Nostalgia hit Sivaangi very hard the moment she stepped into the college again. This is not just a building, college or a place of earning for her, this is the place that gave her refuge when she thought she had lost everything in her life. This is the place that accepted her whole heartedly without spewing any venom of judgement. This is the place that let her take a relaxed breath after months of sufferings of suffocation.
This is not just any place, but a home to her.
As she walked towards the staff lounge, every single tree, stone bench and pavement gave her happy as well as heart wrenching memories.
She left her bag at her cubicle in the staff lounge, took her notes for her first lecture and left for her class.
"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt but this supposed be my class", Sivaangi said looking at the person who was lecturing her class.
The lecturer looked at her confused.
"No, it is mine, I have been handling this class for the past 15 days, may be you got it confused, can you check with the scheduling department? " the lecturer replied politely.
"This is cross-cultural music right? " Sivaangi asked verifying her time table once again.
"Yes" the lecturer replied.
"Then I am right, this is my class, I am the only lecturer for cross cultural music in this college" Sivaangi replied confidently now with a smile.
"Not any more" a voice came from behind.
"Ennadhu idhu Akash? I don't understand" Sivaangi asked him confused
"What is there to understand? Did you think you are irreplaceable that you can walk in here any time you want? " Akash asked sarcastically.
"Anyways, let us take this further in my office"
"Sorry Ms. Vanitha, you can continue" Akash said looking at the lecturer and started walking towards his office without even noticing whether Sivaangi followed him or not.
Sivaangi followed him silently her face turning red with embarrassment and anger.
"Ignore, don't react, ignore, don't react" she kept chanting within herself so that she could keep her cool and not burst out.
Once they entered his office, Akash sat down in his seat and did not offer one for her.
"So you had taken off for almost 45 days, you are entitled for only 28 days of paid leave, apart from that you took off after your resignation which is a breech in your contract. " said Akash
"But it was approved" Sivaangi interrupted.
"Sshh.. don't interrupt, let me finish" Akash said looking at his monitor without even turning towards her.
"Due to mitigating circumstances it was decided to approve your leave, but there is only so long we can handle with substitute or guest lecturer, so we decided to hire a replacement for you. " Akash continued.
"We or I" Sivaangi asked sarcastically.
"I, I decided to replace you, the act of replacing people in a whim is not copyrighted by you " Akash replied in a strong tone finally looking at her.
"I did not replace you Akash, you are in the same place in my life as in day 1, it is you who decided that you belonged differently and now trying to create a victim scenario blaming me. I cannot take responsibility for your own imaginations" Sivaangi replied with a smirk.
"Fine, so be it! Since you have exhausted all your leaves and overrun it, we have deducted it from your salary. We also decided that since Vanitha is a better lecturer, it is sheer waste of money to pay you to serve your notice period. So as of today, you are relieved. You can collect your service letter from the front desk, return your id card, laptop and any other official products and leave the premises. Close the door behind you" Akash said turning his attention towards his monitor.
Sivaangi looked at him eyes welling up. This is the same Akash who moved heaven and earth to bring her here, who created a job opportunity out of thin air, took care of her in every step of the way, now doesn't even want to look at her and throwing her out like she doesn't matter anymore.
"Can I at least say good bye to my students? " Sivaangi asked trying hard not to break down.
"No need, we have all moved on, it is time for you to do the same" Akash replied curtly.
Sivaangi left the place silently, she was not affected much by Akash's words as expected but the fact that she had to leave without able to say good bye to her students hurt her more.
She proceeded to the front office as instructed, it took another hour or so to finish all her formalities. She knew she was going to resign and she was happy about it, but she never thought it would hurt her this much, leaving the protection this place gave her.
She slowly walked out her thoughts going back to her students again.
Most of her happy moments in the past years had been with them, they accepted her as one among them, treated her fairly and helped her a lot during the child birth.
Her attention went to the stone bench that was under the shade of a huge tree. She walked towards it with overwhelming emotions.
This was the place where she got her pain 4 weeks before her due date. She still remembers that day crystal clear.
Carrying twins made it extremely difficult for Sivaangi to move around, but sitting at home made it difficult for her concentrate on anything that she pushed herself to make it to work. This shade had been her solace whenever she wanted to take a breath of fresh air.
Even that day she was doing the same when she felt a sharp pang of pain on her right side hip. She ignored it as her usual braxton-hicks, but the next one was more severe than the first which alerted her that it was not false labor.
She looked around almost panicking. It was her students who came to her rescue, they called 999, informed her parents and Akash, ran around getting whatever she wanted and packed it in one of their bags, stood by her until the emergency services arrived and few of them even travelled with her in the ambulance and waited till her parents and Akash came and took over.
From that time, it was not only her, even Nethra and Mithra became their pet. Whenever Sivaangi's parents left for India, she could always count on them to help her out. Even though Akash played a major role, her students showered her the love as and when they can.
Since Sivaangi was hardly few years older than them, they could connect with her easily creating a fine bond between them.
She sat down on the bench, thinking how she could meet them when she heard a voice behind.
"Ms. Sivaangi"
Sivaangi's face brightened seeing a bunch of faces.
"Hi Elena, I was just thinking about you all" Sivaangi said with a huge sigh of relief.
"We know Ms.Sivaangi, we know today is your last day, that is why we arranged a small farewell for you, if you will follow us please" said Elena, coming forward and holding Sivaangi's hand.
"What? Did you guys know already that today is my last day? what did you guys do? Where are we going? " Sivaangi bombarded them with her questions trying to walk along with them, happiness overflowing in her face.
"Relax, relax, its just a small party that is all, it is in our class room" Elena replied with a smile.
Sivaangi was really excited, she pushed the door to her class room open and was shocked to see the crowd there.
Apart from her students, there were some other class students whom she had substituted in these years, some of her collogues and finally him.
"Come on hero sir, go and get your bride" the students encouraged Ashwin.
Sivaangi blushed hard looking at Ashwin.
"Thank you so much Ashwin" she said trying to keep it as much professional as she can.
"Even though I would love to take credit, this is not my plan or arrangement" Ashwin replied with a smile.
"Then who?" Sivaangi asked confused.
"His" Ashwin pointed at the crowd, amidst it, was Akash who was sitting and playing with Nethra and Mithra silently.
Ashwin looked at her hands folded with smile in his face as she walked towards Akash.
"Enaadhu idhellaam? " Sivaangi asked trying to suppress her happy tears.
"It is very difficult to hate and hurt some one like you even if I tried hard Sivaangi" Akash replied with a shrug.
"Appo un office la pesinedhaalam? " Sivaangi asked
"Everything was true, but the moment you left, that sadness and disappointment in your face, the one I had tried hard to wipe all these years, it melted me, so I gave you the last thing you asked of me" Akash replied.
"THIS, this is the Akash I knew and adored all these years, not the jealousy one, Thanks Akash thank you so much" Sivaangi replied with overflowing emotions
Akash did not reply.
"Seri vaa, people are waiting for you to cut the cake" Akash said without replying.
Ashwin looked at Akash, but Akash ignored him and went to the other side of Sivaangi.
Sivaangi looked at Ashwin pleadingly her eyes requesting him to ignore.
He immediately opened and closed her eyes strongly letting her know that he will, for her sake.
"Amma, is today your birthday? then why are you cutting the cake? " Nethra enquired looking at the beautiful cake.
"Because today is amma's farewell, last day in this college" Ashwin explained.
"what is farewell?" Mithra asked.
"It is the day when you say bye bye to your friends." Again Ashwin replied patiently.
"Oh ok" Mithra agreed immediately.
The minute Sivaangi cut the cake, Mithra started singing
"Happy bye bye day to you, happy bye bye day to you.." breaking the tension in the room and making everyone burst into laughter.
"Song song song song" the crowd cheered encouraging Sivaangi to sing a song.
"Okay okay okay, calm down, What song? " she asked.
"Anything, but this time we want you to sing for our Hero sir. " Elena replied
Sivaangi thought for a while then she started singing looking into her Hero's eyes
"I love it when you call me señorita
I wish I could pretend I didn't need ya
But every touch is ooh, la-la-la
It's true, la-la-la
Ooh, I should be running
Ooh, you keep me coming for ya"
When she was about to start the next line Ashwin came took her hand swirled her once and joined her singing.
Land in Miami
The air was hot from summer rain
Sweat dripping off me
Before I even knew her name, la-la-la
It felt like ooh, la-la-la
Yeah, no
Sapphire moonlight
We danced for hours in the sand
Tequila sunrise
Her body fit right in my hands, la-la-la
It felt like ooh, la-la-la, yeah
After two lines Sivaangi stopped and let Ashwin continue, there was no tune, no proper pitch in his voice, yet no body cared, everyone was too engrossed in the chemistry between the two that they gave a damn to the technicalities behind Ashwin's singing.
Ashwin continued and this time Sivaangi joined him.
I love it when you call me señorita
I wish I could pretend I didn't need ya
But every touch is ooh, la-la-la
It's true, la-la-la
Ooh, I should be running
Ooh, you know I love it when you call me señorita
I wish it wasn't so damn hard to leave ya
But every touch is ooh, la-la-la
It's true, la-la-la
Ooh, I should be running
Ooh, you keep me coming for ya
The last line Ashiwn swirled her once and brought her into his hands, into a neat hug, locking their eyes and body, making everyone in the room roar with cheers of sheer happiness.
Unable to watch this Akash silently started leaving the room, but Sivaangi removed herself from the clutches of Ashwin and came running to him
"Thanks Akash" Sivaangi said with real content smile and looked at him say something.
"No problem, take care Sivaangi" he replied to her with a dead smile.
"Take care of her please, next time I won't be there" he said looking at Ashwin and left the place silently.
Author's note:
Hello, hello, new chapter here.
I don't know how many of you can relate to this chapter, but I really felt happy writing it.
No one is born bad, it is the circumstances, frustration, panic, fear of loosing or a loss itself make them loose their originality and force them to do something against their very core nature.
That is same with Akash, if Akash had been bad by nature, he would have not waited patiently for Sivaangi, he would have tried to force himself on her when he had numerous opportunities in the three years they were friends. But rather he truly cared for her, his love for her was true and real, it is the fear of loosing her made him take decisions against his caring self.
He can forgive Sivaangi, but in his mind Ashwin is the person who hurt Sivaangi and that makes him always the enemy, so he will never be cordial with him, but his inherent caring nature unable to see Sivaangi's pain, decided to let her go and hence his final act.
I am not sure how many can accept this, but whatever it is let me know your thoughts in comments section, I would really like to know your opinion for this one.
P.S: Play Senorita in the background while reading their song sequence, it will give a better feel.. 😉😉😉
Love,
DV