Petrichor to his Heart

2.17

"tsk..." 

The unexpectedly hot weather along with the kind of humidity that usually brought a storm welcomed Raghav when he left the conditioned air of the plane and climbed down the ladder. A long and hectic day was finally done but at the expanse of another day already starting, his watch had confirmed so... 3:37 AM. It had been so many days since he took a day off, actually leave a day off he was not able to take a straight six hours of sleep for nearly two weeks now and it was not good for him...so was the case with Pallavi, how many days had it been since they last talked for some time. He forced his brain to the last time he had touched her when she was not sleeping.

"Kaam karna, busy rehna bahut aachha baat hai Raghav, par ab tera shadi ho gaya hai... Kaam aur shadi ,dono cheej ka balance ho raha hai na?" he recalled his mother's words from the earliest months of his marriage. At that time he had assured the strict and observant woman that his mother was that he was trying to work on it but this evening when she had made a call to him rather unexpectedly he felt she was disturbed about something. (it is good to be busy Raghav but now you are married, hope you are balancing work and marriage!)

"did something bother her, Pallavi might have some clue about it... was this the reason Pallavi had called her several times." this thought had kept the usual nap he took in such flights away from his eyes. "but Amma sounded worried about Pallavi...

"Perhaps Amma wanted them, especially Pallavi to visit her." the thought made him count the days they had last spent some time together; his mother, Pallavi, and him, and he opened the chat with Farhad to take a note of the meetings scheduled for the next morning. They were not the most important ones, He could shift a few of them in the evening or to some other day so If Pallavi was free a day off was possible for him today.

"Take rest for some hours Ajith, we'll start after lunch or maybe in the evening." he had spotted the deep cut just below his right ear of Ajith and that poor soul needed some hours of good sleep.

"As you say, Anna." 

This new guy, Ajith just out of college was proving to be an asset to him, if he kept working like that Raghav was sure another Farhad was in making.

"So today evening he would visit Amma's place with Pallavi." he made a note to himself and then stared at the dark clouds trying to play hide and seek with the moon. How he wanted to hold Pallavi in their bed and get lost in their own little world. With such thoughts, he closed his eyes for a while.

His tired muscles had just started to relax when the powerful engine roared in annoyance the moment Harish pushed the brakes urgently mouthing a few curses and the vehicle made a deadly 90-degree turn, pushing all three of them here and there before stopping in the middle of the road.

"Harish, Pagal hai kya..." Raghav shouted just when the stormy death spared them and settled alerting the patrolling officers in some distance to start whistling and awakening chaos in the still sleeping Charminar premises.

"Sorry...Sorry, Anna, they came in front of the car all of a sudden." jolted with the near-death experience and the angry volcano bubbling behind him in Raghav's insides Harish stammered.

"it was not Harish's fault Anna, the woman came in front of the vehicle as if she wanted something ... and are you okay, Anna?" Ajith had by now opened his door.

"Okay, you two... now shut up." the powerful turn had him hit his head on the window and that was annoyingly painful, Taking a moment to settle he called Harish to come out as well who was perhaps rubbing his hurt knees.

Rubbing his own hurting temple with the back of his palm where a bump was about to come up in a few minutes Raghav tried to see the cause of this near-death moment trying to collect herself a few meters away from them, the pelting raindrops had no effect on her as if the rain didn't appear for her at all.