AN: Something different. Enjoy!!!!
RUIN
His hands were clammy with sweat.
And for some reason, his heart refused to stop thundering.
Fateh Singh Virk was nervous.
His eyes kept on flicking at the laptop in front of him showing the mail folders. As each second ticked by, his heart rate would increase.
God, please, he begged as his hands fisted on his thighs and he tried to look around the room only to fail and turn back to the screen. Please let it be a Yes.
For the first time in his life, Fateh had taken an immense leap of faith. He had actually signed up for a training regime that handpicked the best boxers all over the world to train for a Mega Championship. His was one such application amongst thousands of others from India.
And thinking about it, his panic began to grow again.
His family knew nothing about it. Especially his father who had once been invested in his career and his mother. With Amrik, he had stopped interacting a long time ago and Mahi had decided that she had better things to do in her life. She had actually moved out of Punjab to Delhi and was practicing Law. Their father was absolutely proud of her.
His mother was as she always was. Quiet, subdued but bitter with words whenever she opened her mouth. There was a coldness between his parents that was visible now.
A long time ago, things were different. His mother used to laugh and joke with them. His father used to showcase his achievements. Now, his mother spoke only to taunt or yell at his wife. And his father; he had stopped having faith in him for some time now.
Because despite his rising career as a boxer and his actions in shaping the Academy to greater heights; he was still a failure.
And then there was his wife.
A soft breeze gusted in through the open windows and a familiar smell of chocolate and coffee wafted up to him. His spine relaxed and a sliver of warmth seeped in him. A slender hand gently opened his fists and rubbed the marks his nails had left on his palms. As her skin touched him, his entire world shuddered to a halt.
He turned his head and there she sat; right beside him.
“What happened Fateh? Are you doubting yourself again?” she asked, her eyes narrowed playfully at him. “Don’t you know; my Lafandar is not allowed to doubt himself.”
A grin spread on his lips and in the blink of an eye, his worries disappeared. His eyes flit to her forehead marked with the dark red vermillion and a sense of satisfaction curled in him.
“Well Shadaein, what can I do? Apparently, this Lafandar cannot even handle opening a mail without his best half!”
Tejo gave him a fond look. “You are underestimating yourself again, Fateh. You know how hard you have worked for this. It took you a lot of sacrifices to come till here…nights that you could not sleep, days when you had to rest on the bed, unable to move. But finally, you completed your checklist and sat for the test. You did well, remember? The examiners were impressed. You told me that yourself. Were you lying to me Fateh?”
“Of course not,” Fateh looked almost offended. “I never lie to you. I cannot lie to you.”
“Then?” Tejo quirked an eyebrow glossing over his dramatic words. “Why are you wasting your energy being worried without any proper reason? And while we are on that, I have a question. Why aren’t you checking your mail? Open it Fateh.”
Fateh frowned and his body sagged into a slouch. “I don’t know Tejo. I am scared. What if I don’t pass? What if I fail again?”
She gently reached out to cup his cheek and he leaned into her touch. “Fateh –”
“I don’t want to fail this time Tejo,” he mumbled. He took a deep breath and opened them, looking right at her eyes. “I cannot afford to fail again.”
His tone dipped as he spoke, a deeper emotion layering his words. Tejo looked at him softly and her eyes welled up. His lips trembled as he looked at her and a sudden spike of intense longing flared in him. His hand moved of its own volition and gently tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.
“You will not leave me, right?” he asked so softly that it was almost impossible to decipher.
Tejo smiled at him, her eyes open with love and the warmth she felt for him. It filled in him with a renewed zeal and he slowly straightened.
“I will never leave you,” Tejo promised, her eyes solemn. “Now go and open the mail. Go on Fateh Singh Virk, you can do it.”
With trembling fingers, he reached to the laptop and click on the cursor. The mail opened and he closed his eyes, feeling the jitters rise in him. Tejo leaned closer and wrapped her arms around him.
“Read it Fateh,” she blew softly in his ear.
It tickled and the chime of her husky laugh wrangled out a sheepish smile from him.
Eyes wide open, he finally read the mail and his world stopped short.
It was as if everything had stopped moving all of a sudden and the world was tilting on its axis.
The next second he jumped out of the couch and wrapped her into a tight hug.
He had passed.
“Tejo! Tejo! Tejo!” he kept on repeating her name like a prayer as he cupped her face. Her shining eyes beamed back at him as she nodded with a bright grin. “I did it Tejo!”
“Yes Fateh, you did it,” she gushed out happily. “See I told you. You are the best.”
“Only because of you,” he blurted out, his voice thick with emotions. His eyes burned as they welled up and he blinked furiously. “Don’t ever leave me. Understood? I will die Tejo.”
“Shhhhh!” she laid a finger on his lips, her eyes wide and knowing. “How can I leave you Fateh?” she smiled widely, laying a hand on his chest, right above his heart. “I am always with you.”
Happiness bloomed in him and his clouds thinned. The day appeared brighter and the darkness shifted. He detached himself from the embrace and held out a hand.
“So Mrs. Tejo Kaur Virk, may I have this dance?”
Her soft laugh rang melodiously in their room as she gave him her hand; her red saree billowing in the wind. His eyes drank her in; in the colour he liked her best and tugged her towards him. “Let’s dance then!”
***************************************************************
Mahi stared at her brother dancing.
Her eyes burned with tears as she watched her larger-than-life brother reduced to a husk of himself. The man inside the room, behind the one-sided glass walls, was a broken shadow of his previous self. His face had sunken terribly; his tall muscled build, now a lanky slender frame, haunted to deterioration by his diseased mind.
Or more like his guilt, her mind told her and the dark memories of the past threatened to overwhelm her. She swallowed.
A hand touched her shoulder and she backed away from the observation window to look at her husband.
Abhiraj Singh Sandhu stared at his brother-in-law and then sighed as he wrenched his eyes away from the sight of Fateh dancing alone, his hands held in a manner as if there was someone with him.
Or maybe it was for him.
“He is dancing again,” Mahi whispered, her voice trembling slightly. “Why do you think he is dancing?”
Abhiraj grasped her shoulder tightly. “Maybe he thinks Tejo is with him. That’s the only time he dances.”
A sob broke out of her and she rushed back towards Abhiraj, hiding her face in his arms. Her frame trembled as she cried, her tears wetting his shirt. Abhiraj gently rubbed her back and blinked back the tears that threatened to well up.
“Let’s go Mahi! The payment and formalities for this year are done. The hospital will take care of him. Let’s go.”
She detached herself to look at him. “Can’t we stay here for some more time? Let’s meet him once. It has been seven years. Please.”
“No Mahi,” he refused. “It is no use. You know how he reacts to anything that tries to bring him out of his own world. You have heard the experts Mahi. He is mentally ill; his own mind is deluding him into such a life. There is nothing we can do for him. It is he himself, that wants to live like this; holding onto the memories of his dead wife. And there is nothing we can do. All the treatments have failed.”
“You want me to give up on him?” Mahi lashed out suddenly, her eyes bright with tears. “He is my brother!”
“And Tejo was my sister,” Abhiraj retorted, his face wiped clean of emotions. “But she is dead. It has been seven years now. And all of us cannot be Fateh to have the luxury of never facing the reality.”
“You hate him so much?” Mahi rasped out; her chest tight.
“Hate?” Abhiraj gave a bitter smile. “I don't think anyone can hate Fateh more than he himself does. In fact, if you ask me honestly; I pity him.”
Mahi took a shuddered breath and leaned back on the wall. Her eyes closed as the events of the past flashed past her. It was all like a downward spiral; Fateh Veer’s forced marriage with Tejo Bhabi, his inability to move on, his unhealthy dependence on her, Jasmine coming back to their lives, her plots foiled due to Tejo Bhabi’s timely intervention, and finally the bloody confrontation when a psychotic Jasmine Sandhu had tried to kill the man who had once loved her.
Love was a dangerous emotion. Obsession for said love was even more dangerous.
And that was the truth, for Jasmine had been unable to accept her lover moving on with her sister. She had perhaps always been envious of her more successful and responsible elder sibling but Fateh choosing to be with her had been the last straw. Vacant and airheaded as she always was; no one really noticed her brewing maliciousness and dark jealousy which began to gnaw at her sanity.
Everything of course opened up in the worst possible scenario and like a woman scorned; she tried to harm the object she considered her own. In a way, she succeeded. While she could not kill Fateh, Tejo dying by her hand while saving her husband had in a way managed to murder Fateh Singh Virk that day.
Mahi still got goosebumps whenever she remembered the scene. Jasmine had been taken away by the police, kicking and screaming as she wailed; crying for her sister. Her Fateh Veer on the other had sat motionless holding the corpse of his wife in his arms. His clothes were splayed red with her blood and it had in a way marked his descent to madness as his eyes had registered the dripping red liquid in his hands.
The next few days had been almost normal. He had gone through the funeral and the rituals; silently like a ghost. After that he had shut himself in his room; closed off from the world.
They had all worried about him; frantically trying to get him out.
But then surprisingly, he had emerged from his room, one day, to return to his life. He began to go to the academy and was slowly seeping back to normal life.
It was Amrik who noticed it first. For some reason, Fateh Veer used to avoid him and even his very mention. Unable to bear it, Amrik had taken to spying on him; when he had noticed him speaking to thin air, addressing his dead wife. Scared out of his wits, Amrik had rushed to reveal it to the family.
Concerned and horrified they had approached experts who planned an elaborate charade to draw him out. But when they finally confronted him by making him face the reality; Fateh Veer had completely lost it. Like a mad possessed man, he had fallen upon the doctors, trying to hurt them for taking his Tejo away.
Seven years had passed since that day.
Lives had changed.
All of them had changed.
But Fateh Veer had remained the same; stuck in a world of his own making but unlike them; he was happy in it. Happily enjoying the companionship of his closest partner in the world.
As she stepped out of the building, her feet stopped and she turned back to look at the signboard.
Nalini Devi Mental Hospital
A sigh escaped her and her husband wrapped his arms around her.
“Shall we?” Abhiraj asked, his eyes soft.
And they walked away.
Indian Idol 15
