner with another man alone?"

She lifted her head and met his gaze "...Or that I have had only one man in my life" He smiled in return as the truth settled deeper inside him.

"Do all husbands go through such moments when their wife comes and tells them that their wife has not been all that meets to the eye?"

"I bet every single one of them"

They laughed together and he patted her leg calling attention to her, "Ok...get dressed. We still have three hours before they come. I'm taking you some place"

"No I want to be home when they return...else they will doubt us" She sniffled and gave him her baby-doll pleading look.

"You will have to trust me on this baby...We will be back in no time" He got up and started buttoning his shirt as he shot out of the room "I will see you in the garage..."

"But Abhi...where are we going?...Suno tho..." She heard the front doors shut behind him even before she could stall him for an answer.

To be continued...

I almost gave up with 1000 words down the line, when Word froze on me and I thought I had lost it all because I was sure I had not saved for a while and I didn't have auto-save turned on. I guess its my lucky day, it worked after 15 mts...Uff! Sorry folks for the long wait and Yikes! its sort of a serious update. I think I can say..."I'm back"
Will edit tomorrow morning. Gotta crash now.