Its been a month that I chanced upon the magical world of Manik and Nandini. It's such a pity that the personal equations between the cast turned so sour that an epic story of love and friendship had to untimely die out. However, I feel they (Manik...
The girls gaped at each other. "Ranbir, tu chal mere flat par, Alya, take Dhruv with you. I think Manik and Nandini need some time together." It was not as much to grant them some alone time, as to avoid another brawl between them, that they decided to part ways for the rest of the night. In any case, Manik wasn't in senses and the only thing that could be worse than what already was, was Manik waking up to his friends fighting over him.
Mukti tiptoed inside the guest room to inform Nandini that they were leaving. Manik was lying on the bed, face down and next to him, Nandini was sitting on the floor, her back pressed to the wall. How, had she ever thought Nandini had moved on? It stuck her today that this is why they had drifted apart, not they but she, this is why she had withdrawn herself from Nandini, though they had never had a fight or even a trivial misunderstanding.
Mukti realized it now, looking at Nandini, that while her modern outer-self had been perfectly ok with Nandini seeing someone else, to her core, it had been unfair. It had been so damn hard for her to digest that the girl Manik loved to death, shall ever move on and date someone else.
May be, she had been unreasonable all this while, but that's how she was. Even in her own life, she had loved a man for few fleeting moments, but those few memories had been enough to keep her warm all her life. She had not fallen for anyone else and she probably would not. The transient nature of her parents' volatile relationship made her look for unending and undivided loyalty in every relationship and Abhimanyu had been just that.. True to her till his very last breath.
In her own unreasonable way, Mukti felt proud of Nandini.
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Nandini heard the thud, as they pulled the door after them. There was silence, except for the sickening ticktock of the desk clock. She gathered herself, got up, turned the AC off and opened the windows. It was drizzling outside, the last spell before the monsoon bid them goodbye. So much had happened over this past couple of months, life had taken such fast turns, changing places, shifting jobs, Neel, her family, her students and MANIK.
Despite everything, this bygone monsoon would always remain her favourite, for it had returned to her, her most favourite person, after three long years of draught.
She climbed on the bed, next to Manik. His shoes were still on, she took them off and silently placed them on the ground. He was still lying face down. Nandini cautiously turned him around, and pulled the quilt over him.
She curled into a ball , snuggling up against him, her tiny face filling in the gap between his face and the pillow underneath. She nuzzled her lips on his cheek and wrapped an arm around his neck. A tear rolled down from her eye on to his cheek and she hastily got up to wipe it before it awoke him. Her cries, she knew could wake him up...from sleep, from coma, perhaps even from the brink of death. As she swallowed the unfallen tears that clogged her throat and forced her to gasp for air, she noticed a tiny cut on his temple from under his silken strands, swept to the side. She ran her fingers over it, as her eyes began to cloud again. His wounds from the accident were still fresh.
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She folded the quilt to pull it down to his waist and with her trembling hands, unbuttoned his shirt. His once beautiful chest was a battlefield, he had more cuts and bluish red patches there than she had ever seen in one place and many of them were given by her. His shirt had blood stains in many places, from the cuts, he must have sustained while fighting the goons in the bar. Nandini looked over the bedside table where that small jewelry box was sitting, its edges torn.
Nandini rushed down, stifling her sobs by pressing her palm tightly over her mouth and ran to the other room looking for a first aid box. She locked the door and finally letting go of her tears, slid on the floor. Her knees were huddled close to her body as she made her palms into a tight fist. digging nails in her own skin.
Tears trickled down her face incessantly as she spoke to herself in that dark empty room. 'I ...I coul...dn't shine for you Maaaniikk. I asked u to be with me fore..ever.... So that I cou..ld shine for u, par I coul..dn't.. All I did was give you are those scars, those ..those..tho..se bruises... I...I ..am..I am sorry Maaniik.. I am very sorry..Meri waj..ah se.. " She wanted to pick up something and hit herself with it, she wanted to bang her head against the door, anything that would let her feel the pain he was carrying himself...like she had done in Panchgani, slashed her wrist in desperation. But she wouldn't do it today, she would not hurt him more to relieve herself of her guilt. Neither that, nor wean herself away from him like she had 4 years ago when he was in hospital, fighting to save his septicemic hand. She would do none of that bullshit, selfsacrificing nonsense. She would simply brush the dust off her, pick her balls and bearings , stand next to him and fight..fight for him, for herself and for them. So what if she couldn"t shine for him yet, she would do it now, she would heal every scar, every wound he bore on his skin and his heart, fill in for every failed relationship he had grown up around & repaint every single sad memory from his childhood.
Nandini wiped her tears and returned to the guest room.
One by one, she applied medicine on each of his wounds and sealed them with a kiss and a silent prayer. The new day would bring in new light. They would be just fine. She pulled up the quilt back & slipped in next to him, wrapping him with her tender little hands.
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