Vodka on the rocks

Part - 4 | Reunion

Tujhe Kya Beeti Hui Raaton Se

Mujhe Kya Khoyi Hui Baaton Se

Sej Nahin Chitha Sahi 

Jo Bhi Miley Sona Hoga Ho

Gai Jo Dori Chhuti Haathon Se 

Lena Kya tute Hue Saathon Se

Khushi Jahaan Maangi Thuney 

Wahin Mujhe Rona Hoga

Na Koi Tera 

Na Koi Mera 

Phir Kis ki Yaad Aaee

Kiska Rasta Dekhe

Ae Dil Ae Saudaai

Meelon Hai Khamoshi

Barson Hai Tanhaai

Bhuli Duniya Kabhi Ki 

Tujhe Bhi Mujhe Bhi

Phir Kyon Aankh Bhar Aai

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"What!?"

Pallavi whipped around so fast that Farhad thought she might have given herself a nasty whiplash. He grimaced internally at the piercing look she gave him. It was as if she was trying to scan him through a laser lens and it was making him increasingly unsettled. Some of these expressions were so painfully foreign on his former sister in law's characteristically innocent face that it pricked him someplace unknown. 

"So you mean to say that you have not even been in contact with the man these seven years?"

Farhad sighed at the incredulity in her voice and looked aside trying hard to swallow the infuriating ache bubbling beneath his ribs at the thought as it had all these years. The pain of leaving Raghav had always burned like a fresh wound inside Farhad's soul whenever he would get reminded of it. He had consciously tried to move on from that feeling but in vain. It seemed like Raghav Rao was a dark twisted disease which had gripped into his system so irrevocably that to throw it out would be like amputating a limb or an organ which your body simply cannot do without. 

His former boss tends to have this supernatural effect on every person, irrespective of friends, enemies and loved ones. 

You simply cannot remain indifferent to him. 

It is impossible.  

The saddest part in Farhad's case was that like Pallavi he couldn't even transform his love to hatred and survive on that feeling. When the boiling fury of what his Anna had done to his Bhabi had subsided enough for him to remove that layer of red from his eyes, he had already slammed his resignation papers on the table. 

It had only been like a week since Jaya had moved out to live with Keerti and Sunny, three days after Pallavi's departure. He had been single handed-ly trying to manage all the affairs of the business and the personal messes and Raghav's uncharacteristic icy indifference to every situation and his infuriating habit to disappearing every day for hours on an end had been driving him up the wall. He had tried so hard to break through his boss's near unscalable wall of apathy and seeming disregard for every single person he kept on breaking with his absolute stone coldness and casual nonchalance but it had all been for nought. 

Raghav Rao had become impossible to work for, to live with, to feel any shred of empathy for. 

When he had not shown up for a very important meeting for which they had been slogging on for months prior, Farhad had lost his cool finally. He had raged at his boss for an hour whose conclusion had been Raghav calmly asking him whether he wants to leave too. That had been the last straw which had veritably broken the camel's back and Farhad's patience. He had drawn up the resignation papers that night itself and had slapped them on Raghav's desk next morning before banging the door as hard as he could on his way out.