Fears have now taken the place of love. The mere attempt of suicide by her father had scared her to a large extent. And to top of it, taiji's words rang in her ears whenever she saw sameer " hum aggarwal hai, maheshwaiyo ke yahan bi shaadi na karaye".
Now the only purpose of her life is to make her family proud and never let that incident happen again at any cost. She had already lost her mother when she was born, now she can't afford to lose her father that too because of her.
But some other thing was also troubling her. The silence of her arjun bhaiya. She had very well observed his behavior with shefali. But he had not dared to accept his love in front of the family.
Even if she thinks of accepting all the hurdles for sameer then what if he too denies accepting her in front of his family. By just a small visit she had come to know the love of his mamaji and mamiji for him. If they denies accepting her then will he support her? Or will he too leave her?
Now, It's been a week since naina was avoiding sameer. Sameer on the other hand was shattering bit by bit on seeing her ignorance.
He had come to know about the whole fiasco that had taken place at naina's home and the promisse that the girls had done to chachaji. But it was conveyed through preeti. She had told him that naina don't want to keep any relation with him. All the contacts were broken. Neither face to face conversation nor phone calls helped.
He was trying his best to convince her, let her know that he is with her in all situations no matter what. But all these promises meant nothing in front of the fear, the fear of losing her father. He was not aware about naina' s other doubts.
His whole world was crashing down in front of him. And he was not able to do anything to get his naina back, all his attempts were getting failed. His irritation was increasing, and adding to it, mamaji had started talking about his alliance with Sunaina. Her frequent visits to his house was making his condition more worse. There he is on the verge of losing his naina and here his family is doing everything to bring sunaina in his life.
The final blow came when he heard that rakesh too had started searching for a groom for his daughter. Due to arjun, he had lost his faith in everyone. He can't afford to be humiliated again. So he can't take any risk. Chachaji tried his best to make him understand but rakesh was firm on his decision " anand, naina meri beti hai. Uske faisle karne ka haq sirf muje hai. Tumhe beech mei bolne ki koi zaroorat nahi hai" and for the first time, for all bad reasons, taiji too came in his support.
Naina got no chance to voice her opinion. She was Alive yet dead. Yes, just a week had passed without taking to sameer, she wonders how would she pass her life without him, without his love. She had gone into a shell. Not interested in anything but studies. Studies, that made her busy. She was not able to see beyond her "family". The pain and hurt of sameer was piercing her heart, the constant confrontations of her friends, begging her to stop all this were making her wounds more vulnerable.
"tuje jijaji ki halat ni dikh rahi kya naina? Vo marr rahe hai tujse baat karne ke liye. Tu aise kaise unse rishta tod sakti hai".
"preeti tuje sab pta ki hai kya hua hai ghar par, mere papa fansi lagane wale the. Taiji ko ni suna tune? Preeti aisa rishta rakhke kya fayda jab uska koi bhavishya hi nahi hai. Isse pehle ki baad mei kuch unhoni ho jae humare rishte ko lekar, hum pehle hi ise khatam kar dete hai. Isse humare parivar vale bi sukhi rahenge"
"or tum dono ka kya?"
"hum jee lenge ek doosre ke bina. Thoda time lagega par sameer ko jald hi koi achi ladki mil jaegi or papa bi mere liye rishta dhoond hi rahe hai" and she walked off. That day too, naina didn't wipe off the "SU" from the notice board.
She was trying to make herself strong to accept someone else's name with Sameer.
Sameer had overheard the conversation. For a few days, he didnt come to college. Though naina faked to be unaffected by this but her heart was yearning to know the reason.
Sameer had decided to put all the pieces back to place. He had to pull his relationship out of this mess. For this he needed a break to compose himself. Too many things had happened in the past one week. He had ordered his family members to not to disturb him for the next few days. Seeing his deteriorating health and his lost smile, they agreed but only after a lot of insistence.
In these days,he made himself clear that there is a huge difference between the dreams and the reality. The planning that he had done was far far away from the reality. He had to accept it and take his next steps accordingly.
Monday.
Naina was asked to wear a saree to college. It was the idea of taiji. She was of the view that its better to make the girls comfortable with this traditional outfit so that nothing happens when the prospective groom comes to see her. Also they never know when the alliance comes, maybe when she is in college and if she comes in modern attire in front of them then this would lead to a bad impression.
Naina agreed without any argument. She was following the instructions of her family like a puppet. She had just crushed away all her wishes or desires. Her only wish is her "family's happiness".
She was decked in a beautiful red saree with a green blouse. Her ears adorned matching jhumkas and the bindi on her forehead completed the look.
This reminded her of the farewell day. She wondered how everthing has changed now. Her eyes were teary. She don't know why, but today her heart wished that sameer comes to college and see her in this attire, before she gets committed to someone else.
"naina college se jaldi aa jana, aaj ladke wale aa re hai toh khana vana tyaar karna hai" rakesh orderes while she just nodded.
Before going to college, she prepared half of the dishes. Chachiji was seeing her with sympathy laced eyes. She was not at all happy. She wanted naina to fly, to become something. After all not everyone has a mind like her. But naina just faked a smile, making her family believe that she was indeed happy with their decisions.
As usual she went to the mandir first. She was experiencing some alien feelings today. Her heart was not beating at the usual rate. She was having an intuition that something is going to happen. It is good or bad, that would unfold as the day would proceed.
Her eyes involuntarily searched for him. From the past one week, , he would come here to talk to her and after getting just a glance of him, she would walk away without even listening to him.
But still she would come regularly.
She thought that today she wont do this, she would let him speak and then she would make him understand her side and if he doesnt budge after that too, she would take a step she never wanted to. But he was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he has accepted the fate.
There sameer was standing leaning on the pillar,observing her. She looks so beautiful. For the first time he was seeing her in a saree and he was awestruck . He knew that she is searching for him. But alas,it wont help.
As decided when naina was removing her sandals, a hand clasped hers. She looked up and found a guy wearing kurta and dhoti,having beard look and his eyes, she knew these dark brown orbs.. Before she could react, he dragged her to an isolated corner. She tried to withdraw her hand but his hold was too tight. She couldn't scream or she didnt want to because that grip of hand was not new.
"sameer" she exclaimed when he removed that beard.
He smiled "itne time baad tumhare muh se mera naam sunkar acha laga"
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