MERA
ISHQ DEEWANGI
Prologue
He
saw her running out of the shroud of fog, towards him. She looked almost like a
fairy in her white salwar suit as she extended her hand out to him. Almost..
since he did not think fairies had a single worry in their world. And this
fairy, his fairy, was in distress, her eyebrows bunched in anxiety and eyes
misted over, a single drop of tear clinging rebelliously to the corner of her
left eye, as she reached him.
He
pulled her into the moving bus, just as it started to gain speed and leave the
over-crowded bus stand. They stood next to each other on the lower step,
panting to catch their breath as the voices of the hawkers and the cacophony of
noise from the busy bus stand faded away into the night sky.
He
heard her quiet sobs and lightly squeezed her shoulders. "Sambhalo apne aapko.
Sab kuch teek hojayega" She looked up at him with her wide brown eyes, seeking
assurance. "Promise?" she asked, desperate to hold on to any comfort and he
nodded his head.
He
looked out at the rain lashing against the window in a torrential downpour when
he felt a soft weight on his shoulder. He turned to the side to find her asleep,
her head lolling around at the discomfort of the bus ride on the twisting mountain
roads. He gently caught her head and rested it on his shoulder as she snuggled
in comfortably. He stared at her tear-stained cheeks and lightly brushed away
the strand of hair from her face.
He
opened his eyes when the bus jerked and stopped. He glanced out of the window
to see the rains still pouring down relentlessly and slightly opened the window
to let the racket carry to him through the wind. He peeped out to see a line of
vehicles resting idly in front of the bus he was in and bright lights at a
distance. He was just about to slowly shift her head to the backrest and
enquire about the situation when the conductor of their bus made the
announcement, waking her up in the process. "Baarish ki waja se aage landslide
hua hai. Hume kuch gante yahaan rukna padega jab tak woh log raasta clear nahi
karte" He craned his neck out the window and saw more vehicles piled up behind
them, cutting off any means to go back and reach another town for the night. He
sighed and looked out the window, the winds and the rain mesmerizing him into a
trance.
A
deep rumble broke him out of his stupor and he looked around to find the cause
of it. It wasn't long before they all found the cause, when rocks and boulders
of all sizes came rolling down the hill right next to where their bus was
parked, breaking windows and sending shards of glasses flying around in the
process. The landslide was too sudden to even evoke screams from the passengers
of the bus and for a few seconds there was silence, broken only by the sounds
and reverberations of rolling boulders and the dull thuds echoing from the
impact of the rocks against their bus. And then all hell broke loose.
"Bhaago"
someone yelled. "Ghaadi se utro. Jaldi!" someone else screamed. But even before
a few people could manage to get off the bus through the doors and windows, a
deep earth-shaking rumble sounded and suddenly the hillside seemed to cave down
upon them.
He
drifted into consciousness slowly, his ears ringing and head throbbing
violently. He squinted his eyes as he opened them with difficulty and found
himself staring into her terrified brown eyes. He quickly took stock of their
situation and cursed under his breath. Their bus was hanging down the cliff,
precariously resting against one of the decade-old trees that had managed to
plant itself firmly into the rocky hillside over the years and was now
holding the bus up from a fatal fall into the deep valley. The rain continued
with no let up and he guessed he had been knocked out for a few minutes when
the huge rocks fell on the bus and pushed it beyond
the edge of the cliff. The bus was balanced in a very delicate position,
shaking back and forth but all he could see was her petrified eyes. That was
when he saw that she was swinging in air, out the window, clinging to his
strong arm for dear life. Even when he had been unconscious, he had been
holding on to her hand tightly! Her frightened whimpers were all he could hear now,
over the shrieking women, yelling men and bawling children in the bus. People
were slowly trying to get off the bus and it added to the swaying motion of
the bus, always ready to plunge the rest of them into the depths of death.
He
tried to move his body slightly and shut his eyes tight when the motion caused
a rushing wave of pain to shoot up his right leg and radiate towards his left
arm. He looked down and saw that he was holding on to her with his right hand
but his lower body was crushed between the mangled remains of two seats and his
left arm was twisted at an odd angle, clearly broken. He breathed deeply but coughed
violently when he felt a searing pain in his chest. He closed his eyes again, trying
to forget about his pain and concentrate only on pulling her up.
"Ghabrao
mat. Mere haath pakad kar upar aajao" he whispered hoarsely, even the efforts
to speak causing unbearable agony through his bruised and broken body. "Mujhe
darr lagraha hai" she whimpered in a tiny voice, chancing a glance at the deep
dark abyss beneath her. "Don't!" he ordered, "Don't look down. I won't let you
fall. Look into my eyes and climb up slowly" he spoke in a soothing voice.
She
nodded her head fearfully and inched ahead, stopping almost immediately when her
grip slipped from his arm that was covered by blood flowing down his head by
now. She gasped and shifted her gaze from his reassuring deep black eyes, only
to catch sight of the ghastly cut on the side of his head and blood was gushing
out of it like water from a broken pipeline. She immediately ran a panicked eye
down his body and could imagine the pain he was going through just by the
bruises she could see.
The
terrible sight of his injured body weakened her and when the bus lurched slightly
with people jumping away from it, her grip slipped some more. "No no no!" he
screamed silently, trying to hold on to her hand but somehow her hands seemed
to have lost their fight and slowly slipped down his arm. "No please. Don't!
Hold on to me! Everything will be fine" he pleaded but he could see her eyes
start to close as she slipped into unconsciousness. Her pleading eyes met his
in a final helpless call before they closed completely and she lost the grip
she had on his arm.
He
watched with horrified eyes as she slowly slipped away and his bloodied arm did
not help when he tried to hold on to her. "Koi hume bachao.. Please! Hold on.
Just a few minutes" he tried to call for help but his voice did not rise above
a whisper and was easily drowned in the din of the rescue mission outside the
bus.
As
her unconscious body slowly fell from his grip and into the yawning,
pitch-black valley, all he could do was scream.
"GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET"
***
"GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET"
Maan woke up in a torrent of sweat from the same
nightmare that was plaguing him for the past two years and sat up on his bed.
~Yeti
---
Whew! So that was the prologue. Tell me if you like the story or not and I am always open to constructive criticism π Waiting for your feedback on YET another Maan-Geet story.... π
PS - Dont be too sad or shocked and send chappals my way.... π I may have a surprise for you soon.... And believe me, this story will be DIFFERENT.... π
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Edited by himalayanyeti - 13 years ago
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