Thank u for all the support.
Nupur picked up the phone and dialled a number. A number that she had dialled many times in the last few years, her best friend. He was one year junior to her in college but she always looked to him for any advice she needed with her personal life and the same held true for him as well. He was the only guy who knew that her life was not as straightforward as she made it out to be. The only person to whom she had confessed that she was still madly in love with Mayank, the only thing is he already knew it before she told him, he had known all along.
She heard a Bolo Nupur. She quickly saidlunch pe meet karthe hai, 10 mins, same place...
There was a Ok as reply and the line went blank. They never bothered with general courtesies, they had crossed that stage years back.
Nupur left for their cafeteria in ten minutes, only to find him waiting for her.
aaj meri yaad kaise aayi? baat kya hai he asked without much preface.
Nupur made a face, sudhar jaao Samrat, mein tumhe aise hi meet nahi kar sakthi..
S - tumhare chehre se tho nahi lagtha..baat kya hai?
N - Guess who I met yesterday?
S - Gunjan? he asked slowly...
Her face clouded with worry, ofcourse, how could she have forgotten that part, meeting Mayank had really stopped her brain from working.
N - nahi...uska bhai..
Samrat's mood lightened up again,
S - ahaa tho ex-lover ko milne ki kushi mein hai ye treat.. he smirked.
N - ex?? No way, he is my past present and future Samrat aur ye tum nahi samjoge..
S - oh hello. mein Samrat hoon, koi KKHH ka Rahul nahi..tum nahi samjhoge..my foot.
acha, ye sab chodo..bhai saab ne kaha kya?
N - bhai saab??? she raised her eyebrows
S - Gunjan ka bhai hai...he said winking
Again she felt concern seeping in for her friend, how would he take the truth..
N - Ummm Samrat, waise I met Gunjan's Son yesterday..
He looked up in shock, she saw the look of immense sadness on his face. She felt guilty for being the bearer of bad news. She wanted him to move on though. She knew it was high time he faced the truth.
S - Naam kya hai uske bete ka..? he asked in a shaky voice..
N - Purab...Samrat tum..teek ho?
Samrat gave a small laugh but his eyes still showed pain..
S - use yaad tha..
N - kya? Nupur looked at him confused.
S - oh forget that Nupur..did u meet her? woh kaisi hai? I hope woh kush hai
Nupur looked at him, she couldnt understand Samrat's love for Gunjan, He seemed to love her deeply yet he had made no effort to let Gunjan know that he loved her.
N - Gunjan nahi thi..bass...Mayank tha..
S - tum Isha ke school mein mili thi Mayank ko?
She nodded her head indicating a yes.
S - iska matlab, Mayank samajtha hai ISha tumhari beti hai..haina??
Nupur looked at him, haan she agreed silently.
S - Nupur tum aisa kyun kar rahi ho..?
N - Isha meri beti hai Samrat, meine use janam nahi diya phir bhi woh meri beti hi hai..
She said defiantly. Samrat softened at her fiery declaration..
S - tum ab bhi bohot filmy ho, patha hai? He made an attempt to act normal.
N - oh yeah, Mayank bhi hamesha yehi kehtha tha.. :) Ab tho mein bilkul filmy nahi rahi
She added that last part as an after thought. So much had changed in her life.. She looked at Samrat who seemed to be lost in thoughts..
why dont u ever move on Samrat..?
He looked at her and replied simply..
S - Because I cant Nupur... I cant ..it may seem silly and stupid but I really cant get over her..Aur I dont expect anybody else to understand except you..aur tum mujhe pooch rahi ho...Tum bhi tho intezaar kar rahi ho Nupur..tumhe bhi tho nahi patah..woh tumse pyaar kartha hai ki nahi..
N - nahi Samrat, Mein jaanthi hoon woh mujse pyaar kartha hai..
S - haan..mere nazeeb mein woh bhi nahi..He replied with the air of a man who had lost his whole world.
Nupur was concerned for him, he had been the same since the day he knew of Gunjan's impending marriage. He seemed to have lost the will to live his life to the fullest. He had left behind everything and finally on Nupur's (who was the only one in touch with him) insistence took up a job in a small time firm. He was doing very well now owing to his concentrating all his energies on the job.
+
Why did it affect him so much? He had let go of Gunjan years back. He knew about her marriage being fixed and he had made no effort to find out more, so its not like he expected her to wait for him.
Infact he never told her he loved her, never ever..he felt she knew about his love and he always thought she had a soft corner for him, but they had never confessed anything. They had been friends. Nothing more nothing less. Yet it hurt him to know Gunjan was married.
+
Nupur went back to her work, it was strange she thought, was she doing the same thing to Mayank as Samrat had done to Gunjan? Never let the other person know how much they cared? Surely, Mayank knows she loved him. He also thinks you have a daughter Nupur, her mind chidded her. She felt confused. For the first time in many years she was not sure if she had taken the right decision after all.
+
First year at college seemed to fly by, In the first set of exams Mayank had come in first and Nupur was second. This created an unexpected hurdle in their lives. When Deodhar sir had announced the projects, Mayank and Nupur were proposed partners but he felt that their team was very strong so he ended up having Mayank team up with CJ while Benji had been teamed up with Nupur. Though, initially CJ had resented her partner, she soon began to realise that Mayank Sharma was basically a nice guy, who had some feelings for Nupur Bhushan (though she dint know the extent of his feelings), was a sadu and mostly akdu yet..she couldn't ignore the inherent niceness of the guy. She had liked Nupur almost instantly, she always found Nupur teasing Mayank very cute. They did know each other earlier, they had vaguely mentioned, but had refused to go into the details. She found it very funny when suddenly Mayank turned tables on Nupur and Nupur would end up blushing like a bride. That always amused CJ, Nupur, the spitfire, had her match in Mayank, the cool dude.
Nupur had participated in all the extra curricular activities while Mayank had stuck to his studies. This resulted in Nupur making friends with the seniors including Adhiraj and RV much to Mayank's irritation. Adhiraj & RV were given the duty of organising the college culturals by the Principal in the hope that with them organising the event, they would not create issues nor would they let others create issues. Adhiraj and RV chose 2 juniors for help and those 2 turned out to be Nupur and Dia respectively. Now Dia couldn't stand the sight of Nupur for obvious reasons, but she couldn't stand his royal highness RV or Adhiraj either. So basically Nupur ended up doing all the work. One fine day that RV had wasted in trying to get Dia to go out for a date with him and Adhiraj simply wasted it on other girls, while she worked endlessly, she decided enough was enough, she would take the bull by its horns and get the two wastrels to work, only they needn't know about it.
She was doing some last minute calculations on the funds allocation when she realised that it was already quite late in the night, she panicked as she realised, she had missed her last bus home. She heard footsteps and wondered who it could be. Then he appeared, like a dream, Mayank was standing right there in front of her. Her heart rushed to him and hugged him, while she maintained a cool stance. They had had an argument about her apparent friendship with the seniors and Mayank had been quite insanely angry with her and she was not ready to admit to him that she had loved his anger and that she felt thrilled that somebody cared for her so much. No, she wouldn't let him know that she was not upset with him, not one bit. tumhara kaam khatam ho gaya ho tho chale? he asked his voice dripping with sarcasm and emphasising on the *kaam*. She had no idea why, but she felt herself going crazy about the way he said it. Nupur Bhushan get a hold on yourself, you really are acting like a love sick puppy given a hug. Her heart was dangerously out of control and she feared she might end up doing something rather embarrassing like she did on the very first day of college. She looked down at her notebook in an effort to avoid him noticing the blush that had crept onto her face. Chale? he asked a little impatiently to which Nupur quickly replied with a chalo and quickly picked up her bag and books.
They walked silently..he went towards the bike parking, since he was already in his angry young man mood, she kept quiet though she wondered where he had got a bike from. He started the bike and she hesitated a bit, unsure as to how to climb onto the bike. kya hua? bait rahi ho ki nahi.. Angry young man was in no mood for sweet talks, she realised. She quickly sat down one sided and held on to his shoulder. The minute she held him, she felt just a little conscious, but she also felt a little happiness that had nothing to do with going home and everything to do with the means of transport. After a while, she was unable to keep quiet any longer, ye bike kiska hai... Though he had heard it, he pretended not to have heard the question, his anger had melted quite a bit at her touch and he dint want it go turn into mush which it invariably turned into once she started talking in her cute manner. Little did he know it would've been better for him had he replied immediately as she came very close to his ears and repeated the question. He felt a lurch in his stomach, he stopped the bike. He turned around angrily accident karvane ka irada hai kya?? . She was shocked and felt tears filling her eyes at the unexpected and unfounded accusation. The minute he saw tears in her eyes, he felt guilty, he felt terrible about his behaviour, ofcourse it was not her fault that he felt his heart flutter when she was close to his ears. She quickly blinked back her tears and apologized. He felt much worse, he wanted to undo what he had done but had no idea how. So, he quickly made up a back-up plan to make up for what he had done. He wanted to reach his hand out hold her face in her palm and tell her that everything was alright but then he was not sure if that was the best thing to do, so he settled for what he thought was the best thing. Icecream. He drove along silently for a while, Nupur hadnt noticed that he had taken a deviation, he stopped his bike near an icecream cart on the side of the road, got down and bought 2 icecreams and handed one to her. She took the icecream and smiled at him. Somehow the smile made him feel guiltier. She had however started attacking her icecream with a vengeance and he couldnt help but be mesmerised by her endearing innocence as she ate her icecream like a 5 year old. He couldn't help but wonder if he had watched her as much as a 5 year old. She had ice cream all around her mouth and nothing to wipe it with, he gallantly offered to wipe it for her and took out his hand kerchief. As he wiped off the icecream his fingers accidently brushed her lips. She pushed his hand away blushing profusely while he dint know how to look away from her face as she looked more gorgeous by the minute with her blush getting deeper. It was a car passing by that brought them back to reality and they quickly got back to the bike. As he drove on, he kept staring at her in the mirror, while she tried to concentrate on the scenary they were passing by.
When they reached her house, she immediately jumped out of the bike, much to his irritation. tum aise bekhuda harkat kyun karthi rehthi ho? sambhal ke utar nahi sakthi kya? The Angry young man was back. phirse icecream khilane ka irada hai tho, kal kaungi, aaj nahi.. she replied cheerfully touched his cheek and ran to her house, she turned around one final time to wave at him. She couldn't avoid the smile that crept onto her face when she saw him looking at her while touching his cheeks
Divya :)
PS- Pls press "LIKE" tab if u like the update. Do leave in ur valuable comments:)
comment:
p_commentcount