THE HIDDEN HALF

Chapter 28 : I'm not leaving!

*** CHAPTER 28 ***

“Every time I look at your face, I’m reminded how I was betrayed!”

Though it’s been a month already that he has left but still her parting words have made Sanskaar realize how he has been living an illusion till now, that what a blunder he has committed. He has fallen in love with that one person he wasn’t supposed to fall for and he knows it quite well that she will never love him back, yet he just can’t help but fall in love with her even more bit by bit. His heart doesn’t seem like listening to him anymore!

Standing in front of his class he just mechanically completes yet another sum. He has stopped singing! Why? He doesn’t know himself but without her… his words seem to have lost their meaning!

Taking a deep breath, he intends to just start the next question straight away when he feels the need to ask his students for any queries. No matter how hurt he personally is, he can never cheat on his profession, that too a profession he loves so much.

Sanskaar: Is this clear to all of you? Any questions?!

And as expected his students are still not responding. He knows that they are hurt because of his inexplicable change of behavior but he still just can’t help it. He is about to begin the next question when he hears a question…

“When are you coming back?”

That voice… The one he has been dying to hear, the one he hears in his dreams every night!

Sanskaar’s movements pause on the board for a moment. Is that her? But that’s not possible, right?! She can’t be here. Maybe he is hearing things now! Has he started hallucinating?

Shaking his head to shrug off the feelings, he writes the next question on the board. That’s when he hears the voice again…

“Mr. Maheshwari, I’m talking to you!”

Turning his head towards the door, Sanskaar gets the shock of his life on finding an absolutely livid Swara standing at the doorstep of the classroom with both her hands on the either side of her waist. She just can’t believe that he has ignored her straight away right now!

Sanskaar: S-Swara…

Swara: So, you’re so much angry that you are ignoring me now.

Sanskaar: I… You… Are you real?

He just can’t help but ask. Maybe his ears and eyes both are deceiving him. Swara raises an eyebrow at his fazed expressions. So, he thinks she is a dream! An unknown feeling surges up warming up her heart with the realization that she still holds a very special place in his heart.

And in an instant the old Swara is back! The one who absolutely loves to tease the hell out of the man standing in front of her right now.

Sanskaar is still standing in front of the board contemplating his feelings when Swara takes the initiative and moves forward towards him. All his students’ curious gazes have now turned towards this mysterious lady they have never seen before and soon enough their eyes go wide as they notice her picking up the sheets of papers lying on the teacher’s desk and rolling it in the form of a stick.

O OH!

Hearing his student’s whisper, Sanskaar’s trance breaks but before he gets time to realize anything, he receives a heavy blow on his head, as Swara says…

Swara: Do I still need to prove that I’m real?

Sanskaar: Swara… What are you doing?

And with that comes a series of whacks… really hard whacks as Swara showers Sanskaar with blows blabbering her heart out.