Kaisi yeh Yaariyan Season 3

chapter 118

He stopped abruptly, just a few meters away from the entrance of her house, still holding her hand. "Nandini...I can't...go in there" he said, almost pushing the words out of his mouth.

She looked at his dead handsome face, the creased brows over those beautiful eyes and read his hesitation as clearly as reading out from her own diary. She could have insisted that he come along, after all she was going to declare their decision to get married to her family.

But she didn't. She didn't argue or demand or drag him. She didn't even ask the second time. Instead, she reached for his forehead, but could only measure up to his nose, even after standing on her toes. She kissed his nose and said "It's ok Manik. But tum yahi par rukna ok? I will be right back. Jana mat.."

Some battles she knew, she would have to fight alone for both of them.

Inside, everyone was busy disarranging things from her wedding that never happened and the mere sight gave her creeps. For some strange reason, it felt like people were dismantling her real mandap, as if one by one, they were pulling aside her dreams, stuffing them into cartons and dispatching them out to an unidentified address from where she would never be able to recover them. Yes, she had put up a brave front infront of Manik, she had coaxed him into believing her words, yet a tiny part of her had been crushed. The part where she used to stack her dreams. It was never about the grandeur which she wouldn't have now, but in her dreams they both were dizzy with happiness on their wedding day, smiling and blushing and smiling again. In reality, she knew it was a chain of compromises and the one thing she was going to miss the most was Manik's heartfelt smile.

Nandini went straight to Chachi. Navya was also there, so were chacha and Rishab. Amms was sulking in a corner. They were all busy getting the house back in order. Nandini knew, a heap of questions were waiting for her.

"Tu kal se kahan thi Nandu..Navya ne bataya tumlog saath mein the par yeh to koi baat nahi hui. Tu ek call nahi kar sakti thi. Ekbar phone karke bata nahi sakti thi, ki kahan hai kiske sath hai? Bari ho gayi hai to iska matlab yeh to nahi ki ghar aur ghar walon ki thori bhi fikar nahi karegi?" Bad timing, Nandini thought. chachi had all the right in the world to be so angry. After all, she had been literally absconding, and to add salt to injury, she was carrying that wound on her forehead.

Nandini apologized, she said sorry thrice and then went on to explain the circumstances which had firced her to be so disappointingly irresponsible. Though she was speaking to chachi, she kept her voice loud enough for others to hear, especially Amms. She told chachi the mess that had happened owing to Manik's dad and how despite everything Manik had chosen her.

She took a pause, swallowed the knot in her throat and finally uttered the line she had been practicing in her head all this while. "Chachi..main..I want to marry Manik". Her voice was all shaky, as an unknown fear lurched in her heart.

Not that it was a surprise, her entire family knew this was coming, even Amms, despite her self-created denial. But it was her wanting to marry him right now, in the given circumstances that she feared her family might oppose. And if they did oppose, if they thought she was unnecessarily hurrying up & that they both needed time, that would be so unfair to her yet not unjust on her family's part. She couldn't expect her family to understand Manik the way she could read his every pulse. But what if they said 'No'? She wasn't backing off at any cost, not after she had promised him she was going to shine for him. 'Aiyappa..please help me' Nandini started chanting in her head.

"Manik kahan hai? Wo kyun nahi aya tere sath" chachi looked for any cues on her husband and mom-in-law's faces and then asked sternly.

"kal jo kuch bhi hua..between him and Amms... he was hesitant.. Bahar khada hai wo." Nandini replied, looking at the floor.