Arranged Marriage With Love (RIANSH) – Episode 50

2 weeks later

“Come on, let’s go.” Meera confirms, as she picks up her shoulder bag from the table and slings it on her shoulder. She tosses her hair into a messy bun and clinches it with a clip. She ambles her way out and closes the door of her cubicle behind her.

Sampath nods at her, before making his way towards the elevator. Meera tags along as they both cross the threshold of the elevator and descend down the building.

Sampath takes his keys out and unlocks the car, hearing the indicator sound. He opens the car access for her and waits for her, as she settles own on the commuter seat. He bends down and adjusts her dress inside the car before closing the door quietly, while she chuckles at it. He trots to the other side of the car and sits in the driver seat. He starts the coupé and pulls it out of the parking area.

“Damn, the day was so exhausting.” Meera starts, as she leans back and presses her hands.

“Once this project ends, we will declare a paid holiday for the staff. They really are working very earnestly.” Sampath responds, as he changes the gear and condenses the speed.

“If only every corporate boss thought like this.” Meera comments, while Sampath laughs at her remark.

Meera smiles authentically, looking at how serene Sampath was feeling. It made her feel adroit and what made her happier was, he was trying his best to open up about his emotions. He is willing to ask for her warmth, her support and her company. It made her content and she chose to disregard her insecurities about her past, but still she was apprehensive about her preference.

It made her apprehensive as she felt that; disregarding your intuition and ignoring what you once felt or had once broken your mental vigor is nothing but a self betrayal. She didn’t want to betray her own intuition.

Yet she chose to give herself a second chance, if it counts as one, as she believed she deserves the bliss and happiness in her life. She is more than willing to let him inundate her feelings once again because she knew her happiness lies in him and his arms, all the same her heart felt restless.

She felt she was seeing things in black and white but then again she found herself living in grey.

“Meera” , Meera startles at his voice and turns towards him, who was looking at her in confusion.

“I was calling you for the last two minutes but you didn’t react. Are you okay?” He asks, shifting his gaze to the front as he drives through the empty highway. It’s beyond belief to find the roads of Mumbai empty, but then it was already midnight.

“Sorry, I was just-” She rubs her face with her palms, trying to compose the whirling thoughts which were making her restless. She then pulls her phone out and stares at the screen. “Sampath, can you take me to the seaside?”

“Now?” Sampath muses, being rather surprised at her stipulation. She nods her head at him in consent and he finds himself altering his route to the seaside.

After a fifteen minutes drive, they reached the shore. He parked his car at some distance and the two walked towards the sound of crashing waves. There was an implicit harmony which crammed the vicinity around them, as if the waves pounding the shore made them pay attention to the clamor of their hushed hearts.

The dark sky was radiant with bright city lights that were along the shore. Something in the luminosity of the moonlight, that night, was a mysterious chimera. The pale crescent moon shone like a silvery claw in the night sky. The cool tender wind around them added even more beauty to the ambiance, if it felt like eating a tasty saccharine desert after a sumptuous feast.

It seemed like a spectacular mind’s reflection

As they were walking towards the shore side by side, their hands brushed against each other, a spark erupted between them as their eyes met hastily. Meera bits her lower lip nervously, as she steps back a little.

“I…We… Shall we sit here?” Sampath proposes, trying to break the awkward silence between them.

Damn! What was happening? Weren’t they talking normally a few minutes back then why the hell was this nervousness barging between them?

“Y-Yeah” Meera smiles nervously, before sitting on the nippy sand. Sampath takes a deep breath before sitting down beside her with a comfortable distance between them.

Then followed a deafening silence with both of them struggling with their inner angst.

Something around them felt giddy; some unknown pleasure, some unknown fear, some unknown torment and some unknown angst. The commotion they were sensing seemed familiarly unknown, driving their hearts crazy.

The sporadic barking of faraway dogs broke the silence of the night. The sudden commotion startled Meera and she squirmed in her place.

“I don’t think there is anyone here except for those dogs.” Sampath chuckles, amused at Meera’s reaction.

She twirls her head towards him and hits his arm playfully for laughing at her.

“What?” Sampath chuckles again. “It’s almost 12 am now. No sensible person comes here at this time.”

“So you are expecting that you are absurd to visit here at this time.” Meera smirks while Sampath glares at her.

He huffs at her in annoyance and turns forward, suppressing the treacherous smile that was threatening to show up on his face. He heaves a deep sigh; he then puts his hand under his head and pulls back, gently laying on the sand surface.

“Sampath” Meera whines, shoving his arms. “You will spoil your clothes.”

“I don’t mind because doing this brings some strange delight to me.” Sampath smiles softly while Meera looks at him attentively.

“Like?” Meera probes him.

“That shining moon reminds me of my mother.” He whispers as his finger points out at the shining satellite. “Watching at the moon pacifies the child in me.”

A moment of silence prevails as Meera looks at him in confusion.

Moon and Mother?

Sampath closes his eyes slowly, as if trying to feel the essence of her mother. “I remember her saying this.” Meera looks back at him with concentration.

“That, she always thought about being a mother was like being the sun. For her, maternity felt immense and imperative, like a job that had to excel to its potential at all times. There is this myth that the sun is responsible for life to grow, that people relax in it and live for the days when the sun kisses their faces and warms their skin. She compared herself with the sun as I was being nourished under her influence, in her womb. It almost seemed like that was motherhood in a nutshell-“

Meera stares at Sampath, what he was saying was overwhelming her fragile heart.

“The moment she gave birth to me, her belief changed. She felt as if, all of a sudden someone so smaller than her became so much more than herself at once. As if she was her baby’s stable satellite. The same baby who once basked in her rays now turned to discover the new terrain that she, as a mother, made possible.

As I was born in hours of daylight, my nights were always horrible. She would not sleep and always took care of me. She used to always hang around my crib to look after my sleeping silhouette. There were sometimes when I would cry all night and that has both made and broke her as a mother. But then she found her companion in the moon, who peered through the window.” He softly opens his eyes, gazing at the shining moon, finding her mother’s outline on its countenance.

“As she saw me grow up with the support of her, she knew that someday in future, she will be needed by me for a different kind of strength and she will always be there, waiting, silently orbiting around my world like a moon does around Earth, even as she gradually moved farther away from me.”His gaze then falls on Meera, who was just staring at him with so much adulation.

He genuinely smiles at her, while she just blinks back the tears brimming in her eyes. She was feeling emotional, never did she hear of such a description of motherhood.

She then pulls his arm out and spreads it horizontally, before plopping her head on his arm and placing her hand on his chest. Her gaze immediately falls on the moon while her hand feels the heartbeats of her own moon beside her.

“You cannot stare directly into the sun without harming yourself. It shines so bright, you can’t make out the finer details. But the moon? You see her in all her grandeur along with all her imperfections, yet you find yourself loving her more and more. While the sun is fun, it’s also fleeting. When she disappears, the world goes gray. But the moon’s absence allows for the stars to shine. She shows you her process and all while keeps a part of herself out of sight, just for herself-

“Isn’t it the crux of motherhood? We give all we can while we can, and keep remembering there is a secret part we can hold for ourselves.” Meera adds, as she shifts her gaze towards Sampath, who nods at her.

“So, for me motherhood is like mooning; beautiful, powerful and full of magic. And my mother is my moon. At times, when I look at the night sky, I could even feel it vibrate somehow, whispering in a way the ears cannot hear. But my heart could hear it and compose itself almost instantly.” Sampath wipes his tears away; living without mom is painful. Meera looks at him, who was having a helpless moment, fighting with his emotions that reminded him of his mother. She gently caresses his arm, soothing his pain.

“Sorry, I was just talking nonsense and boring you.”

“Not a single moment with you would bore me. Instead, I am feeling myself getting more intimate with you. For I get to meet a different Sampath, the deep and mature one.”She whispers while looking at him in awe, his heart feels warm at her revelation.

“You know, when you were speaking, my heart recalled my moments with my mother and the way she used to tell me stories about how the sun loved the moon so much that it died every night to let the moon breathe.” She squeals, as she recalls her childhood memories. Sampath looks at her smiling, her prominent features shining under the eternal moonlight, making her glow aesthetically.

He delicately strokes his fingers on her cheeks, making her halt in her thoughts. Her breath hitched, when she found him looking at her with love and longing. Her eyes closed involuntarily as his thumb brushed with her lower lip, a sudden fire of desire lights in her as she parts her lips.

Taking it as a cue, he slowly leans towards her face while she fists his shirt tightly when she feels his warm breath fanning on her parted lips. As soon as their lips gently brushed, her phone rang, breaking the moment.

She snaps open her eyes and finds him looking at her in shock, she quickly leaves her hold on his shirt and moves back after he releases her from his grip. She immediately gets up and sits down before grabbing her phone out from her bag. She then checks through the notification and bites her lip in nervousness. She knows that he too got up and sat beside her.

“Meera, everything is fine?” He asks, finding her looking through her bag robustly.

“Yeah, I-I got it.” She chuckles while taking out a small box from her back. She immediately unwraps the box and takes out a small cake, while he just looks at her in confusion.

She then takes out a small candle and sticks it on the cake.

“Hold this.” She shoves the cake towards Sampath, who deliberately takes the cake into his palm and finds her looking for something else in her bag. She squeals childishly and then takes out a lighter, all the while Sampath just stares at her like she has grown two heads.

She takes the cake back into her and then lights the candle, which glows with an instant flicker. She takes a deep breath and looks at her phone and then averts her gaze towards Sampath, who was staring at her curiously.

“Happy Birthday.”

His heart skipped a beat when he heard her wish him. A wave of emotions passes through his heart as he looks at her, who was smiling at him authentically. He opens his mouth to say something but doesn’t have any words to describe the feeling he was living.

Tears brim in her eyes as she looks at his expressions- the confusion etched on his face when she was arranging for the cake, the curiosity he had when she lit the candle, the moment of vacuity he lived when she had wished him and finally the moment of love he was having.

“Take the candle in your hands and wish for something.” She whispers to him and he follows her instruction.

He closes his eyes but the reflection of her smiling at him makes his heart warm and he finds himself asking for a wish.

‘Almighty, make sure she always smiles like that. I will make sure to be the reason behind her smile.’

He opens his eyes and finds her looking at him in curiosity, as if trying to find out what he has wished for.

“What did you wish for?” He was expecting this anyway.

“Something which my heart wished for.” Meera huffs at his response, she just wanted to know what he had wished for. But then, she smiles again before outstretching her arms towards him.

“Birthday cake.” Meera squeals, making him chuckle intensely.

“Where is the knife?” Sampath asks openly, while Meera clicks her tongue in realization.

“I forgot?” She hits her forehead for her blunder.

“It’s ok, anyways this is a very cute cake.” Sampath raises his arms in adoration.

He slowly cuts the cake with his figure and tears a small bite; he then places the piece in front of her as she gobbles it. She then makes him eat the other piece of cake.

He grasps her hand, just when she was about to move back, startling her at his act. She smiles nervously at him while he just looks at her sincerely.

“Tell me this isn’t a delusion and you are actually present in front me. Tell me the love you have in your eyes for me isn’t a lie. Tell me the smile you are having is the authenticity of the connection between us. I either am feeling no emotions or too many at once, just tell me this is the reality.” Her heart tightened at the emotions dripping from his voice. She smiles softly at him while wiping the lone tear away from her cheek.

“Do you know why I deliberately brought you here?” He nods his head in denial. “Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop meeting the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away. I found myself in the same consign, no matter how many times I control my heart, it just beats faster at the sight of you. My heart craves for your affection, my body yearns for your touch, my eyes long for your attention and I desire to be loved, once again.” She proudly lets the tears fall down her cheek as if showing how rigid she is on her decision.

“8 years is a lot.” He states, trying to get answers for some unanswered questions rising in his heart.

“It is. I tried to move on. I wish I knew how to quit you, but I couldn’t.” She accepts the truth. “I was afraid to fall in love with you and you know why? The scariest thing is that we didn’t have to be together for you to break my heart years back, yet it happened.” She wipes her tears away as she speaks.

“Still here I am, in front of you, willing to fall in love with you again. My heart is willing to move on from the past into the present with hope to walk into the future along with you. Just don’t let this heart shatter again; I won’t be able to assemble myself again. I just can’t.” His heart skipped a beat at every word she spoke, it made him feel special and this time he wasn’t going to lose her, for himself and for them too.

He raises his palm, trying to caress her cheek but he can’t. He was feeling so much that he was terrified to touch her.

“Sampath.” Meera murmurs when she finds him hesitating to touch her.

“तुम्हे चुने से भी डर लग रहा है, डर है की तुम फिर से कहीं दूर न चली जाओI” He accepts his insecurities while she smiles at him.

She leans forward and hugs him, catching him off guard as he gasps at her. She wraps her arms tightly around him while he just lets his emotions flow out in the forms of tears.

“Let’s fall in love together, once again.”

As if approving them, the sky roared with a colossal lightning.

Even in the velvet dark there is the light of the stars, perhaps a promise that even when we yearn for the light of the sun there will be those stars to bring hope of the dawn. It is always the light we crave, for without it what is our world?

Hello Munchkins, hope you all are safe and healthy.

So, tell me about what you felt after reading today’s episode?

Do you people believe Meera’s decision is worth a try?