CHAPTER-32
NEW PURPOSE
Narrator’s POV
“Don’t go, Rohini! I need you. All I want to feel is only your love. Rohini! Rohini! Don’t leave me!”, shouted Dhilip, opening his eyes and sitting up on the hospital bed. He looked around and breathed hard as the scene of Rohini opening the door and barging outside played infinitely in his mind.
“Moneh! My son is back!”, trembled his mother, opening the ward’s door. She hugged him and kissed his head. She massaged his hair, sobbing and continuing, “My son is strong enough to fight the coma. See, I was sure but all others doubted.”
Dhilip smiled and nodded at her. “Thank you, Rohini. You saved my life. You’ve given me a new purpose. It's rightly said that wife is no less than a guy’s second mother”, thought Dhilip, blushing as Rohini’s chuckling face faded over the opposite wall, while his father and brother patted him with tears of happiness. His mother hugged me and wept as if I returned home after twenty years!
“Bro, Dhilip! I was very scared”, trembled Raakesh, removing his glasses and wiping his tears. They hugged.
“Aww, I never knew I had such a happy and caring family and such good friends”, said Dhilip, at which his mother gifted him an amiable slap.
########################################
That night, no sooner did Dhilip’s mother complete feeding him a plate of chapati and dhal than Raakesh entered the ward. He smiled and nodded at his mother leaving the room.
“Congrats, bro!”, said Raakesh, sitting beside Dhilip, on the bed. They shook hands. “I spoke to our manager. He agreed that you can continue your job from the next week.”
“Ooo, nice. David is quite considerate”, added Dhilip, nodding and thanking his friend.
“We have missed you a lot in the past six months. Waiting to work with you very soon!”
“Thanks, bro”
“By the way, who is she?”, asked Raakesh, raising his eyebrows and blushing along.
Dhilip blushed and shrugged. “Who?”
“Bro, come on, we are best friends. You can be frank with me. Haha!”, he chuckled, punching Dhilip.
“Oooo, bro, is this how you act with a patient?”
“Rohini! Who is she?”
Dhilip froze for a moment. He blushed, reminded of Rohini’s proposal. “None can love you more than me, Dhilip. Priya is playing with you. I love you, Dhilip”-he glanced through her old messages back last December. He sighed and nodded at Raakesh.
“Coma opened my heart, this time, to the right girl: Rohini. I wonder how I failed to notice a genuine girl like her and her true love towards me”, Dhilip clarified.
Raakesh cheered for his friend. “So, when are you telling her?”
“Sexy! She has already said it to me. Hmmm, little was I matured back then to overlook a girl’s nature more than her beauty and choose my optimal life.”
“Wow! Bro, then, your chance is high!...”
“What? Chance? No way, I will get her, no matter what it takes.” He scrolled through LinkedIn and grinned at Raakesh.
“Yes! As I wished!”, Dhilip cheered aloud. “She has posted a hiring announcement recently. So, she is working as a developer at FastBhojan. Yes!”
“What next?”
“I’m proposing to her right away!”
“Wohooo! Say you’re accepting your true love, at last!”
The two guys shared a high-five. Raakesh patted Dhilip again and gestured a thumbs-up sign.
###########################################
“Sir, eno function nadithaa idhe. Employees ellru ille idhaare. Nodkolli. (Some function is going on. All the employees seem to be here. Kindly check.)”, said the stout and mustached security guard, in blue uniform, opening the glass door and gesturing for Dhilip to enter the office cafeteria.
“Thanks!”, Dhilip smiled and thanked. He looked quite handsome in a black coat upon a white formal shirt inserted into black formal pants. His breast pocket had a red rose-like folding. His black tie with tiny white dots made him glitter, a bit more than gold.
I agree that love is unanticipated. I also agree that the identity of our lover is a true mystery
until we feel the love!
Following the same lines, one thus ends up falling for a bad partner-the wrong love. It's fine!
Making a wrong decision is common among ordinary homosapiens like you and me.
However, correcting our blunder and returning to our right love is a worthy question whose
answer may either be a ‘YES’ or a ‘NO’ or sometimes a combination of both! There is only one
superpower that can answer this query: ‘TIME’
He pushed the visitor card into his pocket. He looked around only to find gentlemen and ladies in formal suits and gowns respectively, as they hit their glasses of wine and continued whispering in groups. They sometimes turned to the men playing guitars to the rapper’s rhythm on the stage.
“Sexy! Where is my Rohini medam?”, thought Dhilip, blushing and rolling his meek and hesitant eyeballs hither and thither throughout the ball-like hall decorated with balloons, glitters, and serial lights.
“Hmmm, medam?! Enough of pestering me in my reliving world. At Least appear now! I can’t miss you anymore. Halloooo! Rohini medam!”, he thought, sipping a glass of wine and looking around. “Oooo, is she even attending this? But, it seems to be rather important”, thought he, looking at the banner announcing a product’s successful launch that year.
“Show yourself, Rohini. Where are you? Give me a clue”, thought he, as a young girl, in her early twenties, with her hair loosened all over the back, crossed behind the little cabin serving drinks.
“Hey, why do I feel as if you are definitely here?”, blushed Dhilip, turning behind, at once, only to spot the girl in a dark blue gown.
“Rohini medam!”, chuckled Dhilip, patting colleagues and clearing the passage only to miss her in the crowd. “Oooo, she seemed to be Rohini. Sexy! What’s this new puzzle now? Mission to locate you1 Hmmm!” He closed his ears with both palms at the rapper yelling over the mike only to be responded with the audience’s applause and loud cheers.
“Aye, how much will destiny test this poor Dhilip guy? I need to do something yet again! Hmm, one last time though!”, he thought.
The spectators threw their mouths open at each other, at the sudden pitch of darkness. Some called for security to turn on the lights. However, in just a couple of minutes, the bright white spotlight competing with the natural moonlight showcased a smiling Dhilip holding the wireless mike and standing on the stage.
“Hello! Hello! Hello everybody!”, he greeted, looking around and nodding at the puzzled faces all around.
“Sexy! I can read what’s running in every mind assembled here. Who is this fellow? Where is he from and why is he intervening in our party? Neither is he one of the performers nor one among us. In that case, what’s he doing here?”, Dhilip began.
“Hi again! I’m Dhilip Manikanta. Sorry to appear here abruptly. But, trust me, I’m not here to ruin your party. All I need is a tiny help: just your cooperation to help me find my girlfriend from the crowd”, said he, shrinking his eyes and blushing.
The masses chuckled and nodded at each other. An elderly gentleman raised his hand up only to gesture a thumbs-up sign followed by everyone else’s cheers.
“I’m sure that she works here. That's why I have come all the way to visit your office to find her and propose to her, in fact, accept her good old proposal. Love never gets old, at least our love story, I believe, was like that. One and a half years back now, back on the 5th of January 2022, a girl proposed to me. I rejected her as I was already in a relationship, unfortunately with the wrong love. It was only after hearing my ex-girlfriend called me a source of timepass that I realized this average girl’s value”, unveiled Dhilip.
He blushed, continuing, “Thanks to the coma for it opened my eyes. Thanks to the pothole, the accident that helped me find my true and right love. Hmm, I still wonder why I never noticed her-my college classmate who loved me so deeply. I ignored her warnings and mistook her to be flirting with me when she strived to save me from my wicked ex. Sorry that you failed to win my heart, sorry again for the fact that your attempts to caution me again went in vain due to my immature blind love for my ex, and finally, congrats, that I’m all yours today.”
He took a deep breath. He pressed the mike, proposing aloud, “I love you. I love you. I love you very much, Rohini medam!!!” He blushed and looked around while the smiles on the employees’ faces narrowed down. They shrugged at each other while some of them raised their eyebrows at Dhilip.
“Sorry. What happened? I know it's personal. I shouldn’t be proposing to a girl like this but I just couldn’t locate her in the party”, apologized Dhilip, in his meek and hesitant voice, looking around.
Lights returned the next second. The spotlight was OFF. Dhilip blushed, checking out pretty Rohini in the dark blue gown and throwing her mouth open at him as she stood on his right, beside the stage.
“Rohini!”, exclaimed Dhilip, smiling and rushing down the steps to descend from the stage. Tears accumulated in Rohini's eyes as Dhilip hurried to stand right in front of her. He couldn’t take his eyes off her black pupils dilating at his light brown pupils. She swallowed her tears while their eyes remained immersed in each other.
“Yes, I love you too, Rohini! I already regret the late reply”, said Dhilip, nearing his arms to embrace Rohini.
He felt a hard punch on his left cheek. He fell to the ground. Rohini moved a foot back as his head was just an inch above her feet.
Alas! Is there a new twist in Dhilip and Rohini's love life?!
Dear readers,
Thank you for following my series and reading the episode. Please rate it, write your review, give it a heart, and share it in your circle whenever you are free. Your voice matters a lot to me.
