Pyar Mil Jaye

Part 3

"Chal Akshu, mein tumhe tumhare kamra dikhati hoon." Manjri spoke to the dainty little bride who was sitting feeling dejected by what had just occurred. Her eyes were still trailed toward the office door that had shut with a loud thud. 

Akhara raised her eyes slowly to meet Manjri's eyes as she tried not to blink so that the tears that were threatening to fall out of her eyelids stay put.  She then looked at the other dwellers of Birla house and noticed that they had all started to resume back to their own world.

She silently got up and started to follow Manjri up the stairs. She paused for a few minutes at the first door at the landing of the stairs, let out a quick sigh, and then followed Manjri into the room a few steps down from it. 

"Thanks, Akshu," Manjri said while folding her hands together near her chest, with palms touching and fingers pointing upward as soon as Akshara walked into the room. 

"No, Maa, please," Akshara cried and ran in the embrace of her mother in law. Both stayed like that for some time before Manjri wiped the tears from Akshara's cheeks and sat her on the bed. Manjri looked at Akshara and assured her everything would be alright.  

Once Manjri left the room, Akshara looked around her surroundings. Who could even tell if anyone ever resided in this room.

Blank grey walls, empty wooden desks, and plain white comforter on somber looking bed. Definitely reminded her more of a hotel room than a bedroom of a 30 year old doctor.

She sat there for a while, not knowing what to do next. The clock kept ticking, and soon, her mind registered that she should at the most get out of this irritated lengha into something much comfier. But the new delima was that all her clothes that were shifted to Birla House were tucked neatly in a suitecase in the wardrobe of the room next door. She couldn't even phantom the idea of stepping into that room at that moment.

Puzzled and irritated, she walked to the bathroom to freshen up and at least remove the truck load of makeup that was applied to her face and free her hair from the mammoth amount of straight pins that were holding the bun in place.

As she finished her tasks, her eyes fell onto the corner of the countertop, and there laid a fresh pair of man's pajamas. Without much of a thought, she quickly changed into the pajamas. She would deal with her husband later if he got upset at her borrowing his pajamas. Her mission right now was to get comfy and discard her lengha as soon as possible. As fast as she could, she changed out of her lengha and left it in a pile of heap in the corner of the huge bathroom.

As she walked back to the room, she hesitated a bit, thinking that her newly wedded husband would have made his way to their room by now. But to her suprise, the room was as much vacant as it was a few moments back. She  sat down on the couch, and soon, sleep took over.

The following morning, Akshara woke up to the sound of quiet banging at the door. She looked around and adjusted her neck. Boy, was it paining from the awkward position she slept in last night on the very uncomfortable couch. She turned her glazed and well-made bed, which showed no sign that anyone had even slept in it last night.

She pondered a bit, but her thoughts were broken from the quiet banging at the door. She quickly flipped the comforter off the bed and bolted to open the door.

There stood Shefali Bhabhi dragging one of Akshara's suitcases. "Jaldi, isse tum kam challa lo. I'll get the rest later. Hurry up and get ready." She said as she placed the handle of her suitecase in Akshara's hand and left without peeking into the room.

Akshara sighed "Thank God" as she closed the door behind and started getting ready, hoping she could make an exit from this room without facing the actual owner of this room.

To her luck, Abhimanyu was nowhere in sight, but she did wonder where he was and felt guilty that this man had to spend his night in somewhere else.

Akshara got herself ready in a simple pink sari with a sleeveless silver blouse and minimal jewelry. Manjri and Shefali greeted her when she approached them in the kitchen.