Heyyo guys 🙂 I’m back with the fourth episode of Find Me! This episode is dedicated to all Omkara-Gauri fans. I loved his transformation back to our old, lovable Om as he saw Gauri with smiley eyes and soft expressions. I’m not sure how this will be received by Mahi fans, but this episode doesn’t have any Mahi! But Om’s story won’t be the priority here, but since this will hopefully have an important part in the future storyline, please do read it. 🙂 Without further ado, let’s get on with this episode. There might be grammatical errors and bits and pieces that I skipped off, so sorry for that as I’m back to my Owl-schedule 😀 Also, don’t forget to drop your comments below 🙂
Link to previous episodes: Click here for all episodes
Episode 3
FIND ME: EPISODE 4
OM’S PERSPECTIVE
There was something different about Shivaay. It was like watching a long forgotten dream come true or a prophecy on its way to become fate. I was all set to call him out on betraying me, but he acted like he wasn’t the one who heaped up Gauri’s heavy boxes on me! At first, I thought he was just acting to avoid my anger, but then I noticed his interactions with Gauri. He always took care of her like a little sister, but also gave us our space whenever Gauri and I were in the same room; as if he knew something wasn’t right between us, in contrast to taking her side without any obviously-logical reason! Shivaay didn’t play favorites between us, unless it wasn’t Shivaay in the first place!
I discarded the ridiculous idea at once and strove to focus on Rudy’s complaints of being bored to death. The OBros had gathered in my room after a long time- Rudy, complaining and eating; Shivaay, working on his laptop; and me, going through a few files to help out Shivaay with a particularly artistic project. Anika Bhabhi also joined us after sometime and she called in Gauri too.
And then, in typical Rudy fashion, i.e. without any cue, Rudy started singing in his funny tone:
[Song from Badrinath ki Dulhania, Singer- Akhil Sachdeva]
“Sun zaalima mere sanu koi darr na
Ki samjhega zamana
Oh tu vi si kamli,
Main vi sa kamla,
Ishq da rog seyyana…
Ishq da rog seyyana.”
Something must have clicked for the quiet little Gauri as she continued in a much more tolerable voice:
“Sun mere humsafar
Kya tujhe itni si bhi khabar…”
She caught herself suddenly and looked around the room self-consciously. Anika Bhabhi nodded an encouragement at her and she smiled to herself, avoiding my evidently intense gaze across the room and continued in her melodious voice.
“Sun mere humsafar
Kya tujhe itni si bhi khabar
Ki teri saanse chalti jidhar
Rahungi bas wahi umrr bhar…
Rahunga bas wahi umrr bhar haaye…
Jitni haseen ye mulakatein hai
Unse bhi pyari teri baatein hai
Baaton mein teri jo kho jaate hai
Aaun na hosh mein main kabhi
Baahon mein hai teri zindagi haaye…
Sun mere humsafar
Kya tujhe itni si bhi khabar…”
Anika Bhabhi too came into her singer form suddenly and took over:
“Zaalima tere ishq ich main
Ho gayi aan kamli haye…” She seemed to be a little lost in Shivaay for the moment so, without thinking twice about it, I continued with the song.
“Main toh yoon khada,
Kis soch mein pada tha,
Kaise jee raha tha main deewana?
Chupke se aake tune
Dil mein sama ke tune
Chhed diya kaisa ye fasana?
Oh muskurana bhi tujhi se sikha hai,
Dil lagane ka tu hi tareeka hai,
Aitbaar bhi tujhi se hota hai,
Aaun na hosh mein main kabhi…
Bahon mein hai teri zindagi…”
Out of the blue I realized I had been looking into those beautiful, kohl-rimmed eyes for longer than I cared to admit. With the wind knocked out of me as I thought over the lyrics, there was absolute silence in the room for a few beats. It was after a long time that I was hearing my own heartbeat thundering, but in a weirdly good way that didn’t suffocate me at all; instead the sound made me alive to my own being. Sensing the awkwardness, or rather completely oblivious to it, Gauri picked up after me and I could only stare at her open-mouthed.
“Hai nahi tha pata
Ke tujhe maan lungi khuda…
Ki teri galliyon mein iss kadar
Aaungi… har paher…
Sun mere humsafar
Kya tujhe itni si bhi khabar
Ki teri saanse chalti jidhar
Rahungi bas wahi umrr bhar
Rahungi bas wahi umrr bhar…”
Rudra, being the clueless and lost kid hat he is, clapped and cheered both his Bhabhis loudly. But unfortunately that only lasted for a few seconds. All was quiet for some time while I gathered my thoughts and fidgeted with my mobile, trying to do anything but look at her deceptively angelic face.
But her sugar-sweet voice was still ringing in my head and it was becoming more and more difficult by the minute to keep my head together. So I went and did the one thing I really, really liked.
After a mere four hours or so, the result of the haunting song was a beautiful white sculptor; and the best one I had made in my life too! I stared into the beautiful eyes I had carved out with my own hands for a long minute before sensing someone watching me. The warm love overflowing from the stone-eyes was reflected in her live ones at the door as Gauri’s eyes watered at the sight. “Why are you here?” I asked as brusquely as possible, but she wasn’t affected by my annoyance. “I came to call you for dinner, but is that…” her voice trailed off in wonder at the sneak peek she had lucked into.
So I decided to be a little generous and moved aside to give her a complete view. She seemed to gravitate towards me as she struggled to get the one word out of her mouth. “Maaji!” she finally gasped and something inside me softened. “No. This is the face of love!” I replied. She was clearly awestruck by the sheer beauty that had been molded into a perfect cast of my mother and seeing Chulbul’s wonder eyes in front of me again, I wanted to tell her more; and so I did. “Since the moment I opened my eyes, I have only known this one face to be always showering her unconditional love on everyone around it, whether it be someone as deserving as Shivaay, Prinku and Rudra or someone as undeserving of it as Mr. Oberoi.”
There was something about the soft lights and the one spotlight on the sculptor, or maybe something in the cool air; whatever it was, it cut off my thinking and drove me to do something crazy in the moment. I moved closer to Gauri and looking straight into those flooded eyes, I spoke in a whisper, “Your tears are weird; they won’t go back in and you won’t let them spill. They’re trapped.”
“Yes, I am. But it’s okay”, she answered back with a slight smile, much to my surprise. Unthinkingly, I touched the tips of my fingers to her warm cheek and she closed her eyes as expected. “It’s okay to let the traitors fall where they should. They’ll eventually find their way; you can’t keep them trapped forever.” I held out my hand to let her see her tears glistening on my fingertips like little diamonds shining inside a dark mine. She swallowed back a fresh wave of waterworks and nodded as she understood the double meaning of my speech.
Sniffing, blinking and nodding, she countered, “I don’t have to keep them trapped if that’s their place. They don’t spill anywhere except at your lightest touch. I can’t call them traitors for an exception, right? There are strong emotions like that: love, hate, rage, joy, belief… they don’t count under normal circumstances, right?”
“Love? Beliefs?” I asked her questioning brows and turned to run my other hand along the waves on Mom’s sculptor falling around her shoulders. “For me, love is not a guy and a girl meeting, liking each other’s looks and going out to get ice cream. If they enjoy together one day, they’ll be willing to be together for a lifetime! That’s not love for me. Love is being each other’s strength and actually standing by each other through thick and thin. Love is being honest and trusting the other to be on your side, even if it means standing against the world. Love is being patient through the trials of life, knowing that you’ll make it with your partner.”
I had been thinking of Shivika especially while saying all these old-Omkara-type-of-stuff, but little did I realize that this had exactly been the case with Chulbul and me! Sensing her confusion at my changing moods, I decided to make it all too clear to her with another scathing remark, “You wouldn’t get it, would you?”
As soon as the words left my mouth, my brain had an immediate afterthought, “Was I too harsh? Why does she always have to bring out the worst in me?” I watched her face fall at my repeated accusation as her transparent eyes showed her resignation to my contempt; somehow, I didn’t like it and wanted to turn that frown upside down.
Taking a deep breath, I cast a final glance at my new statue and started walking out. “Let’s go have dinner, Gauri. If only I didn’t have to eat just to get through every day like homework!” I was aware of her eyes staring a hole into my back as I left my studio, just like I was aware of everyone downstairs watching us in wide-eyed awe. I wondered, “What did we look like to them- a happily married couple or two people fighting different battles in inextricably woven lives?” I could be considered to be lucky as I had someone to compare my circumstances with- the first option like Shivaay and Anika or the second, like Shivaay and Mahi?
Copyright to Samm