Swaragini – Between You and Me (Episode 8)

“Ma, Papa. We are not going ahead with the engagement” Sahaj said
Ragini clutched Vidyut’s arm and held onto him for support, he then gestured Sanskar to hold her and moved away from her,
“Is this some kind of a joke?” Durgaprasad retorted “The engagement is tomorrow and today you both are telling us and you are not going ahead with it?”
Annapurna rushed to calm Durgaprasad down “Let them explain” she said
“What will they explain Annapurna. Was it our decision? No. It was their decision to get married” he said
“Laksh, beta what is the matter?” Sujata asked
“Chachi, please let me explain” Sahaj said “It is our mutual decision. We figured out that we rushed into taking this big step but both of us are not ready for it”
“Not ready for it? Really? 24 hours prior, you are not ready for it?” Durgaprasad questioned
“Dad, I understand you’re upset. Getting married is a huge decision; we thought we were ready for it. But over the past few days we have realised that we still don’t know each other well enough to spend our life together” Laksh said “Dad, we cannot enter into a new relationship with a lingering doubt whether we will be able to manage our life together or not”
“Beta, all these things are to be thought of before taking a major decision” Annapurna said with a sigh
“Have you spoken to your parents yet?” Sujata asked Sahaj
“Yes Chachi, they are also understandably upset. But, this shot term inconvenience is better than, being in an unhappy relation lifelong” Sahaj said
She then went to Durgaprasad and Annapurna and said “Papa, we understand your point of view. We understand that we are not kids to make such foolish decisions. But, we are trying to save ourselves from making a mistake.” She said “if you say we will go ahead with it, but I request you to think from our point on view also, just this once. We just need a little more time” she requested him
Durgaprasad sighed and kept his hand on her head “I hope you made the right decision this time” he said and left
“Beta, are you sure about this?” Annapurna asked her
Sahaj nodded with tears in her eyes and hugged her “Shhh, don’t cry. It’s okay” Annapurna consoled her. “I’m sure you both will get through this” she said breaking the hug.
“Sujata, come with me. We need to make some calls” She said and left with Sujata

“Guys, seriously, what the hell was that?” Sanskar asked them.
Vidyut cleared his throat and said “I should get going”. Laksh turned to him and said “You shouldn’t have been here in the first place”
“Laksh, stop it” Sanskar retorted
“I’ll drop you out” Ragini said to Vidyut and went to see him off without looking at them.

“Will you be okay? I can cancel my trip. It’s not that important” he said as he held her.
“No, no. Work is important and I have your keys. I will drop by your apartment, if I need some space. Don’t worry” she said wiping her tears off “Just come back soon” she said as she hugged him
“I will be back, soon as I finish up there” he said. Just then Sanskar came to them.
“Please take care of her” Vidyut requested him
“You don’t have to say that” Sanskar assured him “Have a safe flight”
He nodded, shared a brief hug with Sanskar and left.
“Are you okay?” Sanskar asked her, she nodded slowly and said “I just need to be alone for a while”
“Alright, you want me to take you till your room?”
“No, you stay, I’ll manage” she said “Take care of uncle and aunty, they must be really upset” she said and walked in towards her room

Ragini went to her room and lay on the floor. She stayed there motionless, trying to make sense of what was going on around her. She had never felt this helpless in any situation, she was the one who always faced every problem head-on, but today she couldn’t even figure out what the problem was.
Before she realised tears started flowing from her eyes and her body felt numb. She wanted to scream and shout, but her body was frozen there. There was a knock on her door, but she didn’t respond to it, she kept staring at the ceiling. Sahaj entered the room and saw her on the floor; she went and lay down beside her. They both stayed in that position for some time, without saying a word.

“You know, the first time I met Laksh, I thought he was obnoxious, arrogant, behaved as though he owned the world. Then I got drunk, and he kept getting less unpleasant and more interesting.” Sahaj said and Ragini stayed motionless.
“The next morning, when I woke up beside him, I regretted it and felt ashamed of what happened between us, so much that I started to cry. He came and consoled me and made me comfortable, then he apologised to me as though it was only his fault.” She continued
“We kept in touch and started meeting regularly, we both were going through a rough patch at the time and we both saved each other”; “But soon this pleasant relationship soured and turned into a toxic one, where we knew that we need to separate, but we had become so dependent on each other that none of us made the attempt to get away from it and make it right”
“One day out of nowhere, he proposed to me. Till date I don’t know why he did that, and till today I don’t know what made me accept his proposal, when I knew this was going to be disastrous for both of us”; “I guess the reason is that, the level of comfort he gave me, I wanted that my entire life. The feeling of being loved and knowing that someone is in love with you, of going into a family where everyone constantly pampers you, was very pleasing to have that”
“When you came here, the first time when I saw you with Ma, talking to her, the way she was laughing with you, the level of ease that you both shared, I wanted that. But I knew, I could never get that, because she shared that only with you.”
“When Laksh, saw you with Vidyut for the first time, the anger and the possessiveness I saw in him, for you. I never saw him behave like that for me. Then, I overheard you both fighting the other day, I was so angry, with him. I hated you, for taking away my happiness. But when I spoke to you, I realised why everyone was so protective about you, why everyone held you in such high regard.”
“But there is one more thing I realised and that was the most important thing. It wasn’t you who was taking away my happiness; it was me who was taking away yours and yet you said nothing”
“Don’t blame yourself Ragini, you saved both of us from making a big mistake by rushing into it, and I cannot express how grateful I am to you, for that. I am jealous of you Ragini, you have such great friends and people around you, I wish I had that too”
“I know this is a lot for you to take in as of now, but you will get through it. I know you’re strong enough for that” she said and then turned to look ad Ragini, who was still lying in the same position expressionless.
Looking at Ragini’s state, she could not control her tears; she kissed on her forehead, caressed her hair and left from her room.

Ragini heard everything that Sahaj had just told her, but she couldn’t react to anything, she felt so exhausted and weak to do anything, so she continued stay frozen on the floor. After a while Sanskar entered her room and he also lay beside her on the floor. She sensed that him beside her and turned to him, clutched his shirt and started crying.
He kept patting her hair, because he understood she needed to cry and let out all the pain, she had kept buried over the years, otherwise it would destroy her completely.
“I never wanted this to happen. I never wanted any of this to happen” she said as she cried
“Shhh. I know that kiddo. Just remember one thing none of what has happened is your fault” he said while trying to console her
“I should have never come here.” She said
“Get up, c’mon let’s get you to bed” he said as he picked her up and helped her onto the bed. “Go to sleep. We’ll talk about this later”
“Everything will be alright, kiddo. Don’t worry” he assured her as she drifted off to sleep.
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Link to previous episode

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Hey there guys,

I cannot express how happy i am to see that each once of you is enjoying the story, and how openly everyone has accepted every character here. Thank you so much for that. One thing i wanted to inform was that, initially i thought that Sanskar’s character would only be a cameo, but as the story progressed i realized his character is very essential for the story to move forward, so Sanskar will remain for as long as he is required 😀
And incase you are wondering, yes Vidyut will not be there for the next episode (Really sorry about that), but he will be back soon, so don’t worry about that either 😀
I hope you enjoy this update too 😀

Lots of Love
Anvita