Tu Dua Hai

Chapter 33

She had a very high fever. Stumbling around the room for her medical kit, he found it in the wardrobe and quickly extracted a thermometer from it. When he checked the temperature, it was about 104 degrees. He stood there for a moment, not knowing what he was supposed to do when his mother came in looking for him. “Darshan? Anita told me that Gauri was sleeping. What happened? Is she not feeling well?” She asked looking at her daughter-in-law sleeping with a thick blanket. Darshan nodded, “Yes maa, she has high fever.” “Ohh, has she eaten anything? Did she take medicine?” Darshan shook his head, unable to speak. A lump was forming in his throat with immense worry for his wife. He just could not bear to see his normally cheerful wife lying sick in the bed. He wanted her to get well. “Wake her up. She should eat something and have medicine.” Rajal maa told him, sensing his distress. “I think we should call a doctor.” Darshan said, and his mother chuckled. “Darshan, She is a doctor, I am sure she can prescribe herself some medicine. Come on now, wake her up. I will go see if your father needs anything.” With that she left and Darshan stared at his sleeping wife for few more minutes. Finally, he took a step and sat on the bed beside her. “Gauri, Gauri. Wake up dear. Come on.” He called out softly and Gauri stirred. “Gauri.” Darshan called out once more and Gauri slowly opened her eyes with a pained expression on her face. “Come on wake up, you have high fever. You need to eat something and take some medicine. Do you know what medicine you should take or do I have to call a doctor?” Darshan asked and Gauri shook her head. “I don’t want to eat anything. Just let me sleep, I will be fine.” Gauri moaned. Darshan held her by shoulders and raised her to sitting position. “First eat something, have medicines and then you can sleep for the entire day. Come, maa is waiting for you.” This effectively woke Gauri up. “Oh shit. Your parents have arrived. Damn, I completely forgot.” She tried to stand up, tripped because of the heavy blanket and fell directly into Darshan’s arms. “Easy there.” Darshan caught her and helped her stand. His touch was like fire to Gauri’s already burning body. “I will…just..get freshened up.” She stammered out and rushed to washroom, suddenly blushing without any reason. Darshan stared at his hands and then walked out of the room. After the lunch, Gauri checked her temperature and took a paracetamol. She tried to stay awake to be polite to Darshan’s parents, but both Darshan’s parents and Darshan himself forced her to go and take rest. It was only when Darshan threatened her to carry her bodily into the bedroom and lock her there for the entire day that she went back to sleep. That night, after dinner Gauri started to feel better. She was sitting on the bed reading through a medical journal when Darshan came into the room. Darshan stood in the doorway for a minute, just staring at her. She was totally engrossed in her journal and a lock of hair was falling in her face which she repeatedly brushed off. Darshan suddenly felt the urge to go and push the lock of hair away from her face. He wanted to touch the soft skin of her face, wanted to gaze into the depths of her blue eyes, wanted to touch those pink lips and…. He suddenly came to his senses at that thought. What the hell am I thinking? He scolded himself. No, this was not supposed to happen. He loved Ayesha, he could not even think about any other girl like this. What is wrong with me? He thought fiercely and strode out of the room, banging the door shut.
Gauri who was engrossed in reading her journal was startled by the bang of the door. She looked at the door and wondered what might have caused Darshan to bang it so angrily. Had she done anything? Or said something offensive? She shook her head. No, she was asleep for almost entire day. Maybe his parents must have said something. Although she went back to reading her journal, she was bothered by the fact that Darshan was angry or hurt. She knew there was a lot which could trigger him, he had been married to Ayesha. Smallest of things could remind him strongly of Ayesha and affect him negatively. She wondered what it was that was troubling him so much that he was unable to keep calm. Finally, unable to concentrate on her journal, she put it aside and walked out of their room. Recently, Darshan had started sharing things with her, they were small, nothing big, but still they mattered. Because by sharing such things, the trust and friendship between them had grown. Gauri had came to know by experience that when Darshan shared his stress or whatever that was troubling him, he tended to drink less or not drink at all. So risking a chance, she silently walked to terrace where he sometimes sat to drink or smoke. Darshan was sitting there on the edge of the terrace. Gauri almost panicked, he was sitting on the railing and one misbalance would send him falling down 15 floors. She touched her mangalsutra at this thought and Darshan turned around as if he sensed Gauri standing behind him. Gauri noticed that he had a half finished bottle of alcohol in his hand and his eyes were red. “Darshan…. Not today, please control for a few days. At least wait until maa and papa are asleep.” Gauri pleaded and Darshan took a sip from his bottle, ignoring her. “Darshan that is enough now, you have drank more than half bottle. You will be able to sleep now. Just let it go. Try to not think of her.” Gauri said. This instantly drove Darshan mad. He threw the bottle down with a force and it shattered, spreading the pieces of glass everywhere on the floor between Gauri and the railing on which he now was standing. Gauri, who knew that he would soon be in the effect of alcohol, was horrified at the way he was standing on the railing. The railing was narrow and if he lost his balance, he would surely drop down 15 floors. She wanted to go and pull him down to safety, but there was a lot of glass splintered down on the floor. “Darshan get down please, you are drunk. You will loose balance please get down.” Gauri was pleading. But Darshan didn’t listen to her. He looked angry. “How dare you! Tum hoti kon ho mujhe batane wali ki main meri Ayesha ko bhool jau? Ayesha meri biwi hai. I love her more than anything in this world. Jis din use bhool jaunga wo meri jindagi ka akhri din hoga. Ayesha! Sun rahi ho? I love you, I love you a lot. Aur tum Gauri, shut the fuck up. Main meri Ayesha ko kabhi nahi bhool sakta, yaad rakhna tum. Chali jao yaha se. Go, let me drink. Remember, ye shadi sirf ek deal hai. Go away now, leave me alone.” Darshan swayed dangerously, but regained his balance and remained standing on the railing. Gauri was torn between going away so that he would calm down and staying to protect him. What if he tried suicide, just like that day? Gauri was horrified at the thought and she was debating whether to call Darshan’s parents to calm him down or not while she was keeping an eye on Darshan keenly.

//Hi. I have started a new story here. Tum Hi Ho. You can find it on my page. Please do read and vote. Guys your votes and support matters a lot to us writers. //