Nadaan Ishq - KarEena

Chapter 17

Haseena returned late at night and opened the main door quietly. All her friends were requesting her to stay the night, but her heart was not at peace. She just wanted to reach home as soon as possible. Even though she was well aware of the fact that Karishma is habituated to live alone, she still didn't want her to feel alone or left out now.

She went inside and after freshening up, she came out of her room. She found a plate of food, left untouched there. Malaika would have prepared it, but Karishma as usual didn't care enough to have her dinner. She murmured with herself - "Fir se khana nhi khaya, kya problem hai inki."

She goes towards the study room as the lights were on there and peeps in, only to find Karishma sleeping abruptly on her stomach that too in the same clothes. Haseena thought she must be tired, so didn't wake her up and left her room after covering her properly with a duvet.

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Haseena was tossing and turning on her bed, thinking of what Karishma said in the car today, the honesty in her eyes while talking and the unconditional love for her and even for her Ammi.

This sincerity, this love and this selflessness is truly a rare combination, not everyone today is like that. That person has no hopes that Haseena will ever love her back, the way she does. The entire society, even her close ones may judge her. She won't be able to live a normal life ever as this social framework prevailing around us won't let her do so. But despite all these challenges, her love & respect for Haseena was unshakeable. It is very difficult to understand whether this feeling of Love is really so pure or is it just an act of stupidity and insanity.

Everything seemed to be perfect for Haseena - The person, the love she had in her to offer, the honesty, the selfless efforts, the care - everything..everything was beyond perfect. If Karishma would have been someone's life partner, then what else the person will ask for. But then this realisation, that the person who is more than perfect even with all her imperfections, was a woman not a man. This shook Haseena out of her thoughts with a jerk.

How can she fall for a woman, being a woman herself. Even if she did, how will she explain this to her ammi and to the rest of the world. Will ammi ever understand. No, of course not, how could she. This concept is completely outrageous for her & her whole generation.

But all these logics were not making any sense to her heart. Her heart fluttered differently around Karishma & she could not resist that feeling. Her brain was tangled with all the logical theories but her uncaged heart didn't recognise any boundaries.

This perplexity was not letting her sleep. Much later, tiredness took over her and she drifted off to sleep.

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Next morning, Haseena woke up to the music of a soulful old hindi song playing outside. She gets up rubbing her eyes and sees Karishma humming in the kitchen while making tea for herself. - "Ishaaron Ishaaron me dil lene wale, bata ye hunar tune seekha kaha se.."

A smile unknowingly appeared on Haseena's face as soon as she saw her face shining with a carefree smile. She entered the kitchen behind her humming back playfully - "Nigahon nigahon me jaadu chalana, meri jaan seekha hai tumne jahan se.."

Karishma looked at her with a smile and said - "Good morning..kaisi rahi aapki party."

Haseena answered casually while sitting on the shelf - "Thik thak rahi, bahot se purane doston se mulakat hui."

Karishma asked looking at her- "Chai piyengi na."

Haseena nodded and said while smiling - "Ye bhi koi puchne ki baat hai, chai ko mana thode hi kiya jata hai. Waise bhi thoda headache ho rha hai."