Namaskaram 🙏
Date of Update: 08.01.2022
*****
Author’s POV
He is sitting at one of the corner tables of the restaurant and just staring into his phone, which had her photograph displaying, longingly. His eyes are moist.
“Ten days! It’s been ten days since you smiled wifey! It’s been ten days since you spoke more than two words at a time to me. It’s been ten days since you whined that ma is not allowing you to enter the kitchen. It’s been ten days since you looked at me properly. It’s been ten days since you hugged me. It’s been ten days since you have atleast asked me ‘how was my day?’. It’s been ten days we lost our baby! It’s been ten days I lost you. You are with me yet not with me.” He whispered looking at her photograph in his phone and a tear escaped from his left eye which he immediately wiped off.
“Laksh!” he heard the voice of a girl and looked above.
He saw a girl standing along with Ronak. He could identify who the girl is.
“Nitya!” he called surprised.
She smiled and sat on the chair in front of him while Ronak took the other chair.
“I never wanted to meet you like this but we had to meet this way!” Nitya spoke.
He looked down controlling his tears.
“Ronak told me what is happening in your life.” She continued.
He looked at her and nodded.
“I can help you.” She said.
He looked at her gratefully.
“Well… can I meet your wife?” She asked.
“I don’t think she would co-operate.” He said sighing.
“Let’s do one thing! You just make a video call to me when you are with her. I will just observe her. She doesn’t need to speak to me for now.” Nitya spoke.
Laksh sighs and nods.
“Would she ever become my old bubbly wifey?” he asked with teary eyes.
Ronak held his hand supporting him.
“She will!” Nitya says smiling and assuring him.
He nodded emotionlessly.
“And I would suggest you also to be part of this whole process. You don’t look good too.” Nitya said.
“I am fine!” he says denying her.
“You are not. You need it as much as your wife needs it.” She says strictly.
He nods.
“I also want to appreciate you to take the step soon instead of delaying.” She says.
“It was Ragini’s gynaecologist who acted fast and suggested me to go for therapy. All thanks to her.” He told.
Nitya nods.
“I should leave now. This is my card. Just text me the time you would make a call. I would be ready.” Nitya said getting up from the chair and passing the card to Laksh.
He nodded taking the card. She bid bye to Laksh and Ronak and left.
“Lucky this too shall pass soon. Be strong!” Ronak says putting his hand on Laksh’s shoulder.
“Thank You!” he whispered looking at Ronak.
“Now you will thank me!” Ronak said angrily.
“I have to!” Laksh says gratefully.
“Already I am angry on you for hiding these all things from all of us now don’t make me more angry by thanking me.” Ronak says angrily.
“I can’t spoil their happiness Ronak. You know Radhu is pregnant. She should be happy at this time. So I hid from you all. But on that day you got to know seeing me crying. So I couldn’t hide from you anymore.” Laksh says.
“Yeah! Good that I got to know. I am also thankful for not exiting the school WhatsApp group like you. That helped me to find out about Nitya and here she is helping us. Don’t worry Ragini will be fine soon.” Ronak comforts him.
Laksh nods.
“Let’s go!” Laksh says getting up from the chair.
Ronak nods.
*****
Laksh is about to enter inside Maheshwari House when a taxi stopping sound stopped him. He turned back to see Dwiti getting down the taxi. He gets surprised seeing her and moves towards her.
“Chotu! You here?” He asked surprised as she hugged him seeing him near her with smile.
“You forgot bhai? It’s Rakshabandhan tomorrow!” she said frowning.
Laksh looks on.
“Bhai!” she shakes him.
He looks at her.
“Did you inform Mayank bhai that you are coming?” He asked her.
“Yeah! He will come tomorrow.” She says smiling.
“Okay you go inside. I will be coming in sometime.” He says patting her cheek.
She nods and goes. He takes his phone and dials a number.
“Prit text me Mamu’s house address.” He spoke as soon as Prit took the call.
“Why jiju?” Prit asked confused.
“It’s Rakshabandhan tomorrow.” He said sighing.
Prit sighed hearing him.
“Okay jiju. I will!” Prit replied.
Laksh cuts the call and once again drives off.
He is waiting outside the academy for her to come out. She came out looking lost like everyday. She has been attending her academy. It was the only time she is a bit distracted from her sorrow. She came near the car and just got into the car not even looking at him. He sighed and got into the driving seat.
“You know what it is tomorrow?” He asked as he is driving.
She, who is just staring outside, slowly turns towards him. He looks at her and then again concentrates on driving.
“It’s Rakshabandhan!” he says.
Ragini again looks out at the road.
“So now you will not even tie rakhi to Prit. And you will not send rakhi to Krish.” He said not getting a reply from her.
Not getting again response he stops speaking. He wipes off the tears that flew from his eyes. He stops the car as they reached their house.
“I only got rakhi for your brothers. This is for Prit. I already sent courier to Krish.” He says passing a cover for her as they got down the car.
She takes it from his hand and moves inside lifelessly.
“Look she has come. Let me myself ask her.” A lady spoke as she saw Ragini entering into the house.
Laksh who followed her looked confused. He looked at Ap questioningly.
“She is our neighbour Mrs. Sharma. She wants Ragini to teach music to her grand daughter in the evenings.” Ap said.
Ragini was about to speak but Laksh speaks.
“Yes she will aunty. You may send your grand daughter from tomorrow.” Laksh says.
“No!” Ragini says and goes from there.
“Don’t worry Aunty. She will. You send her.” Laksh says.
Mrs. Sharma nods smiling and leaves.
“Laksh what have you done?” Ap asks angrily.
“Ma let’s give it a try.” He says with hope.
Ap sighs and nods. He goes to his room. At that time Ragini comes out of the washroom.
“From tomorrow evening Mrs. Sharma’s grand daughter will come for music classes.” He says looking at her.
“I said no!” she says looking at him.
He smiles lightly seeing her replying.
“I said yes!” he says shrugging.
“I said No Laksh!” she says a bit loudly.
His heart jumped in joy hearing his name from her mouth.
“And I said Yes Ragini!” he says softly.
She turns away and sits on the bed like everyday staring blankly.
“So should I take this as an yes from your side too!” Laksh says.
She doesn’t respond. Her hand is on her belly while her eyes are looking at the wall. Laksh moved out into the balcony and looked at his phone.
“Today is the first time she spoke atleast two sentences to me.” He says sighing and looking at Nitya who is in the video call.
“I understand. Good that you had forced her to take classes to Mrs. Sharma’s grand daughter. Keep trying like this to make her do things which makes her happy. I will text you the picture of medicines she has to take. And send me the name of the medicine you are giving to her for making her sleep. And let me tell you Laksh try to get her to me as early as possible so that things doesn’t get out of control.” Nitya says.
He nods.
“Bhabhi!” she heard Dwiti’s voice who is at the door and knocking the door of their room.
She didn’t respond. Laksh moved inside the room and opened the door. He sighed and let her in. Dwiti doesn’t know about Ragini’s condition yet.
“Bhabhi!” she called Ragini excited moving towards her.
Getting not even a glance from her she looked confused. Laksh moved towards Ragini and shook her. She looked at him blankly.
“Dwiti is calling you from so long!” he says pointing towards Dwiti.
Ragini looks at Dwiti once and gets back to her blank staring. Dwiti got worried after this.
“Bhai?” she asked confused.
He signed her to follow him. She nodded.
“It’s been ten days she has been like this now.” He concluded sighing as he told her what happened.
Dwiti hugged him sobbing silently. He just hugged her caressing her hair.
“Bhai do something. I can’t see you both like this.” Dwiti says with teary eyes.
He smiles painfully cupping her face and nods.
“And Prit… he too didn’t say anything to me. How is he coping these all? He has been acting all good since ten days while talking to me. How can you guys do this to me?” she asks angrily.
“You want me to make you also upset with all these things. Nobody knows except both mas both papas Prit and now Ronak.” He says wiping off her teary face.
She sighs nodding.
“I will try to talk to her.” Saying Dwiti moves inside.
He stands at the door and looks at them.
“Bhabhi you know tomorrow is Rakshabandhan.” Dwiti says making herself sound excited.
Ragini doesn’t respond. Dwiti gets sad and goes from there with teary eyes. Laksh just stares at Ragini.
*****
“Prit will come for getting his rakhi tied. Hope you will tie rakhi to him.” Laksh says the next morning as they were about to go out of their room to have breakfast.
She nods lightly. Laksh feels a little happy.
“But…” she said suddenly making him look at her.
“Rakhi?” she asked.
“I gave you yesterday evening. You forgot?” he asked.
She looked blankly. He looks around to see the cover on the table. He gets rakhi from the table and forwards to her. She looks at it and nods. She moves out holding rakhi.
Prit who entered inside just then looks at her and smiles lightly to see her out of the room. He moves towards her.
“Di!” he called her.
She turned towards him and he immediately hugged her tight. His eyes are moist. She didn’t hug him back though. He broke the hug and looked at her with disappointment. Laksh assures him with eyes. He nods.
“Chalo di it’s time for rakhi!” he says holding her hand and pulls her towards the couch in hall.
He gets surprised seeing Dwiti there.
“Dwiti!” he exclaims.
She smiles and hugs him. He hugs her back tight.
“She will be fine soon!” Dwiti whispered in his ears to which he smiles.
They break the hug.
“Mayank will be coming after an hour Dwiti beta. He told to tie rakhi to Laksh as Laksh has to go to office.” Dp spoke.
Dwiti nodded.
“Bhabhi you complete yours first then I will tie for bhai.” Dwiti says.
Ragini nods looking blankly. Prit sits on the couch and Ragini does his aarthi. She applies tika and then ties rakhi to him. Laksh and Prit just kept looking at her blank face with sorrow.
‘I just want to bring you out of this sorrow as soon as possible di. I will make sure I will do it very soon by whatever means I can. This is your brother’s promise on this rakhi.’ Prit thinks in his mind.
He takes her blessings and stands in front of her. She was about to move back but Prit holds her hand and stops her. She looks at him blankly. He cups her face and kisses her forehead lovingly. His eyes are moist. Her lips move up into a curve just a little but that little change has made everybody there happy for a while.
“Here is your gift di!” He passes her a small rectangular box to her.
She takes it and about to go but again Prit stops.
“Open it now!” he says.
She opens it obliging him. It had a beautiful bracelet. She is always fond of bracelets. How many she may have she always wants a new one. This time Prit wasn’t able to think of anything special to her so he got her a bracelet. He knows nothing will make her happy now. He takes the bracelet into his hand and puts it to her wrist.
“Now go!” he says.
She goes from there directly to her room. Prit looks on. Ap caresses his hair. He looks at her teary eyed while she assures him.
“How are Janaki ji and Shekhar ji doing Prit?” Dp asked.
“Just like we all are doing uncle.” He says sighing.
Everybody look on.
“Bhai come. Let me tie rakhi to you.” Dwiti diverts the conversation.
“Let’s wait for bhai Chotu. It’s okay Ronak will handle at the office. It’s him who is handling since ten days.” Laksh says and moves from there.
Dp and Ap also go from there. Dwiti looks at Prit. He looks at her and smiles. She just moves into his embrace.
“Why did you hide from me?” She asked hugging him tight.
“I can’t make you sad too!” he says hugging her and closing his eyes feeling solace in her embrace.
“She will be fine soon. Bhai said he has spoken to a therapist. Everything will be back to normal very soon.” Dwiti consoles him.
“Hmm!” he just hums feeling her near him.
“You guys are so mean!” Mayank spoke angrily as he got to know about Ragini.
“Bhai yaar leave na. It’s Rakshabandhan. We should be happy. But you guys!” Laksh said as three of the cousins are sitting in the garden and talking.
“Happy? Are you Happy Laksh? First you lost your child. Then Ragini. Look at her. She is all lifeless. She has lost all her charm. How are you even surviving seeing her like that? As if the sorrow from losing your child is less Ragini’s condition has tripled your sorrow. How are you even pretending to be normal when you are not?” Mayank asked looking at him.
Laksh’s eyes turned teary which he immediately composed.
“What do you expect me to do bhai? Should I also become like Ragini? Isn’t her condition enough for whole family to shatter. Everybody are in pain bhai. Not just me not just Ragini. I can’t just sit and cry.” He says moving his hands in the air.
Mayank hugs him immediately tight. His eyes are teary too. Dwiti joins the hug. Laksh hugs both of them tight controlling his cry.
“My Lucky is always the best. I am sure you are going to deal with this too and everything will be fine really very soon.” Mayank says breaking the hug and cupping Laksh’s face.
Laksh nods.
“I need to leave Lucky.” Mayank says.
Laksh nods. Mayank hugs both Dwiti and Laksh and leaves bidding bye to Dp and Ap.
Author’s POV will continue.
****
Thank You for reading.
With Love
Dharani (Dhaరणि)