Hello Everyone.
Chapter 2
I hope its not the last time that we are together.
Karthik’s POV
My breathing is ragged and strained. Every breath I take and release hurts a little more. I feel choked and my throat burns. My head hurts. I try to open my eyes but a bandage wrapped around my head obstructs them.
I adjust the bandage to open my eyes. My whole body is broken and it pains as if it
has been put into a blender and ground.
I take some time to gather where I am. Why does everything hurt so much ?!! Is this a bad dream ?!! I ask myself.
I slowly open my eyes partially and look at the ceiling above. It’s not familiar. Then it strikes me.
THE BOMB BLAST.
It all comes back to me. The noise, the people, the blood, the severed limbs, the mangled remains of people, cars and buildings. It is a lot harder this time. I can think more clearly.
I could’ve been among the dead.
“Karthik.” a female voice says.
“Are you okay ?!!” the female voice further asks.
I look at her and my eyes light up. Naira. My Naira. She is like a shot of morphine that takes every bit of pain away. I feel alive.
“Yes,” I answer feebly.
I look at her and I am mortified. She has tears in her eyes and it looks like she has been crying for a long time.
Did something happen to me ?!!
I force my aching neck to move a little and look at the bed I lie on. I try to move my hands and legs. I am not maimed or paralysed. I just have a few cuts and burns here and there. I have been lucky.
“What happened ?!!” I ask her.
“There was a terrible blast near Hotel Taj.” she says.
She walks towards me and sits on the bed, hugs me, and starts crying. I feel a few teardrops percolate through my hospital robe and wet my skin. A few tears find their way into my eyes too.
I don’t know if it’s because she’s crying or because of what I saw this morning. People had died, lost their arms, their legs and their loved ones right in front of my eyes.
It was like a nightmare. Only, a lot worse.
It happened for real. The animal cries of people, the blood and the limbs that had gone flying all around me, it had all happened. All those people are actually dead.
I am not. I am still in one piece and have my girlfriend hugging me.
Why ?!! I ask myself as I see her cry with her head on my chest.
I think about all the people who lost their lives this morning or have been crippled. What would their loved ones be doing ?!!
If I were dead, what would have Naira been doing ?!! I shudder to think about it.
I was almost dead. Or maimed. I feel a lot grateful now.
“Do Maa and papa know ?!!” I ask her. She shakes her head in a negative.
“They called you ?!!” I further ask.
“Yes,” she says, still crying.
“I told them you were in office.” Naira answers in between her sobs.
I smile at her. She knows me and my parents so well. Even though we are not married, she had definitely become my family.
My parents live in Udaipur while I live in Mumbai and they find it very uneasy to live away from me. They miss me a lot, but Dad has work there and he really cant leave the family business.
Even though I am a big guy now, they are as protective about me as they were when I was a school-going kid. Had they heard about this, they would have come rushing to Mumbai and never gone back.
I don’t want that to happen as Naira and I have been secretly engaged for the past year or so and life is perfect. My parents don’t know that. Nor do they know that we live together.
They would flip, it is still socially unacceptable. Naira and I love the thrill of doing something people warn us against.
Well my parents do know that we are in a relationship and that both of us love each other a lot but the engagement and living-in thing is still out of their knowledge. Its not that I want to keep them uninformed but the moment they will come to know about it, they would surely force us to get married.
Whereas at this point of time, both Naira and me want to focus on our respective careers. We have dreams that are yet to be fulfilled before settling down. Marriage is definitely on cards, but there’s still time for that.
Till then we just want to cherish our love for each other instead of rushing into something unwanted.
“Thank you,” I say to her. She smiles back at me.
“You should rest,” Naira says and I see a nurse enter the room.
The nurse plunges a syringe in the tube attached to my hand and I feel a little sleepy almost instantly. Sedatives, I guess. It lessens the pain, in one’s body but not in one’s head.
“Mendhak …..” Naira whispers.
“Yes, Sherni ?!!” I murmur, already half-asleep.
“I love you,” I hear her meek whisper before dozing off.
I love her too, more than she will ever know. She is my world.
I open my mouth but I drift off before the words can escape my lips. But then a part of me forces my body to wake up.
“I love you more.” I whisper back and then close my eyes.
As I say these words, I hope that it’s not the last time.
Precap : The after-effects of the blast.
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Firstly, I want to thank all of you for such an amazing response on the first chapter. Also the love and care that you all showered on me in the comment section means a lot to me. You guys are the best part of Telly Updates page.
So as you all might have figured out that the story revolves around a bomb blast incident and how it changes Kaira’s life drastically. Its when we are about to loose something precious that we realize its true value and that’s what Karthik is going through now.
Also some of you asked me about my previous FF’s that I left midway. I am sorry peeps but I wont be able to continue them now. Its actually been more than 3 months and so I don’t really remember the plot of the stories or what I was going to write so I would be discontinuing with those.
I am really sorry as I know many of you liked them and also how an incomplete story keeps on haunting you forever but I really cant go down that way again. Hope you will like this new story and forgive me.
Do comment. Keep smiling. Keep watching Yrkkh.