Vodka on the rocks

Phoolon Ka Taro Ka [Ft. Kirti]

Keerti... Keerti kuch bol naa. Pallavi dekho no.. ye kuch bol kyun nhi rahi... baat nhi kar rahi... kya hua isko.. Keerti dekho main aa gayaa.. kya hua bol na kuch.."

Raghav looked at his sister frantically trying to break her tranced state., begging her to speak to him, asking Pallavi to intervene in between. Pallavi just sat beside her best friend turned sister in law looking at her with sorrow, a glass of water in her hands.

"Pallavi ye kuch bol kyun nhi rahaan..? Keerti.. kuch kiya naa uss khajur ne tere saath? Kya kiya bol, abhi ke abhi usse Ventakeshwara ke paas nhi pauhacha diya naa toh mera naam bhi Raghav Rao nhi."

Raghav jumped up, fury exploding ripe on his handsome face. He will kill that ba*tard. He will rip his limbs one by one before pumping him full of lead. And no force on this earth could stop him, no even his beautiful wife who was pleading at him with beseeching eyes.

"Raghav please shaant ho jao. Abhi ye sab chodte hain naa.. baad mein aram se.. abhi Keerti ko hamari zaroorat hain. Plz apne gusse ko kaboon mein rakho."

"Kya kaboon mein rakho! Dekha nhi ye kaise chup chaap beitha hain.. chehra dekha hain.. Kahan tha! Kahan tha maine ki dur raho uss khajur se! Kahaan tha naa! Galat aadmi hain. Par nhi! Kisiko toh nhi sunna meri baat. Ye toh tha hi pyaar mein andhi, tum aur amma ne bhi nhi suni meri baat... bola kara do shaadi.. ho gaya... "

Raghav roared making Pallavi flinch but neither could she protest as they knew it was true. Keerti had gone against all of their collective suggestion and wishes and had gotten married to Sunny. They were living in Bangalore for six months now, Keerti wanting to move away from her family. Jaya might have forgiven Raghav and understood his point and her own mistakes but Keerti still smarting from the initial problems they had due to Sunny and Pallavi's involvement in the same had refused to even listen to his side.

Raghav had kind of made peace with the fact that he had lost his aby sister forever. It was a bitter pill to swallow and many a night he had woken up screaming from the vestiges of the nightmares which loved to capture his troubled mind. But, Pallavi had been a blessing. She was the one he talked with when he couldn't sleep, her silly antics distracted him during the day and he could feel her soft hands running through his hair when he would be tossing and turning in the bed and her kisses on his fevered brow.

She was helping heal the still raw and burning wound left in his heart by the rejection and subsequent departure of his younger sister.

When suddenly one day, they had returned from Deshmukh house after a Puja, Sharda Aai had forced them to attend, they saw Keerti sitting on the sofa in the living room, a suitcase beside her and a weird haunting hollowness in her eyes.

That was three hours ago and they had still been unsuccessful in trying to make her talk. Raghav had started to get increasingly tensed as the minutes ticked by and though Pallavi wasn't showing it he knew she too was in the same state.

And suddenly the guilt in him started eating him alive yet again. He must have held on against the situation and not given in to her sister's demands as a last resort to get her back and let her get married to that fiend.

He will kill him.

"Farhad! Abhi ke abhi ticket book kar mera! Bangalore janaa hain... dikhata hun uss sadi hui khajur ko! Himmat kaise hui Raghav Rao ki behen ke saat aisa karne ki."

"Ji Anna!"

"Arre par Raghav ruko tum ek minute plz.. hum Keerti ki baat sun le.."

He was storming away towards the door, Pallavi running after to catch up with her husband's long strides when suddenly they stopped and turned around shocked at the sound which came from behind.