The extended visiting hours of the asylum have been crossed. The warden cries silent tears as she reflects upon the love story she has just heard. Paagal Onu is fast asleep. There is a deathly silence-even the rain has stopped. Taani walks down the corridor as the inmates hoot and screech, and as she looks for a moment into their eyes full of madness, she wonders what they were before they reached there. They must have been ordinary people with ordinary lives. And an extraordinary love story, for love was unique. Sometimes she wondered whether Onu's love for her was also a kind of madness.
She remembered Onu wearing black that day. She remembered his loving eyes as he stared down into hers and kissed the top of her forehead, like that spot had just been made for his lips. And how he held her arm gently, and yet pressed it, as if inhibiting some hidden passion. And then for a moment, they waltzed to the tune of their heartbeats, and he swung her around and she laughed. And then suddenly she stopped in the middle of her walk, for standing in front of her was Onu, wearing black.
As if comandeered by unknown strings, she walked forward, her heart as empty as ever, and yet she swelled up with emotion. He held his hand out forward.
Tose naina laage..piya saawre....
He had that same mischievious twinkle in his eye. He grasped her hand and then swung her around the same way he had that day. There was nothing around him, just darkness, and yet there seemed to be some sort of imaginary spotlight shining down on them.
Tose naina laage..piya saawre...
He then pulled her close..so that she was looking directly into his eyes, and indirectly into the depths of his heart, and the love he had for her. And then with his arm around her waist, he kissed her on the top of her forehead again, and she twitched, as her hallucination disappeared...
Hmm..whimpered a noise from behind....
She turned around and saw Paagal Onu looking at her and suddenly her now-filled heart became empty again, but the emotion did not go..He was sadly holding out a box of mithaai and there was one mithaai left. He seemed to be saying 'How can you leave me?'
And just as she was about to step forward..the gates of the asylum closed behind her...as if barring her away from him forever.....
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