Manjha A String of Complicated Relations

Honesty

The next day, everyone woke around noon. The entire Vyas house was engulfed in complete silence. Even Nitya was not joking around. They had a nice brunch and they knew that they would need to see off Adhya for her vacation.

Shambhavi was not really eating and neither was Nitya. The Vyas sisters, who had always been together, would be apart now. That day Adhya was going to leave for Switzerland and come back a month later, after which she would directly go to Mrityunjay's house. Shambhavi would leave for the academy within two days and stay there for another 5 months before getting her posting orders for God knows where. Nitya would also be going back to her medical college in Pune.

The three of them had been attached at the hips earlier but now they were all grown up. Shambhavi, who had always taken care of the younger two, was wondering what to do with her time as she no longer needed to take care of her sisters. What was she going to do now? Sure, she had the army, but would her sisters not need her anymore?

Nitya was thinking about how both her elder sisters would now be busy with their own lives and Adhya was sad that she had to leave her sisters behind. It was a man's world and the girls had stuck together through every thick and thin, each of them having led good lives with each other. It was just bizarre that they had to part now.

Later at the airport, everyone was saying goodbye to Adhya and Mrityunjay for their honeymoon. Nitya looked at Adhya and said, "Don't forget about me and Tai." That was enough for the girls to burst into tears but Shambhvai was not really crying.

"We will make a promise like the one we made before. We Vyas sisters solemnly swear that we are going to call each other every week and even write letters and that no matter what the problem is, we will stick together and keep no secrets, even if we are worlds apart from each other, " Shambhavi said, and Adhya and Nitya followed.

Anisha, Anant, Advith smiled and Aniket was looking very serious. He knew that Shambhavi was keeping things inside her, overthinking everything and hiding it behind a smile. He could always tell when she was hiding her true feelings behind a smile.

The newlywed couple left, and everyone went back to the house. The rest of the day was spent in a similar, slightly melancholic manner with a few jokes here and there.

The next day, on Nitya's request, Aniket was going to take everyone on a tour of Kumbhalgarh fort and the surrounding fortifications.

Advith had already been here quite a few times, so he was helping in being a tour guide. The fortifications were the second longest wall of the world and had a rich history. There were at least 306 temples and they all picked a few that they would be able to visit properly.

Aniket and Shambhavi were walking behind everyone.

"Are you alright?" Aniket asked, walking inches away from her.

Shambhavi wanted to say she was alright in fact, she was good, but she could not lie to him. It did not feel right, so she answered honestly, "No, I am not, but I will be."

Aniketr had been expecting her to say that she was fine, but her honesty had thrown him off for a bit. "She'll be fine, you know. Both of them will be fine and they will call you every Sunday exactly at five o'clock exactly. If anything goes wrong in their lives, they would either try to think what their Tai would do in such a situation, or better, maybe they will call you," Aniket said.

Shmbhavi had stopped walking and was just listening to him address the fears that she had not even voiced to herself. "They will always need you Shambhavi, they could grow up to be fifty years old, but they will always need their Tai," he continued looking at her.

Shambhavi was astounded and befuddled at how accurately he was naming all her fears. She looked at him with her mouth slightly agape and wanted to ask him how he knew what she was thinking but could not really form words.

"You think you can hide from the world, hide your sadness and worries, hide your thoughts, and you do a very good job at it but you can't hide from me. I know you Shambhavi. I know that you would never speak about your fears to anyone, and I would never ask you to speak about them, but that does not mean that I will never know your fears, " he said in a tender voice.

He brought up his hand and caressed his knuckles against her cheeks. It was a feather-light touch, but it still sent jolts of electricity through Shambhavi's body.

"You should remember Shambhavi, I had told you once I want to be there for you, not because you need it, but because I want to be. If you ask me, it is actually an honor for me, not for you," Aniket said in a tone much softer than his touch.

Shambhavi had almost been reduced to tears and if they were not in a public place then she might just have cried. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"I know You have been strong but sometimes it is okay to not be strong and to let someone share your burden with you. Just because you can share does not mean that you can't take the burden alone anymore," Aniket was trying his best to get Shambhavi to come out of the wall she had built around herself.

What Aniket did not know was that he had already broken the wall and he was forever going to stay inside those walls around her heart. She might not be able to open the walls right now but that did not mean she could not allow someone inside them, and she had already invited Aniket inside. If he kept up with this, he might break those walls completely one day.

Shambhavi cleared her throat and said, "I know that. Why do you think you all were allowed to help me in the wedding? If this were a few years back, I would have done everything alone but now I don't feel like I need to do everything alone. Just go and ask Nitya, she will tell you," she finished with a smile and went towards the rest of the gang.

Aniket stilled at her answer. She had once again been honest with him and he was not expecting it at all. Shambhavi turned back, extended her hand and said, "Are you joining me or not?"

Aniket smiled a heartbreakingly beautiful smile and ran up to her, taking her hand and walking ahead.