MaNan: Can I Love Her ?

Chapter 13-1

(Manik and Nandini together pour the rice and one flower falls down from the photo-frame of amma-appa as if they were blessing both Manik and Nandini to be together always and both chacha-chachi saw that and gave each other a small smile.) 

(Manik and Nandini poured whole of the rice and put the kalash at the side and then stood straight facing each other. As soon as they stood facing each other and look in each other eyes, nandini immediately hugged manik tightly and manik also hugged her back tightly.) (Nandini was crying and manik was rubbing her back to calm her down and side by side pecking her hairs.) (Panditji was chanting some mantras and after few minutes, he stopped and announced that puja got completed.)

PANDITJI: Aur ye puja sampann hui.. (Hearing those words, nandini came into her senses and realised that she was crying in front of all of them and she go weak in front of them but she didn't wanted to share her pain with anybody, so she immediately broke the hug and ran upstairs. Manik firstly became confused by her this act and then understood why she did so. He was going to run behind nandini but then he saw rishabh crying in mukti's and cabir's embrace.)

(He knew that rishabh also needed him and moreover, he has to first calm down rishabh as his health might got worsen because of enough crying. And he also knew, that nandini will become tensed looking rishabh like that and he knows that rishabh is his family now and he can't see his family sad or crying. He moved towards rishabh and called him.)

M: Champ... (Rishabh heard manik calling him. He looked towards him and broke the hug with mukti and cabir and immediately hugged manik tightly and manik hugged him back. Rishabh was crying in manik's embrace and manik was ruffling his hairs to calm him down.)

M: Champ... Shh... Bas.. Bas... Tu toh mera strong champ hai... Bas.. Shh... Mera bacchha toh bhut strong hai.. Bas... Mera baccha.. bas.. shh.. (Rishabh's eyes started flowing more by hearing bacchha from manik for him. He became emotional that someone other than his chacha-chachi and his didi is calling him bacchha. He felt a strong connection with manik.) (All other also got surprised listening bacchha word from manik's mouth because he was never that emotional but they knew that nandini has a strong impact on manik and now, manik feels all relations straight from his heart.) 

(Even manik felt a different kind of feeling with rishabh. He wanted to protect him like a father or an elder brother. He felt protective towards him. Though, not bounded with blood, but they both felt a strong connection with each other.) (Rishabh broke the hug and said to manik with tears in his eyes.)

R: Manik Bhaiya, please meri nandu di ko vapis la do. Meri di ko vapis la do jo khelti thi, hansti thi, muskurati thi, jo zindagi jeeti thi. Please bhaiya.. meri di ki khushiyan vapis la do. (Manik's eyes became moist listening to rishabh getting so concerned for his elder di. He cupped rishabh's face and spoke.)

M: Rishabh, tujhe apne manik bhaiya par bharosa hai? (Rishabh immediately nodded his head in yes and manik smiled.) Toh bas, tu tension mat le.. and trust me.. main teri pehle vali didi ko vapis le ayunga.. aur vo dil se khush hoyegi. I promise. (Rishabh smiled and hugged manik again which manik reciprocated. After some minutes, they broke the hug. Manik wiped rishabh's tears and kissed on his forehead to which rishabh smiled.) (I know it's quite rare when a father kisses his son's forehead or an elder brother kisses his younger brother's forehead. Father used to kiss his daughter's forehead, brother used to kiss his sister's forehead, sister used to kiss brother's forehead, mother used to kiss son's forehead. Even mother used to kiss daughter's forehead, even sister used to kiss sister's forehead but when it comes to father and son and two brothers, then, they used to hide their emotions. Though they care for them, but in terms of expressing emotions, they used to hide it. But i so love it when a father kisses on his son's forehead or a brother kisses on his brother's forehead. So, that's why included it in this story.)