Mumbai
Two years, 9 days, 18 hours, 43 minutes and 25 seconds since Chandu chose to exit his life for good, he recollected miserably. The events leading to it were agonizing for her to say the least, which Dev understood too little too late. If he wasn't so engrossed and engulfed in his own grief and hatred for her, he would have recognised the lonely soul who had never hurt even a fly in her entire life.
Life gave choices to everyone; a choice between good and bad, courage and cowardice, truth and lies, hatred and love. Choosing the correct one was entirely on you. And unfortunately he chose hatred over and over again instead of love at every given opportunity; and that blinded him so much that he always believed the worst about her. He chose to be a coward instead of taking the courage to investigate the absolute truth. If he did, he wouldn't be sitting here pondering over where he went wrong and instead spending the rest of his life with his beloved.
In fact he was determined to believe that what he saw and heard was the truth, ignoring the fact that truth had many faces. He was so convinced by it that he chose to believe that every word that came out of chandini's mouth was a lie; again a wrong choice at that time.
He was wallowing in his own hurt and thought that if she chose to come back and torture him with her presence, he would return the favour. And he was going to take the advantage of the fact that she was unaware of his true identity.
The rhythmic tick-tock of the clock's pendulum in his room transported him to all the moments of the past between Chandu and him; those moments that he consideredjust back then, because he was wronged by her and felt that he had every right to dole out punishments. He took immense pleasure in knowing that she didn't know the reason behind the emotional torment he was putting her through. He had effectively stopped everyone in the household about revealing his identity. He concealed all the items, mementos, photographs of the past and stored them in a room which Chandini could not access.
Nani introduced Chandini to her daughter Leela, her granddaughter Pooja and her great grandson, Adi. It irritated him that Chandini could immediately strike a rapport between his nephew and sister. What made him furious was that Pooja reciprocated it after knowing the role Chandini played in the destruction of his family. The only person who was on his side and seemed to understand his plight was Leela Maasi. Her outright hatred for Chandini mirrored his.
Everyone else seemed to ignore the elephant in the room. Nani forced the muh-dikhayi and pehli-rasoi rasam on them. He hated every bit of it. His plan to oust Chandini during those events went awry. He knew that he had to up his ante and plan Chandini's exit from his life masterfully. And for that to happen he had to first get his nani's confidence that he wouldn't do wrong by chandini and that he had accepted her. And then he would go for the kill. When he did, chandini will leave out of her own will; it would look believable and he would have the last laugh; or so he thought.
Chandini seemed to oblige everything his nani asked her to do and he loathed her for it. It came to the situation where nani planned the Suhaag Raat rasam for them. He felt cheated by his granny. How could she force him to share the same space with a person responsible for the death of his parents?! How could she forgive the unforgivable? His mind kept nagging. But then again she seemed to be blissfully unaware of his growing animosity towards Chandini and he wanted it that way for his strategy to work, even if it killed him to touch his wife or spend time in close quarters with her, if the situation demanded.
"Cheeku, I am so happy that you have decided to give your marriage a chance. Chandini is a good girl and I know that my intuition is never wrong.' Nani said with a pleasing smile on her face.
Advay bit back his reply and stayed silent. She pushed him towards his bedroom saying, "Now go and get to know your wife better. This is the best time to look for the truth and reveal your identity to her.' Her eyes expressed hope.
Nani was really innocent, he thought. How she tried to see the good in everyone and give them a chance, even if it was the enemy. But he wasn't about to forgive or forget. But he couldn't let his Nani know, hence he replied, "I will do it at my own pace, nani. Let her get to know and accept Advay first his likes and dislikes, because Advay is a part of Dev. I want to surprise her with the revelation when the time comes. Until then please promise me you won't address me as Dev.'
She seemed to be convinced by his answer and assured him of the same. With this taken care of, he took his nani's blessings and proceeded towards his room.
As he entered, he had to adjust his eyes to the dimly lit room. He wondered if he stepped into paradise; his room was transformed into a flowerbed of sorts. There were Lillies everywhere and the fragrance just wafted through the air.
He locked the door and looked around at the pointless and wasted decorations until his eyes landed on the most beautiful creature he had ever set his eyes upon. Dressed in olive green netted saree and sleeveless blouse with little to no jewellery and make up, she looked like a celestial nymph, seated in the middle of the bed with her eyes focussed on something in her palm.
The ruffle of his clothes seemed to startle her and she inhaled deeply before she moved her palm behind her body. Advay walked towards her like a lion targeting its prey. He came to a halt in front of her, paused for a few seconds before he reached for her hand and pulled her up towards him.
She accidentally dropped what as in her hand on the bed and landed on him. She placed her palms on his chest to steady herself. She appeared uncomfortable and nervous because of his proximity. Her squirming in his arms didn't go unnoticed by him either and he gradually bent his head to whisper something in her ear.
"You look lovely, Chandini. All dressed up for your husband, is it? Looks like you are very eager to fulfil this rasm.' He taunted her.
"I did the dressing up for nani's sake and I'm not keen on spending another second in your presence than you are.' she retorted in annoyance, trying to move away.
He tugged her closer to murmur sarcastically, "Oh yeah! I forgot that you have a boyfriend to fulfil that need.' He paused before he blew a tendril off her nape and threatened, "I am warning you, no boyfriend, no affair behind my back. I will not tolerate you tarnishing my family's reputation.'
Chandini shivered in response and turned her head away, stating, "I hope the same applies to you as well.' He stayed on in the same position for a long moment without answering. The closeness seemed to make her terribly uncomfortable; and he was enjoying watching every moment of her discomfort.
She tugged at her hand and tried to move away. He tightened his grip on her palm, the rings on her fingers piercing her skin and causing her to wince in pain. He glared at her, his nose flaring ignoring the unexplainable fear her beautiful orbs contained.
"I have one more word of caution for you, my darling wifey. You used my nani as an excuse once already to make your entry into my home. You will see the worst of me if I ever come to know that you used her any further in your dirty scheming. I hope I have made myself clear', he warned her and deliberately moved into her personal space again to utter loathingly, "You are a beautiful lie, Chandini. That is all you will ever be to me.'
He pushed her away in disgust making her stagger back and went towards the cot to throw a pillow and blanket at her direction. He then went ahead to turn the light off and go to bed, not once glancing in her direction.
Had he done that he would have noticed her body convulse with unknown fear, her hands cradling her knees and rocking back and forth as the night progressed; for protection against the invisible forces in the darkness that seemed to haunt her every second of every night since she escaped her tormentor.
TBC
