It Wasn't Supposed To Happen

106

" She said...so..."

" Oh. I get it. It is ok Pati Babu. You are misunderstanding her..." Bondita tried to find a way of hope as she cut him mid explanation. This was not as her Pati Babu was trying to imply. " Every one likes you. Everyone admirers you. You are their Barrister Babu. She...she too might have... meant..." Her words died down by the expression on his face. He was sorry.

" She said she loves me..." Aniruddh looked at her for a reaction.

" And what did you say ?"

" That...I was sorry..." Bondita was not even blinking. " And that I didn't want to meet her again." She still didn't say anything. " Bondita..."

" I really am a fool Pati Babu, am I not ?" She said after a while, coming out of her own thoughts.

" Why are you saying such a thing ?" Aniruddh shifted to the edge of his seat, knuckles tight over each other.

" But I am. I didn't see it. I just didn't..." She remembered how Sampoorna had acted. Her Didi had known. Maybe... even her Pati Babu... " Did you have any idea...she felt that way ?"

" Not a strong one but I...I could see the possibility. But I swear I had never ever thought about it or...or... Bondita..." He looked around agitated by even thinking about it.

Bondita looked at her knees, brows close together in concentration. " Is she wrong Pati Babu ?" Aniruddh found his focus on how lost she looked. " Is she wrong in loving...a man. Falling in love ?" Bondita was a little shocked by it but not worried. No...she had complete faith in her Pati Babu. It was not just Aarti. She had noticed many a young girls give him looks just like she received from men. But if Aarti's emotions were sincere, were they wrong ? Bondita knew how it felt to be told how wrong it was to fall in love by him, she had told that to herself too but did it stop it ? No. She fell anyway. Like she had no control.

Bondita looked at him. Was it really unbelievable that someone else might want him too. Did Aarti see in him too what she herself had come to see ?

" What kind of a question is that ? Ofcourse..." He fumbled with his words. The answer he knew was too complicated to put in words for a young girl who was just learning what love actually was.

" Oh..." Bondita blinked. " But...she must be hurt..."

" Y...yes. Maybe." He sat straightening his back. " But that is something I can not be concerned with this time."

" Pati Babu...why did she fall for you ? Knowing she can never have you. She must know too it is wrong."

Aniruddh knew he could not lie. Not to her. She was smart enough to someday find out the loop holes in his answer if he tried to make up a wrong, satisfactory one. And he didn't want to be questioned by her in future. She was curious. She wanted to learn. " Love Bondita...has no bounds..."

" No bounds...?"

" None..." Aniruddh vaguely smiled remembering his letters from London to his supposed lady love. " It flows over seas, it binds as a root. It liberates yet cut the wings. And some how no matter how much pleasure it gives...it still ends up hurting you. No matter how much it pulls you down, destroys you...it still makes you happy. Bondita...we, sometimes we choose who to fall in love with, like in marriages. We know this is the person we are going to spend our life and we love them. But sometimes...some people take risks..."

" What risks ?"

" Like... falling in love before marriage and fighting for it." Bondita knew that kind of love. She had read about it. " Some are not that fortune Bondita. Some end up getting just pain."