"And achanak she went away" Manik said rubbing his face
"Kya maine kuch galat kiya Nandu" he asked Nandini, his food untouched
"Mani" Nandini held his hand even she didn't know what went wrong
"No Nandu, I know kuch galt bola hoga maine varna why she would cry and be upset, mujhe to kuch samajh hi nahi aa raha, this is very difficult" he heaved a deep breath
"It's like being a parent all over again" he said cover his face with his palms
"Manik look at you" Nandini laughed looking at his state
"It's not funny" he said seriously making her laughs die
"She was crying Nandini and I don't know why, you remember once she was crying like this and we couldn't figure out what is hurting her" he remembered
"She was two months" he added when he saw her thinking hard
"Oh yaa, that day when she had pinched you and then tried to bite you whenever Abhir came near you" she remembered
"Yes it felt like that, not getting what's hurting her" he said and rested his head on his table, he felt tired all of a sudden
"Don't worry" Nandini rubbed his back, Manik was always like this when it came to their daughters, he would always want to know everything about them. Be it how to change their diapers or which diaper causes rashes to whom and who likes to play with soft toys and who likes to play with toys which make sound and so many things. When Aayan and Avni were babies he used to calm them when they cried, Nandini would try but they were more inclined to Manik specially Avni. She remembers how Avni use to only sleep in Manik's arms and throw a fit when she won't see him around for more time
"Accha do one thing go and pick them up" Nandini suggested but he nodded no
"Atleast have something" she said and kept a spoon near his mouth. He lazily ate and Nandini signed.
After lunch they returned home only to see cart boxes being transferred inside the house by some of the workers
"Suniye" Nandini called on of the workers
"Yeh?" she pointed the boxes
"Khushi madam ne upar pe kamre mein rakhne ke liye kaha hai" he said and walked upstairs, MaNan following him
They saw the boxes were being kept in Avni's room. Neyonika was there setting few of Avni's clothes in her wardrobe
"Yeh sab kya hai Mom?" Nandini asked picking a blak t-shirt and keeping it on one heep
"Woh Avni ka kuch saman hai US se aaya hai" Neyonika said and then saw Nandini had kept the black t-shirt in wrong place so she picked it us and stacked it with other black t-shirts
"Waha nahi rakhna hai" she said sorting the other clothes by their colors
"Huh?" Nandini asked confused
"Avni ko apne kapde organised form mein chaiye hote hai, the pastels on the left, warms go second on left, then the colds and then white black and greys" she told Nandini and arranged it accordingly and that is when Nandini noticed the clothes arranged very neatly in the form Neyonika said
"The dresses are on top shelf, t-shirt after that, jeans and PJ's on the next shelf and the traditionals in the bottom. Right drawer has her accessories and left has her makeup and if you mess any of this she gets pissed" Neyonika told them putting some clothes from the box in their right places with proper folds
"She is particular" Nandini noticed
"Yes the only time her room is a mess is when she is making her cards and other wise it's spick and span" Neyonika said turning to her with a smile
Manik noticed every box had a label of what was there inside them like clothes, books, fictions, non fictions, stationery, trophies and medals, etc. What he also noticed that the clothes boxes which Neyonika had open had the clothes neatly folded and in a particular way and pattern
"She has OCD" Manik stated looking at his mother who's moments stopped she looked at Manik and Nadini for a second
"She has developed OCD" Neyonika agreed
"She used to be mostly alone toh all she had to do is organise her stuff and she liked her stuff in a particular place in a particular manner and if someone tries to break it she feels it is an invasion of her space. Kitni baar she has rearranged her wardrobe after I had arranged it for her and then I observed the way she arranges it and followed it only then I noticed her not getting bothered" Neyonika told them with a sad smile
Manik just stared at her for a minute as Neyonika just went out the room. He looked around the room, the boxes
"Let's see what's in this," Manik said taking a box labeled 'pictures'. He opened it to see all Avni's photos and some frames. He started to look at them as Nandini also joined him in the task and slowly slowly every box was ripped open.
They were amazed to see her achievements in drawing and writing. She had also bagged prizes in dance and performing arts. What they noticed was that there was nothing related to sports in her achievement. She had a lot, alot! of books and she also had specs. Many of her toddler pictures had her with those cute pink ones. Peeking in Avni's life they could not keep track of the time. Manik's phone rang and he excused himself.
Avni had entered the house and directly walked to her room. Arav said Khushi Maa was going to send her things they had brought with them. Avni had thought she was permanently going to shift to India so she had nicely packed all her stuff and asked Arnav to get it in his private jet. But things have changed now!
She bolted in her room with already flaring rage building in her for the whole day and the site in front of her took the broke straw
"What the hell!" she bellowed taking Nandini off guard
"How dare you!" she stormed to Nandini who was seated on the floor surrounded with her things. She snatched her photo frame from Nandini's had very harshly
"Who gave you the permission to touch my things!?" she yelled to make Nandini flinch for the sudden outburst
Manik was on the phone when he had heard Avni yell, hanging up on the person he had rushed to the room to see Avni questioning Nandini
"Watch you tone Avni" he said calmly making her turn in his direction
"And ask your wife to watch her actions" she spat those words on Manik throwing her bag on her bed as Nandini sat there frozen with sudden happening. Everyone except Raj had gathered outside her room after they had heard her.
"Who gave her permission to go through my stuff? I didn't, how dare she touches my stuff" Avni huffed
"It was me ok, I opened the boxes" he said calmly
"And I am telling you check your tone when you talk to her" Manik said gesturing to Nandini and Nandini looked back at him, she got up and stood besides Manik
"It's ok Manik" she said in a small voice
"I am sorry" she apologised Avni
"You should be" Avni said nonchalantly
"And now leave" she added
"Enough Avni, you can't talk to her like that" Manik warned this time
"She was just looking at your stuff and as a mother she has a right to look at her daughter's stuff, doesn't she?" Manik asked Avni and Avni looked at the man in front of her. Nerve of him!
"Mother? Daughter? Are you listening to yourself Mr Malhotra?" Avni asked him
"Who mother? Which daughter? Talking about fucking rights!" she threw the frame in her hand and that was the que, Neyonika was in the room. She knew she should not stop Avni but this was needed
"She has no right! And nor do you!" Avni yelled making Nandini flinch and Manik inners scrunch at her sentence
"Why would you touch my things? Aap hote kon hai!" she asked again her voice was choking but she would try to scream at them
"Dur kar diya mujhe khud se, and asked Dadu and Dadi to take care of me. Iss accha toh you would have sent me to some orphanage" she said the last sentence which so much bitterness that it made Nandini grasp
"At Least I would have parents jo mujhe pyar karte or at least it would have been easy to deal with this fact ki my parents don't want me so they dumped me and walked away"
"At Least Dadu aur Dadi ko itne hardships nahi hote to balance between you and me. To weave this web of lies around me. To pretend to give you all my messages and to give me gifts and letters in reply of them. I never wanted gifts I just wanted you guys... I wanted you guys to come and see me once... I used to wait for you on my birthdays, my open days, my competition days, there was always an hop ki aap mujhe surprise dene aaoge. I toh even wished you people would be waiting for me on the Mumbai airport. But you WEREN'T THERE! AAP NAHI THE WAHA!"
"You know how it feels? How it feels to see families around you when you don't have one! How does it feel to wait? How does it feel to just make yourself believe to just hang in there? To ignore the loopholes of the excuses and trust your parents and your grandparents! YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS!"
"NO! NO! You don't, you don't because apne toh mujhe replace kar diya na" her voice broke at the end
"I wish I could have done the same" she stressed every work with so much bitterness
"But now I will" she said with determination in her eyes
"Now I will" she said and frantically looked through her boxes
"Kya kar rahi ho Avni?" Manik asked trying to stop her but she would shove him away
"Av.." she even shoved Neyonika away
Mercilessly she pulled out things from different boxes and gathered them. The first thing she picked up was her Mac laptop. She marched with it, the people outside moved out of her way and she threw the laptop down in the living room. It crashed on the living room floor with full force, some of its parts breaking away, all looked at her in horror. She went downstairs and further threw the laptop again to break it fully. She made way to the kitchen and came back in few minutes. She walked back to her room and took the headphone and broke it apart. She walked to her wardrobe and removed a certain close in a box, dumped her Harry Potter book collection in that and few more books. She racked a box and found a folder and dumped all the letters in them, she brought various things and dumped in the boxes and then carried those boxes with her. Manik and Nandini followed her with others and Neyonika tried to talk to her. She was asking her not to this but Avni wasn't listening to any. She took long steps to the door when she saw a butler carrying an army green case on his shoulder and walking in. She stopped and snatched that case and mounted if on her shoulder. As Avni took that Neyonika's pleadings became more frantic but the girl won't listen. She made way to the back lawn and dumped the boxes in her hands and dismounted the case and threw it.
"Avni! Avni ruk! Kya kar rahi hai Avni!" Neyonika tried to stop her as she removed the match from her pocket which she got from the kitchen. She lit a match and threw it on her things
"Avni!" Neyonika exclaimed in horror as rest stood there stupefied to even make a move
One, Two, Three and slowly slowly Avni lighted all the matches and threw it on her stuff. The flames started to catch air and glow as Manik squirmed remencing the dead full memories but this time his mind blocked them all he could see was his daughter's rage in that flames.
The flames grew and grew. And when Avni felt they were powerful enough she walked to the case
"Avni nahi!" Neyonika held her arm but she shoved Neyonika away too. Manik held Neyonika in his arms. He wanted to see what she was doing.
She sat on her knees and opened the case as a memory hit her
"Dad ne bheja mere liye!"
"Haan baccha"
She stretched her hand and held the neck of the guitar. It was slick back with a white 'A' written in the bottom of its body she creased it
"I will always treasure it Dadu!"
She picked the guitar and stood up. She walked near the fire and threw the guitar in the burning flames
"It will break the day my connection with music will break!"
A faint voice said in her head as she saw the flames hogging the guitar.
She stood there looking at the site
"Music connects you with your parents"
"The star performer of the evening- Avni Malhotra"
"You hold the guitar like your Dad"
"Aww your voice so resembles to Nandini when you sing"
She fell on her knees near the fire when she heard Neyonika cries. And she why Neyonika cried. Neyonika cried because just now Avni broke the biggest connection between her and her parents....
She stared at the fire without letting her tears fall. For once the inner voice asked her to grab that guitar from the flames. She was tempted! Yes she was but she didn't she just sat there looking at it burn with all the gifts she once thought were gifted her by her parents and a sudden realization hit her she just destroyed all the fond memories of her life and that was the moment she broke into sobs
Those sobs increased ever passing seconds and she felt herself being caged in warm arms. She looked up to see Manik holding her tightly as she cried in his arms
Manik saw the flames
"Manik!"
"Manik!"
"Ayana ko le!"
"Manik!"
He felt breathless, his vision blurred but then he saw Avni standing near the blazing flames. On instinct his legs walked to take her away from the fire when she herself took a step back and walked towards the case she had snatched from a butler. Manik saw Neyonika run to her to stop her but Avni shoved her away only for Manik to hold Neyonika from falling on the lawn. He was surprised to see this side of Avni, she cared for none but her vengeance!
"Manik usse rok! Usse rok!" Neyonika cried in his arms but he wanted to see, he wanted to see how far Avni can go in her anger
He saw her kneeling the case and removing a guitar from it. It was a slick black one, she creased it with a fine smile but next second the smile vanished and she stood up with the guitar and walked back to the fire and just threw it in the flames. Something broke in him. He always respected his music and seeing his daughter throwing away the guitar in flames made his mouth taste bitter. He heard Neyonika whimper when Avni did that. Then he saw Avni falling on her knees, she was near the flames. He called Nandini and asked her to be with Neyonika. When Nandini kneeled and held Neyonika they all heard sobs, heart wrenching sobs.
Avni was sobbing like she lost something very dear to her. Manik rushed to her and engulfed her in his arms. He looked at her and saw her looking at him, her eyes had so much pain, so much plain that all Manik wanted was to hide her in his arms and that's what he did.
Nandini was sleeping besides Avni. The girl had gone all vulnerable after burning her belongings that after yelling so much on MaNan she stick to them only
Mukti bluntly said that Manik's daughter was like him, short tempered and bi-polar.
Manik gave a last glance at them and then walked out of the room
"No Dadu aise karo na" he heard a toddler's voice.
He walked to see Neyonika sitting in the front of TV where the video played
It was Avni, some 4-5 years old she was. Wearing a lavender color t-shirt and black pants, her cute pink specs rested on her nose. Her hairs were tired in two ponies and she was wearing a white sweater standing in the lawn of Malhotra Mansion in New York
She showed him how to hold his camera and stood in front of the mic
"Ready?" she asked
"Ready" Raj said and Manik could tell he was giving her thumbs up from behind the camera
"Ok" Avni said and stopped she cleared her throat and looked at the camera
Dori yeh khinchi dori
Palne ki tune mori
Manik was stunned that his little girl had her notes on point. Also this was his composition. Years ago he had written this for his daughters but never worked on it.
Mere sapno ko jhulaya sari raat.
Bhale bagiya teri chhodi
He came and sat beside Neyonika, not removing his eyes from the screen. He was sure Raj had this this composition
Bhale nindiyan teri chori
Bass itti si yaad tu rakhiyo meri baat
A smile adored his face as Avni sang
Teri laadki main
Teri laadki main
He had tears in his eyes as she sang the lines
Teri laadki main chhodungi na tera haath..
Teri laadki main chhodungi na tera haath..
"Wow Princess, this is so good!" Raj appreciate her
"Sacchi" she asked innocently
"Haan" Raj said
"Dad ko dikhana aap, I loved this song, unko bolna haan" she said walking to Raj as he switched off the camera
Manik looked at the Black screen when Neyonika spoke
"This was her first song. It was after this Raj gifted her the guitar saying you like it so much that you are gifting her this so that she can continue her music" Neyonika said looking at the TV
"You know what she did today Manik" she paused
"She didn't burn the guitar, she tried to burn all her connections with you and Nandini" saying she left and Manik just sat there in the darkness.