A K S H A R A
"Akshara" I heard a scream from the room, these days I am used to it. He just shouts about anything and everything. Sometimes the justification is as small as my hairpin stuck in his side of the mattress. At first, I believed he would take time to adjust as I am a total stranger but now he's just getting on my nerves. I was engrossed in thoughts and here we go the screaming wallflower is back. Hearing his I sprinted towards the room.
"Akshara mein kitni baar bola, don't mess up our things. Yeh dekho kya hua?" I followed his frown and peeked at the papers with my kajal smeared over them. "Par Abhimanyu Maine kuch nahi kiya" I answered back looking at him with a naive face and trying my best to hide the laughter that was tickling me inside.
"I did it, I thought it was a pen but it turned out to be this black sticky thing." He mumbled with the current frown deepening. My Bad!! The chuckle came out way too loud, I slowly peeped at his glaring form. "It's not funny" he screamed. "Yes yes, it's not" I shook my head vigorously.
"When are you applying for your admission?" He asked me in a tone, this time softer. *wonderful his mood transitions are smooth* "I have chosen some colleges, I handed it to dad. He said he will prepare a list of the best soon and will hand them to me." I said while adjusting my kajal stick. "You could've asked me instead" he proceeded "I would've helped you."
"It's okay, actually I agreed on doing it myself but papa proposed to help and I couldn't say no." I tried to assure him but why would he need assurance? I just continued the work I was doing before.
I don't know how to explain the void I feel these days, everything looked so perfect around me and I appeared like an odd fit. Maybe it's because I never carried anything inside me for this long. It's not about the secret talks or anything. I just wanted a person who could do me a champi, talk about their day ask about me. We just have a big chuckle on random jokes. 10-15 minutes of such talks boost a person like no other. The fatigue of being alone is killing me. This exhaustion is making me sulky sulky all day.
I looked at the man, who was busy reading files standing tall as a pole with no expression on his face, he raised his face and glanced at me, our eyes met. He stared for a good 10 seconds or so and then resumed examining his reports. What I am even anticipating apart from cold stares and glares. I signed for it. I should keep up with it. Thinking about this I went downstairs to talk to maa.
"Maa you look so beautiful," I said in a happy-happy tone as I saw her reflection in the mirror. "Subah subah makhan lagana shuru kiya?" she said looking at me smiling. "Nahi, Sacchi." I stared at her seriously and we both giggled. "Akshu, mein lunch prepare karke jaungi. Batao beta kya khana hain?"
"Maa, nahi aaj lunch mein banaungi. Aaj aapko kitchen se chutti." I shouted, "Haaye Bhagwan mere kitchen" she proceeded with the same dramatic expressions keeping up with mine. "Aapke kitchen ko kuch nahi hoge maa, yeh meri vaada" I flipped in a dramatic way and saw Abhimanyu, who was at the entrance, giving me strange looks to me.
"Beta aaj chutti hain kya?" she peeked at Abhimanyu and asked, "Maa I will stay till lunch today, zyaada kaam nahi hain hospital mein." He said stepping inside and settling on the dressing mirror chair. "Akshu beta ek kaam karo, aaj lunch mein na abhi ka favorite kuch banao. Warna har din lunch naam pe ghaas khaa rahe hain yeh."
"Maa healthy khana hain, woh healthy khana" he interrupted, I smirked.
"Matlab Abhimanyu woh khaane se human being ka lifespan 100 se 500 hoga kya?" I asked while giggling, maa looked at me and we both hi-fied and during this, I found a rare sight, Abhimanyu was smiling, I MEAN THE ABHIMANYU BIRLA IS SMILING WHEN THE JOKE WAS ON HIM. HE KNOWS TO SMILE.
"Mr. Birla aapka favorite khana kya hain?" I inquired looking at him before the smile vanished away because we never understand about his mood swings. Maa on the other hand face palmed and then smacked my head.
"Pati hain wo tumhare, hotel ke waiter jaise pooch rahi ho" she then glared at me. "Call him Abhi bass, yeh Abhimanyu, Mr. Birla nahi." Well, things are getting uncomfortable and I peeked at Abhimanyu, going by his body language he was as uneasy as me. "OK maa lekin batao tumhare favorite kya hain?"
"Strawberry spinach salad or black bean salad" he replied, well for a moment I was furious. I was in a mood to prepare yummy food and see my husband being the party pooper and I did something out of reflex which shocked everyone.
I knocked on his head, you heard me right. Though I did it out of my habit, it's Abhimanyu, we don't know how he will take it. "Sorry sorry," I said while stroking the place where I hit. "it's okay" he held my hand, his hand was cold, ice cold just like his attitude. , After taking it away from his head, he didn't let go of my hand. Even I didn't mind taking it away. It feels nice though.
"HOW ROMANTIC" Shefali screamed and entered, shocking both me and Abhimanyu. And we were back to our embarrassing kids' mode. Abhimanyu left the place and maa turned to shefali "Shefali chalo" and rushed and before she left, "Akshu paalak paneer banao, Abhi ka favorite hain woh bachpan se"
2 hours later He appeared downstairs and I am done with my paalak paneer. Like every typical dutiful wife, I served on his plate and was waiting for praise from my husband.
"Akshara, why do you hate me this much" he yelled.
"You like paalak paneer nooo!!!" I said in a surprised tone.
" Not anymore." He said, "who said I like this??" We proceeded with our arguments but we heard a noise disturbing us.
Reem and Kairav Bhaiyya entered the area with some shopping bags in their hands. I find them together a lot these days; we never understand what's brewing between them. But I noticed another thing, my eyes, involuntarily began to shed tears. Before I could further embarrass myself by weeping and sobbing, I quickly wiped my tears and took them to the dining table.
"Bhaiyya, I prepared Palak paneer aaj" announcing that I served it on his plate. He ate a spoonful and said it was the best ever he had. Well, when it comes to my cooking he exaggerates. "Akshu yaad hain na kal aaru ka birthday hain" he began to talk then turned his gaze to Reem. "So reem made a plan and we will surprise her at 12 am. Arrangements sab hum saath mein kar rahe hain. Bas if you are okay, come there by 11.30 pm" I was delighted I will get to meet my family but what anguished me was the way he was asking before we just used to command over such stuff. This was so trivial but it truly pained a lot.
While I was lost in my thoughts, a scream brought me back to this world. "Jeeju aap bhi" Reem screamed, well she was quiet all this time is a big surprise itself. "Lekin-mujhe-" before he comes up with a bad excuse, which will be weird and people will catch it within a minute, I hopped into the conversation. "if he's busy I will come alone." I said staring at reem, "You know doctor's ka schedule we never know"
"Haawwwww akshu tum already pati ka coverup kar rahi ho!! How sweet." She said while hitting Kairav bhaiyya's arm. Cover up my foot, I just don't wish to get embarrassed.
"But Abhimanyu we will be happy if you are there." My bro is my bro. "Fine I will be there," THE MIGHTY ABHIMANYU SAID SOMETHING WHICH MAKES ME HAPPY.
We had lunch together, did some random chatter and then they left.
"Abhimanyu it's fine if you don't want to" I asked recalling his awkwardness. "It's okay" he just said in a normal tone and took his coat and left to hospital.
Finally, I have work to do in hand. SHOPPING. I messaged maa and went out to get some stuff. I rushed back home dolled up nicely and sulked on the sofa waiting for him.
A B H I M A N Y U
I returned home and headed to doze off to my room, everyone would be fast asleep there is no indication of any noise in the house. I wasn't in the mood to eat anything, just wanted a nice sleep. I marched towards my room. I went and switched on the lights only to see Akshara in tears. Wait why is she crying? Why is she ready like she's going out? Ohh shit she said we have to go to Aarohi by 11 pm, and I looked at my watch. It's almost past 1.
"I am sor-ry"
Before I could finish she stood and kept a hand "No why would you say that When you don't even feel that" she wiped off her old tears with her finger but a new set of them returned in no time.
"I didn't ask you to wait for me; you should've gone...I didn't ask you to wait did I?" I said in defense. "Tumne Don't wait for bhi nahi Kaha tha," She said in the plainest tone possible. "I will take you there tomorrow, after all, it's just a birthday and a dinner we can have lunch with them tomorrow,"
"After all? You know what Abhimanyu, we are staying under the same roof for about 2 weeks now, and do you even have the tiniest idea of how I feel?" she started blabbering.
"Akshara you are overreacting" without my knowledge my voice pitched high "Who said you to wait for me? Who said to wait for me?? You are intrusive, what about this HOW DO I FEEL? You are a spoilt brat with a habit of complaining and whining about everything." Many words spilled out of my mouth, which I never thought would come.
"How scary a person can be when they don't realize the gravity of the words they speak" she mumbled with tears in her eyes. "I'm not fine; do you know how alone I feel in this house? No way would you know, aapke life mein kaun sa change hua, just sharing a room and having a personal caretaker. I was away from home Abhi and I even lived alone but I am never this alone the way I am here" she sniffed in and continued "It's not the matter of birthday or dinner. You weren't lifting my calls, I contacted your hospital, and they said you didn't have any major appointments and that's when I was sure you would come."
She made direct eye contact "But you are the Abhimanyu why would you care" saying this she moved aside and looked at me to answer.
"I thought it was an ordinary birthday bash, I didn't know it was special. I'm-" before I could continue she passed a sad chuckle at me "To some person, it might have a special meaning. What's ordinary to one person can be extraordinary to another." Paused for a while and went on while turning around, "Anyway, I expected many things from you, my mistake. I'll make sure to not bother you again with these things." She smiled, blinked her eyes, and left
She should've shouted instead, or at least should've been mad at me. Since that day everything between us changed, she barely spoke; she would smile once in a while when we are with the family. I tried to find my best time to apologize for e her but things weren't helping me anyway. It just felt like I started living with a log of wood in the same room, which just wouldn't respond react or do anything. We just existed together, tbh not even together.