FF: Pyaar in the Pink City Pt32/Pg106(Concluded) - Page 63

Originally posted by: ForLoveofBarun

Eid-Mubarak to you too and congratulations for the award on your story👏

Dear Readers,

Dear Readers,

I am taking advantage of my jetlag and posting this update. It's slightly later than my usual but considering I had to travel and the ensuing fatgue, etc, it is a miracle that I could end up posting at all. So hopefully, you will all be happy with this latest edition of PIPC 😊

Read, enjoy, hit like and comment my lovelies.

English version is posted right after this one.

Pyaar in the Pink City (English)

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the pistures used here. They have been procured from public internet sources and have been merely used for illustrative purposes.

Part 27

Mrinalini

"Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there's shadow ' no, not just shadow, but fullness. You've got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that's real."
~Amy Grant

Malhar was decked up yet again much to Viren chacha's joy. He enthused to Devyani how wonderful it was that ever since their arrival, there have been a string of celebrations at the haveli and the spacious halls and corridors were filled with laughter of young folk. Devyani smiled and agreed, her gaze automatically skimming her grandchildren and their spouses even as her face beamed her inner happiness outward; while the Bharadwaj's and Rajputs couldn't stop their profuse thanks to Viren chacha for their gesture.

Ajay had offered his haveli as the venue for Nitin and Radhika's engagement party. Both of them were his close friends and he would not hear any protests from either of them to the contrary. He was hanging out by the diwans on the perimeter of the inner courtyard casually chatting with Arnav and Akash, while NK was busy clicking random shots with his camera and kept bounding in and out of the conversation with one of his half-baked Hindi remarks that caused the rest to guffaw or turn red in embarrassment. NK, ofcourse couldn't care less as long as he made a few ripples and voiced his opinion.

Maya, Anjali, and Khushi were decking Radhika while Payal sat on the bed in the guest room, watching them and keeping an eye on her now super active almost three month old Aanya. She had a willing helper in Tashi who was totally smitten with the baby; so much so, that she was not spending as much time with her Dobby.

Dobby on the other hand did not mind his mistress's waning attention ever since Lakshmiji, Naani's goat had arrived at Malhar along with Khushi. They made quite an odd pair as they scampered playfully in the yard or snooped around the corridors of the rambling haveli or when they competed for Naaniji's attention and favors during tea time.

Soon the party resumed in full swing what with the men of the household looking all dapper and the women ravishing in their party outfits. Radhika was the most radiant of the lot and Nitin the happiest. He had a huge smile on his face the entire course of the event. All in all it was a fabulous engagement party that was bound to be the talk of their circles.

Anjali had quite smoothly and unconsciously slipped into the role of the hostess and juggled all the accompanying details of the event perfectly. It was after all Nitin's engagement, and what with Radhika now becoming her close friend, it was the least she could do. The visiting guests were all-a-praise for the hospitality that was showered on them and discretely speculated amongst them if there was yet another engagement in the offing when they eyed Ajay and Anjali together.

Ajay, Naani, and Chachaji, as well as the entire Raizada, Gohil and Gupta clan of course were secretly thrilled and were hoping and waiting for the word from Anjali, so they could shout out from the rooftops and host a wedding of a lifetime in their honor.

************

"Aww! Come on now jijaji, please just once give us a demonstration of your talent." Pleaded Khushi, and was soon joined by Maya, "Yes Akash, Please do; the night is still yound and tomorrow is a Sunday, so there is no reason to retire early. Don't say no."

"Akash, when everyone is beseeching you with such love you have to accept dude. If someone had asked me but once I would do it in a flash, man" added NK only to be met with a quick rejoinder from a smirking Arnav, "NK Thank God that no one has. Otherwise, we would have all had to bear the consequences."

Finally, amidst overwhelming demands, Akash settled down in the music and dance hall of the haveli fingering one of the ancient Sitars of the Rathod family gingerly. The instrument was finely tuned and as the family settled down; Akash lost himself in his soulful rendition on the Sitar and took his listeners along with him on a musical journey. As the last lingering note died down, there was a hush and Payal looked on at her husband with love and new found adoration shining through her eyes. The next second there was a round of applause and laughter and much backslapping with Garimaji and Buaji beaming at their Damaad. Shashi ji who was making improvements with his treatment, raised a relatively steady hand to bless his son-in-law.

The engagement party had long since winded down with the guests, the betrothed and their family leaving; yet the inmates of the haveli were too charged up to call it a night and hence propelled by the crazy trio of Khushi, NK and Maya, everyone had settled down in the Music hall for what started out as Akash's Sitar performance but soon expanded to a game of 'Bollywood through the ages', where everyone had to sing or dance to an yesteryears Bollywood song.

Ramu Kaka, Rajinder and Sharda were busy keeping the refreshments flowing as the game picked up with gusto with naani setting the ball rolling with her dance filled sinuous sways and hip-thrusts. After that, the rest of them had to follow suit or lose face for not trying.

Arnav took center stage no longer able to ward of his persistent biwi, and surprised everyone with a perfect impersonation of Dev Anand much to Khushi's joy.

"Arnavji, I had no idea you were a fan of Dev Anand" Khushi quipped imitating the legendary actor's famous drawl.

Arnav hugged his wife, "Not me, mama was. I used to watch all of his films along with her. But one thing is for sure, he has style unlike some other actors, you know----- " trailed Arnav with a naughty twinkle in his eye for Khushi, earning a prompt "Haah!" and a playful punch on his arm from his pretty wife.

Next up was Anjali. No one had seen Anjali perform in ages and so cheered loudly as she took the center stage. Hippie music filled the air with the signature beats of RD Burman's 'Dum Maro Dum' as Anjali sang in tune with the words and swayed sinuously imitating the look of a young woman in the grip of swirling Marijuana smoke, intoxicated by the drug.

Khushi was all but bouncing in glee crushing Arnav's hand, when suddenly there was a sound of tinkling glass and all eyes whirled around to Ajay. He stood absolutely still, staring at Anjali with unseeing eyes; his face was ashen, while his palm bled with the slight gash inflicted by the glass that broke in his hand.

Anjali was Aghast.

"Ajay beta(Ajay, my son)" said a concerned Viren Chacha who was about to rush to his side, when Ajay abruptly blurt out looking around wildly, "Sorry, I am sorry. I --- I--- I just need to go" and turning around on his heels he left the house and gunned the engine of his hummer.

A sober mood settled over the family and a hushed silence prevailed as the broken shards were cleaned by Jaigovind. All eyes turned towards Viren chacha expectantly. They had seen only an amiable and even tempered Rathod. This tortured and haunted looking man they saw today was a complete stranger to them.

Viren Chacha shook his head sadly and patted Anjali's hand as he spoke in a soothing voice, "It's not your fault my child. You inadvertently reminded him of Mrinalini today. It has been so long since I have seen him thus, that I had forgotten."

************

"Thank you Rajinderji. You may leave now. I'll return back to the haveli with Rathodji" said Anjali dismissing Rajinder as soon as she alighted at the gazebo by the lake at Malhar.

She had been restless and could not forget the haunted look in Ajay's eyes. She recalled Viren chacha's words from the time he had given them a tour of the haveli, that Ajay frequented the gazebo when he needed some peace and quiet. So she had Rajinder drop her off before he retired for the night. She could not leave him alone like that tonight.

If Ajay was aware of her presence, he showed no external signs of acknowledgement. The gazebo was plunged in semi darkness, with only the light streaming from the lamp post a few feet away illuminating portions of the sheltered spot.

Ajay was seated on the ground one leg bent and the other stretched out, leaning against the retaining wall. His head was thrown back and his eyes closed. She saw the tip of a burning cigarette in his hand and smothered a gasp of surprise.

"It's an old habit. I kicked it a long time back but there are moments when I just have to ---"he offered in a gruff voice as he looked at her and simultaneously crushed out the barely smoked cigarette.

"Why are you here Anjali?" Hurt had lent an unfamiliar gravelly tone to his voice and Anjali felt her eyes well up with tears at the look of utter defeat on his face.

She rushed to his side and throwing her arms around his neck hugged him tightly, stroking his hair. Ajay froze for a few seconds and then his hands slowly wrapped themselves around her crushing her to him and he dropped his face in the crook of her neck while dry sobs racked through his frame.

"Mrinalini was her name and I loved her with all the love and passion of youth." He began in a voice slightly shaky and heavy with emotion. "I was about twenty six or twenty seven and had just completed my masters in Law at Yale. It was more to honor family tradition than anything else. I already had a Masters in Art from Paris, France and was an established artist by the time I enrolled in Yale. You see all Rathods have gone to Yale and I would not be the first to break tradition.

That year, right after I graduated, I had gone on a tour of Europe. I loved to travel alone, it gave me the freedom to set my own schedules and dictate the pace of my vacation. I had not bargained on bumping into the tornado that was Mrinalini when I stepped into Harrods on that beautiful day. She spun my head right around and left me teetering in our very first meeting. I had fallen in love with her at first sight. She was like an exotic bird, gorgeous, brightly dressed with a laughter that would put a babbling brook to shame.

I altered my trip to match her schedule and stalked her around Europe. Finally, as we neared the end of our tour she confessed that she loved me too. I was ecstatic. I called up my parents who I knew would never say no to my choice, despite the fact that that she was three years older than me and that they had not met the girl, or her parents.

Mrinalini brushed aside my questions about her family's approval and we got married by the captain on the cruise ship that we were on, bound for our return to the United States. I was the richest and happiest man on the planet in that moment."

Rathod paused and taking Anjali's hand in his own played with her fingers as he continued to narrate, how their initial days of marriage was an absolute bliss. And that Mrinalini was a doctor in New York and he had shifted his studio to Manhattan and everything was perfect, until one afternoon he came home to find Mrinalini on the couch, her face streaked with tears and smudged eyeliner, her eyes red and puffed up.

"My heart wrenched at her misery and I discovered my in-laws the Senguptas in the living room. They had apparently gotten wind about their daughter being married and were not in the least bit happy with the arrangement. They were both accomplished surgeons and had already picked their future son-in-law who was a Bengali like them and also an upcoming brilliant neuro surgeon. They accused Mrinalini of cheating them and keeping them in the dark about her wedding. Angry words flew in the air and they left in a huff severing all ties with Mrinalini and me on that day."

He continued after a pause how Mrinalini had broken down that day and opened up about her lonely childhood, growing up torn between two strong willed, ambitious parents who were both brilliant in their own right and extremely focused on their career, with no room in their schedules for the demands of a little girl. How their marriage was one for keeping up appearances rather than one built and fostered by love and respect. For the most part they were on their own each turning a blind eye to the other's amorous pursuits as long as there was no scandal involved and their image of a perfect family was maintained for the general public.

"Mrinalini had hated it with her gut. As a child she could not do much but once she was older and had left home for college, she never went back. She only bothered to respond to their calls and emails once in a blue moon when it suited her. They of course supported her financially because she was quite an accomplished student and they had big plans for her medical career. What they did not know was that to beat her loneliness and fill the void in her heart, Mrinalini had taken to drugs.

Once she met me and we were married, she no longer needed the drugs and knowing this story about her past, I was ever watchful and filled her life with enough passion that she never needed any artificial high. I had brought her to Jaipur with me where we married again with traditional pomp and grandeur. The Senguptas were conspicuous in their absence.

Three years later Mrialini was pregnant and I was over the moon and soon Tashi entered our life filling it with myriad colors. Mrinalini decided to quit her job at the hospital and abandoned her research to devote her entire time to Tashi. My works won many awards and critical acclaim and I grew steadily busy with the private commissions I received for my paintings. My in-laws paid a visit to berate Mrinalini on her foolishness and accuse me as a self-centered male chauvinist who smothered his wife's career to feed his own. Mrinalini chased them out of our house and swore to never talk to them again."

"Four more years passed and Tashi was now a delightful little girl, when one bright spring day the thunder clouds crashed on our perfect little world. I got a call from Tashi's pre-school that Mrinalini, who had gone to pick her up had blacked out at the wheel. Thank fully she had barely left the parking lot and had crashed against a wire fence with no fatalties.

The incident left me with a feeling of dread and I insisted on having her medically checked out. It turned out she had a rare form of cancer that was fast spreading through her system. In a flash our lives had changed. Over the next two to three months I had left no stone unturned. My parents and Ramu kaka were flown in to take care of Tashi and the house while I dedicated myself to Mrinalini. I was afraid to blink lest I lose a minute of gazing at her.

Watching her suffer killed me bit by bit every day. Therapy showed promise initially but the rate at which the cancer cells were multiplying and mutating made the prognosis bleaker and bleaker till one day we had to hear what I was dreading all along in my heart; there was no further medical solution available. The doctors wanted us to enjoy each day as a blessing while it lasted."

Ajay's voice broke as years of sorrow flowed out as hot tears rolled down his face. Anjali, hugged him close, her own tears flowing freely down her cheeks, as her heart ached for the agony that Ajay must have faced.

"Mrinalini continued to be cheerful around company. She encouraged me to find love after her, which I hated with my gut. One day, I returned after dropping Tashi off at school to find her listless and rushed her to the ER. She had in one of her fits of depression fallen back to her old habit of drugs. An overdose of ecstasy in her current state was the death knell for her. I was angry, furious, that at long last, she could do something like this. After all the treatments and alternate medicine, she would even cheat me of each day that God graced her presence on this earth. An unbelievable rage filled my being at the thought that she would take her own life leaving me alone to fend for myself. I had half a mind to kill myself, but I could not bring myself to do it."

Ajay went on to narrate how he had locked himself up and refused to meet anyone not even the Senguptas who had shown up for the funeral and had left a message for him with his parents that he was the sole reason for her misery and downfall and that they had nothing further to do either with Ajay or Tashi.

Ajay's parents had returned home to Jaipur with Tashi while Ajay had lived like a recluse in Manhattan, haunting the halls that Mrinalini once inhabited.

The only friend he would see was Nitin, whom he had met in Yale and had been drawn to. Nitin had grown to be a close friend to Mrinalini as well and had played the role of a shrink in constantly counseling him out of his depression. Ajay had returned to Jaipur when he heard of his mother's failing health and a year later had lost her to a massive heart-attack.

He sighed, disengaged himself from Anjali's arms and placing a light kiss on her knuckles continued on how his father who loved his mom could not take the sorrow and had died in his sleep in less than a month. The death of his parents had jolted him out of his complacency when a five year old Tashi had crept into his lap and wiping his tears had said "Daddy I love you and I missed you all these days. Please don't leave me like mama, daadi and daadu".

"In that moment I found my reason for living and finding happiness. I would not let unhappiness and despair of my past, taint my Tashi's beautiful future. And here I am. Looking back I realize that along with every color of the rainbow that filled my life at that time was also a shade of black. While disliked it, it is very much part of who Tashi and I are today as human beings. I am grateful for having Mrinalini in my life and for having found such intense love with her. I'll have Tashi as a piece of her always. I have reached a point were her memories bring happiness and it has been ages since I have been plunged into such sorrow.

I am sorry I over reacted during your act. But tonight, when I saw you swaying like one high on drugs, a cold fear gripped my heart. Not only did I remember Mrinalini's lows, but I pictured you in in the throes of that curse for a second. I was terrified of beholding you thus and of something terrible befalling you.

I cannot survive if anything happens to you Anjali. It's as simple as that. I would cease to exist, for that's how much I love you." He finished in a low voice ending on a shuddering sigh as he dropped his head to rest in Anjali's lap and burrowed his nose in her belly seeking comfort in her touch.

Anjali sighed as she bent over him wrapping herself around him and kissed his head. "Nothing will happen to me Ajayji. Nothing will"

Her heart and mind were both overwhelmed as they reached Malhar and assured a worried family that all was well. Much later, she heard a knock on her door and found Ajay standing there. She needed no words to understand his need. Opening the door wide she invited him in and several minutes later they settled down in her bed in the safe haven of each others' arms, each offering silent solace to the other as they drifted off into peaceful slumber.

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wow i had tears ...love , pain , belonging helplessness all together

Chalo this time around I am here to give my comments very early.

Lovely update. I liked the way you wove in the flashback of Ajay in the act of Anjali. I can very well understand the despair of the man, the way he met Mrinalini and their life together and then her death. It takes a long time to move past the shadow of death of your spouse and find love again. Ajay was able to cross that threshold and now with the past of both Anjali and Ajay out - I hope they will be able to embrace future together. Seems like Arnav, Akash and the Raizada family is all waiting for Anjali's yes and then have the marriage of Ajay and Anjali done in the haveli. Can't wait for Anjali and Ajay to announce that they are ready to take the next step together. Both have been hurt and it is time for them to heal their hurt together. Lovely update. Beautiful and I can very well imagine the pain of both Anjali and Ajay in this update. What happened to Shyam? I hope he is also given out his punishment and he doesn't strike again in the life of Ajay and Anjali. Now waiting for the next update.

woah!!! that was a fantastic update!!!!

Reading this during a boring lecture *guilty face* will comment later

really really nice part...just loved it how Ajay opened up to Anjali...and she gave him the support...and their finding solace in each other's arm...beautiful...thanks for the pm...

That was one breathtaking update. So intense and full of emotions. I had goosebumps while reading the chapter. Beautiful.

tht ws sad... bt mrinalini sure was a fighter.. :)