Kaisi yeh Yaariyan Season 3

Chapter 29

Location: Pune

Time: Sunday Afternoon

"On the way kuch problem to nahi hui na beta?" It was one of those rare occasions when Manik didn't have to hold for 15 minutes while the operator connected him to his father, the tycoon Mr. Raj Malhotra, the founder and owner of the Malhotra group of industries. In fact this was rarer, because his dad was waiting to receive him and the moment he saw Manik walking through the garden towards him, he scurried towards Manik and embraced him welcomingly.

"No it was smooth."

"Bohot jaldi Nikla hoga na tu Mumbai se, go get freshened up and take rest. I will ask them to bring your food upstairs. Tu rest le and we can talk in the evening."

"Haan wo..." Manik was lost in thoughts "But wo main Mumbai se nahi aya, I was in Panchgani to meet a... friend."

"Friend?? Yeh kaunsa friend hai tumhara?"

"Hai koi, you wouldn't know. Waise why are you even asking? Didn't you tell me you had no idea about my friends from the past?"

Mr. Malhotra went into damage control mode. He wasn't a tycoon just for the heck of it. He had a mind that was sharp enough to cut through the toughest of people. But this was his own son, equally sharp if not more. He better had his words measured. "Isiliye to I am asking. I don't want to repeat that mistake again. I want to know every small detail of your life so that this time I don't have to be ashamed, I don't have to stand like a dumb when you ask me about your life or friends."

"Hmm...will update you in good time." He shrugged off. "Waise mera room kahan hai? I don't remember a freaking thing about this place."

Mr. Malhotra sent a steward to escort Manik to his room in this sprawling property that spread over a good 10 acres in the heart of Pune, Koregaon park.

********

"Who builds a house like this? Yahan entrance se room tak pahunchne ke liye hi 15 minutes lagte hain and yahan rehta kaun hai, ek admi aur baki sab servants..what rubbish." Manik was acting cranky. But it was not the house or its size that was his actual cause of concern. It was her, Nandini. She drove him crazy. As long as he was with her, infront of her, his mind didn't work. It was like a spell that she cast over him. He could see right through her as if she were innocent like a newborn baby and transparent like water. She had a strange power over him, she could make him do crazy things and he did it with pleasure.

But the moment she was out of his sight and his senses returned, he would be in immense turmoil. Like what happened this morning.

He was dropping her home after that 'kodak sunrise moment'. She was so happy, he could see tears welling up in her eyes. He was bidding her goodbye and her face suddenly turned sad. The same eyes that were teary with happiness had now become sad because he was leaving and even though she didn't utter a word, her eyes, they kept on asking him if he would return. He didn't want to but in all practicality he had to and so he just said that he would come back soon. He was feeling equally miserable to leave her like that. He needed her more than she needed him.

Then he returned to his car and that's when the trouble started. He looked at the seat next to him, trying to picture her sitting there and his eyes fell on the blood stains on the footboard. That shook him from within and he tried to back track to the morning to the previous night and the evening.

She cried when she saw that car missing him by inches and they were not crocodile tears, she was literally a nervous wreck, then she spent the night with him without a single fear and then in the morning she walked close to a mile barefoot over stones and she didn't even do an 'ouch', though her feet were sore and bleeding. It all looks sweet, terribly sweet, but when you took into consideration that they had been friends just for a week, how on earth was it possible for her to feel so deeply for him, to trust him so easily and to go so far for his happiness.

C'mmon would you bleed for someone you merely know? Was he missing something? Was she hiding something? Was there something more to it than what met the eyes.

Manik cursed himself and he cursed that bloody memory loss of his. It had turned him into a monster. He was acting bipolar. One moment he was on a high, highest high, adoring her and the next he was suspecting her.

Either she was really dangerous OR he had totally lost it. Why on earth could he not trust people. His heart wanted to trust her. It had seen something in her, that made him want to believe her. Something intangible like the air..U can't see it, u can only feel it. But his mind was warning him. And in this tussle, no matter who won, either ways it would be his loss. Either he would lose her by mistrusting her or he would lose himself by trusting her.

But given a choice, he would prefer to lose himself.

He took his shirt off and picked his cell phone.

"When in doubt, listen to heart or mind?" He typed and sent it to her.

"Listen to your heart, it will never lie to you...

Always listen to your heart, it will drive you home.." bang came the instant reply.

He walked into the shower. How did she always know what to say?

"Sabki apni kahaniyan hoti hain. Hum wahi dekhte hain jo hume dikhta hai, par jo dikhta hai woh hamesha sach nahi hota"

"Hope, jahan hope hota hai.. Wahi miracles hote hain"

Her words flashed before him.

Manik never prayed, he never asked anything from God. But today he will, he will ask God to let her win and he would send her a pretty pair of shoes too.

**************

Nandini was lying on her tiny bed and staring at the tree in her back porch through the half opened window next to the bed. The dark green leaves swayed in the afternoon breeze. Nandini hadnt taken a shower yet, she was still in her day old kurti, trying to retain that last bit of scent of his that remained on her. She neither had breakfast, nor lunch, she wasn't hungry. She hadn't even applied medicine on her once sore - now numb feet.

Why she wondered, why he had that effect on her? Why she became a whole new person in his presence?

She had been planning for a week for this day, she had thought of all the twisted questions she would ask him, the different ways she would make him confront his past but when he was actually here, all she did was to care for him. If she had to go to the root of the question, to know why he had deserted her, she had to be particular about not showing her emotions. To him she was a new friend and she had to act like one.

But the moment she felt that he was not ok, that he was sad or in trouble all that logic just jumped out of the window. She became paranoid at the thought of losing him. When he was around, she completely forgot herself. She just got engrossed in making him happy. She knew she had badly screwed it up and if he put a little thought to it, he would easily make out that something was wrong.

No matter how much she prepped her mind, when she was with him, her heart would never let her mind dominate.

"When in doubt, listen to heart or mind?" a message beeped on her cell.

"Listen to your heart, it will never lie to you...

Always listen to your heart, it will drive you home.." she replied without thinking.

Did she just answer him, or HERSELF?

What was the worst that could happen if she trusted him once more? He would win and she would lose? Perhaps he would break her one more time, Perhaps she would be shattered beyond repair. But her Aiyappa knew any pain, any damn pain was worth it if it meant his happiness.

She will do it, she will let him win.