Mess - A Samrat-Pakhi SS [Part 8 - Page 18] - Page 2

This content was originally posted by: AnjuRish

💯 I agree ..I would want to see a redemption graph for pp too 

Every one deserves a chance at happiness

I agree!

Thanks for giving this a read and sticking by!

Totally Loved this part!! Can't wait for the next.

Fantastic update 

Finally pakhi realize that the mess she is in was created by herself 

Will you bring samrat back???

Please update soon 

This content was originally posted by: Andy3456

Totally Loved this part!! Can't wait for the next.

Thanks  for dropping by and giving this a read.

This content was originally posted by: Gurveen

Fantastic update 

Finally pakhi realize that the mess she is in was created by herself 

Will you bring samrat back???

Please update soon 

You’ll have to wait and see about Samrat. Thanks for stopping by!

This content was originally posted by: Allyson

I hope they sort her out in the show. Her role has been reduced to taunting, scheming, and crying and its hard to watch.

Thanks for giving this a read and sticking by. 

True that.... She could have done soo much and soo differently.... Quite a shame that a character is kinda wasted.... Her absence also did not make any difference to the plot....

This content was originally posted by: MSgayatri

True that.... She could have done soo much and soo differently.... Quite a shame that a character is kinda wasted.... Her absence also did not make any difference to the plot....

That is generally my issue with Hindi soaps. Everyone is always so one dimensional. The mean leads have to be good and everyone else has to be evil to juxtapose them.  

Hi everyone!

Thanks to those who read and commented on the first part. I've been a fiction writer for years now and I'll be honest (without trying to sound too immodest), I'm used to getting a pretty enthusiastic response to my wiring. I knew writing something Pakhi centred that isn't pure parody and bashing was a risk, but this story was just simmering inside of me and needed to be put out there. I was pleasantly surprised with the response I got. Though there isn't very many of you, I appreciate every single one of you who are along for the journey. 

Part 2

A loud knock at the door brought her out of her thoughts. This evening she had been laying on her bed and watching the ceiling fan slowly spin, her mind drifting far far away. 

Pakhi thought to ignore the knock, but she heard it again, louder this time. “Pakhi Didi,” a voice called to her. 

Sai, she huffed, can’t you let me be miserable in peace?

“Leave me alone Sai.”

Another knock. “No, Pakhi Didi. Dinner is ready. You also didn’t have lunch today.” Sai’s tone was determined as she called out to her. 

Pakhi sighed. “I’m not hungry. Go away.” She knew she was being rude but she couldn’t bring herself to care. 

This time she heard a different knock, and a tone and timbre that awoke all her senses. “Pakhi, please open the door. Are you okay? Are you sick? Why aren’t you eating?” Virat sounded concerned as he made these demands at her door. 

Pakhi felt tears prick her eyes as she heard his concerned tone. Oh sweet Virat. I can’t take this torture anymore. 

She cursed herself for sitting up, but she did just that. She had to constantly remind herself that she was not one of Virat’s officers and she was not at his beck and call. Pakhi looked down at her phone and was suddenly reminded where her mind had been minutes ago. She had typed a text message to Samrat. 

She had been debating this for days. There were many guilts she felt about Samrat, and they seemed to be eating her hollow. Pakhi thought of him constantly. She mulled over his cryptic last words to her daily. She incessantly skimmed through pictures of their wedding, only to see his happiness and her misery. On some days she hated herself for putting him, an innocent man, though the same heartache that she was now experiencing. If Samrat knew of the relationship she and Virat shared, well she could imagine the pain he must have felt, just as she feels now, watching Virat and Sai together. Maybe this was her bad karma that led her here? She needed to get these things off her chest and out of her mind or she would go crazy. 

Pakhi had thought to write in a journal, or to maybe write him letters, but these things seemed so…. intimate. Who was she to write him a letter? Who was she to start a journal about him? She then thought of text messages. Samrat was MIA. Who knew where his phone was? Whether it even existed? It was meant to be switched off for missions and assignments. Messages sent to a turned off phone deleted themselves within 15 days anyway. It was a crazy idea, but it was the best option that she had. 

So Pakhi composed a message, a simple message. I wish we had a chance to talk before you had to leave. 

She agonized over it all day, debating the drawbacks of sending the message. What if he does read these? What would he think? What if someone had his phone? Would this get him into any sort of trouble? Pakhi had to remind herself that she was Samrat’s wife, and Samrat was MIA. 

Another knock at the door brought her out of her musings once more.

This was crazy. She was crazy. Was she actually thinking texting her missing, potentially….. deceased husband’s phone? And for what? To absolve herself of her guilt? This was crazy! OR was it brilliant? If she didn’t do something, she felt that her head would implode, these thoughts of Samrat would gnaw at her insides until there was nothing left of her. 

Pakhi kneaded at her temples as the incessant knocking at the door increased. What could go wrong? What would happen? Absolutely nothing! She had seen Aai call Samrat’s phone in moments of desperation. It always resulted in her hearing the tone that indicated a phone was switched off. If he had access to his phone, he would certainly have called his Mother back. 

Pakhi took one deep breath, and hit ‘SEND’.

There, the deed was done. 

--

It seemed that her agonizing was not over. In the hours and days after she sent the text message, she debated endlessly over deleting or rescinding it. A constant thought came into her mind; who are you to him?

“Patralekha beta,” she was brought out of her thoughts with Badi Mami’s voice, “where is your focus? Drink your tea before it gets cold.” Pakhi looked down at her hands that were indeed holding a cup and saucer. Her tea had certainly cooled, but the thought of consuming anything seemed to turn her stomach. She put the cup on the coffee table in front of her. “I don’t really feel like tea.”

She looked up at hearing a huff and met the eyes of a clearly offended Karishma. “It looks like Patralekha bahbhi got distracted by something… or someone?” The younger girl taunted and indicated across the room where Virat was pacing and speaking softly on the phone. From his irritated tone Pakhi could tell he was likely speaking to Sai. The only one who evokes any emotion in him, apparently.

Pakhi stared at Karishma, facing a dilemma. She could easily put Karishma in her place and wipe that smug smile off her face. She could insult her tea, she could scold her to watch her tongue, she could confront and embarrass her by asking her to clarify her implication. But all this seemed so tiresome. Why? Why engage in unnecessary conflict? She felt Badi Mami, as well as the whole family’s eyes on her, waiting for her usual sugary sharp responses. What would be the point of putting Karishma in her place? There could be a time in the future when these very elders would no longer be with them and it could be just she and Karishma. Did she really want lifelong animosity? 

No, she didn’t. So instead of a retort, Pakhi nodded her head and agreed, “You’re right Karishma. I’ve been thinking about Smarat.” 

All the elders stared at her, surprised. Pakhi realized that it was a rarity for her to mention her MIA husband. She shifted in discomfort, her cheeks colouring. A wide smile came onto Badi Mami’s face. “You do him proud by always keeping your head up Patralekha. This is how he would want it.” The other elders smiled proudly at her as well. “What have you been thinking about?”

Pakhi was, if anything, excellent at thinking on her feet. “Well, Aai has been very sad without him and I’ve been thinking that I want to lift her spirits.” She was met with more proud smiles. In that moment Pakhi understood that her sugary words, though untrue (not that she didn’t want to cheer up Aai, but that Aai is certainly not the reason she has been so distracted), were easily lapped up by these people, but Karishma and Sai, who often spoke bitter truth, were outcasts. They couldn’t be this simpleminded and naive, could they? “Do you all have any thoughts?” She enquired to the elders. 

There was some discussion amongst the family members on ways they could bring a smile to their sister’s face. Finally it was Ashvini Mami with the winning idea, “Mansi Tai used to go to Tirupati every year with Samrat, remember? It used to make her so happy. She hasn’t been able to go in some years.”

“Why hasn’t she been able to go?” Pakhi enquired curiously.

Badi Mami looked sad as she explained, “Samrat joined the Army and had to go to his station, and she didn’t want to go without him. Patralekha beta, it would make your mother-in-law very happy to go there, and only you can convince her to accompany you.”

What have I gotten myself into? I should have just put Karishma in her place. Pakhi huffed.

She met eyes with Virat who now sat on the opposite couch. He looked pained at the conversation and while one part of her rejoiced to see that he was still affected by her and disliked her attention elsewhere, another part of her felt a twinge of pain too. 

What a mess you have made Pakhi.

“I’ll go talk to Aai,” she announced to the room, and excused herself.

--

Unsurprisingly, Aai took little convincing for the journey. Aai seemed to equate Pakhi with Samrat. If she didn’t have Samrat to go with, Pakhi would do just fine. She worried that Aai had decided that MIA meant deceased, and was losing hope of Samrat returning. Part of Pakhi wanted to keep the hope alive, and another part of Pakhi didn’t know how to feel about the idea of him returning home. 

Sometimes their last moments played like reel on loop in her mind. There had been something in his expression, something in his eyes, something in his tone. Pakhi had concluded that his words had not been meaningless. Samrat knew something. But whether he had simply taken a shot in the dark, or had actually seen or heard something was hard to determine. 

Pakhi stared down at the phone in her hand and debated texting Samrat again. 

She was supposed to be packing for her trip to Tirupati, but once again she couldn’t get Samrat out of her mind. After all, this trip was a pilgrimage to pray for his safety and his return. 

I did not mean to hurt you. I am a victim of circumstance, and you are too. She had the message typed out, but something about It didn’t sit right with her. Was she just a victim of circumstance? Or was it her own stubbornness? Pakhi felt her insides turn in pain, in heartbreak, as tears pricked her eyes once more. 

She took a breath to compose herself. Screw it. She hit SEND. 

--

Aai came into her room and found her putting putting clothes into a carry-on bag. Their train left in the morning on the following day. 

“Patralekha, you can pack more comfortable travelling clothes if you like beta,” Aai commented lightly, peeking into her bag. Pakhi looked down at the saree she had been packing absentmindedly. 

Surprised, she asked, “Are you okay with jeans, Aai?”

Aai simply shrugged her shoulders. “Wear whatever you like beta.” Pakhi smiled, genuinely smiled, and started to remove the sarees from her bag. “Once I am done, I’ll come and help you pack too Aai.”

Her comment was waved away. “I’m already packed thanks to Ashvini and Sai. I had a favour to ask of you.”

Pakhi trampled down the sting of jealously she felt when Sai’s name was uttered. Why couldn’t she just stick to charming her own mother-in-law, and leave mine alone? Instead she responded, “Anything Aai.”

“Beta, before Samrat left, he mentioned that he gave you some signed cheques. I was hoping we could pull some money out of your account for the trip. We are going for Samrat’s sake, and I don’t feel right asking Ninad and Omi to cover our expenses.” Aai looked embarrassed as she laid out her request. 

For a moment, Pakhi was lost for words. Until now, no talk of money, or even of Aai’s place in the household, or her dependance on her brothers had come up. Pakhi suddenly felt ashamed. Samrat had left his Aai in her care. It was her responsibility to see to Aai’s needs in his absence. It was the only thing asked of her before he left. 

Pakhi felt her cheeks colour and she took Aai’s hands in her own. “Whatever belongs to Samrat also belongs to you Aai. You need not ask for a favour to use his account. Actually, I’ll just give you his chequebook and you can use it when you need.” She turned to towards the open closet, but Aai kept a firm hold on her hands and pulled her back. “No, Patralekha,” she insisted, “what is Samrat’s is yours. He left everything in your good hands and I support that choice.”

Pakhi felt the sting of tears in her eyes. Sometimes Aai’s trust in her felt suffocating. She was going to break this sweet woman’s heart one day. 

“What’s Samrat’s is yours because Samrat is yours.” Pakhi gulped and added, “I am too.”

She saw tears well up in Aai’s eyes and hugged her quickly. 

--

Pakhi sat at the foot of the bed hugging her knees, feeling absolutely miserable. She should have been sleeping and resting up for her journey tomorrow, but no sleep would come to her tonight. 

She couldn’t get Aai and the last few months out of her mind. Ever since she had entered this home she had been so consumed Virat and Sai, that she had let Aai go by the wayside. Samrat was her husband. He was away fighting for the nation, or injured or… deceased… in service to the nation, and he had put a responsibility on her shoulders. She had shucked that responsibility the moment he walked out of the home. 

Pakhi felt her insides curl in disgust. How had she never thought about Aai’s needs and necessities? How had she spent all this time with her in the last few weeks, and never thought to ask about finances, about responsibilities? 

This could not continue. She had to do better. Aai was her responsibility.

Pakhi’s eyes fell on her phone sitting innocently beside her. Another message can’t hurt, right?

This time she spent less time agonizing about what to write to Samrat. You left Aai in my care. I need you to know that she is in good hands.

Texting him was getting easier. Pakhi hit, ‘SEND’ and went back to being a miserable mite. What a mess.

Thoughts?

-Ally

Glad that she is seeing to Sam mom's comfort 

Why blame pp alone when it was Viru who in the beginning gave her mixed signals and gave that vada.

Pp is probably kind of person who does not like to let things go which she feels is hers . Sometimes good trait sometimes horrible.

But what is wrong totally is her behaviour to said and lesser extent to karishma.

Sai is a teen and who has been through trauma 

Waiting to see what she does 

Does sam want to repair all this

So nice....👏

Loved pakhi...and the way she is dealing everything...❤️