Hello Everyone.
Chapter 44
The shocking surprise.
Karthik’s POV.
We are back inside a flight. This time we’re flying back to Mumbai. Things have changed a lot since our last flight.
Even though we were always just a phone number away from Anushka, somehow we had never imagined that we would come so close.
We are now just a few hours away from meeting her and I am shitting in my pants. There is palpable excitement as we leave the Mumbai domestic airport and look for a taxi.
But with it, there is nervousness. Thank God I didn’t take this journey alone. It would have been difficult to talk to all these people and especially Anushka.
There was no way I could have done it alone. We leave the airport and are blankly looking at each other. We have no idea what to expect.
“We should go, right ?!!” Naksh says.
Naira has the envelope in her hand. It’s a Sunday so it’s probably the best day to catch her at home.
“Yes.” we echo.
Finally after a little while, Naira calls out to a taxi and it stops in front of us. She is the only one who shows a semblance of courage. The rest of us are pissing in our pants, and it shows on our faces.
Even Keerti — our enfant terrible, give – no – shit – take – no – shit kid — looks nervous as hell.
“Bhaiya.” Naira says and shows the paper to a taxi driver.
“Can you take us here ?!!” I ask.
He nods and we board the taxi. We hope that we find Anushka home. Nobody says anything as the taxi leaves behind the Mumbai airport and crawls through the Mumbai traffic slowly.
I don’t know how we’re going to approach this conversation. Everyone who has ever met Virat likes him as a person and has reacted very strongly to the news of him passing away. I wonder how she will react.
After all, Anushka was the closest to him. And she had pushed him away. The guilt could be a little too much to bear for anyone in her place.
We hope Anushka finds reason enough to go and meet Alia . I wonder how Alia is doing. It’s probably the day when her brother should have met her. But he won’t be there.
Will she ever smile again when she finds her brother missing from her life ?!! How would she come to know ?!! Who will tell
her ?!!
As I battle these questions, the taxi driver informs us that we are about to reach. The taxi drops us outside a modest-looking apartment building. We all look at each other — clueless, fighting questions — and wonder how this would end.
“This is it.” Naksh says.
We enter the apartment building and recheck the address. It’s the right address.
Seventh floor. We step out of the elevator and find ourselves standing right outside the door of Anushka’s house.
We look at each other with blank faces. I take a deep deliberate breath and tell myself, This is it.
Naksh knocks on the door. There is no answer. He knocks again. A voice, probably a maid’s, asks from the other side to wait. The door opens and I brace myself for the worst.
“Where are you from ?!! What do you want ?!!” The maid looks at us inquiringly.
“Umm… we are Virat’s friends.” I say.
“Come in.”she says and points to the couch.
“Wait here.” She adds and disappears inside the house.
We are a little surprised that the maid knows who Virat is. She didn’t react even a bit when we said we are Virat’s friends. For a moment I think what if Anushka knows about Virat ?!!!
But that can’t be. The last note, dated ten days before the blast, said that it had been forever since he had had any contact with Anushka.
The house is very boringly furnished. It looks good but is devoid of colour. It also looks expensive, but there isn’t much around. I had expected Anushka to live in a flat with pink curtains, blue sofas and
aromatic candles.
This was nothing like it. No flower vases, no photo frames, no nothing. Very
strange indeed. I try not to think too much about it and wait for Anushka to come out.
I breathe heavily and my eyes are stuck on the door of the bedroom behind which is the girl about whom I’ve been reading for the last so many days. The moment is finally there. And my heart is pumping like it did the first time I had seen Naira.
That was quite a day and this belongs right up there in terms of tension and anticipation.
At a corner of the room, I spot a small photo frame with a picture of a guy — smart, wheatish complexion, decent build, probably in his mid-twenties — who stares back at me with kind eyes.
Did she get married ?!! That will be such an anti-climax. I nudge Naira to show her the photo. As soon as she looks at it, we hear the door creaking open.
We all get up to receive Anushka. Our pupils are dilated and our heartbeats hit the roof as we look at the person.
“Hey.” the person says.
We look at where the voice comes from and our mind draws a blank. We look at the face and we are dumbfounded. We exchange glances and look in the direction of the person again.
It’s like all four of us are in severe shock-induced trauma. Anushka ?!! Wasn’t she supposed to be a girl ?!!
We are blo*dy shocked. And it strikes me, then Naira and then Naksh and Keerti. Our eyes move to the picture in the photo frame on the corner table. The person standing in front of us right now is the nice-looking guy from the photo.
Is this Anushka’s husband ?!! This simply can’t be. How can Anushka do this to Virat ?!! This can’t be the end of the diary.
“Hi.” we echo, a little confused.
“I am Virat.” he says and shakes my outstretched hand.
Precap : Anushka’s letter to Virat.
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Shocked ?!! The guy who was supposed to be dead is alive. Stay tuned as the mystry will unfold real soon.
The next Chapter will have the last note from the diary where Virat writes about what Anushka’s letter to him said.
Also the track of Keesh’s shaadi is about to start and I can’t wait for it. Hope the writers have something good in store for us. And also I hope that Naksh starts liking Keerti before the marraige.
Do comment. Keep smiling. Keep watching Yrkkh !!