SS: Salaam Namaste -LAST PART pg117(01/16) - Page 57

Originally posted by: kavyasam

priya I should have updated by now, the time gaps between my updates are increasing again:(. I had planned to give atleast 2 updates this week and not even one is ready.

Arohi was now getting annoyed . Madhav's constant praising of her work, insistence to drop her home, showing interest in her interests bothered her. Her mother added fuel to fire by asking about him. The sudden return of previous affection from her mother that went subdued after knowing about Arjun was stirring up some unknown fear in her. She just wished it was all over soon, the calm she had brought upon herself and the confidence she had built was dissolving slowly. She confided to Arjun in her dreams.. Why, when the end of that painful year was nearing her fear was increasing. Many times she cried bitterly for not able to talk to Arjun, not able to see him. sometimes she remembered her dreams sometimes she did not. The days she did not she tried hard to remember, because she knew the only dreams she was getting were of Arjun's and not remembering brought that unbearable pain back to her. The brief moment of happiness she got from striking of a line every morning put her through the rest of the day. She slept with tears in her eyes. She cried more when the card he had given her fell off her shelf. He had given it to her on her birthday.

Instead of a birthday wish there was a sorry message because they had fought for the first time the previous day and he wanted to make up with her. The way he was upset with her she had thought he may not even wish her. She had unwittingly bursted on him the previous evening because he had not bothered to call her or talk to her the past two days and he ,who usually would make peace with her without batting an eye , was annoyed this time. When he lost his cool to tell her he was up and about working till late hours without sleep and all he cared was to have some pleasant time with her. They did not speak on their way home even when they drove back on his bike. After dropping her at the usual spot so as to avoid the people from the apartment to see, he had sped off without looking back. Fighting her tears, not knowing if she was wrong or not she didnot come home immediately. He had been waiting impatiently in the balcony to see if she came or not, when he saw her enter the complex, he went inside his house. He was angry at himself for losing his temper, which was rare. He wanted to go down and greet her, get her to smile once then he will be allright. But by the time he got down she went into her apartment and slammed the door, on herself. That night she cried again looking at her phone, that was ringing. That she wasn't picking up her phone and the thought that she might be crying troubled him the whole night. Next morning on his way to work he expected to see her like everyday outside her apartment, just to give him the dose of the morning smiles. But she was not there. He could not take a step more. He waited for few seconds and went up again. After few minutes he came down, hoping to see her but in vain. He went up again. This time he waited longer to come down. By now she was outside, she had tried to control herself from not wanting to come out, because she was still experiencing the after effects of their first fight, but her desire to see him was stronger. She feared he might have left already then she felt otherwise. When she came out he was there as if waiting for her. Instantly both of them smiled when both pain and happiness filled their heart and slowly it was just happiness like the fight never happened. The moment he came past her the 'happy birhday arohi' came out of him effortlessly. That it was her birthday had not occurred to them till then. Her face had lit up like a thousand candles were lit. It was just a whisper but it was as loud as a ringing bell to her. The lighting up her face made him more happy. But the puffiness of her eyes told him he was right, she had cried and that his losing cool was the reason, made him sad. She immediatley kept her hand on his and said 'I love you' without fear of being heard by others. Making a silent agreement to meet that evening they went by their routine. All day they were looking forward for the evening. Like their moods even the evening was very pleasant. They spoke less that evening, they just stared at the lake ahead of them, the ripples, the far away lotus, the trees surrounding, the occasional stir under the water. Like everything was happening not there but inside them. She asked him showing the distant lotus 'woh laa sakte ho mere liye?' without thinking for a second he started to get up, 'arey kaise leke aaoge?' 'tairke' 'pagal ho' 'phir kaise lekar aana hai?' 'chalke' she said teasingly, 'chalke?' 'haan' she laughed. He held her hand and pulled her closer 'tumhe nai chalna sath mein?'. The chocolate he fed her left its mark at the side of her lips, he wiped it, causing faster and deeper ripples. His gift to her was a string of finest genuine pearls with a matching set of earrings. He wondered if she knew he was going to give her this since she herself looked like a washed pearl. The look on her face was captured in his phone. When he helped her wear it and touched the tip of her earrings making them move., her cheeks went red like the rose in his hand. He could not stop himself from playfully rolling the delicate flower on her cheek. The thick black hair complimented the pearls. She held the rose to her chin, posing for a picture. He gave her the card , inside he had written 'kabhi agar kafaa ho humse toh humse itna jhagadna ki zameen aasman ek ho jaaye lekin yu aasu bahake mukhar na jaana kyunki hum jaan de sakte hai, par ek pal ke liye bhi yeh judaai ka gam seh nahi sakte' before a tear could drop out he held it fast. 'rone ke liye nahi diya maine, next time aisa kuch ho toh yeh padlena' 'aisa kyun likha? Hum judaa thode honge' 'aur main hone bhi nai dunga' . As if awakened from a sweet dream arohi came back to the present.

Yakeen hai mujhe ki tum judaa hone nahi doge, main bhi hone nahi doongi, phir yeh ajeeb sa dar kyun rehta hai aaj kal. Yeh gam jo baar baar nichodta hai dil ko. waqt itni alsi ban gayi hai ki ek ek pal ek ek yug lagti hai. Baadal garajta hai toh umang udti hai ki shayad baarish tumhe lekar aaye isiliye bheegti hoon ki tumse milane ki ehsaas hoti hai. Chand kehta hai ki meri mohabbat ki paigaam tum tak pahunchayega. Tumse bhi kehta hoga isiliye har raat sapnon ki dori lekar aata hai mere liye. She drenched herself in her tears once more.

As days went by arjun's dreams were filled with arohi asking him some doubt or the other and him ending up assuring her nothing can go wrong. To keep himself busy when he was not working he went on a shopping spree, for his parents his friends and mainly for her. He bought everything whatever he felt would suit arohi. Sometimes he set out just to buy things for her. It did not matter what it was. As long as arohi occured to his mind when he saw something he would buy. He took pictures of places where he went so he can show her later, she would definitely want to see them all and he would bring her the next time. Then time will make up for what it had done to them.

He met stephanie few more times when she was dropped off by her granny so her mother , Debbie, could take her to the family counselling sessions. Arjun had no interest to interfere but still he came to know something bothered that family. Steffanie appeared normal at times and hyper at other. Once there was an open argument between the mother and the daughter and she had stomped off saying she hates her. Debbie had found her sitting outside their office. What Arjun did not know was that, ever since debbie's husband had turned alcoholic and arrested for DUI, she had left stephanie in the care of her grandmother upon insistence so she can continue to be in the safe neighbourhood while she and her husband moved closer to where he worked so he can bike. But that was not their only problem she had to drive him to court and to counselling. Stephanie was affected by all this, as a child she was a perfectionist, that had escalated over the years

and she would throw a fit if she was not able to do things right. She would become hyper to hide the fact that she is nervous. She was not aware of the tanturms she threw and would completely forget that she ever screamed or yelled at others while she was fearing about being incompetant. She too was advised for counselling. She did not have any friends now hat made her feel better and she felt left out always. All she wanted was a little attention and to be with her parents like every normal family. Her grandmother was a big support, a woman of earlier generation she knew how to calm her and Debbie was grateful for that.

She knew Arjun lived in the same neighbourhood but she had never found any reason to ask him any kind of favor regarding her daughter. But sometimes, you don't have to ask, things just happen that people get involved in each others lives if not for long time for few minutes or hours and that changes a lot of things. Some things that are uncalled for happen as a ploy of destiny.

Two months remaining for the end of their separation, Arohi's mother was trying all that she could to change arohi's mind. After watching her daughter for 10 months with sullen face she felt to take her daughters pain into her and give her happiness, but her practical mind took over her emotional side. After knowing her husband or her son are not going to help , she had dug up more about madhav herself, she had a good network of friends. She had also talked to his mother. Madhav was happy to know of this development, he wondered if Arohi knew. Off late he observed she had lost looks about her. He stopped her one evening just before she was about to leave, giving her some work to finish and said it was very very important and had to be finished asap. She got indulged in her work and when she was half through with it everyone else had left. She felt someone sit opposite to her. Startled she looked up only to see her smiling boss.(I will keep their convo in english) 'did you need anything?' she asked. 'No, but you can stop doing this' 'ok then I will finish it tomorrow' she started to get up. His hand coming up suddenly to stop her, she jerked back before his fingers could touch her. 'what is this' she asked sharply. 'sorry I did not mean to scare you' 'I am not scared' 'can you sit down for a minute, I want to talk to you' 'if it is anything official you can tell me tomorrow' 'it is nothing official' she did not find it right. 'I am sorry to be rude, I have to leave'. 'please arohi, just for few minutes'. She did not sit but stood there. He had no other option but to stand as well. 'You have known me like what 7-8 months now?' 'may be' 'what is your opinion of me' , she did not like the tone of it 'why are you asking me?' 'I want to know what you think of me' 'why?' then she added 'Mr. Madhav, I really don't have time for this' 'fine I will be out with it. I like you, I see a future with you, if you too like me or have a good opinion of me, I want to know, so I can tell my mom'..' 'excuse me' she snapped right in. Then she controlled herself, he was being polite she too wanted to be civil. 'I am sorry I don't feel that way about you, I ..' 'why arohi? Is there something wrong about me? I have never disrespected you' 'no you havent but that is not the criteria to like people in the way you are asking' 'but your mother thinks otherwise' 'my mother?' 'she and my mother have spoken, it is now only up to us'. She was furious, at him, at her mother, at herself. She grabbed her purse haughtily. He stammered 'I meant , your mother just had a talk ..' ' Madhav, just like you , I too will be frank, I belong to someone already, I have nothing more to say'. He felt a pinch. He was not in deep love but he did like her and he was confident she would say yes. He was still hung up on her mother 'but then why would your mom'' 'one last time madhav, let it go please, my mother does not want me to marry a Muslim, me and her don't think the same way. I belong to my Arjun and that neither my mother nor you or anybody else can change, I will wait for him, I will live for him and I will die for him, because I love him' she said walking towards the door leaving a shocked madhav behind. Then she added 'sorry I cannot come back here and pretend nothing happened, consider this my resignation, if you have anything to be finished I can do it, but I think you know it is not necessary' she left, not to come back.

Madhav was now stuck at one point, 'she loves another man and that too from another religion'. He was a simple man with conservative views like his family. He saw arohi attractive, she was well behaved, she was suitable in age, height, looks and everything else. He had thought it will be a very easy pesuassion. But it turned out to be something he had not imagined. He shrugged in disbelief and also shed the illusion that her mother talking to his mother meant the final decission.

Just like Arohi he too underestimated Arohi's mother.

Originally posted by: kavyasam

priya I should have updated by now, the time gaps between my updates are increasing again:(. I had planned to give atleast 2 updates this week and not even one is ready.

Originally posted by: kavyasam

Now I feel update is short , when I wrote I felt it was long