Eye of the Storm (Swaragini FF)

Chapter 7

It is said that distance makes heart grow fonder. Sanskar wasn't sure if that was true, but he could vouch that it made his heart feel pain that was almost physical and more intense than anything he had ever felt before. In about 4 days, it would be one whole month of spending barely any time with Swara. During the first two weeks of that month, he at least had a chance to see her, to feel elated when she smiled and he had been the reason for it.

But these days, all he had to hold on to, were the measly few minutes that they spoke to each other on phone each day. He could sense that there was a part of her that missed talking to him too. He could feel it in her voice, but he had been hurt too often to trust his luck in the matters of love. There was a part of him that always reminded himself that though she might be happy and excited to talk to him each day, that in no way meant that she thought of him as more than her friend. In fact, hadn't she mentioned it a few times already that she missed her best friend, when she spoke. That was part of the reason he hadn't dared to suggest they FaceTime instead of just using voice calls. He had been worried about giving up these last few precious moments with her, asking for more than she was willing to offer, when he didn't know how many of these he would continue to have.

He started out into the Mediterranean Sea that stretched in front of him. It was already dark and there wasn't much to see accept the calm waters lite by the gentle moonlight above them. There was nothing calm about this yacht and the party that he had been forced to attend though. During the past ten days, he had been able to turn some of the good leads into actual business. He had already entered into advanced negotiations with some of these partners to decide the terms of engagement. One of those agreement had been with the owner of this yacht that he was on. He had thrown a party to celebrate his wedding anniversary with his wife of 10 years and had asked Sanskar to join them. Sanskar had never been a party person but he knew that some social interactions were key to future of his business. This was one of them. He had interacted with his host and also with quite a few of the other guests that mattered in his world, before finding himself a quiet spot, as quiet as he could find midst a party. His thoughts had then wandered off to where they always did, to Swara.

He remembered the conversation he had with her just two days back. She had been excited about something – more excited than usual - he could make it out the moment she said hello. His heart had skipped a beat, a part of him worried that his time with her was coming to an end, that she had accepted Lucky completely. After all, haven't even the mighty been brought down to their knees by their heart, did he really expect to be an exception? They hadn't spoken about Lucky for the past few weeks, and he wasn't sure what that meant anymore. He had been skirting around the topic, not daring to bring it up himself. The fact that she had started with "Sanskar, aaj tumse bohot zharori baat karni hai. Mein aaj bohot khush hoon. Kabse wait kar rahi thi ki tumhara phone aaye aur mein tumhe batao" hadn't helped much in calming him down. His mind had zoned out a bit and it had taken him a minute or two to realize that she had been talking about Ragini. That was when a completely different radar went off in his head – though his heart had calmed down a bit.

To say that Sanskar was proud of Swara was putting it mildly. She had done what even he hadn't displayed the courage and righteousness of doing. She had asked for Ragini's forgiveness for her part in creating this version of her. Truth be told, Sanskar had had a bigger hand in what was unleased. He had helped direct the winds that created this storm, and here was Swara, who probably had much lesser hand in what transpired, acknowledging her part. He vowed to talk to Ragini once he went back as well. This of course did not mean that he had forgotten what this new Ragini was capable of, and he had been clear about it in his warnings to Swara as well. He was wiling to face the brunt of Ragini's storm, but what he was not okay with was Swara being caught it in and being hurt. He hadn't relented in his insistence that Swara be cautious until she had assured him that she wouldn't let her guard down and let this new Ragini harm her, telling him that she had only apologized for hurting the old Ragini.

One of reason why Lucky had been playing on his mind was his recent conversation with his Mom. Like Swara, she too had been in regular contact with Sanskar. She kept him abreast of how things were back home. Their conversations were never long for him to know much, and he was for once happy about it, but there had been something in his last conversation with his mother where she had gone back to her Bengali bahu abuses and complaining about the sisters. When he tried to dig deeper, she had brushed it aside saying it was nothing just the two sisters being out of the house quite often adding chores for her. He knew it was linked to the time Swara spent with Lucky and Ragini. Not wanting to know more, he had let it slide.

He tried to divert his mind away from Lucky. It wouldn't do to think about something which he had no control over and especially when he was so far away from it all to really know or understand what was going on. It wouldn't be easy, but if he didn't do it, he would build himself into a tizzy. He too some deep breathes, applying his own lessons to himself. He hoped he had some time to spend with her when he returned home, before things culminated into the inevitable.

He unlocked his phone and opened up the only photo of Swara that he had. He had taken it surreptitiously before he left India. It wasn't all that clear, and yet he was always caught by the smile that graced her face in that photo. He knew that he wouldn't hear her voice today, it would be too late by the time he could get away from this party. He hoped she was alright, as he always did.

"I miss you so much Swara" he whispered as he started at the blurred image.

On the other side of the world, Swara stood by the window in her room, her eyes closed, feeling the breeze across her face, a gentle smile gracing her lips as she reflected on the day that had just passed. 

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