Broken Relations

Nobody can take my mother's place

Same day, 12.00 pm
Ishan's pov

After the lecture, I went straight to my cabin. God, I was so hungry. I came in the cabin and just sat on my chair. I was so tired. Since the beginning of the day I had lecture after lecture. I didn't even had the time to eat.

I saw my lunch bag on the table. I opened it. The smell of biryani just pricked my nose and my desire to eat just increased. But before I ate, I needed to make sure if baba had eaten.

Baba is sick. He had fever. He never takes good care of himself. When he said that he didn't call the fever on his own, I smiled. I had hold my laugh back. You have to be strict with baba, not that he is a stubborn person who does not listen to anything. He just forgets to care about himself.

I know baba missed aai a lot. I remember how aai and baba were always together, always taking care of each other. The way I used to tease them. They were my ideal couple. But...they seperated. Aai left. She never contacted ..why???

I had seen them close enough, nobody can tell me that their love for each other was fake. But why did they get seperated? They seperated, but never divorced. This was the reason I believed that their story didn't end yet. There was more to come.

But what, when and how I didn't know, but I wished that it happened. I wanted to meet aai, to know what had happened, to know why she left me. Why she never contacted. I wanted the answer of every why in my heart. Pushing my thoughts away, I called baba.

"Hello baba, kaise ho aap? Thoda better feel kar rahe ho aap? Khana khaaya aapne? Dawa kyaaia aapne? Aap..."Arreh arreh Ishan, please relax, I am fine..thoda better feel kar raha hoon" baba interrupted, but listening to his voice, that didn't seem to be the truth.

There was no improvement in his voice, infact along with the fever kind voice, he also sounded stressed, confused and scared. I knew this man wasn't going to tell me the reason. But at least he was doing good. I decided that I will not disturb him. Maybe I am just overthinking and he just needs rest.

"Okay baba, take rest then, I will hang up." 

I love my baba a lot. After since aai left, he took really good care of me. Sometimes he was my father, sometimes my mother, sometimes my friend, sometimes my therapist, sometimes my doctor . He is all in one. But that doesn't change the fact that I still miss mom. I still remember the day she left....

Flashback
After I had eaten my breakfast with Asmita kaku, I ran to the room of aai and baba. I wanted to see them romancing and then I would tease them. My 10 years old, naughty mind just wanted to see my parents happy.

The tension they had didn't miss my eyes. I could clearly see that there was something wrong. What, I didn't know. But it bothered me to see aai baba so tensed. Especially aai. Sometimes it felt like aai had only baba and me to talk to. It felt like akkasaheb and raosaheb didn't like her. They were always taunting her or making her sad.

But when baba said: Mujhe tere aai se kuch akele mein baat karni hai," I hoped that everything would be fine. I also teased them by saying: "accha toh mere cute se aai baba ab romance karenge." I didn't miss the light blush on aai her face and baba litte smile.

With all that in my mind I ran to their room. When their room was near, I stopped and walked slowly without making a noice. I stopped in front of the door and put my ear close to the door. I didn't hear anything. Just some sniffs. What was happening here? Was everything good between them? I knocked on the door.

"Aai, baba, can you open the door please?" After some minutes the door was opened by aai. She cried. Her eyes were red. She looked tired and broken. I was just 10 years old, but I could just feel it that my aai was not happy, I knew there was something very wrong. But what?