Shivi FF: Agar Tum Saath Ho

3.

Raavi sat with all the photos spread on the bed. She had called up Anita di and asked her to send all the pictures she could find of Raavi, and of Shiva if they had any. What she didn't expect were hundreds of photos which brought back so many memories. She selected one of her childhood. One of Shiva's childhood which she had taken from Dhara di. There were exactly twenty two pictures of them together in one frame, and not even one was nice. One she liked, but it had Dev right in the middle. She picked one picture of hers with the whole of Pandya family, which they'd taken during last Navratri.

"Tum kya kar rahi ho?" Rishita asked as she came into Raavi's room.

"Photos select kar rahi hu room mein lagane ke liye." Raavi said.

"Main dekh sakti hu?" Rishita asked.

Raavi nodded, so Rishita sat beside her and began to look at all the photos. She picked the one up of Shiva's, Dev, Raavi and Krish. Then she began to look at their pictures from their childhood asking Raavi about the memories attached with each of them. Raavi began to narrate their childhood tales and Rishita listened raptly.

"Kya main yeh wala rakh sakti hu?" She picked one of Dev's photo.

Raavi realised it was the same photo she had stuck to her diary while she was pining away for Dev. "Of course."

Rishita thanked her and went to her room. Raavi suddenly remembered her diary. She had written pages after pages of love declaration for Dev. If she were to move forward with this marriage, she needed to get rid of that diary. Also, she had heard that burning stuff up was carthatic. She grabbed her diary and a matchbox and went to the terrace. There was a can of kerosene in the storeroom of the terrace.

Raavi doused her diary with kerosene and lit it up. It went up in flames. She kneeled and looked at it burning. The pages wrinkled turning into ash, and within moments, her diary was destroyed. It was like she had never written anything in it. With this, she was trying to burn the memory of Dev from her mind.

"Raavi! Dimag kharab ho gaya hai? Kya kar rahi hai?"

Raavi only realised she had been crying when Shiva's voice dragged her back into reality. She got up and wiped her tears. Shiva looked over to see what she'd been burning. Just by seeing the little blue cover, he immediately knew it had been her diary. He'd seen her scribbling in this diary for quite some time now.

"Diary kyu jalaya?" He asked.

"Tujhe kaise pata meri diary thi?" Raavi asked.

"Bachpan se tujhe ek hi diary leke ghumte dekha hai. Main sochta rehta tha, ek diary bhi itne saalo mein khatam nahi kar payi tu? Phir yaad aaya tu gadheri hai. Tere paas likhne ke liye itna kuch hoga nahi."

Raavi glared at him. "Likhti thi na Dev ki baat!" She blurt out, then she saw the change in Shiva's expression, but he was back to normal in a second. "Ab unn purane baato ka kya matlab. Isiliye jala diya."

"Haa toh fek deti. Jalane ki kya zaroorat thi? Paper recycle bhi kiya jata hai. Aivayyi jalake fire hazard bana rahi thi tu."

"Mujhe recycle ka nahi pata par woh raddi wale bhaiyya iska Rs. 10 bhi nahi dete."

"Iss diary ka toh main ek rupya bhi na du." Shiva said.

Raavi laughed. Only Shiva could make her laugh in these situations. "Tu na Shiva, ek number ka bhootnath hai. Mere liye please ek aur diary le aayega?"

"Haa thik hai!"

"Achhi wali. Jisne likhke maza aaye."

Shiva rolled his eyes and went down. Raavi followed him and went to the storeroom. She got back to the pictures when Dhara came into the room. She sat beside Raavi.