Manyata looked at her sleeping husband beside her and felt a sense of longing; just like the one's she used to feel 10 years back. But it was only for a moment, it ebbed like the receding waves of the sea she could see from the window.
She was Manyata Udayveer Singh, a socialite, wife of a very successful business man. She had two beautiful kids. Theirs was a sea view apartment. They lived in a posh four bed room house furnished with all the amenities. Her husband took them out to five star restaurants for dinner/ parties every fortnight. She was secretly envied by her high society friends for being so lucky. She had received everything in life in a platter.
But'but there was something missing. She was noticing that she was beginning to lose interest in everything she used to do with so much enthusiasm before. Take cooking for instance. In the initial days of their marriage, simple task of cooking lunch would be so fun. Uday would help her in the kitchen by cutting veggies or taking out milk from the fridge; in the meanwhile there would be a stolen kiss or two.
But all that seemed zillions of years ago. After the arrival of kids she and Uday had drifted apart. Not that their love had lessened or anything. They still loved each other and on every anniversary Uday gifted her solitaire or something similar. But the simple joy of being with each other had been lost. There was no communication between them except the obvious general ones. It was like after becoming parents, they forgot to be husband and wife.
Not that Manyata hadn't tried to re-invent the lost magic, she had. She had taken the advice of an agony aunt in a monthly magazine. The lady told her to make arrangements for a week long getaway to some faraway place, where there would be just two of them. But the day she had booked the tickets to Matheran, a hill station near Mumbai, same day Udayveer came home announcing that he would be leaving for Australia on a 15 day business trip.
Not to accept defeat so faster, she had once more taken the advice of the agony aunt and had booked a spa appointment for two of them. But the day they were supposed to go to the spa, her younger kid came down with a fever and Manyata couldn't leave his side.
Presently it was afternoon 2 PM and Uday had left for his office in the morning itself. Manyata had finally had enough and decided it's time to seek her true place under the sun. She was going to leave the house and move to somewhere new. She hadn't decided what she would do or where she would go. But she wouldn't be in this house anymore and suffer in silence. Not a day longer. She didn't know if she would ever return or not. But she wasn't going to leave without trace. Her husband at least deserved to know why she left. Accordingly she started penning him a letter. Tears welled up in her eyes seeing the letter pad. There was a time when despite being in the same house, they used to write love letters to each other. They used to read each other's letters aloud and it was so sweet. But now she couldn't understand where those carefree days went'
She started her letter with a casual greeting.
"My dear husband,
By the time you read this letter, I'd have already left home. I'm going on a long trip away from home .don't search for me. I don't know when I will return or if I'll ever return. And I still haven't decided which place I would go. You have been the best husband for 10 years of marriage. Big thank you for that. My apologies to you for leaving like this. Take care of the kids.
Your wife
Manyata"
Their earlier letters always ended with 'with love from your jaanu' or 'for my lovely darling'. But this time Manyata just chose 'your wife'.
She had packed her suitcase with some essentials and only little money. She noticed that the weather outside was totally volatile today. It was pouring hard. Harder than she had ever seen. She peaked at the main road below and found many vehicles stranded in the traffic bottle neck caused by heavy rain. It looked like the world was going to drown and disappear in the downpour. She decided she could wait to leave the house till the rains subsided.
Manyata decided she would spend some time with the TV than sitting idle. She was randomly flipping on the channels when the news flash caught her attention. The reporter was saying "due to heavy rain, there have been many casualty's in the city. Many citizens are reported missing. There have been some deaths due to drowning. All kinds of public transport have been stopped'-"
The electricity abruptly went out engulfing her in total darkness. One particular sentence was ringing in her ears. 'THERE HAVE BEEN DEATHS''.
Thankfully children were safely away on a summer vacation in Jaipur, her parents place. But same couldn't be said about...
Her cell vibrated in her hands, shaking her out of her thoughts. She answered it and said "hello" hoping somewhere that it could be the person she was thinking about just a second ago.
But unfortunately it was someone else. The caller seemed too impatient "Hello Manyata ji, main Uday sir ke office se bol raha hoon, Uday sir ka phone nahi laga isliye aap ko phone kiya, woh ghar aaye kya?"
"Nahi" she said holding her breath.
"woh site visit ke liye client ke saath bahar gaye the, bohot der ho gayi unko gaye..office aaye nahi toh maine socha shayad ghar chale gaye honge-"
She didn't hear the end of it. The phone fell out of her hands. She fell on the sofa like life had been sucked out of her body. She was almost ready to leave him and go away and Mother Nature had played such cruel trick on her. Her husband was out in the deluge somewhere; and here she had accused him of neglecting her.
She retrieved her mobile from where it had fallen and dialed Uday's number through trembling hands, though she knew she wouldn't get through. The cold mechanical voice at the other end told her 'The number is currently not reachable'.
Her heart was pounding louder than the thunder outside. Ugly doubts raised their head in her mind. She brushed them off and tried to be brave. "For all you know, he might be staying at a friend's place'may he couldn't call you because of bad network" her mind told her.
She dialed his friend's number's one by one holding tightly her fragile hope. All she got was 'No's.
there was only one way left now, go out on foot and find him herself; even if that seemed impossible. She called the office again and found out the name of the place he is said to have gone to. It was a place in city outskirts, a godforsaken place where there was no mobile network, no proper roads. Literally in the middle of nowhere.
She reached the ground floor towards the car park and saw her car submerged in the water. It seemed the rain would never stop.
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On the other hand Udayveer was safe but drenched to the bone and shaken by what he had just witnessed. His client who was just seconds ago talking to him, had been swallowed up by the giant open man-hole in the middle of the road. Uday tried to save him but the force of water was too fast. The poor guy screamed loudly and disappeared down the hole. It seemed rain gods were determined to submerge the whole city today.
Uday roamed around aimlessly with different kinds of thoughts bouncing in his head. The person who just died was a person with a family and life and dreams, parents, wife, children'.somewhere someone would be waiting for him. Life could be so unpredictable. It could be calm breeze this moment and turn into fierce storm next second. Every second of life was precious and invaluable. Thinking about family made him remember his own wife and children back home.
Manyata had seemed so forlorn this morning when he was getting ready for office. Looked like she had something to tell him. But he simply had no time to sit patiently and listen. Now it looked like there was no guarantee that he would ever see her again. He felt guilty of about what he had done and not done. Damn! If only life could give him one more chance he would correct everything. He would not remain so busy; he remembered the saying he had heard somewhere 'it's the smallest things in life, which cause the biggest impact'
When was the last time he had laughed whole heartedly? He couldn't remember.
He failed to see the huge boulder in his path and collided with it. The impact of it had him fall flat on his face on the side walk. Before he lost consciousness he felt the pelting rain drops on his face. Manyata's innocent face loomed behind his eyes. If only'..
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Manyata came out of the building with an umbrella in her hand. There were very few vehicles on the road. She tried to flag down a taxi or an auto, but none would stop. What would she do now! Her umbrella flew out of her hands soaking her. tears mingled with rain drops on her face. Couldn't there be 10% chance that her Halkat veda would be alive? A nickname she had not uttered since a life time. Now it brought her more pain. She remembered their grand wedding. Remembered that she had taken a oath she would die 'suhagan'(a woman whose husband is alive). why me god? She screamed. "God please return him to me once and I promise I wouldn't ever ask anything else. Just once" she whispered.
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2 days later
"Dada aap ko hosh aagaya dada! Doctor dada ko hosh aagaya, unhone apni aankhe kholi!!" a voice that sounded just like his choti, Unnati was saying.
'Where am i?' thought Uday. He opened his eyes fully and saw that he was propped up in a hospital bed. a needle had been poked in the back of his palm. Why was he here? After 30 seconds everything became clear. Probably someone had brought him to the hospital from where he had fallen unconscious. All of the family members stood there except Komal and Manyata. Even his children stood there with fear and confusion on their little faces. Where was Manyata? Does that mean she doesn't care about him anymore? His heart sank.
Unnati noticed his wayward eyes and said "Dada, bhabhi ko dhoond rahe hai aap?, woh theek hai unhe kuch nahi hua..bas.."
"Bas kya Unnati? Jawab do! Is she ok?" Uday was getting restless now.
"dada unhe sach me kuch nahi hua, bas unhone 2 din se kuch khaya nahi isliye unki tabiyat bigad gayi aur unhe admit karna pada'but she's fine now" Before Unnati could complete her sentence Uday was out of the bed, running to find Manyata.
Finally he found her. she was asleep, may be due to sedatives. Komal was sitting nearby. Uday took her frail hands in his. "Manyata, apni aankhen kholo'dekho main aagaya'kuch nahi hua mujhe'im perfectly fine'par tumne apni kya halat karli? Tum ek baar aankhe kholo'please'main tumse vaada karta hoon ki main aaj se tumhe aur bachchon ko zyada se zyada waqt doonga'ghar ke kaamon me tumhara haath bataoonga-" Uday's tirade was broken by Manyata's hand on his mouth.
"Halkat veda yeda'aur kitna jhoot bologe? Koi pyar-vyar nahi karte tum mujhse'varna aise do din behosh kyon pade hue the jab meri jaan atki hui thi tum par? Bolo?" Manyata said in a weak voice.
She sat up and he hugged her out of relief. She gladly hugged him back without worrying about her mother's presence in the room.
They were still in each other's arms when the kids rushed in shouting "Mummy, mummy!!" They saw what their parents were doing and giggled. Manyata went red in the face and Uday didn't know where to look.
Then Manyata called her kids near her and sat them on the bed. She looked at all of them and spoke in a confident voice " main tum sabse vaada karti hoon ki main zindagi ko aaj se alag nazariye se dekhoongi'koi bhi kadam uthane se pehle 10 baar sochungi, main tum sabse bohot pyar karti hoon'bhagwan na kare agar is hadse me tum me se kisi ko kuch ho jaata toh-" Manyata's throat closed with emotions.
The two children and Udayveer all hugged her at once almost choking her. But she didn't mind. The last 3 days had been a blessing in disguise. The rains, the flood might have wrecked havoc in the whole city, but she didn't care. She had got her much loved hubby back and she didn't need anything else. This was all real and she really was in her loved one's midst. She thanked god once in her mind for the storm and got back into the family hug.
ok peeps..it was raining in my place yesterday and i was reminded of the devastating rains that lashed Mumbai few years back... so in memory of that i wrote this new OS...hope you like it 😛
toh batayiye kaisa laga aapko? 😆
(P.S: silent readers please try to comment and 'like'...kuch nahi hoga guys..believe me i too was a silent reader once😊)
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