Dance Se Dosti

Friendship?

Hospital, New York.

As his mother came out within minutes of entry, her eyes fell on Sharon, out of the three. Swayam followed her gaze and found Sharon standing up and walking to his mother. The next words of her surprised all the three. "Beta tumhe andar bulaaya hein... Jaao!"

Sharon was confused. "Mujhe?.." And her expression demanded the reason.

But all Mrs. Nandini Shekhawat did was to place a hand on the side of her face and the other on her shoulder as a sign of comfort. Signalling to go in, she then turned to face her son who was in the dilemma to why his father would've asked to see Sharon instead of his own son, once Sharon entered the room. His mother moved closer to Swayam, keeping a hand over his shoulders she whispered, "He's okay..."

Swayam frowned instead of showing joy on his face, quite predictably asked his mother, "Woh toh mein unse sunna chaahta tha! Ma, yeh kya ho raha hein?"

"Beta, woh theek hein!." She repeated and called Sharon's mom to a corner. Her face hadn't shown no reactions and it was hard to know what exactly were the emotions that went through her then. But Swayam decided to not further ponder on the topic. As he observed the two mothers having an intense conversation with each other, the audio muffled due to the distance and also to their trying.

Fifteen minutes passed, and he was finding it difficult to contain the curiosity of what was happening inside. There came no sound out of that ICU, probably due to having made soundproof but that sensible fact didn't enter his brain then as he continued strolling back and forth in the limited space closer to the glass. The door opened and out came the Indian beauty in orange saree.

As he noticed, her face was blank. Her eyes sunk onto his face for a few seconds and then she walked towards her mother and muttered something to her. Soon her mother nodded to her in understanding, bid leave to Nandini Shekhawat who smiled in response, also understanding.

Events unfolded without a meaning to Swayam and had his self control pushed to the brim, getting tested for his patience. He decided to approach her, even as she was walking away from without an explanation that she owed him.

"Sharon..." He called but she didn't stop. Her mother did turn to look at him.

He started walking towards her and that was when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Use jaane doh Swayam!"

He turned to his mother while simultaneously Sharon looked back at him before getting in the elevator. Her eyes went down, with her lips pursed in guilt for leaving without a word, which she knew would have been a very difficult task to what she heard from Mr. Shekhawat.

"Jaake Papa se milo..." Nandini said to her son, to which he slowly nodded and walked inside the ICU.

"Swayam." His father spelled his name.

"Papa aap kaise..."

"Pehle humein bolne doh..." Rishi said slowly that cut Swayam from saying any more. "Aaj se humne bahut kuch seekha hein. Aaj tak humaare karm ka phal hum jo sochte the, woh iss ICU mein chaar ghante bithaaker humein maalum pada ki kitni galat hein. Kuch bhi hamesha keliye nahi rehta aur aaj humaare aakhiri din ho sakthe the."

"Papa..."

"Yahaan itni der tak humaare khayaal sirf tumhaara aur Taani ke bhavishya ka hua... Beta, humaare chale jaane se pehle hum tumse teen cheez maangna chaahte hein..."

"Ji Papa!"

"Pehla... Shekhawat industries ko sambhaalna hein tumhe... Doosra Taani ki shaadi kara deni hein... Aur theesra, khud shaadi karke humaare bahu ko ghar laana hein..."