The Best of Things
(RagLak, SwaSan) Fan Fiction Series
By Bubble
Chapter 14
Swara was pacing the floor of their room. "Why can't she understand! I was just talking to him, just talking! Saying sorry, thanking him... but no! there she was! Angry, upset and ready to create a scene!"
Sanskaar looked up from his work to look at her. She had turned again - she would wear out the carpet at this rate. His eyes went back to the laptop screen. His phone screen flickered. Sanskaar took the call and Swara subsided the volume of her mutterings almost involuntarily.
"Oh great!" said Sanskaar was saying on the phone, "Thanks very much - you've sent the passes to... the residence? Great, thanks."
"Swara..." he started to say.
But she didn't even hear him, just noted peripherally that he was done with the phone call. So she ploughed on, "Lakshya just said he'd handle her, so I left. I really have no idea how he means to do it... I hope he knows what he's doing!"
"Swara!" he said again.
"What?" she said, absently, adding, "Has Lakshya told you if he has a plan or strategy?"
Sanskaar shook his head irritatedly. He said, with a bite to his words, "Swara, do you think we could have one conversation a day, just one, that's not about Lakshya and Ragini? I'm a little bit sick of them, to be honest."
She swivelled around and stopped, as if he'd smacked her. "Oh!" she swallowed, "sorry."
She looked around, just noticing what she had been doing, "Sorry, Sanskaar, I know I get carried away... tum apna kaam karo! I'll... I'll just go... I'll bring down clothes from the terrace." And she swirled out of the room.
Sanskaar brought his hands up to his face with a groan. "Swara!" he shouted after her, "I didn't mean it like that!" But she had gone.
"Damn it!" he shoved his laptop aside and hurried after her.
"Sanskaar baba!" It was Ghanshaam, coming up the stairs, "Aapse milne koi aaya hai."
Ten minutes later, Sanskaar was in the utility section of the terrace. Swara had gathered half a dozen sheets from the clotheslines on the left flank of the building, and now she had them in a heap on the table in front of her, and was painstakingly folding them.
"Swara, I didn't mean it like that!" he said, standing in front of her.
She smiled. "I know! But I'm sorry - I know once I have something on my mind, I go on and on... I didn't mean to bore you."
"You don't bore me!! I just had something else to say, that's all," he said.
"It's ok, Sanskaar! As it is, I feel bad for using you like I have... I've just highjacked your life with my missions... in fact, I've been thinking..."
Sanskaar took the sheets out of her hands, dumped them on the table and turned her to face him. "STOP!" If he let her go on talking, she'd talk herself right out of this house and right out of his life. "Just shut up and listen to me. You didn't highjack my life, Swara... I highjacked yours!"
He released her and turned away. "And the reason I was irritated was not because I was bored but actually insanely jealous!"
Swara was taken aback. Then she asked in a small voice, "Of Lakshya?"
Sanskaar faced her again and shook his head. "Of Ragini."
"Of Ragini! Why?!" she asked round-eyed.
"Because you love her so much! Because she is the focus of your attention! Because kahin na kahin, I wonder what it would be like to be the focus of your life like she is."
"Oh!" Swara sounded stumped. "But she's a problem in my life! And you... you are all the answers, Sanskaar!"
He went absolutely still for a long moment and then made himself look away. "If you put it like that, I'll... I'll settle for that, Swara."
He shook his head and then brought up the envelope he had been holding in his hand. "Don't you want to see what I was trying to tell you about?"
It was a brightly printed cover of black and red. "What's that?!" she asked, excited by the very look of it.
He shook the cards he had extracted from the cover. "These, my lady, are passes to the Calcutta International Classical Guitar Festival."
She let out a squeal that lasted approximately a full minute as she jumped up and down. "Serious?!" She took the cards and scanned the performing artistes, "Oh my god, Shyamant Behal, Masao Tanibe... this is an interesting line-up!" She put the passes down and leaped into his arms, throwing her arms around his neck, "Sanskaar! Thank you so much, thank you so much!"
"The pleasure is mine, Swara!" he said, gathering her tightly and resting his chin against her hair.
Edited by soapbubble - 9 years ago
Aami Daakini
Book Talk
Cricket
