Strings Of Love

Chapter 54

People were complicated. Women were even more so. Sidharth wanted to talk to Shehnaaz out of her insecurities but he didn't know what her relatives would decide and nor did he wish to assume a positive response on his own. He knew about his part, so he wanted her to know that he was going to stick along through all the thick and thin. He had wrapped up all his work in time in the evening and made his way towards her place with a small box of sweets for her aunt.

But more than her aunt's behaviour, Shehnaaz's unexpected timidity upset him. He knew that she wanted her family members to accept her and reconcile with her more than anything but her deficit and futile attempts of taking stand for herself infront of her aunt were new to him. He had always seen her as an independent and bold person unlike this time.

"Yaar, tu naraz kyu hai mere se?" Shehnaaz asked, hugging his back to stop him.

"Chachi mujhe- atleast mere se baat karne ke liye ready hui thi. Mereko ye chance hath se nahi jane dena tha, I did what I had to. She's orthodox, completely old school, so I had to do that." She added.

"Yeah right. You did what you had to." He replied, shrugging her hands off him and walking out of the room.

"Sidharth, samajh na yaar!" She said, following him.

"Kya samjhu? Yahi ke tera jhoot pe jhoot bolna sahi hai." He replied.

"Whoa! You're blowing it out of proportion now!" She mentioned.

"No, I'm not. Abhi mujhe jawab de rahi hai, yahi thode der pehle apni Chachi se nahi bol sakti thi? What had gotten into you back then?" He asked.

"It wasn't easy for me, Sidharth! I've damaged a lot of things for us to work on." She began to explain it to him again.

"Oh please, pehle Amrit, tere Chachu, teri Chachi, teri family issues!" He sighed with a list of issues she couldn't handle. Like it had slipped out of his mouth in the moment, he realized he had hurt her.

She was looking at him wide, it hurt, it crushed her heart to hear from him how fed up he already was because she didn't have a well sorted family like him.

"Hai mere ko family issues, yadi itni si baat tu nahi samajh sakta toh mai kya hi bolu!" She retorted.

"Lekin obviously yeh teri problems nahi hai, tu ja." She added, blinking her tears away.

Disappointed in himself, he couldn't bring himself to stay back and apologise for his words.

As a child she had been through an experience of her uncle and aunt in disguise of her parents as God-like. Good or bad parenting or indifferent, they held the power of life and death over her and became the voice of her subconscious mind as she grew up.

It was their power to wield over her and a little was she aware of what they were doing. Shehnaaz was somewhat dominated by her relatives and hence lacked the spine to stand up simply because she was still reeling from the punishments that followed her misdeeds. It was severely depressing for her, once experienced serious threats of abandonment. For her it was easier to be passive and wait for the storm to pass, rather than facing it.

And Sidharth's reaction to that had shattered her, it was her worst nightmare. It was just last night that the two had spent together and he had assured he'd be there, by her side, no matter what happens. What changed today? She wanted to hate him, to hit him and to smack the shit out of him for getting fed up with her problems. That was probably the worst thing anybody could have told her. How dare he just say that? And then he had the audacity to leave, she succumbed herself into the bed, all curled up inside the quilt and cried. It was like the first night she had spent after she had left her aunt's place, all alone and abandoned.