Dr.Alok threw Nisha's hands from his collar. He pushed her to the ground. "Alok saar!", she shouted. "You are so rude", she continued, frowning at him. "Nisha, it's not only my house's door but also my heart's door that will never ever open again for you", announced Alok, shutting the door.
"No!", screamed Nisha, rushing to the adjacent window. She wrapped her fingers around the white bars. "No way, Alok. Why are you so sensitive? Can't you give a thought to what I just uttered? Why don't you hear me before throwing me out of your life?", she questioned, weeping aloud. Alok stood beside the couch, with his red eyes yet on her. He looked away to wipe a drop of tear secretly.
"Sorry!Sorry!Sorry!", she yelled, banging her palms aloud at the window bars. She gnashed her teeth and banged her forehead against the glass door on her right.
"Stop! Suspect, doubt, confirm and sign a treaty with a simple sorry?", asked Dr.Alok, heading towards her.
"Crocodile tears!", he commented, at her shrunken cheeks growing pink with tears. She closed her eyes to let out all the water clogging in.
"Perhaps you were never right for me. That's why I never fell for you back in college. Now, perhaps I made a wrong choice again by choosing you..."
May it be a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, a couple of years, or even throughout one's life, relishing the most beautiful feeling on Earth-the love, it still matters.
While most couples are almost near the silver jubilee of their wedding anniversary, Alok and Nisha are just about to begin their love life!
Love at any age is love. Why not a middle-aged love story?!
She let her hand through the bars and slapped him hard. "Don't bluff anything that strikes your mind. Think before you speak for words aren't code snippets to be debugged later. Neither do I want to lose you nor do you wanna lose me", Nisha interrupted Alok. She caught his hands.
"What do you want me to do so that you forgive me? What shall I do so that you believe I am genuine, my tears are genuine? Should I say 'I love you' to hit the century? Of course, I will...I love you, I love you, I love you very much, my dear Alok saar. I will trust you regardless of whether you address a dog as a wolf...Are you happy now?..."
"If you can indeed do anything to convince me, then get lost", ordered the short-tempered professor, releasing his hands from hers. Nisha leaned forward. She rested her head and shut her eyes only to drench the silver bars as if it rained cats and dogs that night.
As Dr.Alok grabbed his bag and began rushing upstairs, Sarla spoke up.
"Sahab, enough!", she raised her voice.
Dr.Alok turned back to shrug at her.
"Arey! Have you gone mad? Forget the guts to oppose our boss...It's not good. You just advised me not to play on their personal bed. And you?...", Ramlal whispered at her.
She turned at him with a swollen neck and big eyes. "Poor Nisha ma'am. Why isn't Saahab understanding? Did he leave all his brain in the research lab?", Sarla whispered back at Ramlal who shook his head with blank eyes.
She faced back at Alok. "Sahab, she at least told you the truth. She confessed that she visited here without your knowledge to check on you. Although she knew you would be mad at her, she said it. That's true love. She can't hide anything from you-good or bad. Couldn't your eyes notice her loyalty?"
Ramlal nodded at her. He faced back at Alok, adding, "Saahab, you are lucky to have won a woman's heart-the very woman who has been loving you ever since she fell for you." He hurried towards the stairs.
"You got your true love after a long struggle, after all these twenty-eight years, despite your ignorance the first time. Hardly does life bless one with a second chance. You are one in a million men meeting with such a golden opportunity. Do you seriously want to miss it? Are you sure you want to leave your Nisha medam?"
"Thank you so much for your support", Nisha thanked Ramlal and Sarla in her mind. Alok slowly turned his meek and hesitant eyes at his sobbing lover. He looked down at the step where he stood. His eyes rolled hither and thither as Sarla and Ramlal's points echoed in his mind-"Why do you think she didn't hide it although she knew you would scold her? Do you really want to miss her?" Sarla and Ramlal turned back and nodded at Nisha who joined her hands at them.
"It's such a small matter. Don't be foolish. Rest for a while and you will understand. Life won't return if one beheads himself in wrath", Ramlal emphasized, patting his boss.
"Stop it!", Alok yelled. As Nisha shook her head, shrinking her eyes which couldn't stop sobbing, Alok rushed upstairs. "Leave me alone! I don't need anyone's advice."
"Saar, don't go, please! Please listen to me! Please understand...", Nisha called him out, letting her right hand in between the bars. As she wept loads, breaking down, Ramlal and Sarla rushed outside.
They sat down beside her. Sarla held her hands as she rested her head on the wall behind her. Nisha shook her hands and yelled at the sky. She knelt, enquiring, "Why me? Why am I the destined child to lose my love which finally entered my life? Why are you doing this to me, a good samaritan? But you bless the wicked like Payal with everything they don't even deserve. Why are the heavens unfair to the good?"
"No, no! Don't worry. Sahab loves you very much. We have seen how lost he was when you confessed", supported Ramlal.
Sarla nodded, adding, "Yes. It was the first time he spoke to someone for a long time the last night. He had always been a loner until he found you again on his road of life." Nisha smiled at them. "It's just that he is a little angry at the moment otherwise we don't need to describe his feelings for you. At least you stay patient. We are sure he will understand soon..."
"I can't wait anymore to be in his arms", said Nisha. Ramlal and Sarla nodded and chuckled. "I know. Alok saar is still a kid, just like he was back in college. I'm sure more than mine, your words would have poured some water to cool his anger down." She caught her stomach and shrank her eyes.
"Ouch!", she exclaimed. Sarla closed her ears at the head-on collision of the night clouds.
"What happened? Are you fine?", asked Ramlal. Sarla shrugged at Nisha expanding her hands and squeezing her stomach. Nisha nodded, informing, "Just a bit of stomach pain. I can manage, though!" She drank the glass of water Sarla brought from inside.
"Come in. It's gonna rain soon. Look at the pitch dark sky!Ouch!", warned the maid, closing her eyes and ears again, at the strike of another loud thunder. Nisha shook her head.
"You get in, guys." She returned the glass to Sarla. "I won't leave until my kiddo saar forgives and loves me for my sin of distrust and suspicion of him."
"But, rains and your stomach too is hurting...", began Ramlal. She shook her hands and cut him. She gestured for both of them to leave.
"Don't let my saar strive for his yummy dinner. Carry on!", said she, smiling along. Ramlal and Sarla swallowed their tears and began heading away together.
Quite a while later, Dr.Alok rubbed his palms as he strolled in the pitch darkness. His light brown eyeballs rolled hither and thither to find none around. He wore a copper-sulfate blue T-shirt upon grey jeans. He lit the candelabras at the center of his dining table. As he sat and began serving shahi paneer on his white plate, cool breezes hit his black-framed round glasses to ignite his dormant brain! He sighed at the open window. He was about to push the first bite of roti into his mouth and he froze as if he played the statue's game and was being pointed.
"Fuck! She is still here?", grumbled he, startled at Nisha sitting on the slab juxtaposed to the wall outside. She wiped her cheeks yet soaked in tears as if floods hit the land without a moment of break. He swallowed the roti, reading the opposite clock striking half past nine. He grabbed another piece of food, continuing to stare at her who shrank herself and turned towards the window at the flash afar.
"Why didn't you trust me, Nisha medam? It hurts...", thought he. Nisha caught his eyes. He looked downward at the plate and blushed, looking away from her. She saw the window's doors moving hard to shut in the breeze. Her hair flew to cover her face.
"Saar, please talk to me. Scold me, beat me but please don't ditch me like this. I can't miss your love after twenty-eight years."
He turned back at her with his meek and hesitant eyes. He shook his head in a speechless state. She continued, with tears competing with the downpour which began falling loads at once to drench every inch of every street.
He stood up yet she, in an entirely soaked state, continued, "The rains can't override my tears of love for you, Alok saar. None can love you more than me!" She shouted to leave the noise of the falling stream behind.
"In fact, I never thought that you would love me in this lifetime. I will trust you under any circumstance from here on. Even if the almighty accuses you, I will trust you if trust always matters to you in the form of love. Yes, I know, it completes love...."
Tears flooded his eyes. He rushed to the window. She slammed her forehead against the bars and wept out. "Ouch!", squealed she. "Nisha!", he called her out, in his calm tone. He caught her hands firmly as she closed her eyes.
She blushed, resting her head on his cozy hands. "I ain't scared of the natural calamity-like thunderstorms. I'm more scared of losing you. Sorry for my distrust, I repeat but believe me, I love you...Try to understand the questions that arose in my mind as well, please..."Alok sighed.
"Payal medam! Da, where are you?", cheered young Alok, in his early thirties, running inside his flat, throwing his shoes in either direction, as he entered. He lived with his wife and son in a three-bedroom flat in Bangalore.
"Sexy! My girlfriend is playing hide and seek with me. Payal...Da!!!", he called her out, blushing and with hands on the borders of his mouth.
"Your hubby is back from work earlier today!!! Where are you?", dragged he, moving the curtains only to smell rings of smoke. His eyes went to the cigarette placed on the plate and slowly going dim. He swallowed his tears and shook his head.
The roof and the floor of his house exchanged each other. His eyes of excitement shrank in despair. He saw his wife, in a grey T-shirt and red trousers lying on the bed with a bearded man; he couldn't believe what his eyes witnessed through the narrow gap of the bedroom.
Go to hell, you evil Payal!!!! What have you done in the past to Nisha's Alok? If you didn't want Alok, why did you say a 'Yes' and ruin his love life with Nisha?
Dear readers,
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