“Alok saar, pass the water bottle”, said Nisha, extending her hand and pointing at the table. Dr.Alok nodded. He got up from the bed and grabbed the bottle. As Nisha opened her palm to get it, he brought the water bottle closer to her mouth. “It's ok. I can drink it myself”, argued she, bringing her hand in between as she attempted to snatch the bottle.
“No, medam. Let me feed you”, he offered, filling her mouth with drinking water. She gulped. They chuckled. He patted her cheeks. “Good afternoon. Sweet dreams”, he wished, helping her lie back on the bed.
“Saar, but, don’t people generally say good night sweet dreams?”, asked Nisha, smiling and chuckling along. “Leave the universe, medam. This is Alisha’s style-our style”, explained he. “Sexy!”, remarked she. They blushed bursting out a round of hearty laughter.
He waved at her who winked in return. He was about to leave when she caught his hand.
“What happened? All okay?”, he enquired, rolling his light brown eyes like a meek little boy. He wrapped her cheeks in his palms. “Tell me if it's paining anywhere. Shall I call the doctor?”
She blushed as she pulled him closer. She closed her eyes, neared his lips, and forced her tongue inside his mouth only to hug his tongue firmly with hers. He slowly moved his palms up to hold her ears. He tilted his head as his tongue too arrested hers. They continued their french kiss for the next two minutes or so.
“Oh, Ishitha Ji! What are you doing? Leave me!”, exclaimed Raftaar. Alok and Nisha released each other. Nisha blushed at Ishitha closing Raftaar’s eyes with her hands as they stood at the entrance. Ishitha raised her eyebrows and shrugged at Nisha. Alok blushed at Nisha secretly as he let his hand massage the back of his neck.
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?!
Raftaar finally managed to release his eyes from Ishitha’s hands. He caught her hand. He shrugged, enquiring, “Why did you suddenly close my eyes? I got scared. I was so lost. What's this foolish game?” She rolled her eyes to point at her right hand. However, he went on and on.
“Can you please leave my hand?”, she requested. He released her hand at once. They looked away from each other. She looked down at the floor, rubbing her fingers on the little mirror-like designs constituting the design at the end of her dupatta.
“Why is he here now?”, Dr.Alok grumbled at Nisha. “I don’t understand why he always enters our lives just at the wrong strike of the clock. I was about to save you from the creepy mad that night that he popped in to handle the situation. Remember the night your car broke down?”, recollected he. Nisha nodded and patted his shoulder.
“Even now, look at him. Why does he want to meet and look you after? I, your Alok saar, your beloved would-be, am here. Isn’t it? I feel as if he is a little…no, I meant very nosy…”, he whispered.
“Aww!”, exclaimed Nisha. “Look at your jealousy. So cute!”, she teased, blushing along. He shrugged, frowning and enquiring, “What, medam? Do I look like a joke to you? My heartbeat has been rising at Raftaar’s entry.”
“No need to call the ambulance too as we are already in the hospital to treat your heart! Hahaha!”, she mocked. “Nisha medam!”, he called her, pulling her hair. “Ouch! It hurts, saar!”, she complained. He released her and shrank his eyes at which she hit his chest gently. He sighed and faked a smile at Raftaar and Ishitha heading towards them.
“Congrats on your love! We feel happy for you”, confessed Ishitha. Raftaar nodded with a wide smile. He wished Nisha, “Get well soon, Nisha Ji!” Nisha smiled and nodded. “Thank you, guys!”, she thanked them.
As Raftaar offered the bouquet of lilies he had purchased, along with Ishitha, to Nisha, Alok grabbed it in his hand. He smiled wider and nodded as Raftaar and Nisha chuckled. Ishitha frowned at her colleague.
“How dare you trouble my bestie? So sad about Nishoo! Wasn’t her confusion regarding double-checking your marital status a common and natural doubt any woman would face when a guy posing himself to have been married suddenly declares that he has been away from his wife for years?”
“Ishitha ma’am, I’m very sorry”, apologized Dr.Alok. He joined his hands together. Nisha bulged her eyes at Ishitha, gesturing for her to let him go. Raftaar too whispered in Ishitha’s ears, ”Oh Ji, drop the old matter….”
“Nothing is old. Nothing is new. Nisha has always been my bestie. I will of course raise my voice when someone pesters her. Why not if it's her lover?...”, she spoke out. Raftaar cut her, whispering, “The life cycle of typical lovers is:fight-reconcile-repeat. Silly fights keep happening between a couple as often as one brushes one’s teeth. Unless everything turns out well in the end, there is no problem, Ji…”
“Forget it. What about my friend? What about her state of mind due to Alok’s recklessness? He shouldn’t hurt her like this again. I won’t spare…”, she replied, whispering back. Raftaar pinched her hand hard. “Oops!”, exclaimed she, at which Raftaar faked a smile at Alok and Nisha.
“So, two in one is the bouquet?”, Nisha raised a point. As the others wondered, she clarified, “Oh! Or is it just Raftaar wishing for me to get well sooner? Isn’t the bouquet from both of you?”
Ishitha rolled her eyeballs hither and thither. Nisha winked at Alok. She opened her mouth to lip-sign the word ‘Love’. She moved her head around like one performing head rotation during yoga classes. She shrank her eyes at him, signaling him to see Raftaar and Ishitha shrugging at each other.
“Yes yes!”, Alok broke the silence. “There are no two separate gifts for us-one from Ishitha and the other from Raftaar. They gifted you a bouquet together. They aren’t two different entities, right?”
Nisha pinched his left palm. As he shrugged, she whispered, “Entities? Are we learning database management systems here?”
They blushed, as the scene of them carrying assignment notebooks to Alia ma’am’s staffroom back in 1992, flashed in their minds. While their eyes interlocked each other, Ishitha and Raftaar looked away from each other, feeling a little awkward as Nisha’s question about the bouquet kept flashing in their minds. As the two shared eye contact, swallowing the awkwardness, Alok and Nisha did a hi-fi.
“You two aren’t two. You are actually one. Think about why you can’t deny it”, she concluded as Ishitha and Raftaar just stood silently staring at each others’ eyes.
That night, as Nisha turned towards the right on the bed and was about to sleep, she witnessed Dr.Alok lying on the couch opposite. “Saar, why are you straining yourself by sleeping here in the ward? Go home and sleep”, said she, anxiously.
Alok saar chuckled. “Medam, how can I leave my heart here and go off alone?” As she sighed, he sighed longer. He laid back on the sofa. They faced each other. They remained to stare at each other and blush until their eyes shut on their own to kickstart their periods of sleep.
A few days went by, and Alok’s eyes were all on Nisha. He had applied for a week off at his university. He used to leave home every morning to have some home food that her mother prepared to suffice for brunch. He spent a few memorable moments conversing while dining with Sandhya and young Alok every dawn. After ensuring that Alok left for college and packing Sandhya’s tablets in different colored boxes as Nisha used to do, he packed his dinner and left for the hospital.
Tears flooded Nisha’s eyes every night as she had the healthy food he prepared in his own hands whereas he managed the stale chapatis and cold dhal during his journey of being with his lovely patient. She once tried to taste his old food. He caught her fingers red-handed. He shook his head, with his meek and hesitant eyes warning her through his flat glasses with a white rectangular frame.
“But, I too want to be a part of your struggle. Why don’t you share your burden with me, saar? Love is not only about sharing happiness but also dividing grief. Shall I, for once? Will you let me?...”, asked she.
He sighed, eating his last bite.
“Because this isn’t any sort of burden. I’m just taking care of my Nisha medam. It's not a burden instead my lovely duty. It's, in other words, an opportunity to shower my love upon you. If not me, who else has the right to adjust a little for you, my wife?”
Nisha hugged him and wept bitterly. He smiled and closed his eyes, hugging her, in return.
One evening, as young Alok entered the room with Nisha’s laptop, Dr.Alok shrugged at him. “Wait, she needs to rest. Why work now? I appreciate your duty consciousness but not your compromises with health”, he refused, snatching her laptop.
“Mom asked me to get it, sir”, answered Alok beta. Dr.Alok shrugged at Nisha. “Sexy! Why medam? Have you gone mad?”, asked his light brown eyes flooded with immense care for her.
“No, I am not working now. But, I have been out of the office for the past week. I haven’t informed the company. Although I’m a senior, I shouldn’t take company policies for granted. It's already high time. They will think I’m dead…”
“Stop!”, the Aloks interrupted her, with Dr.Alok placing his finger on her lip. “Don't you dare utter such words ever again”, he warned, raising his eyebrows at her.
“Saar, but rules are rules”, opposed she, grabbing her laptop back from him. She placed it on her lap and was about to start when he announced, “Your colleague called a few days ago. I informed him over the phone call. I also requested him to apply for leave for two weeks on your behalf.”
As Nisha blushed, throwing her mouth open and chuckling along, her son too stood startled. Dr.Alok closed her laptop. He handed it back to young Alok. He repeated to her, “Don’t you dare strain again. Take rest now!”, as he laid her on the bed. “Aww! So sweet of you, saar”, she complimented, kissing his big forehead.
He blushed. Son Alok waved at them and left. Dr.Alok was about to leave for the couch when he turned back at her. While she chuckled, shrugging along, he neared to grab the strand of little eyelash fallen on her right cheek. He was about to wipe it away from his thumb when she showed her palm, gesturing for him to stop.
“Sexy! Why do you need this residue, medam?”, he interrogated her. She took it carefully from his palm. She rested it on the swollen portion of her inner right palm. She closed her eyes. As her lover chuckled, wondering what she aimed to do, she thought, “My saar and I must stay together forever. Dr.Alok should keep loving me more day by day just like this. I love you, Alok saar. Blis(Bless in Alok saar’s dictionary) us happiness throughout our lives." She gnashed her teeth, concluding, "No more of Payal or any other troubles to interfere with our lives.”
She blew it away. She opened her eyes and blushed at him. He blushed, shrugging back cluelessly.
“Saar, a fallen eyelash is considered lucky. You shouldn’t dispose of it in the way you were about to as if it were a waste of paper. You should close your eyes and pray whatever you want. Then, blow it away!”
“Hmmm!”, he sighed aloud. She chuckled as he queried, “Nisha medam, will your wish come true?” She nodded happily. “Mine has come true and will always come true, I hope. It's a common belief. Do it whenever you long for something in life. One must certainly try it while in trouble. If your wishes are genuine and harmless, they will surely come true.” He smiled and nodded.
“Medam, I have a doubt. Isn’t what you are wishing for already beside your heart?”, asked he, leaning forward. She placed her hand on his chest and stopped him. They blushed. Her eyes were lost in his lovely eyes turning light brown in seconds. His meek and hesitant eyes smiled at her pupils dilating like the glittering venus high up in the evening sky.
Aww! Dr.Alok's unlimited care for Nisha is indeed unbeatable. Meanwhile, is love blooming between Raftaar and Ishitha? Why couldn't they condemn the point of togetherness that Nisha raised or just act jovially as normal friends?
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