ArHi OS: Unanswered Questions (part 21 page 88) - Page 53

Jaage hain der tak

Hamen kuch der sonai do

Thori si raat aur hai

Subah tu honai du

Aadhay adhoray khawab jo poray na ho sakay

Eik baar phir sai neend mai

Wo khwab bonai do

Eik Khawab tot janay ka ehsaas hi tu hai

Thori si raat aur, seher paas hi tu hai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKRqJ_BgB2s

It was as if she had lost the will to live, she wasn't responding to anything and anyone. While Doctors and nurses worked inside the ICU, the Riazada clan stood outside in tears, praying for her.

Another figure, standing motionless outside, was as oblivious to the rest of the world as she was inside the ICU. He didn't move when Nani tried to comfort him, neither did he react to anything that Mamaji said hugging him. He was finding it too hard to grapple with the situation, he felt helpless, he was on the verge of hopelessness and he wasn't used to this. He didn't know how to cope with it.

In the midst of this din of grief and sorrow his ears tuned on to the faint tinkle of someone's payal as she urgently walked towards the corridor. Then the sound stopped and he turned his head slowly in that direction to look into her eyes, eyes that read him so well, eyes that held the care and concern he wanted.

She looked into the caramel brown eyes that she had fallen in love with, learnt so well to understand and right then the eyes were red rimmed, tear filled. Instinctively she walked towards him through the haze of people around her, her eyes fixed on his. Reaching him, she passed her arm through his taking his hand out of his pockets to hold it in hers.

He felt her fingers intertwine with his as she squeezed his hand telling him to hold on and just then he began to lose the control he had been exercising; cracks began to appear in the calm he had cloaked his panic with. Taking her hand he started to walk away from everyone else, taking a turn they entered a relatively unoccupied passage but he kept walking until they reached its end where he entered a room with her.

It was a store room of sorts, with shelves against the walls and a high marble counter top on one side right next to the door. Turning towards Khushi, Arnav hoisted her up making her sit on the counter. For a split second he looked into her eyes before he let go of all his restraint, wrapping his arms around her in a bone crushing hug as he buried his face in her neck. Slowly, one after the other, tears followed.

Khushi didn't even take a second, she knew he sought comfort and she gave it. She opened her legs as her arms went around his neck pulling him closer and she placed soft kisses on his head, one hand rubbing his back and the fingers of the other running through his hair. She purposely kept quiet, letting him pour out his grief, cry out all tears.

"Khushi, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to think. When I start to think, I feel strangled, breathless, as if someone is sucking life right out of me," he had raised his head, sometime later, to rest his forehead against hers as he talked to her lips with his eyes closed, "For a very long time, Di was all I had, and I was all she had, I failed her and failed her miserably!"

"I don't know what will happen, no one does," Khushi whispered in his ear as she cradled his head in the crook of her neck once again, "what I know is we can pray. And you didn't fail her, Arnav even if you had done 200% effort, what had to happen would have happened. Our destinies are written, we make the best out of them," she finished.

"Will you forgive her for saying what she said, I know Di very well, I know she didn't talk to you out of embarrassment at what she had done!" he looked at her with eyes that shouted pain and her heart missed a beat as she placed her hands on his cheeks.

Kissing him lightly on his lips, she said softly, "Will she forgive me? For letting her shower her love on that creep? For letting her fast for his health? No, Arnav I have wronged her more!" she ended with another soft kiss on his nose, "let's go?" it was both a question and a suggestion.

He nodded slightly before pulling her face towards him and kissing her on the forehead. He helped her get off the counter and walked out with her hand held firmly in his.

Outside the ICU he asked everyone to go back home but everyone insisted on staying back. At that moment Khushi took charge in her own intuitive way and suggested doing special Puja for Anjalai Di at home. Nani, who realized that she had altogether forgotten about it, hugged Khushi thanking her for bringing her out of her state of hopelessness, "We shouldn't ever lose hope! Bitiya thanks a lot," she said before asking everyone to accompany her to the mandir.

Some minutes later, Khushi and Arnav were alone in the corridor, "Thanks," came his somber voice as he took his position outside the door of the ICU looking through the glass at the lifeless figure of his Di, the moving lines on the machines being the only indication that her heart was beating. Just then Doctor Ashitoush came outside and stood silently for some time as if thinking of what to say.

"her vitals are within the normal limits but she is giving no response! She seems to have given up on life, do you know any reason why that might be the case?" Dr Ashitoush said with all the insight and wisdom good doctors develop over the years.

Taking a deep breath, Arnav nodded his head and very briefly and quietly he narrated Anjali's story. He was a realist, he believed she could start all over again that's why his narration was devoid of any emotional details but held an almost clinical accuracy that helped Ashitoush understand a lot. Anjali had gone into deep depression.

"hmmm, well that confirms what I was apprehend, she is in psychogenic coma, which is good as well as bad news," paused as he patted Arnav's shoulder indicating him to stay calm, "Good because she will come out of it pretty soon and bad……. Well …. Because it is a result of severe depression, so even when you take her back home, she will be resigned and reserved,"

"Why? What do you mean?" Arnav had confusion on his face.

"You see there are no organic or you can say physiological signs for her coma, this can then only be due to some psychological reason. And whatever, you have just told me only confirms it. She has forced herself into a cocoon from where she doesn't want to face anyone. So when she comes out of it, she will need a lot of support and counseling which is a long discussion we will have tomorrow!" Dr, Ashitoush paused a while before he continued, "Right now, you need to rest. In the morning go in and talk to her in a reassuring tone, it may help. See you in the morning"

Arnav just nodded trying to assimilate the information that Dr. Ashitoush had just fired at him. Khushi came up from behind him and put a hand on his shoulder, "Everything will be fine, when the sky is the darkest, just know that the dawn is around the corner," she consoled him.

"Will you stay the night with me here?" he asked looking ahead as he slung and arm around her shoulders and pressed her against his side.

"I will if you promise to eat something and sit down!" she knew without being told that he had neither eaten nor rested.

A faint smile touched his lips as he looked down into her eyes saying, "Laying conditions, eh? Where have you learnt that from? I wonder."

"I worked for this Rakhshas of a boss for sometime who was forever making conditional contracts," she teased him as she took him towards a bench holding his hand, "Wait here, I'll get something from the cafeteria," she said walking away, "Shush I'll manage," she stopped his protest with a wave of her hand and was gone in a second.

Next morning found the two asleep on the bench, her sitting and him lying with his head on her lap and legs hanging over the end of the bench. The sunrays filtering in through the window blinds were able to wake them up at 7 finally.

It took Arnav a while to get his bearings right when he suddenly shot up saying, "Di!" and rushed towards her room, pulling Khushi along with him, to find her in the same state as last night.

"Dr. Ashitoush said we need to talk to her," he said as he entered the room with her.

"First you talk because she may get stresses if she hears my voice," Khuishi whispered.

The next twelve hours slipped by as Arnav sat with Anjali, holding her hand, talking to her about anything and everything that came to his mind, their childhood, their time in London, his college days, football matches, bike races, all the secrets he had shared with her, his girlfriends and how she had helped him slip in late at night. In between he would kiss her hand when he couldn't continue talking anymore or just sit with her hand in his, too overcome with emotions.

Khushi sat next to him, her eyes fixed on his face, listening to every word he said, trying to store every incident he quoted, for she was discovering so much more about him.

Arnav was talking about Akaash's wedding when her hand moved slightly and her eyelids fluttered. Khushi prompted him to continue talking and very quietly left the room to call in Dr. Ashitoush, who took complete charge as soon as he came. In the next 30 minutes Anjali was normal, not up and about but enough that she was extubated and could take soup normally.

Arnav continued to talk with her normally, never hinting at how she had suddenly closed herself from the rest of the world. He was telling her about Nani when she interrupted him to say, "Chotay I told Shayam not to set foot in our house again."

Arnav kept quiet, letting her continue, noting how she took his name and how her voice was firm when she spoke. His insides relaxed as he felt a calmness spreading over him.

"Chotay I cannot forget what I said to Khushiji, I cannot forget the way I behaved towards her, I cannot for the life of me scratch away the ugly image from my mind, chotay how utterly ugly and despicable my behavior was," she sobbed, "I…" her voice falterd, "I cannot bring myself to look into her eyes, will she ever forgive me?" she closed her eyes again sending Arnav in a state of worry.

"Di, Khushi is here, and I know she has already forgiven you. Go to sleep and you can talk to her after you wake up," he said holding her hands.

Once she went to sleep again, Arnav went out looking for khushi. Not finding her in the corridor, he went around the floor and found her praying in the small mandir right next to the information desk. Quietly, he stood behind her with closed eyes, trying to listen to her prayers and finding comfort in her soft voice. Deep down inside he could feel his universe getting back its momentum, finding its position, coming back to normal. All the questions between them had been answered; he was ready for some new ones. Slowly but surely, he put his arms around Khushi as he joined his prayers with hers.

Placing her arms on his she smiled knowing that she had, that they had finally found their orbit. It will take time for things between them to progress but as long as he was with her she didn't care. And care she did throw to the air as she turned around to kiss him right there in the middle of the hustle and bustle that Hospitals have. For her, for that moment nothing existed beyond the man who was holding her in his arms.

In her room, Anjali cried for her wasted years, years that she had spent worrying about the world, years when she had shrunk away from life being afraid of people, years that she had clung on to her husband despite having a gut feeling that something was amiss, despite catching him ogling on other girls. And now she wondered, was this the world she had feared, people don't care a fig about anyone, they just love to comment. No one holds any power to hurt anyone. Why had she cared? Why hadn't she been more like Arnav or a bit like Khushi?

"I will bit by bit live my life, whatever I have left of it, I will live it to the fullest! I will look forward to the future and not suffer regretting my past" she resolved before going to a peaceful sleep

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58qvGCFLh-8&feature=related

Abhi mujh mein kahin
Baaqi thodi si hai zindagi
Jagi dhadkan nayi
Jaana zinda hoon main toh abhi
Kuch aisi lagan iss lamhe mein hai
Ye lamha kahaan tha mera
Ab hai saamne
Issey chhoo loon zaraa
Mar jaaoon ya jee loon zaraa
Khushiyaan choom loon
Yaa ro loo'n :'( zaraa
Mar jaaoon ya jee loon zaraa

Ho o.. abhi mujh mein kahin
Baaqi thodi si hai zindagi

The End

End because, the title is Unanswered Questions and now they have been answered. 😊

I may follow it with a sequel, thinking about it.

Love you all for following it and commenting on it 😊