Chapter 4
With every dawn comes a glimmer of hope for a better tomorrow. As the sunrays filtered into Sanskar's room, he woke up with a slow smile on his face. Sitting on the bed he lazily stretched out on the bed and fell back into the bed clutching the pillow. Today he was skipping college as he had some other plans he could afford to sleep a few more minutes of sleep.
In Gadodia house, Swara was used to rising early in the morning to practise her music. It was her safe haven. Something she knew no one can snatch from her.
It was a struggle to wake up in the morning for Ragini. Thanks to the innovation of alarms and mobile phones she managed to make it out of bed with ample time in hand to get ready. It was an important day ahead for her. After trying out nearly ten outfits she settled for a simple wine red coloured Kurti and black salwar teaming it with black dupatta with gold polka dots. She braided her hair into her trademark French braid and put on some gloss.
She twirled in front of the mirror giving herself a once over happy with the transformation. She prayed to god shyly "Oh god! Please aaj Luck mere saath ho bas. Toh kal se main Lucky ho jaungi"
She skipped down the stairs two steps at a time and went to dining room for breakfast with her father. Her Dadi and mom had made delicious Rasgullas for all of them. "Oh yummy! Dadi aapne Rasgulla khaas mere liye banaye? Thank you!" she stretched out her words and served herself come in a bowl. "Daadi kya aap muje kuch Rasgullas pack karke dengi for college? After all mere friends ko bhi toh pata chale about the two chefs in our house, haina?" she asked innocently.
"Kyu nahi Ragini zaroor lekar jana" Sharmishtha replied smiling at Ragini and packed her tiffin. After eating Ragini got up and left for her college. Sharmishtha could make out she was clearly excited about something today. "Chalo ek ka hogaya ab dusri kaha rehgayi. Swara..." she went out calling for her Swara who she knew was in her music room either with a guitar or her diary.
Sharmishta,or Shomi as everone called her had married Shekhar when Swara and Ragini were still kids. The reason being she wanted the kids to have both parents. Both of them knew that Swara was their biological daughter, a daughter born out of true love. But still Shekhar never openly accepted it in front of the society fearing the reactions. Apparently, it would've made for a scandalous relationship revelation. Sharmishtha always felt very bad that though Swara was a very legitimate child in every way she was always termed illegitimate. She felt that she failed to provide a father who would openly love Swara and stand up for her if need arose.
She fought with Shekhar a lot because of this. She knew that though Shekhar loved Swara her constant fights with him were resulting in him distancing himself from Swara. It was almost as if he held Swara responsible. Sharmishtha felt bad that though she married Shekhar to provide Swara a father's love all she did was just added more unnecessary drama to Swara's platter. Sometime later in life she even wondered if marrying Shekhar had bad been a mistake on her part. But then she thought of Ragini and felt nice atleast someone had felt the love of both her parents.
Ragini was not her biological daughter but that was never a problem for her. She wanted to be Ragini's mother just because she wanted Ragini to feel a mother's unadulterated love. She always treated Ragini and Swara equally or atleast tried to. She knew somewhere in her mind that in her attempt to become a parent to Ragini, she had been partial towards her and a little more lenient towards her and neglected Swara although not intentionally. But she also knew that her Swara was mature enough to overlook such petty things and that Swara understood her.
She walked into the music room to see the object of her interest sitting on the chair with her head resting on the desk. "Kya hua Swaru, tired?"
"No Maa I'm not tired. I don't want to go to college today. I have to go for auditions today remember?"
"Thik hai. Ready ho ke niche aajana. Aur haan, laksh ko bata dena warna woh aajayega aivi, Ok baby?"
"Maa I'm not baby anymore" Swara sulked.
"Ok baby" her mother laughed pulling her cheeks "Chalo move it lazy bum"
"Yes mother" and she left to get ready after informing Laksh about the change of plan.
Laksh had woke up in the morning to Swara's message he sighed "Aaj kuch new means dhoondna padega for entertainment"
When Laksh reached college he was surrounded by his usual group of friends. Ragini decided it was the best time to talk to laksh since she could not see Swara or Sanskar in sight who could possibly interrupt them.
"Laksh kya hum do minute baat kar sakte hai?"she asked him politely playing with the ends of her dupatta nervously.
Laksh wanted to snap at her and say no but then he remembered his talk with Sanskar the previous night and decided a simple talk won't harm him. He nodded and followed her, "bolo Ragini"
Ragini was wondering how to start the topic that she wanted to talk about. She closed her eyes tight and decided to just say it consequences be damned, "Laksh please don't ask me why, how and when but the truth is that I love you"
She breathed in relief after letting it out. She opened her eyes to see Laksh trying hard to stifle his laughter. She felt confused, "Kya hua Laksh aap aise has kyu rahe hai?"
"Oh God Ragini bahut acha mazaak tha..." he clutched his stomach laughing real hard.
He totally missed the hurt look on Ragini's face because she masked it just as fast as it had appeared and said "Par main mazaak nahi kar rahi Laksh. Pyaar koi mazaak nahi hai "
"Of course I understand, Ragini. But I do not love you, I can't" He tried saying controlling his laughter but the damage was already done.
"May be you don't love me but you have no right to insult my love for you by laughing at it and throwing it in my face" Ragini said it so harshly that they both were stunned for a moment. She continued, "OK fine you don't' love me but will you at least give me a proper reason. Kyu Laksh kyu nahi karte aap humse pyaar? Kya aap kissi aur se...Swara se..." she trailed off unable to complete her sentence the pain and hurt of rejection was too intense.
"Tum pagal ho gayi ho kya? You and I are a mismatch, opposites...And please don't bring Swara into this conversation. She has nothing to do with it we are just good friends. What about bhai, huh? Why did you lead him on? " He was upset for his best friend and Ragini's unreasonable hate for her. But above that he was more upset thinking about the heartbreak his unsuspecting brother will have when he learns of all this.
"What about Sanskar?" Ragini was confused.
"Oh Shut up Ragini don't act so innocent. He has always had feelings for you. He loves you damnit. You have done nothing but lead him in that direction and now this! How dare you?" Laksh was beyond angry now.
"You are wrong clearly there is some misundersta-" Ragini started to say something but Laksh cut her off.
"There is no misunderstanding everyone knows it, that Sanskar loves you!"Laksh yelled and walked out from there he was very angry. If he would've waited there any longer he might have hit her for all her games. No wonder he disliked her he thought to himself. He had to tell Sanskar this before it's too late and he gets hurt.
Ragini just sat there on the nearest bench. It was too much for her to process. "Sanskar Loves You" these words of Laksh kept playing in her head. How that was possible she just couldn't comprehend.
Just as tears streamed down her cheek her phone beeped she wiped her tears and checked her phone. It was a message from Sanskar. It said he wanted to meet her at their spot.
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hey guys I hope this part clears atleast some confusion.
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Anya😊