No matter where you are in your life, you may regret choosing the wrong love.
You may repent of some bitter deeds you committed in the past.
What is it like if life luckily gave us a second chance? Can those issues be resolved at least then for a better life?
For instance, what about love in middle age?!?!
Dr.Alok slowly opened his eyes. He was shocked at how close his lips were to Nisha's hand. Her face had almost turned pink completely. She blushed widely as she embraced him. He released himself, at which she shrugged. He bulged his eyes at his hand holding hers and released her hand at once.
"What's wrong, Alok saar?", asked she. She stood up and began walking away from him, blushing and swinging her arms in the dry evening breeze, bragging, "You kissed me. Finally, after twenty-eight years, I have won a place in your heart! I knew that you too loved me, Alok saar. But, the donkey Payal didn't let you think about what you felt for me. She popped in between us like an annoying pet interrupting its master and mistress during their intimate moments."
She ran towards him and held his cheeks in her hands, nearing his face, confessing, as she sobbed along, "I knew you would love me someday. I have always loved you, Alok. You have been the only man in my life. I never..." She paused thinking her son's truth may affect his academics and decided to keep it personal. She continued, "Yes, I married Dhushyanth but I never loved him. I could never fall for another man again throughout my life. I love you, saar."
"No", he refused and stood up. He caught her hands and shook his head, with his meek and hesitant eyes started along, clarifying, "Nisha, sorry for kissing you. It came by the flow. Once an insect bit me when I was a young boy. My mom kissed my hand and I felt better. So, I did the same to help you...Not any such intentions of love...I'm sorry if I hurt you..."
"Shut up!", exclaimed Nisha, shouting aloud and frowning at him. She shook him, asking, "Why can't you love me? Why can't emotions be reciprocated, Dr.Alok? I love you very much. I love you more than anything else in the world, Alok saar. But why can't you feel the same way for me? Did you ever give my proposal a thought all these twenty-eight years or just discarded it straight to your bin? All these years, did you find a girl who loves you more than me?"
She hugged him tightly as he stood blank and startled. She confessed, "Enough is enough. Let me make it clear. I really love you getting closer to me. I relish your gifts. I enjoy such intimate moments with you such as the current moments. I can't lose your reformed recent version, saar. I repeat I love you, saar."
She wiped her tears and dirtied her hands with the mud on her face. "So, yes, coming to the point, I will only think about myself now.", continued she, completing, "Divorce Payal." She nodded, announcing, "You are speechless. But, let me tell you everything I want to. Yes, I need you and you too are happy with me, right? What more do you need to ensure a promising relationship?" His eyeballs rolled hither and thither as he wondered what to reply!
"Fine. Up to you! Do whatever you want. Choose whomever you have your so-called feelings for. But, never see me again. Dare not to meet me again or care for me. I am a third person to you-not even a friend. That's how you used to treat me during the end of college, right? Let things stay as such. Goodbye!", yelled she, as he still stood like a studious listener. She ran away, ordering, with tears, "Water my plant before you leave."
He blushed secretly after she left and watered the money plant. "Yes! She loves me!Sexy!Nisha medam has been loving me all these years. Yes! I found my answer. Woohoo! My true love-who can love you more than me?!! Yes!Yes! She loves me loads!!!", Dr.Alok saved the discovery in his mind. He danced how an excited little boy would, after buying his favorite toy!
"Uncle!", called a screeching female voice. A cute girl of around six offered him a big rectangular box of tiny dark chocolates wrapped with glitter papers, some being maroon while some being green and the others being blue. A gang of around five kids standing around her cheered, "It's Lila's birthday today!" Professor Alok smiled and bent to pat Lila's happy cheeks as she grinned. He took the entire box from her hands, thanking, "Thank you, Lily!" The other kids including Lily gazed at each other while a cute Punjabi kid with the turban on his head, whispered to his peers, in his cute voice, "Arey he must select a choco and leave the rest to us. Doesn't he know?"
However, the absent-minded professor ran, blushing at the box overflowing with colorful chocolates. "Uncle!", squealed the little kids, chasing him. He raced like an award-winning athlete to the parking lot and spotted Ramlal, standing beside his car and busily checking out the phone. "Hurry!", Alok whispered in Ramlal's ears so suddenly that the shocked driver dropped his phone to break its screen.
"Sahab, why are you in such a hurry? Any problem?", enquired Ramlal. Alok shook his head and offered the chocolate box to his driver. Ramlal shrugged, wondering, "Saahab hardly gifts me sweets or cash for Diwali. Why today out of nowhere?!" Alok exclaimed, "It's for you. Take it! Distribute the chocolates to your wife and kids. Don't forget your love, Sarla too! Love is love! Hahaha!"
As Alok rubbed his palms on a humid evening, Ramlal threw his mouth open and checked out his boss only to notice the formals he always wore to the university! "I won't forget Sarla, saahab. But, you forgot yourself today. I can't believe my eyes! You are acting different today!", remarked Ramlal, checking out his master from top to bottom again.
"Wait! Let me drive you this evening!", Alok declared, at which Ramlal lost his balance and was about to faint. Alok shook his stunned driver. He smiled, asking, "Why? Shouldn't I drive?" Ramlal nodded, arguing, "Saahab, but I'm your driver. Why will you drive me?..." Alok interrupted him by opening the back seat's door and gesturing for him to get inside.
"What an evening? Did the Mount Everest get inverted?", thought Ramlal, looking up at the enclosed ceiling of the parking lot and remembering how Alok had screwed him a few weeks ago. "Half a month you are on leave. Mr.Ramlal, why should I pay you the salary and drive myself?", said Alok, frowning at Ramlal, when he requested a week's off. Currently, Alok shook him and smiled with a great deal of enthusiasm. He further pushed his driver in the back seat gently to make him sit. Alok took the driver's seat and began speeding.
"Hey there! My chocolates!", screamed the little kids, as Lila spotted the car leaving the Sunflower Residency. "Wait!Wait!", cried they. Ramlal looked at them through the glass behind and complained to his boss. "Sexy! Chuck it! Today is my day! Little will the kids understand how I feel right now. Yippeee!!", exclaimed Alok, pressing the button to enable Android Auto.
"Someone has gone mad!", whispered Ramlal, pretending to smile. He questioned curiously, "Saahab, you went to visit someone called Nisha Verma. Who is she?.." As Bollywood party songs began playing, Alok increased the volume and hummed along, tapping the steering wheel with his right fingers as he applied pressure on the accelerator on the long and lonely road. "Saahab!", exclaimed Ramlal, reminding, "Why are you driving the car at a higher speed?", pointing at the speedometer whose needle crossed a century.
"Sexy question! I don't know how she is related to me but I reside in her heart", replied Alok. "Ramlal, she has been loving me for twenty-eight years!", roared he, blushing at himself in the front mirror. The puzzled driver pouted and bulged his eyes at his master who took a left turn and asked, "Has someone ever loved you so much?" Ramlal made a sad face and shook his head slowly, revealing, "You are lucky, saahab! My wife hasn't yet told me the three magical words! Ten years have gone by since our marriage!"
"Sad!", mocked Alok, chuckling and rushing into the main road. "Now I got it", correlated Ramlal. He also remembered how Alok had screwed him for playing Bollywood songs in the car, "Stop! Play English or Spanish songs. Hindi songs are either too sweet or too loud. They sound local!" Ramlal nodded, at the scene of Alok advising him, in the flashback, "Don't drive fast. It's dangerous...It's risky. Are you planning to kill me?" He shook his head from the mirror and apologized, "Saahab, no way. I'm sorry. Calm down. I will slow down the car."
Ramlal returned to the contemporary moment and shook his head like a goat to be slaughtered. "Arey!", cried Alok, at which his obedient driver nodded at him and leaned forward to execute orders carefully. "What should one ideally do with chocolates?", asked he. Ramlal smiled and replied, "Eat them..."
"I know right. What are you waiting for? My permission? Come on, eat! Or are you planning to preserve them in your bank's safe?", mocked Alok, laughing to himself, recollecting how he kissed Nisha's hand. Ramlal opened the box eagerly and took the chocolate. He was about to unwrap it that he remembered how Alok had screwed him. He peeped through the slang's window and caught him eating a packet of chips, while he waited at the university. "Yuck, Ramlal! Don't you have manners? How can you eat inside a car? Don't dirty my car. This is your last warning!"
"Eat it, man!", exclaimed Alok, driving and humming along. Ramlal nodded and was about to eat a choco when Alok turned back and snatched it. "Sir, it's all yours. Please take it. I am sorry", surrendered Ramlal, placing the box on the slang as Alok ate his choco. Alok chuckled, clarifying, "No! I just wanted one. Carry on!" Ramlal rested his head on his right-hand watching Alok eat the choco bit by bit and relish it. "Now is it okay to dirty his own car? He can dirty but I shouldn't. What logic!", thought Ramlal, sighing. "Yes, I can!", responded Alok. "Sahab, how did you read my mind?", panicked Ramlal at which Alok justified, "I understand!" Alok began whistling aloud and blushing to himself, thinking, "Nisha medam loves me so much. I didn't know, seriously! I thought that she would move on, soon after college but her love is everlasting and true!"
Meanwhile, outside the Shri Ramji's temple, Usha and Sandhya walked toward the empty shed. They had a paper bowl of green grams prasad. They closed their eyes at the sanctum sanatorium glowing with Lord Ram, along with Lordess Sita and Lord Lakshman, all of them well-dressed and decorated with serial lights around. Cool breezes hit their faces as they began hogging the prasad slowly. "Sandhya Ji, coming to the temple every day and reciting the bhajans have become my only source of peace these days. I am glad I got a good friend too!" Sandhya nodded, agreeing, "Yes, Usha and being a friend, stop using Ji. Use my name."
The two elderly women laughed and nodded. "So, Usha, are you able to catch up with the new mantras now? Today's were trickier to pronounce, right?" Usha nodded, opining, "Yes. I wonder how the head lady is able to recite everything perfectly. But, thanks for teaching me the basics. You stayed for an extra hour every evening for the past three weeks or so. I owe you..."
"Stop! We are friends. No owes. A friend will do anything to help another. Isn't it?", intervened Sandhya. Usha grinned, sharing, "I have never had such a genuine friend like you. People have always been materialistic. It's hard to find good buddies like you." Sandhya smiled, wishing, "How I wish we had met long ago! Both of us are seventy now. Our hair has become white and teeth shiver during the winters." They roared again with their cracked voices and coughed.
"Mom, shall we go home?", asked Nisha, sitting closely beside Sandhya and snatching a bite of the prasad. She stood up as soon as she spotted Usha. Sandhya introduced her friend to her only daughter. Usha recollected her son, professor Alok, saving Nisha from Aashitha who pointed a knife at her hand and threatened to suicide. Usha thought, "Our lives would have been very beautiful if my son had married you. I really wish Sandhya and I had met thirty years back. Nisha is such a good girl for my good son. Good pair indeed! Made for each other they seem-how much he cared for her. Liar beta, didn't you love this college friend of yours?"
"Namaste aunty!", greeted Nisha, hardly aware that she was his love's mother. Nisha joined her hands as Usha smiled and greeted a 'Namaste' in return. Nisha bent and touched Usha's feet.
Usha was lost for a second as the scene of Payal entering their house, just after marrying Alok, flashed in her mind. The couple stood at the door. A fair, fat, and tall gentleman seemed strict. "Get out! You are no longer my son. You idiotic and shameless girl, you manipulated my son? Go to hell", shouted he. Payal caught Alok's hand and declared, "Oh god! I have never been screwed like this even by my parents or teachers. Who are you to curse me? So bad of you. Can't you shut up and accept your son's marriage?.."
"No! What an ill-mannered girl. First of all, do a blunder, disappoint elders, and then scold them. Is this what your parents taught you all these years? What a shameless family!...", yelled Alok's dad. "Enough!", screamed Payal, leaving her husband blank and helpless. "Fine, if you will never accept us, divide the property, uncle", shouted Payal, in her sweet nightingale's voice. "Not only property but also family. You and Alok will be a family while we the rest are another. Never you dare to see me again, Alok!", warned he. Alok fell to his dad's feet and pleaded, "Pappa, it was the situation. Sorry, I will explain...."
"No cock and crew stories. There is no home for no discipline in my house", declared Alok's father, grabbing a pot of water and soaking himself. "Your wife is disrespecting our family and you are so silent? You are dead to us, Alok", announced he, at which Usha broke down and sobbed her heart out. Alok too closed his eyes and cried.
"Aunty, what happened?", the concerned Nisha shook Usha who then sighed and smiled at her, presently. "Wish success in all your endeavors and a happy life!", blessed the elderly mother as the two hugged. "What a life! She is forty-eight and never married. Hmm!", sighed Sandhya, shrugging at Nisha and looking away. "Mom!", frowned Nisha, pinching her.
"Payal and Alok got married. Alok saved Nisha the other day. Nisha never married but why?", wondered Usha, raising her white hairy eyebrows at the temple's gate as Nisha and Sandhya waved at her and left. "Aunty, come on a Sunday for lunch!", invited Nisha, before stepping inside her car. Usha smiled, still wondering, "Did Nisha love Alok back in college? "
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