CHHOTI SI ASHA

Storms

Sameer straighten his back and looked at her, and she continued,"jijaji... Aap aj Naina ko koi gift nahi doge... Haa haa pta hai ki ye rasam sirf aurato ki hoti hai, lekin aap toh har mauke pr ise itne saare tohfe dete hai, aj nahi denge..."

Sameer smiled slightly and said,"aj tohfa..."

He was about to say something, but interrupted by Swati this time,"kya hua Mr. Romeo... Ab ye mat kahna ki aj tum tohfa hi bhul gaye..."

Elders smiled on banters of friends and sat quietly taking the appetizers.

Here Sameer didn't understand how to reply, so he was just thinking quietly, when Naina said softly,"aisa ho hi nahi sakta ki Sameer ke paas mere liye kuch naa ho... Ek tohfa hai uske paas, jo mujhe kab se chahiye..."

Sameer jerked, looked at her for a long moment and then suddenly he smiled and said,"Naina ne thik kha... Aisa ho hi nahi sakta ki mere paas tumhare liye koi tohfa naa ho... Aj bhi hai... Do minute bas abhi laya..."

"Lekin Sameer...", Naina tried to stop him, but he ran towards their room in hurry.

Naina was baffled. She wanted to use this chance to save rights of their baby, as his indifference was really upsetting her, but now... His bitter smile and deep eyes unsettled her. She didn't know what... But felt a storm raging towards them.

No one else, but Vivek and Munna too felt a little off about him this time. They too sat in straight and looked at his direction.

Finally he came after a strangely painful wait for 5 minutes and sat before Naina. He had a dark green file in his hand. He didn't know whether he should follow this ritual or not, but just fed a small piece of sweet to her, gave that file in her lap, hold her hands and mumbled, "mubarak ho jaan... Is din ka hi toh intezaar tha naa humein.... I mean tumhe..."

His bitterness shoved into her spine, hands trembled, back stiffened and she looked at him startled.

Vivek stood and about to say something, when Sameer raised his eyebrows to her signalling to open that file. Naina gasped, feeling terribly strange and slowly she opened that file.

"Sameer....",her eyes fell on the content of first page and she took a back. Slowly she continued and murmured in disbelief,"Sameer tum... Tum ye nahi... Nahi kar sakte..."

"Q... Q nahi kar sakta...",he asked back.

"Sameer nahi... Please nhi...", she couldn't even say properly and tears spilled like pouring on her cheeks.

Vivek was witnessing everything quietly till now, but couldn't take it anymore. He took the file from her hand and hurriedly flip over the pages.

"Sameer ye tum...",his eyes widened and he exclaimed in shock suddenly.

Till now, everyone understood the gravity of something that was going on and slowly gathered close to them.

However, indifferent to anything else, Sameer just looked at her, hold her hands and waited for her to say something and she said,"Sameer, ye nahi... Nahi ho sakta..."

"Q Naina... Q nahi...",he asked slowly.

"Sameer please...",she gasped, supressing the extremely restless feeling inside herself and mumbled.

"Kya hai is file me...", Vishakha restlessly asked to vivek, but instead of replying him, he looked deeply at Naina.

"Sameer, Naina ki tabiyat kharab ho jayegi...", Vivek quickly came close, tried to calm down the situation, but seemed like Sameer had decided to finish this war now.

He crouched down on his knees before her, softly cupped her cheeks, looked deeply in her eyes and said,"kya samjha Naina... Agar mai chup hu toh ye sab sweekar liya maine, aur aise hi bas jane dunga tumhe... kaise socha tumne ki bhul jaunga apna waada.... Naina, tumne vaada kiya tha pyar ka, saath jeene marne ki kasme khayi thi naa... Ab tum nibhao ya nahi, ye Sameer Maheshwari apna vaada jarur nibhayega... Saath jiye hai to ab jaayenge bhi saath..."