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Pari OS - The Wounded Wonder Warrior
Part 1
Pari was sitting in her room, her legs drawn close to her chest and arms wrapped around her knees, head resting on them. Her eyes were closed. Mishti ,Veer and Dadi were out shopping, Ansh in college and Ruhaan had gone on an assignment so she was alone. Silent tears rolled down her eyes as Mishti's words replayed in her mind like a loop. 'Dad was wrong' 'I don't want to suffer like mom'. The images haunted her and she wanted to scream. She could feel every ounce of her elder sister's pain and she felt terribly guilty for the same. She had gone to apologize to Mishti and they had had a heart to heart conversation where in she had apologized and Mishti had reassured her that the love between them was far stronger than anything else. But Pari had stated that the past would always stay between them and for a minute even Mishti had been speechless.Because that was the truth.
The past would always stay between them. She would always be the daughter of Kunal and Nandini, the betrayers. Her very existence was a sin, it seemed like. Her parents' happiness had been built on the grave of the happiness of Mauli aunty. A long suppressed memory of Sandhya Khanna and Sweety Khanna's words said during that ill fated Lohri ages ago when she was 4 years old resurfaced. She had never told a single soul about that incident.
But learning the truth that way had cut her soul deep. Before she could gain a single answer to the questions in her mind,she had to see her father be shot before her very eyes, knowing it was her fault, that he was shot saving her. She had then seen him forget every single memory of her and her mother and remember only Mauli aunty- the way it should actually have been - her mother and she should have never existed in her buddy's life. Years later she had questioned even the love between her parents, the one thing which she was sure of but which now seemed fickle to her when she remembered that her father had fallen in love with Mauli aunty again. Did he ever really love her mom? She also had been the only one who had witnessed his quiet heart break when he lost Mauli aunty again and the only one who saw his lonely life there on. They both only had each other. Years later she had lost even him and had broken down completely.
That time, Dadi and Mishti had supported her and rallied around her, became her rock and given her life new meaning. They had loved her unconditionally inspite of her parents. For this she was eternally grateful to them. She also had Arnav, her best friend and constant support since childhood and Su bua. She was thankful for all her blessings but she never shared her inner trauma with any of them, not wanting to be any more of a burden than she already felt. So she kept her feelings locked away and dreaded the words love and commitment, knowing how those words had ruined Mauli aunty, Buddy and Ma's lives. She hid her pain and relied only on herself and strove to be independent - she knew all she had was herself in the end. She had become the strongest version of herself she possibly could, inspite of her wounds,doting on her family and developing a cheerful, bubbly and happy go lucky persona.
In the midst of all this, Ruhaan had entered their lives like a storm. She had been attracted to him and felt a connection between them. He was the first person she had unintentionally shared her real self with. He had become an unexpected friend. But that was it. She smiled sadly. She was no fool. She could see that beneath the hate exterior, Ruhaan and Mishti were deeply attracted to each other and Ruhaan's feelings for her sister ran deep. She had sensed something between them on the engagement party itself as Mishti threw a fit which was so unlike her. So she had tried her level best to pull back from Ruhaan, knowing only heart break awaited her on that path. Her unrequited feelings were perhaps her karma for hurting her best friend Arnav. Yes, she was aware of his feelings too. But it was impossible for her to look at him as anything other than her best friend and she had tried her best to communicate the same to him.
Because of all this her life had become incredibly complicated. Desperately needing a break, she got up and went out of the house, locking it behind her and handing the keys to the neighbors before marching on her scooty and driving off.
She drove fast and reckless around Marine Drive, the wind hitting her face furiously making her cheeks which were wet with tears feel cold. As she was zooming by in her own trance, she didn't see the man who almost came in front of her scooty. Cursing, she hit the breaks abruptly and turned to blast at him - "Don't you have any sense? Who walks the road like this? Haven't u heard of things called traffic rules? " She shouted, feeling good to finally shout at someone even though the man was a stranger and hardly at fault. When she got no response she marched upto the man and shook him by the collar. 'Oh hello. I'm talking to you! Can't u hear!? ' It was then that the man looked at her and she felt her heart thud in her chest. He was 6'2', wavy dark brown hair which was windswept and kept getting in his eyes, tanned skin and arresting chocolate brown eyes. She couldn't look away from his eyes if her life depended on it. His eyes were deep and penetrating and at the moment hard, like he was going through some crisis. He glared at her and said 'It was your mistake. Learn how to drive and get out of my way. ' He pushed her away from his path and continued walking away to his parked car, looking absolutely dangerous and lethal. Pari stared at his back, dumbstruck. How incredibly rude!! Fuming, she got back on her scooty and tightened her helmet, intending to follow this man and give him a piece of her mind, not knowing what exactly lay ahead in store for her.
Bade Achche Lagte Hain Naya Season
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