"OK so I have a perfect plan for the rest of the day." She declared while happily munching away the hakka noodles which Manik was feeding her. Slashing her hand had been an unexpectedly good bargain. In a corner of her heart, she had neatly tucked away all the hurt. Once Manik would be gone, tomorrow morning, she would bring them out to mourn over. But these last few hours she still had with him, she wanted to weave a wish tree around him and hang from it all the memories, she would either create or gather. It wasn't in her capacity to bring back or erase the three years they had both spent in hell, but she could try replacing every sad memory with a happy one & repaint the melancholic past with bright shades of friendship and love.
"Nandini, honestly, I am not doing this. You are a trouble maker and its always me who ends up paying for it. Noway I am tired now!!"
She made a pouty face and showed him her sore finger. "You to will leave tomorrow, fir I can't bug you, you will have all the peace in the world. Please na, lets do it my way. It will be fun, I promise."
"I can't believe emotional blackmailing kar rahi ho. Like seriously?? Let's just play XBOX."
"I don't have an XBOX"
"Yeah, right....Then lets watch a movie, an out and out action flick, or may be a horror movie." He saw how the shape of her lips changed from concave to convex. She handed over her laptop to him and went out to the balcony amidst the growling clouds.
"Ok stop making faces and tell me what graaaand plans you have come up with this time?" He emphasized on the word 'grand' as he followed her to the balcony and rested his arm on her shoulder. Like any other regular guy, he would have ideally loved to play XBOX and just relax. But then she was right. 15 more hours and he wouldn't see her again for 5 long days.
"Really?" Her face lit up instantaneously. "Ok so we will play a game & the game is, I will give you three tasks, like three things that you have do for me in the next 15 hours...and the same applies to you."
"Is it like truth or dare?"
"No its called the 'Make a Memory' game because you can't give random tasks, each task is like a memory that you will either find or create." Manik was damn sure no such game existed and it was purely a figment of her uber fertile imagination. Nevertheless, it sounded like it was going to be fun.
"Done??"
"Done!!" I love challenges and I play to WIN."
"Ok, we both get 5 minutes to come up with our wishes and the time starts now." she turned on her stop watch.
"Hold on, hold on... what does the winner get?"
"One blank wish.. That the other has to fulfil without any doubt or question."
**************************
Five minutes were over within a blink and now it was time for both of them to reveal their wishes.
"You go first" She asked him.
"Ok....
Wish no. 1 is ...Read out a poem from your own archives.
Wish no. 2 is... Dance with me in the rain.
Wish no. 3 is... Because you haven't yet confessed your feelings for me, formally, you will now have to do it in three languages.
He had given her 3 simple and sweet tasks, but these indeed were his wishes and thanks to this weird idea of a game, he could have them all fulfilled in one day. He couldn't wait to hear her list.
"Ok, now my turn...
Wish no. 1.... Formally record a song.
Wish no. 2.... Create one memory which will never grow old.
Wish no. 3.... Bring me the stars."
Manik could do nothing but stare at her in surprise for a good few minutes. What the hell was that? Was it a wishing game or a mind twister? What was Nandini upto?
"This is not done... you can't have such ridiculous wishes, its out and out cheating." Manik complained bitterly.
"Maine to nahi bola tha to pick easy wale tasks for me. Besides, did I just hear someone say 'I love challenges and I play to WIN', prove it now." Nandini rolled her eyes at him, for a change it was her wearing his trademark smirk. "Ek friendly advice dun? Don't underestimate the power of a tiny girl, bas height hi thori si kam hai..."
There was no looking back now. She had instigated him and he would have to answer. The only problem was, he had absolutely no clue, how he was going to accomplish these TASKS. "Ok, done" He said, feigning confidence. "But you will start."
Nandini went to her bedroom to search for a diary in her drawers. When she found it, she rummaged through the pages and tore off one from the 200 plus pages thick journal. She couldn't risk taking the whole thing to him....what if he snatched it from her and read the contents of her other entries?
They both sat down in the balcony, she leaning against him with the paper in her arm.
"It's a windy night...." she started reading aloud.
It's a windy night....
As the wind gushes past.. the curtains swing wild....
Throwing down whatever obstructs its path.....
The windchyme rings...wildly at times...
Its gentle hum almost becoming shrill screams
Its cold....but not chilling......
As clouds give way to a feathery drizzle....
as I panic to shut down the windows...
the lights go off...and I freeze with fear...
the wind tortures me... the drizzle drenches me...
yet I stand still... feeling almost dead...
someone tiptoes close to me....
And I feel his reassuring familiar touch....
Turning back I hug him tight........
the fear in me slowly draining down...
the frantic pace of my heart slows down....
Life rushes back in my frozen veins...
He pulls me back, closer to him...
Letting the curtains swing , letting the windchyme scream...
Slowly he walks back taking me along...
To the recognizable warmth of my bedroom....
As I lie down he stays close...
As if he knws how much I need him now...
Like a child I bury my face in his lap...
And even in the darkness I see him smile...
Caressing my hair, he tells me a story.....
That of a princess and a knight in a distant country....
I don't recall wat happened to them...
For I might have fallen asleep some where down the lane...
As I open my eyes...to the golden sunrays...
I seek him, searching everywhere....
All around there are signs of the wind bygone...
Only there are none to show , he had come...
As reality soaks in... I fall down teary eyed...
How cud he come? He was long gone....
Taking his last breath holding my arm....
Knowing well tht he cant return...
Yet every time, wen I stand frozen...
Alone and shattered, helpless half awake.....
He tiptoes close....he comes... I know..
U wont believe....u need not.. if u don't..
Love calls him... from wherever he stays...
The love that was and will alwes be there...
The love that I breathe, that flows in my vein...
The love that has stayed as his only remain...
Love will keep calling him...
The love that knows neither life nor death...
He was enjoying it to the core, such a sweet-sensuous poem in her soft voice on a cloudy day like this, it was sheer bliss. But when she started reading the penultimate stanza (the one before the last), he stirred up. This poem had a far deeper meaning than he had initially thought, it wasn't sweet-sensuous but mysterious and heartbreaking. She wrote well, of course she wrote very well, but he knew people mostly wrote from experiences and if so, had she really experienced someone very close to her die? He had to ask her, was this anyway linked to her depression?
"Nandini, is it inspired from truth?"
She sensed the worry in his voice and laughed it off. "The first criteria to become a writer is to dissociate yourself from your writing. To answer your question, its purely fictional."
He sighed, in relief.
'The biggest penalty you pay as a writer, is that, you have to become what you write.' She said in her mind. The girl in the poem was her, and the guy was him. She had written it at the time when he had disappeared after the accident and the world had considered him to be dead. It was one of those innumerable nights when she had been hallucinating about him and had scribbled this poem in a state of delirium. This is why she had started writing because here she could vent out all the thoughts that she couldn't share with anyone else and this kept her sane.
For him, it would be a game of making memories, for her, it was about finding them, finding what she had lost.
He clapped. "Great going miss Murthy, So the score is 1-0." How would he formally record a song? This wasn't a studio, he wasn't a professional...he could just sing and play the guitar....think..think Manik.
He literally dragged her inside as soon as the idea hit him. He asked her to sit patiently while he did some kind of a set up. Nandini was hoping he would do something, she trusted his instincts.
Manik downloaded the karaoke version of a song on his phone and installed a sound mixer software on her laptop. He didn't remember ever operating one, but when he opened it, he felt he could as well do it blindfolded. Strange. Within minutes he set it all up.
"Ready??"
She nodded. She was waiting with baited breaths.
Her eyes closed themselves as his voice transported her to another world. His voice....was sheer magic, not just now, not just today but ALWAYS, even when they were enemies. For her, it was the closest thing to salvation, something that could soothe any damn pain, heal any damn wound and she could fall in love with it every single day of her life. How badly had she missed his voice! How many times had she played his songs and voice clips till one fine day when she woke up to realize that all his songs had been taken off the internet. That's why she wanted him to record it today, so that she could hear him anytime, anywhere.
She had no qualms in accepting that when it came to his singing, she was just a starstruck fan.
She didn't clap, cheer or hoot. She just sat there in silence, at complete peace with herself. Sometimes, when we are too overwhelmed with emotions, when we need to shout out to express the maddening joy, we lose our voice. Perhaps that's why at times silence becomes louder than words.
Had it not been a game she would have given him 1-100.
The song he had chosen today, had been so special but he always did it...speak through his songs. He had the uncanny sense of choosing just the right song for the right moment.
But she too wanted to say something to him....through a song. Would he catch her little trick?
"It was so good that I feel like singing myself. I know that's not part of your wish list, but...."
He smiled the most endearing smile ever and bowed down. Music, she knew was the key to his soul. She knew he was genuinely pleased at her volunteering to sing.
It wasn't just a random song, she had sung. Taking a cue from him, she too had carefully chosen the lines. But would he notice?