Another Saturday, another story! I know I'm a little bit late in posting this time, technically it's Sunday, but this one was really difficult to write. You'll understand when you read it. 😅
Here it goes!
CATCH YOU WHEN YOU FALL
Hanuman Singh was hurting.
He didn't have to tell them, Babita and Minnie knew anyway. They could see it in his tired eyes and forced smile. They could hear it in his footsteps and the strained voice that lied about being okay. They could feel it in the heaviness of the air surrounding him.
Hanuman Singh was hurting, and he thought he couldn't share his pain with anyone.
Minnie was the first to act. It didn't matter to her what the circumstances and causes were, she just saw her beloved Hanuman uncle in pain and reached out to him. She sat down beside him, gently laid her head on his shoulder and took his hand in hers. No words were exchanged, no looks were shared. They didn't need to be. Minnie and Hanuman had always had a connection on a level that ran far deeper than Babita's understanding of it. Nothing was said but comfort was still provided, and gratefully accepted.
Babita cursed the misfortune that, at such a tender age, over and over again, kept making Minnie watch her parents suffer and break down. Because that's who Hanuman Singh was, wasn't he? Minnie's parent. Whatever may be Babita's personal equation with him, the bond they shared didn't depend on it. It was a relationship of its own. Hanuman had been Minnie's father in ways that Ashok Khurana could never be, probably never wanted to be. Ashok had always seen their daughter- No. HER daughter. Ashok had always seen her daughter as the living proof of a relationship he had been forced into. Hanuman Singh had welcomed his Veer Balika in his life with open arms, and before Babita even knew him well, she trusted the man enough to let her daughter rush right into those arms.
Babita walked over to them, stood beside the sofa they were sitting on. Put her hand over his other shoulder reassuringly. Smoothed back his hair as he leaned his head against her arm.
Babita hadn’t meant to love Hanuman Singh. In fact, she had been very adamant to not love him. But over the months, with every gesture, every word, he had chipped away at her walls. Bit by bit, inch by inch. Until one fateful night, when all her walls came crumbling down, when a pair of warm hands on hers made her face what she felt. When an earthen pot struck her with the sudden epiphany that she wanted him. Loved him.
Now, the man she loved, the man who had supported and helped her through countless breakdowns, was hurting. Today, it was upto her, it was her responsibility to let him know that just like he had stood with her and Minnie during the upheavals in their life, during their emotional turbulences, they were going to be there for him during his vulnerable moments, during his difficult times. That just like the times when he had smiled because they were happy, they found happiness in his smile. That they would be there to catch him when he falls. That they would hold his hand as he got up from the fall. That his family had got his back.
...
Destiny seemed to have great plans for him, always sending right people at the right time in Hanuman Singh's life.
When he was a fiery young man with slightly skewed opinions of the world, he was brought face-to-face with an equally feisty Imarti, who had a courage that rocked his whole world, who had a fire that helped him to become the man his father could never be.
Now when years and circumstances had made him wiser and calmer, destiny brought the gentle and quietly doting Babita to his doorstep, who made him want to take care of himself after years of throwing all caution to the wind, who gave him something to come back home to after years of returning to an empty house.
And Minnie. Minnie had been a godsent. She was the daughter he had never gotten the chance to have. But now he had her.
After years of loneliness, Hanuman once again had a family to stand by him when the going got tough.
May be things could be alright, may be things could be better. After all, destiny seemed to have great plans for him.
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