ZINDAGI KYA KEHTI HAI

Chap 8

Swara reached her place around 6:00 a. m. in morning. Sharmishtha opened the gate. Swara hugged her and wished her good morning.

"Beta!" Sharmishtha asked her after listening everything, "You could have named the injection from here only right. Dr. Laksh would have administered it. Then why you ran to his place that too at midnight."

Swara was at loss of words. She himself did not know what to say. What was she doing!

"Beta!" Sharmishtha patted her hair, "it's high time now. You too have to move on from Nikhil."

Hearing Nikhil's name brought a bittersweet smile over Swara's face. She smiled at Sharmishtha and looked at clock, "mom... i am late. Aap bhi na baato me lga deti ho." Saying so she rushed inside her room. But sharmishtha knew this. Whenever the name of Nikhil came, Swara dodged the topic like this only.

Sharmishtha looked at the photograph of Shekhar. "You daughter fills colour in people's life. But her own life has become colourless." Shramishtha wiped a tear away from her eyes.

The day was hectic for Swara. Lack of sleep invited bad headache to her. Being a migraine patient, she should had at least her meals on time. But due to some emergency in her hospital, she was not able to have that too. And now, in the evening, she was barely able to keep her eyes opened.

She looked at the clock. It stated 7:00 p.m. Swara thought to call up Sanskar and cancel today's session. But she immediately dropped the idea remembering last night's incident. He was vulnerable now. And Swara, more than his psychiatrist or psychoanalyst, has become his friend.

After 15 minutes, she was knocking at his door. Ragini opened the door and greeted Swara with a smile. Swara too returned her with a warm smile.

"How's Mr. Maheshwari?" Swara asked as soon as she saw Laksh. For a second, Laksh was taken aback by the level of concern in her voice. "He is fine, Dr. Bose. All because of you." Laksh replied her with a smile.

Swara sat on the couch awaiting Sanskar. She saw ragini and laksh retiring to their room. Swara was feeling quite tired and her headache was increasing too. She kept her head on the back of couch and closed her eyes. But she was unaware when she drifted off in sleep in that posture only.

Sanskar came out of his room. He was in a thought that Swara was going to scold him for last night. As soon as he came to hall, he felt his beat got skipped. Swara was sitting with her eyes closed. Her long hair tied in a side braid were falling near her waist. Her light green kurta and salwar was looking heavenly on her. Her pearl stud earrrings were shining subtly in her ears. But what was more mesmerising was a few loose strands falling on her face.

Sanskar thought not to disturb her. He wanted to look at her till eternity. He felt a strange emotion building up in his heart. He wanted to talk to her but at the same time did not want to disturb her. He wanted to hug her tightly right now but also wanted to see her sleeping peacefully.

In his thoughts, he did not know when he collided with a show piece and it fell down. And Sanskar too fell down with it.

Swara woke up with a jolt. She looked at Sanskar who had fallen on the floor. "Mr. Maheshwari! What are you doing there?" Swara exclaimed.
"Woh I was fed up of sleeping on the bed so was trying to sleep on the floor." Sanskar said.

"Huh?" Swara was not able to get what he said. "Nothing! I fell down with this show piece." Sanskar again tried to explain. Swara smiled hearing him. And that smile, that smile caused butterflies in his heart.

"What happened?" Swara asked Sanskar. Sanskar then realised that he was so lost in her smile that he forgot to stand up. He was lying on the floor in that position only.