DIL-E-BEBAAK

"I am to be engaged.", said Panchali, with eyes full of tears, begging him to save her from this fate that had been put in front of her by her father. Dev's head bobbed up, and in a rather sarcastic tone replied with, "So?"

"So? I love you Dev. Just you, I can't be engaged to someone else.", she said through her stifling cries, she was not hiccupping from the incessant crying. Shades of auburn and red shone through her brown skin, on the tip of her nose and cheeks.

"Did I tell you I ever loved you? Did I promise you anything?", Dev cocked up an eyebrow, nonchalantly swirling the cup of coffee in his hand. Those two questions hit Panchali like a ton of bricks, the person she had fallen in love with over these months felt nothing for her and the one thing that hit hard the most was the fact that he was right, he had never once said that he was in love with her but she was the one who had put those expectations on him, in short she was now sowing what she had reaped.

*

Dev Sartaj Gill, a BSE hotshot and chess enthusiast. Smart? Yes. Cunning? Almost certainly. Handsome? Ask the countless ladies he made swoon. And cold. So very cold, but it wasn't always like that. Dev was all set for the perfect homely life, a beautiful fiancée and a baby on the way but one freak accident made him lose it all. Now he just drowns himself in his work or alcohol.

Panchali Anand, a struggling columnist, but more often a freelancing writer. Can talk to you about anything except sports. Cheerful, jolly and full of life but most importantly hell bent on being the manic pixie dream girl of Dev's life. It's this adamancy and hurtful optimism that turns Panchali's life upside down.

A story about unrequited love, a story about redemption but most importantly about love that needs a little push, an ember that needs a little fanning