Jaise tum na... waise hum

Abhi's new lifestyle

Abhigya's bedroom, Mehra Mansion

"Suniye... Uthiye..." Pragya said, stroking Abhi's hair and placed the coffee cup on the side table.

"Sone do na please" Abhi said with a cringe as he turned to the other side of the bed.

"Dekhiye ye dopahar ko sone ki aadat naa... aapko badalni padegi" she said as she walked towards the sofa and folded the laundry, "Mote hote jaa rahe ho aap"

"Hmm... Mota hoon par..." he said with a sheepish grin, turning towards her, "tumhara hoon"

"Coffee layi hu aapke liye" she said folding a bedsheet, "pee lijiye".

Excited, he opened his eyes but then acted to be disappointed "Coffee?"

"Haan coffee" she said, placing a folded sheet on the sofa.

"Tumhe kya laga, coffee peene se meri neend chali jayegi?"

"Nahiii... mein to ... aise soch bhi kaise sakti hu" she said in a mocking tone as she walked towards the bed, sat next to him and continued to fold the laundry "Aap to rockstar hai na ... Aapko to...".

"Ek minute... Ek minute" he interrupted, sat up on the bed and looked around for a while as if some thing is really wrong. He got tensed, stared at her for a while, touched her right cheek with his forefinger, got surprised, and said "arey... ye sapna nahi hai?".

She looked at him curiously and his surprise turned into seriousness, "Par... par... tum yahan?".

She came closer and asked with a mocking smile, "Kyu? Mein yahan nahi aa sakti?"

A bit embarrassed, he said, "Nahi... mera matlab hai ... mujhe bohot achcha laga tum yahan aayi... par..." he said, "par... tum to... tum to ... gayi thi na?" signalling with his fingers that she is dead.

She came closer to him until their noses almost touched, stared at his eyes and said "Mein kabhi aapse door ja sakti hu? Aur woh bhi aapke birthday pe?" and raised her eyebrows once. Their eyes locked for a few moments after which she retreated and said "Woh sab choddiye... coffee pee lijiye.. thandi ho jayegi" and got up from the bed, picked up the folded laundry from the sofa, and walked towards the changing room.

"Hey... ek minute" he said and reached out to hold her hand, which startled him out of his sleep, jolting him on his cot.

Chawl

A dejected Abhi got up and sat on the cot, let out a sigh, and thought 'Oh...to mein aaj bhi jinda hoon' and buried his face with his palms.

This cot outside his friends room in the chawl had become his home ever since he had left his past behind. Abhi had stayed back in his Sainik Farms bungalow for a month even though everyone else had moved to Mehra Mansion a week after Pragya's accident. Dadi stayed with him for a while and then he asked her to move in with her sons. After she left, he left his life of luxury too.

He wanted to go as far away as possible and many times felt he better move to the other side of the world – not the US or Canada, but somewhere like South America or Australia. He seriously considered moving to Australia a couple of times and even completed his visa formalities for the same, but it was the hope that Pragya would come back that made him stay in Delhi. He knew he was holding on to the last thread of hope, for they had searched for her in all possible places and all they found was one of her jhumkaas, stuck on the mangled steering wheel of her car. But the fact that she had come back from her supposed death before, kept his hopes alive.