Enchanted Pursual (Complete)

Chapter 14

Mitali Jain

Switching off the lights of the room, I quietly tiptoed to the balcony of our leaving room and sat on the small bed like setting that my dad had specifically made for us when we were kids for star gazing.

Though now the pollution hidden away the charms of the dark sky, it would somehow still be peaceful to sit by here, think of the days ordeal and let it go for a while.

As we grow up, things change, and many times those things that had meant world to us would just become an occasion. Like this place. My life had to take me into this confused dilemma to get me back here, to make me realize how beautiful this place could as well be.

But that only makes me realize, what if I was overreacting with the fact that I might as well have feelings for Jai.

Jai, his name gives me this choking feeling in my throat as if I have to say something but my brain couldn't depict what it really is. All through this one month that I had known him, the various conversations that we had, his explanation... his words, his family, everything is what I have always wanted.

But then there is he himself, how can I forget the difference that we hold on so many grounds, and his uncanny resemblance.

The chill in the air made me yawn as I took hold of the small blanket from the cabinet in the far end of the balcony and made myself comfortable on the bed. I was still dazed into the miracles of the world when I felt someone's presence beside me. As I looked up, an involuntary smile spread across my lips as I shifted a bit and made bit of space for my dad.

"Can't sleep?" he asked, as he took out a blanket for himself and got settled beside me.

"There were a lot of jumbled thoughts; sleep is far away from me right now." The two of us laughed for a while and just like that an unfamiliar silence bestowed around us.

I rested my head on my dad's shoulder and hooked my hands into his, just the way I had this evening.

"You know Mitali; you are one confusing girl, one moment you latch on to your dad as if your life is depended on him, and then the next you get lost in to the crowd as if it's your home." My dad said, as he patted my fingers the way Jai's dadi did, her thought made me smile.

'You know dad, I met Jai's dadi today, and she is one beautiful woman."

"So you liked the Kapadia?" he asked.

"There isn't anything as such in them for me to not like them dad, but ..."

"There is a but, and then there always had to be a but, without that but in our life it can never be worth living Mitali, and when this but arrives find out its why." My dad's words had always had meaning within them they were never to be understood in one go, his advices were like those scriptures which gave you different meaning the each time you looked into them.

When I didn't say anything, I felt him taking a deep breath as he took hold of my hand in his two big ones.

"Do you like Jai?" dad asked all of a sudden, and the way my heart lurched in excitement it made me scared of what really the answer could be.

"I –"

"It's a simple question Mitali, from the time that you have had this sense of knowledge I have always asked to you decide from what you feel is right, do you feel right when you are with Jai? Or with his family.... Why did you forget about your dad and mom while you were with them?"

As he kept on asking tears fell from my eyes. I had never cried in front of anyone, not even my dad. I had always believed it was the weakest moment of my life, the time when I would be most vulnerable, all kind of emotions over powering me to such an extent that the tears would fall.