Hamesha, Yours!

-29-

-Mumbai-Goa outskirts: St. Joseph's school-

"Have you reached home?" she asked over the phone. 

"Okay. Good, he better put you in the bed safe and feed you. I'm no doctor to save you from recurring bleeding after you dumb attempts to fetch yourself something." 

"I know how well you can take care of yourself. I have seen it when well enough when you laid dead in the studio the other day." she chattered as she trashed her plate of the sandwich she had for lunch. 

"Playing dead for safety?" she laughed, "Inspired by animals or crazy stupid television shows here?" 

"Acha I have to go. Lunch break is over here at school. Ting, ting, ting ting!" she mimicked and was about to cut the phone when Harshad's voice boomed back, 

"What?"

"I'll be back by 6. Why?"

"Go out?"

"Only if you can carry your broken bones, Harshad."

"I doubt that as a great idea. We'll do something at home. I have to go now." she rushed as she made her way out of the school canteen back to the studio. Dreaded studio? She kind of questioned that adjective now. 

"No arguing. We'll see when I get back and you come to normal. Shush up now." Nandini cut the call before Harshad could bicker back. Glancing over her clock, she still had a few minutes to reach the studio and she was close. 

She smiled over the sudden turn of events in her life.

It was good. 

Not particularly, everything associated to Harshad was good and neither her being near music felt all good, but there was a sudden calm, normalcy in her life. Yet again, she had a a small home to go back to, a sick brother-like jolly boy waiting for her to bicker and be cared of, she had children with there musical laughter around her, she awaited the fest so that she could get over with this uncertainty of her job- she had a purpose. Not a perfect purpose in life, but some would work. At least, she wasn't the bottle-neck of someone's happiness, she wasn't hindering relations or being the bad one, she didn't hold accountability to anyone but herself, she didn't depended on anyone for expenditures but on her pockets. She held no riches but at least she had no Nyonika's to clash into and neither was she anyone's. 

  "Ouch." a small voice chipped and Nandini looked up. Naaz sat there tightly pressing over her fingers which seemed to redden. Nandini rushed in, towards her and sat besides her. She held on to Naaz's petite fingers as her younger selves and kissed them to stop the bleeding. 

"It hurts!" Naaz withered on the verge of crying. 

"Amms, it hurts, it burns! It hate the veena. I'm not doing this. It always does this to me!"

 

"It's okay, kanna." Amms' sweet voice comforted her in concern. "That's how you learn."

"It's okay, Naaz. It's a part of learning." Nandini pressed her cuts from the veena strings.

"I hate this learning."

"How will you learn if you don't hurt? Only falling will let you stand up and get things sorted right."

"Amms, you are too philosophy-ish. This is worse than paper cuts. Can't it be a bit gentle?"

"What kind of learning is this, Nandini miss, where it burns and bleeds?" Naaz complained. 

"Of course, it is learning." Nandini said in a smooth voice and pulled the bandages out of the first aid kit.