Strings Of Love

Chapter 56

Sidharth realised he had been hard on himself, not ready to believe that a second chance could be worth it. A clear communication and brief talking was all they needed to clear things out between them. Neither did Shehnaaz make it too personal and told him about what upset her instead of what was 'wrong' with someone’s personality.

Unlike the way Ishita used to bring the past events to justify her arguments. A little did he understand the difference between the objectives about solving the problem and winning the fight; accepting each other's mistakes and pointing out the partner's faults. There was no comparison between Ishita and her, it was a comparison between his experience and perception of a peaceful relationship.

He smiled, cutting the cake with her and wondering how different this new year was. Preeti, Ajay and Abhyukt were at their family friends' place and his mother, Rita Ji, was celebrating it with her former sisters at Brahmakumaris. If it wouldn't have been with Shehnaaz, the new year would have been a boring occasion spent with her sister's friends or he  would have felt out of place with all the elderlies at Brahmakumaris. It wasn't for the people, it was him, getting uncomfortable with a lot of people around was his reason.

"Oh, I so badly needed this." He thought to himself, making a glass of whiskey for the two of them.

The episode with Harjot had happened to be a handful and the sad part was that it wasn't over yet, they were going to have a full fledged meal with her very soon.

"Happy New Year Sidhaaarth! Cheers!" Shehnaaz raised her glass for a toast and kissed him briefly before they gulped it down together.

"Happy New Year sweetheart!" He replied, smiling equally.

"Any resolutions?" She asked him.

"Resolutions? Plural? Maine toh ek bhi nahi banaya." He chuckled, popping some salted nuts into his mouth.

"Maine bhi nahi. Lekin na, mera bada mann hai ke mai kuch bada karu iss saal. Um like, kuch naya, kuch interesting sa." She replied after thinking about it.

"Ha, lekin kya?" He asked her. "Bola na maine socha nahi hai, bas karna hai." She replied, confused and sipped her drink.

"Gadhi." He shook his head, finishing his glass.

"Chal abhi ek kaam karte hai." He said, gaining her attention.

"List bana, jot down things you couldn't do often in the previous years. We'll do them this year." He suggested.

"Hm." She thought about it.

"Bana na!" He nudged her shoulders, putting forward a pen and paper in front of her from the nearest side stand.

"Okie." She nodded, grabbed the paper and tore it into two.

"Tu bhi bana, hum dono ki list poori karenge." She told him. He looked at her, touched how thoughtful she was and watched her trying to write.

"So drunk that you can't even write straight. La, mai likh ke deta hu, tu bol." He snickered, taking the pen and paper from her. He was a little confused when he saw the way she was writing, it was 'lisJ' instead of 'list' as if she had drawn the letter 't' the other way around.

"Mera bas chale toh sabse pehle likhna hi seekh lu, I'm so dumb I tell you!" She chuckled sadly.

"It isn't- alphabets ulte-fulte ho jate hai mere. Humesha se." She told him, admiring the title she had put on the page, it said 'Shehnaaz ki lisJ' with irregular spaces in between the letters.

"Kya matlab?" He was confused to no end. Did she have any kind of eyesight disturbance? We'll, it didn't seem so, he knew she could see clearly to be writing so poorly. Or maybe it was a problem with her hand? But again, she used to carry trays around efficiently while serving. What could it be? He thought.