THERE'S ANOTHER SKY

Vahini

"kha liya dono ne?" sidhant asked in a plain tone... Sarna and vishwash looked at him with wide-open eyes and then looked at each other, then again looked at sidhant and nodded positively...

"to utho fir ya yahi rehne ka mann hai tum dono ka?" he asked... Sarna and vishwash immediately stood up, but in the process, sarna felt a little imbalanced and held sidhant immediately to save herself from falling... Sidhant too helped her by holding her...

" tu abhi thik nahi hai? " for the first time sidhant asked normally in a worried tone... Sarna looked at his face and saw a hint of worry on his face... She moved her head in no and removed her hands from his body, sidhant too moved back...

"mai thik hu" she said looking in another direction... Sidhant looked into space for a second and then after again coming into his scaring mode he looked at sarna and vishwash...

"ghar chalo tum dono, bohot hua drama abhi" saying this he held vishwash's hand and started walking fast... Sarna also tried to match his ace by following him quickly...

Soon they entered society... The ladies of chawl (society) were talking about something standing near the entry gate of chawl when they saw three of them coming... The all-ladies stopped talking and were looking at them like they had seen some ghost... But without giving any reaction to them sidhant kept walking, holding vishwash's hand with sarna walking behind him...

"mai kaki ke pass ja rha hu, tu ghar pr hi rehna vishwash" sidhant said as they reached home...

"baba mai aaj niche jau khelne?" asked vishwash...

"tere ko ek baar me samajh nahi ata hai na? Chup chap kitab utha or baith kr kaam khatam kar school ka, or ab bak bak kiya na jyada to tujhe kamre me bande kar dega apun, kya samjha? Chal abhi padh baith kr, aata hai apun" he said in a strict tone which made vishwash look down in fear, but sarna didn't feel it right to behave like this with a kid...

"aap use samjha rahe hai ya dhamka rahe hai? Thorha pyar se bhi samjhaya ja sakta hai bache ko" sarna said feeling bad for vishwash...

"eh! Tu jyada shani matt ban, mera bacha hai mai dekh lega, tu apna kam kar ja kr, ayi badi mere ko sikhane wali" he said and walked out of the room...

"tumhare papa hamesha se aise hi the ya mere aane ke baad hi huye hai?" sarna asked looking at vishwash...

"matlab?" he asked innocently... Sarna smiled and shook her head...

"kuch nhi, chalo tum homework karlo jo tumhe tumhari teacher ne diya hai" she said moving towards his books...

"mere ko nahi karna, plejjjj" he requested her but she just ignored his request and sat down on the floor...

"acha agar tumne homework khatam kiya na to mai tumhe ek kahani sunaungi" she said... Vishwash looked at her in excitement and quickly ran towards her...

"kahani? Konsi kahani?" he asked... Sarna held his hand and made him sit on her floor beside her and gave him a pencil to work on...

"ek gande raja or achi rani ki kahani" she said...

"ganda raja? Raja gande thorhe hi hote hai, vo to takatwar or bohot ache hote hai" vishwash said her showing his small biceps that are his arms...

"kisne kaha tumhe ki raja hamesha acha or takatwar hota?" sarna asked vishwash

"mere baba bolte hai, vahi to mujhe raat ko kahani bhi sunate hai" he said proudly...

"acha! Chalo fir aaj tum meri kahani bhi sun lena, shayad tumhare baba ki kahani se jyada achi ho" she said sweetly to him, holding his chin softly between her thumb and index finger...