Ishqana Dil

Part 24

Prepare yourself for what's waiting for you at home, Amu.

She thinned her lips and stowed her phone away. She had known she would have to face the music for running after Mantu when she would get back home in the afternoon and Rachi Di's message confirmed it. For how long would they have to suffer all this?

Yes, she had prayed for her grandfather to forgive and accept her mother. She knew how important the father-daughter relationship was. She would give anything to have her Superman back. But it did not mean that her Nanaji would have the right to take control on their family like that, did it? They did not have a man in the house, but there was no real need of one. They had learned to live on without Superman and if they had been about to do that, she knew they could survive any storm together, just the four of them. But her Nanaji's interference was not helping at all. He was making things much worse than they should have been.

The rickshaw stopped outside her house. She did not want to go in there...

***

He walked down the corridor, frowning. Rama had fallen asleep after taking his medicines and the visiting hours were long over but the doctor had given him the permission to stay. Mantu could not abuse on that. Rama's father was in despair but his mother looked much better since she had gotten to know about Rudra. He had not told anyone. She had seen Rudra leaving the hospital earlier and heard about it from someone who had seen everything. The glee she had expressed afterwards was scary and she had said something about teaching a lesson to Amaya's Nanaji too but she didn't really mean it, did she? No she couldn't...

And he had talked to Rama about Rachitaji too. He had not been stalking her, he had sworn. Amaya and her sister might have misunderstood things. Rama was not capable of doing something like that. Maybe Rachitaji had misread him and his intentions? He would have to talk to Amaya about that and clear everything up.

Amaya. He sighed, stopping in his tracks. His eyelids fell shut and he felt it again. Her hand moving the hair of his face. Her hand on his shoulder as she raised herself to kiss him on the forehead. The touch of her lips on his skin, the warm of her body, so close to him and yet so far. Her eyes filled with unsaid love...

He clenched his jaws tight and snapped his eyes open to rush out of the hospital and into a rickshaw. He needed to get home and work. He needed to himself busy. Because if he did not, he knew he was going to find himself at her doorstep, or worse, in her room like the last time...

***

She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and pushed the door open. Silence greeted her. She walked in, her heart pounding. The whole Chaubey-Mathur family, minus Jazz who was probably at Mantu's place to tutor Chiklu, was waiting for her in the aangan. Her mother looked like she was going to collapse, Rachi Di was really annoyed, her Nanaji was almost purple with anger and the others looked stressed beyond their wits. Rudra and his mother were not there. She assumed he was too injured and she was tending to his injuries.

Nanaji's eyed bored holes into her as she stopped to look at all of them. "Mil gayi tumhein fursat ghar aane ki?" Amaya kept her chin raised but remained silent. "Sharam nahin aati tumhein?" he went on, his voice dripping with disgust. "Parivaar ki izzat mitti mein mila di tumne! And you dare come home as if nothing happened? Besharam ladki!"

"I have not done anything wrong," she muttered.

"Achha? You have not? What was that in the morning then? You pushed me and ran after that awaara ladka! Voh awaara ladka jisne beech-bazaar tumhaare Nana ki beizzati ki! You have insulted me!"