Ae dil hai Mushkil (OS)

Some of the parts aren’t accurate because I don’t remember much of the episodes. Don’t think that I’m not a real fan of avneil. Actually, my memory is weak.
Read this with caution. This os is kind of a tragedy. this is mostly from Neil’s POV. If you really ship Avneil and feel that you would die from their separation, don’t even dare to read the last part.

Tu safar mera
Hai tu hi meri manzil
Tere bina guzara
Ae dil hai mushkil

The first time he had met her, he had thought she was a total disaster. He had been trying catch case 123, but ended up falling into a river with a heavy girl in his arms, who quickly became a case to him. The girl had irritated him immensely. He never had met a stupid yet daring girl like her. It made him get attracted to her, made him think about her all the time. He would always dismiss the thought that he had fallen in love at first sight by saying to himself that she was just a freaking case. He had never thought that the case would worm her way into his forever-sealed heart.

The girl had been so stupid that to get rid of him, she decided to ride alone in a truck with a guy she had never met before. Neil knew what was going to happen, and he risked his opportunity to finally catch the thief he had been after for so long. Had he gone mad? (probably, for her, in love.)

Tu mera khuda
Tu hi duaa main shaamil
Tere bina guzara
Ae dil hai mushkil

They had finally been rescued by Neil’s fellow officers. The next morning, when he had stormed into Ali’s café to calm himself down. Who wouldn’t be frustrated if they lost someone they had been trying to find for eternity?

Then Neil had ranted on how Ananya was annoying or was this or that. Only to be teased by Ali that he had fallen in love. He thought that it was true, just for a nanosecond before thinking how could a person fall in love this fast? He also hadn’t forgotten any of the moments he had shared with Juhi, the love of his life.

He denied it and walked away, not being able to tolerate Ali’s shayaris.

Mujhe azmaati hai teri kami
Meri har kami ko hai tu laazmi

Whenever he was free, Ananya would leak into his thoughts and he would keep on thinking and thinking about her. Whenever he would close his eyes, he would always see those charcoal black eyes staring at him. He seriously missed those beautiful eyes and longed to see them.

He did not have wait long, though. She emerged out of nowhere, looking like an angel in her royal blue lehenga. She was on one knee and was holding his hand, the engagement ring was in the other. He felt like he was daydreaming, like all the other times before.

He soon snapped out of it and realized that it was real. To cover up his embarrassment as he had been staring—wait, they both had been staring at each other for God knows long, he teased her saying that she liked him so much that she came here from who knows how far.

Junoon hai mera
Banu main tere kaabil
Tere bina guzaara
Ae dil hai mushkil

He knew that the ‘fake bangles incident’ had been planned by someone who was trying to break his and Rhea’s marriage. The case he had been working on and Ananya seemed to have some kind of connection and he wanted to find out (and also to meet the girl he had been dying to see). After his melodrama, his mother had finally agreed to go to the family’s house whose members had insulted them.

When they had reached there, he really had wanted to take a picture of Ananya’s shocked face. She clearly hadn’t been expecting them. Just for a moment he had averted his gaze from Ananya to greet the Mehtas and she had vanished into thin air. The two families were converting with each other, but Neil’s eyes were busy looking for the girl he had unintentionally and unknowingly fallen in love with.

He finally found her and suggested to Rhea that they have a pakoda eating completion. Rhea refused to as she thought the so much oil would make her fat and made Ananya play for her. The contest started but finished when Ananya started choking. He became worried and immediately made her drink water.

Both went to their own ways before they started feeling dizzy, the bhaang leaking into their systems. They both shared some close moments in the locked bathroom before they realized that if someone saw them here, all alone, they would become suspicious of them having an affair and break Neil’s and Rhea’s marriage. Thankfully they were successful in escaping the bathroom by the window. Neil promised to himself that he would never ever try to lift the bhaari-bharkum Ananya Verma (only to do it again and again).

Yeh rooh bhi meri
Yeh jism bhi mera
Utna mera nahi
Jitna hua tera

Rhea decided to bring a twist in her birthday party and introduced a game ‘Dance with Destiny’. Neil wanted to know what was in Ananya’s pendant and told DD to write Ananya’s name in a particular chit so that he could be alone with her.

Neil didn’t know the boundaries of his happiness when He got Ananya’s name on his chit and vice versa. He dismissed the butterflies in his stomach and the second voice in his head which had decided to act like a teenager and screamed ‘Girl Alert! Girl Alert! Girl Alert!’

He manipulated Ananya like he had done in the holi celebrations and managed to bring her to the dance floor. They slow danced, stealing glances at each other but quickly looking away. Neil feared that Ananya could hear his thumping heart. Why was his heart pounding at the proximity between them? Was he attrac—no, its not possible. He had just met the girl.

Tune diya hai jo
Woh dard hi sahi
Tujhse mila hai toh
Inaam hai mera

How can he forget their trip to mahabaleshwar? That had brought them close and emotionally attached them to each other.

At the start, Neil had followed Ananya because he thought he knew that she was following him and trying to protect that criminal Rahul. When he had seen her being chased by the wild horse, his heart had skipped a beat. What if it killed her? Mera kya hoga? He immediately ran to save her, which he did successfully and tied a rope around its neck and the other end to a tree branch. He decided that he would leave this akla ki dooshman alone in the forest to save herself as he was tired of saving her again and again (also that he couldn’t bear to see her in these do-or-die situations for the umpteenth time.)

Then he found out that her mother had been kidnapped when he heard her talking—pleading on the phone to not do any harm to her maa. Neil instantly snatched the phone and put it on speaker. After the criminal cut the call, Neil did his best to not lash out his anger on the poor phone. Avni broke down and out of nowhere, hugged him. Neil was frozen in place, his mind unable to function properly. That always happened when Ananya was around him, her mild fragrance burning into his nostrils and her body heat making him feel a different kind of warm he had felt whenever he used to be around Juhi—no, he is not in love with Ananya, that was not possible.

Neil again felt his heart beating rapidly, trying to process what was happening in front of his eyes. Amol’s gun was pointed on Ananya’s forehead.
The girl keeps on giving heart attacks from time to time doesn’t she?
Thanks to the training he had gone through, He snapped out of his thoughts and threw the gun out of Amol’s hand. DD arrived a few moments later and Neil told him to take this criminal to where he belongs.

Mera aasmaan dhoondhe teri zameen
Meri har kami ko hai tu laazmi

For the next week or so, Neil tried to find out If Ananya was the illegimate granddaughter of Dayawanti Mehta, Avni Ayesha. When he heard her talk about how different he was from the other men she had met in her life; that he was a good person, he had subconsciously smiled and felt his chest puff up in pride. If someone else would have said it, he would have not even cared. But somehow, whenever Ananya praised him, he felt like that he was in the seventh heaven.

He got closer and closer and there were many encounters which gradually brought him near his destination: Ananya’s identity. He had not been able to react much (physically) when he realized that she was the same Avni which had been shot 15 years ago, whose own grandmother wanted to kill her, who had lost everyone dear to her to Dayawanti Mehta. He had not been able to react, but on the outside. The truth had been too much painful for his brain to digest, making him unfunctional on the outside. However, he could not let the partial truth make him drown. He had to find the entire truth before making his final judgement.

Zameen pe na sahi
Toh aasmaan mein aa mil
Tere bina guzaara
Ae dil hai mushkil

Neil was thinking about what Neela ma had said to him after he had revealed that he knew Avni’s truth. He had told her about the many charges on her, that he could arrest her anytime he wanted. She had just smiled and told him that he won’t do it because he loved her.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by his mother who asked him something he could not listen to because Neela’s words were still ringing in his head:

Iss chor-police ke khel me tumhe pata hi nahi chala Neil kab Avni tumhare dil me kar gayi.

Was it true that he had fallen in love with her?

Maana ki teri maujoodgi se
Yeh zindagani mehroom hai
Jeene ka koi dooja tareeka
Na mere dil ko maloom hai

Neil was hell-shocked to find Avni as his bride. He had mixed-emotions. He felt betrayed, angry and a small part of him was happy for what had happened, but the rage consumed everything and he threw all his anger on poor Avni. Later at his small apartment, Avni gave him her mangalsutra and promised him that she would leave him. And she did.

Up all night, Neil’s mind kept on replaying his unexpected wedding. He could not believe the Avni could do something like this to him. But he had to. After all, she was a criminal. Well, that was what his mind always said. His heart would always believe every obvious lie that escaped from Avni’s mouth. His stupid heart had fallen head over heels in love with a criminal.

Tujhko main kitni shiddat se chaahun
Chahe toh rehna tu bekhabar
Mohtaj manzil ka toh nahi hai

He had managed to bring Avni to his new home: Mehta house, which was now to be now as Khanna house. Oh how he had loved teasing Avni on her first rasoi. He still remembered the cute cartoon-like face she was making when she tried to make any type of food. The line she had said, ‘me hockey khelne wali ladki hoon, Loki katne wali nahi.’ Suited her perfectly. Nevertheless, Neil was going to change all that because he wanted Avni to live a normal life like any other girl.

And how could he forget their first night when Avni had tried to seduce him to drink the milk? Seriously, the girl needed to know a lot about him. He absolutely disgusted milk and she was seducing him with the drink he hated most in the world.

He was planning to soon reveal that he knew her truth, but she had ran away, away with that freaking Ali. He wanted to choke the life out of Ali for supporting Avni in leaving Him. He could not do that because he was a cop and would certainly be jailed and also that what could the poor guy (Ali) do? He had told him that he loved Avni and had been waiting for her for 15 years.

Yeh ek tarfa mera safar safar
Khoobsurat hain manzil se bhi
Meri har kami ko hai tu laazmi

He had told her not to step out of the house, right? The girl will never listen to him. Avni had been kidnapped by Dayawanti just because she became emotional from her father’s death.

Thank the Gods Neil had somehow reached the temple on time and stopped Avni. How dangerous she looked in her maha Kali avatar. Neil remembered how scared he was from her at the moment. He thanked his police training for this again and again for being to overcome shock and be fearless.

Adhoora hoke bhi hai ishq mera kaamil
Tere bina guzara ae dil hai mushkil

Avni had runaway. Even Ali did not know where she was. Neil could feel his world crumbling down around him as he realized that he had lost his love again. When will he ever get a good love life? Never.
He chided himself. He should have supported her like he had promised when his family was against her because they thought that she was having an affair with Ali. He loved her and the scene that had happened in front of his eyes had sent him into an unofficial paralysis.

‘Mohabatt karna hamare bas me nahi hai. Uss mohbatt se door chalejana,
Voh hamare bas me hai’

And that is what exactly he is doing right now, waiting beside for the bride at Ali-Avni’s mandap. He would bury his feelings deep into his heart so that he could feel nothing; be numb. As a police officer, it was his duty to put others before him.

Avni would be happy with Ali, she had told me she loved him.

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