Their laughter on swings caught the breeze as Kartik and Meera made their way back to the cafe.
The tension between them was no more; relief had subtly changed everything.
Not yet quite right, things between them were at least no longer so vastly cracked. He clung to it, praying it would last.
She had just opened her eyes to see Kartik and Sapna walk back into the cafe when she waved at them to come over to her.
Her smile was warm, but her eyes sparkled with a curiosity she did not address too much-not that she asked Kartik questions about his and Meera's past. Though she tried very hard not to do so.
Kartik sat down with a nearly perfunctory glance at Rutuja, and Meera came in to sit beside them. Now, finally, comfortable silence for the first time in what felt like an eternity. No longer crowded with unsaid words and hidden tension, that alone was small victory.
"So," Rutuja started with a playful mischief tinge to her voice, "did you two sort out all the emotional drama? Or do I need to step in and mediate again?"
Kartik smiled, shaking his head. "No refereeing needed. We're good."
Meera nodded in agreement, the smile on her face reflecting her very genuine ease. "Yeah, we're okay."
Rutuja grinned triumphantly. "Good! Because honestly, you two were making things way too dramatic for my liking."
Their laughter filled the entire cafe with light and a carefree air. It was as if, for that moment, it was the old days all over again, when life hadn't got so complicated. Rutuja had a talent for diffusing any amount of tension, which was one of the many aspects that Kartik admired about her.
She made the weight of the world a little bit lighter.
She and he sat and talked; they'd begun talking about school news, and this had branched out into the projects Rutuja was doing at engineering. Kartik slowly started to calm down, and the weight of days began to fade away.
But then, Meera turned her voice a little more serious. "Kartik, have you ever thought about what you're going to do next? With everything that's happened, I mean.".
Kartik hesitated, looking down at his coffee. He did not like to think much of the future. Everything had turned utterly uncertain since the accident. Even that bright goal of getting to be one of the best medical students like Meera was no more than a long-forgotten dream. What he could muster now was the thought of survival from day to day.
"I don't know, really," Kartik admitted, in a small voice. "I feel lost. Like I'm not where I'm supposed to be."
Rutuja leaned forward. "You're not lost, Kartik. You have had a lot. Everyone has his own way of learning," she said, softening her face into compassion.
Meera nodded full-eyed. "Yeah. No one's expecting you to have it all figured out right now. Just take your time.".
Meera's words were comforting, though the uncertainty didn't let him down. He looked at Meera, focused on her face and thus determined, feeling he has fallen behind and felt that once driven by that necessity, now buried deeply under all the emotional baggage.
Just in time. Before he could get into even more depressing thoughts, Rutuja suddenly flashed a bright smile and rose from the sofa, clapping her hands together. "Okay okay! Enough heavy stuff! Shall we do something more fun? Like a mini adventure."
Kartik raised an eyebrow. "A mini adventure?"
"Yup!" Rutuja's eyes shone with excitement. "There's this wonderful street food stall around there, which I've been dying to try. Shall we go there?"
YOU ARE READING
Blueprints Of The Destiny
RomantikKartik, a bright and talented medical student whose life takes turns he never expected. Trauma caused in his life makes him sail through the most unexpected life he had ever imagined as a merit-list student. His struggle to cope with academics, rela...
