Everything but her

Everyone was taken by surprise when Virat showed up at the ground for practice three months later. He had skipped a series and everyone had expected him to take another two months from the game but he had come right back.

He tried being normal and was so apart from the fact that he had lost his appetite for the jokes that had become a part of the team's functioning.

'C'mon guys, let's do it then', he said as they all took the field five days later.

Within five months, Virat had broken many records and was currently the number 1 player in all three formats of the game. He was being described to be in the form of his life. Truth was, he had nothing else to do in his life than play for his country. That was the only drive he was getting in his life. He lived cricket, day in day out. He had no time for people.

Virat's behaviour, however, disturbed his mother. She was worried about his eating habits wherein he skipped meals at will and the sleeping pattern wherein he spent those hours practising all alone. She wanted him normal but she knew she couldn't force things on him right now. She tried her best but failed, at large.

Virat won three trophies that year in the ICC awards official ceremony. The interviewer asked him how he felt after receiving those awards to which he replied,

'We all make plans in life. I had one too. To stand here today with these trophies in my hand is a dream come true. Mission accomplished, you know', he smiled, 'but then you know even life comes in a bargain. Today I have everything in life. I can be called as the most successful player right now. Do it at your own discretion, though. Anyway, people please don't be in a haste to be jealous of me as of yet. This is something I would have happily given away in a bargain to get her. But here I am today, I have everything, every possible thing in this world but her. Tell me now, how should I feel?', and left the conference with tears in his eyes.

There was not a single eye that was left without a tear. The news channels found their headlines for almost a week but it was him who knew what it was like. It was not as if he felt numb. No, he was happy. He was happy because he knew she would have been happy. Would have demanded a bottle of champagne. But that was incomplete without her. He wouldn't do that, he decided.

He had changed the name of his foundation from Virat Kohli foundation to 'Aarushi, the love nest'. He went there sometimes to see the kids there imagining how he would have been as a father. There was a lifetime to live without her because each moment felt never ending. It was a torture but he found some relief when he did things that would have made her happy.

He even opened up a fashion designing school in her name. With all the money that he had, he decided he wanted to do nothing with it. Whom would he save it for? He gave it up in every second place he was asked for. He had come to realise that life was not about all this and the thing it was worth had been taken away from him. He was now leading a distasteful life. But he planned to make it count just for her. Because he knew as much as he had loved her, she had loved him too. And he did not want to hurt anything that she had loved. And he knew he was the most precious of them all.

THE END!!!