Silent Hearts

34| Thirty-Four

And then she realised,
Falling in love with him,
was her greatest adventure.

...

"Nandu? Are you even listening?"

Nandini could still remember that day, a few weeks ago, the happenings of that fine winter evening, from the very beginning, till how it ended for her. Those scenes between the two of them, till now, lingered in her eyes, and she could always see them playing right in her mind. Oh, how he had touched her, pulled her close to him while never letting go of his strong arms off her waist; her heart fluttered with a desire when she recalled his look on her. How intensely he had peered at her, his ebony eyes, so dark and beyond any depths she could imagine, had tried to pull her in, time and time again, but that evening, they seemed blurred with something she couldn't place her senses on, they had been searching- perhaps, for something she could, or could not offer.

Nandini had forgotten how he used to sing during those days when she was just a teenager, how his mesmerizing voice echoed through the empty nooks of her teacher's big, two-storied house, and how sometimes, she got distracted while penning down her notes. But that day, when she heard his voice again, the same melodious tunes of his guitar, she just couldn't stay put. She had to go, it had been her curiosity since she was a girl, to see Tushar Chatterjee sing- before her eyes. Although, she forgot he used to sing when he was young, but at that moment, she could see herself- the same teenager, eager to see Tushar Chatterjee, and after so many years, it did happen. She hadn't been able to stop her legs as they followed the same old tune of his guitar.

That was the day, something changed between them. Perhaps, the change had been happening long before, but it was only that evening, at that certain moment that Nandini realised, Tushar Chatterjee felt things for someone; things which they both could not comprehend, things that only their silent hearts could hold onto, things that remained unsaid, unheard for a long time, things that ought to be never whispered out, things that Tushar Chatterjee fell prey to. His voice had held despair, a certain desire he wasn't able to quench, for a fleeting moment, his voice gave away his love, and Nandini had felt the warmth of his burning soul on her cold, trembling body, felt his anguish crashing into her petite soul, shattering the fear she had of him, tracing her sanity with his smouldering thirst for something, inking into her psyche- his desire of someone. The same desire, he, himself knew nothing of.

"Uh-?" She pinned her eyes on her mother's smiling face, blinking away that memory, resisting the burning of her cheeks, as she noticed her little sister's teasing eyes upon her.

"Maa? I've told you na, di-bhai, isn't listening to us, she is perhaps-" Naitee's curved brows wiggled as she bit on her bottom lip, trying to hold the snicker that Nandini knew she could not hold-not for much longer, anyway.

"What? Of course I was-" Nandini interrupted, before her sister could finish, however she could do nothing to stop Naitee, as she laughed.

"I told you before too, she just wants to go upstairs, you know Jiju is waiting there na," Naitee giggled, before their mother joined in too, their small laughs turning to full-blown laughter.

Nandini made a face, gulping away the shyness that surged through her, turning towards her mother, but once she noticed her smile, she knew her mother would not say anything more, as she was being pushed to go upstairs an hour before by them.
"I was not thinking of him," Nandini lied, biting on her lip to stop them from curving upward, feeling her face get hotter with each passing minute.