Hi friends!!! How are you all? Well I am here with the next part of the story. Hope you all like it like the previous parts. Anyways Happy belated Navratri guys.
Here I present you guys with the sixth part of the story.
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ADHOORE HUM ADHOORE TUM
Chapter-6 (Pasts and a shared present)
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Kabir had not been so mercurial and moody when he was young. He was a fun-loving and cheerful boy whose belief in humanity and its goodness had not been destroyed. When he was thirteen, he lost his father whom he dearly loved. But even more than that, he lost his belief that the people around you could be selfless and loving, and that the world you live in is a beautiful place. He had seen all the ugliness in the world at that small age, fighting against the avariciousness of relatives who were after his father’s property like hawks and eagles, and friends who left them in the lurch in their times of difficulties.
In a short while, Kabir and his mother Kusum found themselves on the streets due to these so called relatives and friends. He realized at that moment that the only way to deal with people and things was to lord over them and tyrannize them with your money and power and never take people at their face value. He could never believe the people around him without proper evidence just on the basis of trust after that. It was something which came in the way of all the future relationships he made in life.
Kabir and his mother began working to support themselves financially while he continued his studies at the night school. Even their joint income put together was meagre and just sufficient to support their needs. After school, he joined college and it was here that he met Kirti. He always knew that she was highly ambitious and calculative, and that she could manipulate anyone for her own benefit. But many of the people whom he had seen since he was thirteen were like that. So he did not see anything wrong in it at that point of time. And who thinks of character and compatibility when they are twenty? All that matters at that age is physical appearances. He fell in love with her, or rather let’s say, he was infatuated by her. She too acknowledged his attentions because she was flattered by them. But she always knew that her affair with him was just a time pass for her, while he was pretty serious about their relationship.
This brief interlude in love ended in disappointment for him when she got married to a rich NRI boy with whom her parents had fixed her marriage. When Kabir just asked her to give him two years so that he could earn all that she thought was necessary to live with him happily, she said, “Kabir don’t be silly! I never thought about leading my life with a loser like you. You were just my time pass. The match my parents have fixed for me is my true future. And why should I give you even two minutes leave alone two years when you mean nothing to me. Get on with your life and let me live mine. I hope I never meet you again.”
These were the words LOSER’, NOTHING TO ME’, TIME PASS’ which hardened Kabir’s heart even more. They made him even more determined to achieve success, money and power at all costs, and have the whole world at his feet. And this had left him where he was today, all alone at the pinnacle of success. That was the reason why he wanted to push Sanchi away from him. But his thoughts and actions were only contradicting each other.
Though Kabir kept denying it to himself, he found himself coming even closer to her with every passing day. When he began to think what was it about Sanchi that reminded him of her, he found that every small thing and gesture of hers made a mark on him. She was a complete contrast to Kirti. She was everything that Kirti was not. He wanted to escape from her but kept coming back to her himself because he could not bear to remain away from her for long.
One morning, Sanchi was talking to her younger brother Sunny, “I’ve transferred the money in Papa’s account just now. You will receive them in a couple of hours maximum. You can pay your college fees after that. And don’t think of taking up a job after your engineering. You always wanted to do your MBA after that. So there is no need for you to start earning so soon. What I’m earning is sufficient for all of us.”
Sunny said, “But for how long Didi? I too have grown up and I want to shoulder the responsibilities of my family. And none of what you are doing today were your dreams when you were small. If you can do it, why can’t I? Anyways I can do my MBA after working for a year or two. But what about all your dreams and our dreams for you? Papa and Mama are literally broken down. They blame themselves for whatever happened. Why can’t you give yourself a second chance? Not everybody is like him you know.”
Sanchi scolded her brother, “You’re still not old enough to discuss my life and my priorities, Sunny. We’ve repaid all our debts only a short while back. Papa’s health is also not good. So can we keep all these discussions for later? Who told you I’m not happy with my present life? I’m much happier living in my world of stories than I ever was in my old life. If you want to remind me of all that, don’t call me again!”
Sanchi did not know why she retreated like a snail into its shell or a touch-me-not plant at the slightest mention of her past. She never wanted to think of whatever happened in that sorry chapter of her life. She was thankful to the almighty that she had put her past behind her and was doing something constructive in her life. She was sharing entertainment and happiness to others through the medium of her stories and shows. Living all alone is a much better option than having somebody who tears down your self-respect all the time.
Sanchi was a divorcee. Her first husband, Nikhil turned out to be a sadist. All her dreams for her married life had turned into nightmares. Her husband used to beat her day in and day out. He treated her like the dirt under his feet. If she ever thought of leaving him and going, he would threaten and blackmail her using her family. Before her parents and brother, he would act like a perfect husband to her. He would never allow her to meet or talk to her family on her own.
Nikhil would keep her locked in the house whenever he went outside and would disconnect the telephone line for fear that she would take help from outside. But when he tried to assault her against her will, she decided that she has tolerated him for too long. She walked out of her marriage, filed a case of domestic violence against him, took a restraining order against him for herself and her family, and applied for divorce. It took one year for the settlement of this case and for divorce to be granted to her.
Sanchi joined a post graduate diploma course in media studies and film making during this time. She wanted to move on in life and create a new identity of her own. Today she was an established writer and creative director. She was earning enough to support herself and her family comfortably. They had repaid all the debts made for her marriage and her court case only a short while back. Why did Sunny want her to put herself through all that again? It’s true that not every man was like her first husband, Nikhil. But for love and marriage, you need to meet the right person. That was what she had learnt from her first experience. She thought to herself, “Let that person come into my life. I’ll think about all this then!”
Sanchi thought of Kabir as just a friend while he was becoming more than one to her. He began influencing the way she dressed herself or the way she carried herself. She used to comb herself twice or thrice before she actually looked satisfied at her appearance. She started wearing bright colours instead of pale colours. She began shopping for designer wear dresses instead of buying simple dresses.
If Sanchi made anything special, nowadays she would pack an extra box for Kabir as well, along with her box and Veer’s. A bright smile covered her entire face whenever he dropped in at her house for an informal visit, and they spent hours over two cups of tea and four biscuits. She too had been to his house a number of times. She and his mother, Kusum, struck a friendship from their first meeting itself. She often used to help Kusum aunty out with her work at the NGO during the evenings. She did not recognize that her life was changing after she had met Kabir.
One evening, while Sanchi was engaged at Kusum aunty’s NGO along with the children of the orphanage, they had an unexpected visitor. It was KG himself. She was teaching the children painting at that time. When she asked him what he was doing there, he replied, “This NGO is actually in my name. Ma just runs it on my behalf. I usually come here whenever there are important papers in which I have to sign. What are you doing here?”
She replied, “Painting! I usually come here in the evenings whenever I’m free. I came to know about this NGO only a short while back from Kusum aunty. But I’ve been coming here and spending time with these children ever since because it gives me great happiness.” He said, “I’ll join all of you after my administrative work is done.” True to his word, Kabir joined them in half an hour.
Soon both Kabir and Sanchi were seated along with the children and painting. Her hair was loose and kept falling on her face often. She kept blowing it back with a puff of air from her mouth when it started irritating her. Observing her discomfort, he took a paper clip and tied her hair in a bun before remarking, “Ah, that’s better! Now you look somewhat ugly. Too much beauty becomes difficult to tolerate at times!”
One small boy among the group remonstrated Kabir saying, “Bhaiya, Didi does not look ugly even now.” Kabir thought deeply to himself and said, “Yes, I get your point. What shall we do to make your Didi ugly then?”
Kabir and the other children painted a moustache and some protruding fangs on her face before they seemed satisfied. They showed her face to her in a mirror when she feigned mock anger at them and started chasing them with a pillow beside her. All the children and Kabir also armed themselves with pillows that were handy and got into a funny and cute pillow fight. Life was slowly and gradually changing for both Kabir and Sanchi though they never acknowledged it to themselves either willingly or consciously. They began seeing the other person as an integral part of their lives. They began building their dreams, their hopes and their desires round the other person.
Sanchi began editing what she had written for her new show
Robert Fulgham says in True Love, “We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness” and call it love “true love.”
And so it was for both Varsh and Spandana. Weird as they both were, they did not know when the other’s weirdness started appealing to each other. They did not know when the mirror became their best friend, and when the other person started influencing the way they talked, the way they walked, the way they dressed and the way they spoke. They began changing themselves for the other. They began making adjustments to their set life pattern. They began doing all this willingly and not under any compulsion. Unconsciously they started going closer and closer to each other with every passing day…
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Hope you all have enjoyed reading it.
Thanks for reading and do express your views on this.
Take care
With love~
Rishika❤