two stories of marriage

chapter 20

It was an early morning flight and ishita and dushyant both were happier to get some sleep when they boarded the plane. While dushyant casually put on his headphones and rested himself, ishita noticed the curtain draped between the business and economy classes, realising how very well she could have been on the other side. She didn't look back, rather took out her earphones and put them on, with soft music playing in her ears that put her to sleep.

Ishita slowly drifted to sleep, without realising her knee had hit dushyant's when she turned to her left side. Dushyant, who had just removed his headphones as he needed silence to sleep, looked up at a sleepy ishita, as he slowly removed her earphones and kept them aside with her phone. Only when he rested himself again, the placket of his shirt was held so tightly by ishita who had rested her head on his shoulder.

He restricted himself from any movement, but that did not make him comfortable, as he rested his head back and closed his eyes with a smile on his face, slowly drifting to sleep.

She woke up to the announcement that the flight was about to land, as she sighed and rubbed her eyes, she realised she had slept on dushyant's shoulder.

She didn't move away, all the discomfort she used to feel around him seemed to be so foreign now. She looked at him like she had never before, she kidded herself for being so scared of this, as at every second of that glance she realised there was some detail of his face she hadn't noticed before. She gazed at how his eyes were still slightly open in such a deep sleep, as slowly his eyelids fluttered, she quickly moved away. She faced in the totally opposite direction, completely panicked, only after a few seconds of calming down, she just couldn't help but smile at her silliness.

Dushyant who had woken up to the announcement of the flight landing, glanced at his watch, shocked at how long he slept.

'oh god!' exclaimed ishita, knowing how bad her ears were going to hurt when the flight will land, which inevitably happened. But she landed at Port Blair for her honeymoon, so it would be easier to shrug this off.

                                                   ***

'arre purvi nashta khatam toh karlo, kya phone ko ghure jaa rahi ho baar-baar..' scolded her mother, as purvi ignored it, her attention was somewhere else.

'yeh pahunch gaya hai na? Haan, haan, abhi dasvi baar check kiya hai! Hayee, kahin maine application ki jagah koi aur document toh nahi daal diya! Arre, abhi toh wohi check kiya tha, but ek aur baar check karlena chahiye na...oh god purvi, pull yourself together! What if they reject me? Arre but why will they? But what if they do? Am i really going crazy!' thought purvi, overwhelmed with anxiety and fears.

When you do after all go to pursue your dream, the starry-eyed dreamy escapes are first to go away, and the fears take their residence in your head and your heart very soon..

                                                        ***

Mrs khanna returned from the empty room that belonged to kavin. She was surprised to see kavin getting up early everyday now by himself. He had this energy, this spark that she had never seen in him before.

'good morning.' He said as he quickly ate the last bite of the bread and gulped down the juice.

'arre, nasht toh aaram se karle..' said mrs khanna.

'arre maa ab pure hafte na koi aaram nahi hai mere paas, ab mere paas apna kaam hai, bhai ka kaam hai... i don't have the time! usse yaad aaya, main dinner bahar karunga, toh wait mat karna der ho jayegi.' Informed kavin as he picked up his bag, ready to leave.

'kahan dinner kar raha hai tu?' asked mrs khanna with concern.

'arre woh hai na, unki company ka event hai...ek tarah se samajh lo humare sabse pehle client the, inse kaafi business milta hai humein, so for a cordial relationship, this is important, after all, kitne naye client inke events alone se mil jaate hain!' exclaimed kavin as he filled his bag with the files he was reading before, ready to leave.

'acha woh sab thik hai..par 11 baje tak ghar aa jaana, huh!'

'arre aa jaunga, don't worry, ok bye!' he said before his exit, right after giving his mom a side hug.

'bye..' said mrs khanna, with a smile on her face, proud of her son, who was growing up so soon.

                                                            ***

The clock had turned 10, as kavin looked with dismay at the people around him while sipping his drink. He hated corporate events, he was exhausted by the exaggerated formality and courtesies, but he sucked it up, it was after all, business.

'good evening, mr khanna.' Greeted a stranger that made kavin look up because of the familiarity of her voice.

'purvi!' exclaimed kavin in shock, while purvi covered his mouth with her hand.

'arre marwaoge kya!' she whispered as she glared at him and removed her hand off his mouth.

'par, tum yahan,kaise? Yahan tu guard mujhe bhi invitation ke bina nahi aane deta! Gaaliyan sonata hai woha alag...' complained kavin.

'arre abhi bahar mili mujhe, south delhi girl stereotype nachadi...she was going all like, these parties are soooo lame...' mimicked purvi with an outwardly fake british accent as she rolled a strand of her hair while rolling her eyes.

'anyways, so uske baad..' purvi continued narrating:

Flashback

'behen! Behen!behen!' exclaimed purvi dramatically as she fell on the girl's feet.

'oh my god! What are you doing!' exclaimed the girl in disgust.

'behen, meri madad kardijiye, saari zindagi aapki abhari rahungi!' dramaticised purvi, even more.

'arre, kya chahiye tumhe?'

'mujhe yahan milna hai unse, par yeh jaane hi nahi de rahe hain!' said purvi who by now had hugged the girl as she fake cried.

'unse, kisse?' asked the other girl.

'woh hi, joh mere kock mein pal rahe bache ke baap hain...' replied purvi, as she touched her stomach gently.

'hain?'

'hain nahi behen hai, yeh humare pyaar ki nishaani...unhone mujhse wada kiya tha, ki woh hum dono ke liye aayenge, par yeh...' said purvi as she stopped in the middle to pretend to clean her fake tears.

'yeh kya?'

'yeh aaye hi nahi!' purvi said so loudly, as she hugged the girl again, who looked at her friend with a smirk.

'acha suno, dekho roo mat, yeh dekho, yeh invitation, yeh tum le lo...'

'haan, aur keh dena shanaya waalia ho tum, thik hai?'

Both the girls said this with the most fake concern and sympathy as they were happy that now they could run away from this stupid event for their real party.

'behen, main tumhara yeh ahsaan kaise chukaungi...' said purvi dramatically, as the girls were already heading for the exit.

'behen hi behen ke kaam aati hai na, behen!' she said as they both exited, laughing under the impression that they had outsmarted purvi.

Kavin just looked at purvi as he laughed unbearably,

'yeh toh tumhara favourite drama hai sahi mein..' remarked kavin.

'what? Ab mujhe aise messages likhoge ki kitna pakk rahe ho yahan for the sake of business, ab kuch toh karungi na!' defended purvi.

'ye kya hai?' asked kavin as he saw something rolled in purvi's hand.

'arre woh abla naari waala dupatta aur kya?' said purvi as she rolled her eyes, while she stopped the waiter as she took a scotch that she gulped down in a second, to kavin's shock.

'kya? Acha mangadeti hoon tumhare liye bhi, oye waiter!' said purvi when she realised she's supposed to be more "refined"

'oops, waiter...' said purvi in a very fake American accent now, as kavin just gazed at her, as he thought,

'yeh ladki bhi kambal hai by god!' as he chuckled looking at her, he had realised that he might have fallen in love with her all over again.