Finallyyy, the next chapter is here *drum rolls*
Hope you like it.
Happy reading :)
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The news of Pandit's departure was hurtful for both him and Sameer. Munna's condition too wasn't better when they had informed him about it. He had wanted to come but the workload didn't allow him. On many requests of Sameer, Pandit had decided to spend time with him on the day of his flight so that they could go directly to the airport to see him off. They had their breakfast together, talking and discussing work, with mostly Sameer telling him about the do's and don'ts when he would be handling his own business. Pandit had listened to his words patiently noting down every important point in his mind.
They were having tea together on the porch when Pandit all of a sudden raised a question, "Sameer, aage ka kya socha hai tune...?" Sameer couldn't understand the meaning of his words, "Aage ka? matlab...?"
Pandit gestured towards Naina who had just come downstairs going towards the kitchen due to which they were out of her hearing range. She knew about Pandit's presence in the house, so not to bother anyone, she had confided herself in her room doing her pending work.
Sameer sighed after getting what he wanted to say, "Sach bolun, mujhe kuchh bhi idea nahi hai yaar....Na woh inn sab ke liye ready hai aur na hi main. Main toh uske baare mein kuch jaanta bhi nahi hun thik se. "
Pandit asked him, "Tujhe kaise pata woh ready nahi hai?"
Sameer told him about their entire conversation from that night when they had come to the decision of letting it go as it was going and not focusing on this marriage for now. Pandit was quite for a minute or so and finally opened his mouth to say, "Par aisa kab tak chalega Sameer?"
Sameer answered in a dubious tone, "Pata nahi. Mere liye filhal Nanu ka sapna pura karna zyada important hai aur yeh baat Naina bhi jaanti hai. Mujhe isme koi bhi problem nazar nahi aa rahi hai."
"Tu yeh kya bol raha hai? Don't you think yeh uske saath na-insafi karna hoga?" Pandit took a pause before continuing, "Accha ek baat bata mujhe, tu Nanu ka sapna pura karne ki baat kar raha hai, tum dono ki shaadi bhi unka sapna tha, Uska kya?"
Sameer rebuked him, "Pandit please, jab usey ya mujhe koi problem nahi hai toh tu bhi mat please kuchh mat bol" He took a deep breath to calm himself down, "Tu bhi jaa raha hai aaj, pata nahi ab kab milenge. Main tujhse koi behas nahi karna chahta ... "
His painful expression displayed how much he was struggling inside himself. First Nanu, then Munna, and now Pandit, it was like a high tide of suffering had swept away the fortress built of their strong relationship and togetherness, leaving behind the remnants of misery and agony. The low performance of the company too was adding up the already growing pressure. Pandit so wanted to stay back but decided to do against it, knowing Sameer's firm nature.
Being aware of Naina's clear-sighted and discreet nature, he was satisfied with their marriage. Though they never really got into a conversation, he had observed her way of working and her limited interactions with others. She was much more responsible towards her work instead of just loitering around like most of the others.
One day, while on a car ride, he had caught sight of her distributing some packets of biscuits to the slum children near the temple. In that very moment, she had made it to his good books due to her generosity. This is why he felt that she didn't deserve this and he was sure that his friend would not pay any heed to his words. They would have to handle this by themselves.
After their Chai-time, they returned to Sameer's room to give the last check on the luggage and the tickets making sure they hadn't missed anything. Amidst doing all this, Pandit's phone ringed, his mother's name displaying on the screen. Sameer was in the bathroom taking a shower since they had to leave for the airport in half ab hour.
Pandit picked the call and stepped towards the wide balcony talking to his mother who was asking when he would leave for the airport and inquiring if he had packed all of his belongings carefully. He assured her not to worry about anything and that he would reach home till night.
Naina had just stepped out of her room when Pandit came inside from the balcony and spotted her. Without saying anything, she attempted to go only to be stopped by him, "Naina..."
She slowly turned towards him in anticipation of another advice about how she should not have any hopes from this marriage and that it's too early for Sameer to accept this.
Pandit broke her chain of thoughts by saying, "Main zyada time nahi lunga tumhara. I just wanted to thank you for being so cooperative and understanding. I know kafi kuchh unexpected hua hai pichle kuchh dinon mein par tumne samjha unhe, uske liye really thank you..."
She was surprised by his words. She didn't expect him to thank her. To his words, she replied with a slight nod and said, "Koi baat nahi..."
Pandit gave a faint smile saying, "I know abhi chize kafi complicated hain, but I hope ki tum dono jaldi unhe sort kar lo..."
Naina only gave a forced smile to him choosing to be quiet and left from there. She didn't see that coming. She knew Pandit was a jolly and vivacious person, but this mature and calm side of his was very new to her. To say, he was her senior but technically, he was her Devar, for which she felt herself to be fortunate enough.
After having a quick lunch, both the boys left for the airport. The two best friends hugged each other tightly, shedding tears of pain on getting separated. They both promised to be in contact and also visiting each other.
At last, Pandit finally bid goodbye to him disappearing in the crowd entering inside the airport.
* * * * * *
The following few days were extremely hopeless, especially for Sameer since he felt much more lonely than before with no one by his side. As for Naina, she had become stressed lately due to increasing workload owing to the end of the tax month and expectations of getting the best from her side. They both were living a tedious life without any sort of conversation between them. The tag of 'Marriage' had disturbed their professional relationship, which could be seen whenever their paths would collide and they would always avert their gazes from each other.
Three days passed in a similar pattern with Sameer leaving early for office while Naina used to leave later. In these days, she had bonded well with Ramdhari due to his humble nature. It was due to him only that she now felt at ease to live in this big house. They would talk about numerous things which would remind her of Shaila Chachi, making her emotional.
Sameer was living in his own world. His day began and ended with work. With Munna and Pandit's helping hand, it was simpler to handle all the things but now he had to deal with it alone which was not a piece of cake for him. He was too busy to notice the happenings around him. His appetite had become imbalanced with lesser food and gallons of black coffee. Without any fixed sleep pattern, he had overall become a mess. Had Nanu been here, he would have taken care of him because he knew his grandson's adherence towards his work.
Naina had been observing him since last few days, so she decided to play a trick on him by asking Ramdhari to increase the number of veggies in his food. When he had put forward his confusion of how to do so since Sameer baba hated them, Naina came up with a simple solution to use alternative ways.
For instance, she suggested him to grate vegetables like Louki, Aloo, cabbage and Radish as fine as possible, and mixing them together for the stuffing of Parathas. Since he hated turnip a lot, therefore she advised him to make its curry by adding some potatoes too, so that he would be unable to make a difference between them.
Together, they came up with many ideas to keep his diet healthy even if he ate a little.
Ramdhari was very impressed by his Bhabhi. He was sure she would definitely make things fall into their place. 'Nanaji ne bilkul sahi bahu chuni hai, iss ghar aur Sameer baba, dono ke liye', he thought.
* * * * *
It was another busy day in Maheshwari Industries with employees sticking their heads into documents and files. Naina was busy preparing the monthly statement of the company when suddenly, someone barged in her cabin and said in a chirpy voice, "Good Morning Naina!"
Naina raised her head to see Smriti standing in front of her with a grin on her face. Smriti Ahuja, a joyous and spirited girl, had joined Maheshwari Industries under the Sales Department two weeks back. She was more of a loquacious kind of a person with a Punjabi background and had been living in Mumbai for five years.
In these two weeks, she and Naina had become good colleagues. The two had formed a bond good enough for sharing lunch together, discussing work in their spare time and many more things just like that. Smriti was a tittle-tattler. There wasn't any incident which she wouldn't know in the first place or hadn't told about to Naina.
"Good morning Smriti... Kaisi ho?", Naina asked calmly. Smriti replied, "Main toh bilkul badhiya hun ji. Tum batao, kya chal raha hai?"
Naina answered, "Kuch khas nahi, bas yeh statements complete kar rahi thi." Just then, her gaze shifted towards Sameer who was passing by and was visible through the glass doors of her cabin.
Smriti followed her gaze and remarked, "Hayee... Humare sir bhi kitne handsome hai na... Kisi ki nazar hatt hi nahi sakti inse. Jis ladki se inki shaadi hogi woh kitniiiii lucky hogiiii, hai na?" She said the last part in a dreamy voice.
On listening to her words, Naina shifted a little on her chair and gave her a faint smile, "H-Haan... bahut..."
Smriti said, "Okay then, main toh sirf aise hi milne aayi thi tumse. Karlo tum kaam. See you in Lunch-time." She waved a goodbye to her and left her cabin not before receiving a small goodbye from her side. After this, Naina again got busied in her work.
It was almost dinner time when she returned back from the office. After freshening up, she made her way towards the kitchen noticing Sameer hadn't come back even till now. She thought to call him but immediately dismissed the idea and went into the kitchen to heat the food.
On the other hand, Sameer was in a business party of one of his clients. He wasn't even interested in attending it in the first place but decided against it and went there just for the sake of his and company's reputation. He couldn't inform Ramdhari or Naina, owing to be in a haste to complete his work. Just when he was going to take a sip from his drink, a thought popped up in his mind, 'Woh toh ghar pe akeli hogi. Usey kaise pata chalega ki main yaha hu? Inform toh karna hi padega...'
He took out his mobile phone and searched for her number in his contacts. After successfully finding it, he got confused, 'Should I call her?' His thumb lingered for a moment over the call button but retreated back, 'Text hi kar deta hun', he opened the chatbox, a few messages including some balance sheets and documents were there. He mentally scripted the message before typing and hit the send button. Keeping his phone back in his pocket, he finally took a sip from his drink.
Naina was washing her plates after completing her dinner when she heard the ping implying a notification. She dried her hands using a towel and checked her phone.
Sameer Sir:
At a client's party.
For a moment, She felt a bit amused on seeing his too much "informative" message. The text was brief and precise enough to imply that he might get late.
Now, she had the whole house to herself. Ramdhari was already gone and Sameer was attending a party about which she wasn't certain when he would return. She returned to her room thinking to do some work but felt bored just after a few minutes.
The previous days had been extremely hectic for her. She needed to relieve all the tension building up in her mind, so she decided to watch something on the TV. For about half an hour, she just kept changing the channels not being able to find anything interesting, but then she stopped on a channel. It was a dance-based reality show, a girl attired in an Anarkali suit was doing the classical dance.
Naina watched it with utmost interest and all of a sudden, an idea hit her mind. Turning off the TV, she ran upstairs to her room and opened her cupboard. She shuffled inside it for some time and eventually took out a wooden box. She opened it with a smile on her face and took out a pair of shimmering golden Ghungroos. Putting back the box in the cupboard, she went downstairs.
She took her phone connecting to the music system placed beside the TV before tying up the Ghungroos on her ankles. Turning on the music she took her position and joined her hands doing Namaskar. She took a deep breath and began tapping her feet in rhythm following the Taals of the music. Her movements including the intricate footwork, the gestures of her hands and eyes coordinating with the music demonstrated her passion towards Kathak dance.
She had begun learning the basics of Kathak in her college days without telling anyone with an aim to acquire a new skill.
It's been quite a long time since she last practised it at her home. For her, it was like a stress-buster, a way to release all the tension through her hand and foot movements.
She was completely lost in another world where the jingling of her Ghungroos was like soothing medicine to her stress. She was dancing gracefully like there was no tomorrow, completely losing the sense of her surroundings. The Taals were gaining pace and so were her foot movements.
As the music was nearing the end, she began taking spins accompanied by a variety of arm patterns. Her precision was evident while she took turns. As the music stopped, her body came at a halt due to which, a few strands of her hair came in the front blocking her vision. She felt out of breath and was sweating profusely.
Putting the strands behind her ears, she took deep breaths to calm herself down. She felt someone's gaze on her since her back was towards the front door and turned instantly only to find Sameer standing there with surprise written all over his face.
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I really wanted to thank you guys for showing so much love and support for my work. I promise you to give my best.
Thankfully, I am feeling much better now and would try to give the next one soon.
Do give your reviews and do I need to say about votes? I guess not since you would definitely vote if you like this part :)
Lots Of Love, Sim❣