EPISODE VI
He cried….cried cried and cried……. Still his tears were making their way down through his cheeks. He wiped them off furiously.
“You must cry. You must crave for her. For a glimpse of her. For a word from her. These tears are nothing when compared to the pain she went through. You had done nothing to get such selfless pure and unconditional love. Still she loved you with everything she got. But what were you doing? You were trapping her. You trapped her. Even after knowing that she knocked at your doorstep for your mercy. But for ‘The Great Sanskar Maheshwari’- his ego was above anything else. Love, affection, care, emotions, feelings. What were these words for you? They were just ‘words’ which let you play with her. To get close to her. To dump her at that very moment when she wanted u the most. All these made no sense to you then. And now you want her back. For what?” his inner self chided. Its voice dripping sarcasm.
He dismissed those thoughts and headed towards a locked cabin. He took out a key from his pocket and with shivering hands he unlocked the door. He stood there, at the door step, drinking the sight in front of him. Then he slowly stepped in. this was hr cabin. He never let anybody enter this cabin after her. For new employees this cabin was always a subject to gossip over.
He looked at the ca table. It was small, but neatly arranged. She was always like that. He thought. She wanted everything neat clean and arranged around her. He even used to wonder if she is suffering from OCD. He lips made a slight curve on his face at her thoughts. He slowly walked towards the wooden chair near the table. As he was lost in his thoughts he heard a melodious voice calling for him
“Come on Sanskar. Come here. Sit with me.”
“Swara” he whispered
“are you really sitting here Swara? In front of me?” he had to assure.
Her expressions changed. With a naughty glint entering her eyes she sang in a sing sang voice “No Sanskar. It’s not me. It’s my ghost. Have you ever seen ghosts? Look at me. This is how ghosts look like”
He narrowed his eyes. “Very funny Miss. Gadodia. Now I’ll show you how ghosts look like. First of all ghosts won’t come when lights are switched on. Let me switch off the lights.” He headed towards the switch board and turned the lights off.
The only light glowing in the whole floor was also switched off. The floor was now completely immersed in darkness. Silence… silence floated all over…….
“Uh…Oh no Sanskar. Pls don’t do this I’m afraid of darkness. You know na. pls Swara’s voice broke the deadly silence.
“Shut up Miss. Gadodia. This is an office and not a place to scream. Although the employees are gone watchman is still there. He may feel that I’m chopping you in here. So for god’s sake stop screaming.”
She went quiet. Her voice was not ringing in his ears. He started panicking.
“Swara .. Swara where are you? Hey say something.” After switching of the lights he had started moving towards Swara. Although he scolded her for screaming, he wanted her to talk. He never meant those words which he used so harshly on her. Nor did she take them seriously. It was one of his numerous ways to irritate her. He loved irritating her. But now that she is silent he felt cold fear washing over his entire being. When she said that she is afraid of darkness she did really mean that. She was afraid of darkness. Without wasting a second he ran towards the switch board an switched on all the switches in the nick of a second. Then he turned towards her chair. Alas! The chair was empty. With a huge pang in his heart he realized – it was all a dream. Swara being here, in this cabin wit him, talking to him merrily.huh……
Dreams… these are the dreams which kept him alive through the last 4 year. If he wouldn’t have committed that mistake 4 years back, life would have been perfect for him now. But that beautiful portrait that he sketched in his mind of having Swara by his side as his wife and as the mother of his children now seems like a long lost dream….
His thoughts shifted back to Swara – her likes and dislikes. The only thing she was afraid of in the whole world was darkness. And that fear of hers was so deeply rooted inside her. No special incident or experience was responsible for that fear. Its just that she was scared of darkness. Hated it more than anything else.
She belonged to the world of light and colours. She was light……..
But she had to let darkness engulf her. He was the one who unleashed that darkness on her. And since it was him who unleashed the darkness on her, she couldn’t withstand it. He took away her light. Her colours. She fell down. She broke into millions of pieces. She begged, cried, shouted. But he showed no mercy. And it all ended when she left the city without informing everybody. She had none to inform. He made her circumstances like that. He made her own family disown her. He was successful in his mission. Her family refused to acknowledge her. She left the city with a very broken and heavy heart.
Her innocence and her pleas made sense to him after one month of her disappearance. The person for whom he betrayed her started hating him to the core on knowing about his deeds. His own family started hating him. All of a sudden he found himself standing alone in the path of life. Then he realized. This all consuming and soul liberating feeling that he felt when she was around him was anything but love. Not revenge. Not betrayal. But was love. His love for her. And the only medicine to his loneliness is Swara. His only remedy.
He drove back to his home…the only place where he could find some peace…. on reaching home he slumped directly into his bed and stared at the ceiling thinking of those events which transformed the young, charming, carefree Sanskar to rude arrogant and workaholic Sanskar Maheshwari.
comments needed.tell me how was episode 5?