She stared into the mirror, and looked at herself... She looked very beautiful...adorned with jewels from head to toe...her pink and golden lehenga made her look ethereal, like a godly apsaras...and she glowed...when the sunlight from the evening sun tinted on her skin... all the ornaments added to her beauty perfectly in tune with her lehenga...but still something seemed amiss...She seemed beautiful, ethereal...but lost...lost in the sense of life...she looked bland bad beautiful but not lively...positively like a mannequin put up for display. She was staring hard into the mirror...trying so hard to make herself look lively...but she realised she couldn't...and her mouth slipped a smirk at her reflection...and it soon turned into hysterical laughter...and finally ended in a tear slipping from eyes, tracing her face and finally fell with a thud on the carpet...as she closed her eyes in dismissal...over herself, her wishes and her life...and soon the tears multiplied...into an endless river.
"Will it ever end???" she asked to her reflection with a tear stained eye...inquisitively and wiping hers with her hands...and smiled backed with faint hope, expecting an answer...but poor her, what could a mere image do??Comfort her?? It just stood there...imitating whatever she did...as it is expected to do...as it is supposed to do...without a soul. She could no longer bear to look at her mirror and tore her gaze away from it...only to be captured by the setting sun...slowly embracing the horizon...and she stood there transfixed at the eternal beauty...finding both solace and sadness in its arms.
The door to her room clicked open...and her mother came in calling her name.
"Swathi...you're not ready yet???" she asked hurriedly...
"No ayii...I...It's just..." she stuttered...her mother noticed that her voice was shaking...and she had been crying...her eyes betrayed her and showed her mother.
"Are you still thinking about him...??? " She asked concerned worried about her daughter.
"Yes ayii...it seems still I cannot forget him..." she said in the brink of tears...and the moment she did...she broke again...and her heart bled to pieces...and there was no strength in her legs which gave up...and she fell to the chair with a thud...opposite to her mirror...so perfectly reflecting her broken self.
"Beta...It's all in the past...It's no use thinking about it anymore...what was meant to happen...happened. Who is to blame for that??? If it's fated that shlok can't be with you...it's just that way...please forget about it and move on..."her mother slowly caressed her head...and wiped her tears...as she herself was at the brink of crying...seeing her daughter all wounded.
"It's all my fault ayii...If only I had talked to him...If only I had...But I didn't...it's all my fault ayii..." she said bitterly and hit her forehead with her hands and started sobbing.
"No...Beta...it's not your fault...it was no body's fault...please don't blame yourself for it ...it hurts to see you like this..." her mother patted on her shoulder and send with a reassurance. "Acha...you get ready..." she said trying to distract the topic and stood up..." there's lot of work pending downstairs...I have to go now..." she said and went towards the door...but before going out...she glanced at her daughter once again...simply praying for her good life.
"Beta...are you okay with this???" she asked her daughter.
"Yes ayii...am sure..." she said in a submissive manner, something which made her mother flinch.
"Beta... all I ever want for you is to be living your life happy and loved...you don't have to sacrifice yourself for my sake...ayii hoon mein tumhara..." she said in a calm manner...with no emotions, just plainly stating a fact.
"Mein teek hoon..." swati said assuring..."Just give me some time ayii...I have something I need to do..." she said.
"Ok beta...everything will turn out well...you'll see..." she said with a kind smile and close the door behind her.
Swathi breathed a huge sigh and went to her closet...she pulled out a big bow from underneath her clothes and opened it...it contained all the memories of her love for shlok... her shlok. She took the box and settled down in the chair nearby. She picked up shlok's photo from the box and stared at it...she brushed his face with her fingers...trying to feel his warmth..But she found none...and that realisation made her feel terribly sad. She smiled sadly looking at his photo and kept it aside...
She reread all the letters he sent to her...declaring his love for her, undying, eternal and unconditional love...but all of it seemed like a vague memory to her now...so real yet so unreal. She held the letters close to heart and closed her eyes...finally managing to control her tears, making them go dry.
She placed all of them back into the box when she noticed the broken bangle shards...they were the reminders of that fateful day...the day when everything ended...seeing them made her remember everything, as fresh as if it was just yesterday...yet it seemed to have happened a long time.
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Swati had always been a hardy and headstrong woman, and shlok though of the same calibre...was of a modest tone...he always let swati have her own way...whether it be in decisions or choices..and he didn't regret doing it. He was happy as long as she was...but as they always say...happy things never last forever...and so it became true for them too.
Niranjan agnihotri was always a class conscious person beneath the facade of equality...and swati always noticed it. Her suspicions became clear when he showed it to her upfront.
That day, he stashed a case of bag onto her hand and had said " Go away and take this money...just leave my son alone..." swati being the head strong woman she is, had always told shlok about his dad, but shlok had refused to believe it...and just to spite it, she showed shlok the money and told him everything...but he still didn't believe...which made her infuriated ...and eventually they both ended up saying things that they shouldn't have...swati, angry over shlok not trusting her...and shlok...angry over swati disrespecting her baba...in the end with swati leaving him broken, just as he broke her bangles, which he gifted her.
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"you could have listened shlok..." swati said looking at shlok's photo..." I knew why you got angry too...but you should have trusted me shlok...you should have trusted your love..." she said wretchedly.
She really knew why he got angry, it wasn't because of his baba, it had happened many times before...but because she took the money he gave...because she needed it, for her career and her father, who got into an accident just before that day...and shlok knew it...but still refused to acknowledge it.
And the rest became history...and she moved out to Delhi, after trying so hard to apologise to him, only turning to be futile...but still she felt sure and confident...proud that her lover only loved her...and years rolled by, and it was seven whole years before she convinced herself to ask apology for one more time...just one last time, before she gave up for good.
She set foot in Pune, after a long time...only to get the largest shock in her life...to see her lover with another woman...as her would-be, his fiance...which she should have been. She immediately rushed to his house...to ask for her answers...when she found hers, without asking him...by all the gala and jest...from his house...bustling with happiness at the event of his wedding...all she could manage to do was to drop to her knees...and cry her heart out...for all the things she missed...all the things she lost...and for all the things she loved.
And she slowly got back up...dragging herself to see her lover...now about to be another woman's husband...and she finally managed to do so, only to suffer more wounds...to see her shlok smiling at another girl than her...with mirth, quite familiar, yet distinct , a feeling which he never showed to her...and her heart burned with jealousy over the other woman...trying to kill her with her eyes...but only to realise what the woman's eyes conveyed to shlok ...pure love...unconditional and eternal...the same as she had once...towards her lover, and she immediately cowered, feeling ugly at herself for stooping so low...She is just like you swati...she only loves him...why are you feeling jealous of her??? Shlok chose her, not you...she smiled to herself thinking about the irony...and watched the entire wedding from a corner...not noticed by others...feeling bittersweet...and tears sliding down, just like her memories about him...And after he tied mangalsutra in her neck...swati could no longer bear to see it, only blessing them with her utmost goodness...and slipping away...not noticing that her payal fell down from her ankles...or that a pair of eyes noticed the payal that fell down...
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Swati sat down and took a piece of paper...and wrote down a letter addressing to shlok...pouring out all that she had wanted to say, both the truth and her real feelings...and when she did...she folded it neatly, out it in an envelope...and sighed a huge relief...her mind felt clearer than it had ever been before, freed of all burden...and she remover her single payal...and put in the envelope, sealing it...smiled brightly." I hope with all my heart...that one day I'll be able to return it you shlok...to your wife...maybe not today...but someday definitely" she said thinking about shlok's words when he bought her that, saying it is for his wife... " I wish for both us , this will be a happy ending, and a curious beginning...with much to explore till the end...I wish you...won't you wish me??" she said looking at his picture with a smile ...and finally closed the box...and put it in her wardrobe ...saying "Good bye shlok", as she heard her mother call...and closed the door hurriedly behind her...to see her soul mate, her other half...and the beginning to her own love story.
Shlok was holding onto the payal he found at the mandap...and the mere sight of it shocked him...it was hers...the one he loved so much that he hated her...but now, things were not like that...he had learned to forgive, look at things differently...that not to judge a book by its cover...and his astha had taught him that...he looked hard and long on to the payal, making himself remember her once more.
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She was definitely there...I know she was there...why didn't she show herself...I wanted to see her just one more time...one last time...he thought with longing, holding the payal close to his heart...not noticing that his wife was approaching him...so very happy and literally jumping with joy to tell him something...when she noticed his action.
"what are you doing shlok???" astha asked curiously...
"Nothing much..." shlok mumbled and shoved the payal in his pocket.
"I know it's something...wait a minute..." she said in a funny tone and pulled a thing out from his pocket, only to realise that it was swati's payal. She flinched at the sight of it, but still managed to smile despite it all.
" Do you still wish to see her??" she asked to him.
"Yes...I do..." He said meekly.
Astha felt sad seeing swati till mattered a lot to him and that it bought pain and despair to her love...her life. " Maybe we can find her...shlok??" she asked uncertainly.
Shlok noticed astha was feeling sad...after all he had her innocent soul just to spite swati...and he doesn't want to do that to her anymore..."No...not anymore astha..." he said hugging her...and placed his face on her stomach...encircling her with his arms..." I only need you...only you...I love only you...not swati or anyone else..." he said hugging her even more tightly.
Astha felt happy hearing shlok's words...and she ruffled his hair while a feeling of content filled her heart, and she was feeling incandescent...when she remembered what she had wanted to say...
"promise???" she asked playfully.
"Pucca..." he replied with a smile.
"ON our baby???" he asked probing him more...
"Yes on our baby...what...??? Our baby???" he asked incredulously...looking up on astha .
"Yes..." she said with a shy smile.
"What...are you serious??" he asked baffled.
"Do you think I'd kid about these things???" she asked back even more puzzled.
"Oh astha!!!! I love you for a thousand years..." he shouted picking her up happily...
"Only a thousand years??" she asked with a puppy face.
"No...till forever..." he said and kissed her on the head gently...
"We will name the child swati shlok...I know she'll be a girl..." astha said caressing his face...
Shlok's eyes welled up with tears, and he fell in love with his wife once again, completely and hopelessly...wondering at the sheer possibility of her love for him...when they both heard ayii...calling them for dinner.
"shlok...please let me down...we have to eat...and we have to tell everyone..." she pleaded him.
"Oh right..." he said and put her down. "You go astha... I'll come down in a minute..." he said to her.
"Okay...but make it soon...Am waiting..." astha smiled at him and went down stairs.
He took the payal and put it in his drawer, full of swati's memories...he looked at her picture lovingly..."Swati, it's a new start for me...hope you start anew too...all the best..." he wished her and closed the drawer, and went out of the room, closing the door...to begin his own story.
OK guys... I know everyone of you hates swathi... but seriously I thought to make swathi a bit more toned down... hope I managed to do that... As usual...
A big Thanks to each and everyone who read my work...😳
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