KAISE JAANE DOON TUMHE!!

Chap 3

Swara's eyes were closed. Sanskar picked her up in his arms. In the moonlight, her face was shining. She was indeed worthful of love from Nikhil. Afterall, this much of bravery was expected just from few.

Sanskar carefully placed her on the backseat along with a lady officer. He then himself drove the car towards destination. Durga prasad was also sitting with him who was quite aware of his actions.

Swara's first aid was going on. Shekhar was pacing impatiently outside the ward. His eyes had tears. As soon as doctor came out, he ran towards him.

"Don't worry! She is fine. She just has a little injury over her forehead." Doctor informed.

"Thank god!" Shekhar folded his hands and sat over a bench nearby. He hid his face in his palms and cried tears of relief.

"Dr. Shekhar! Your daughter is a fighter." Durga prasad tried to calm him down.

"Thank you so much! Thank you for...!" Shekhar couldn't say anything further. Hia voice choked.

Durga prasad's eyes were trying to find Sanskar. He knew that Sanskar's guilt is keeping him from meeting shekhar.

And he found him, standing alone in a corner, watching Swara from a window. Shekhar too noticed him. Even before Durga Prasad, he came near Sanskar.

"Thank you so much! Thank you!" He again folded his hands in front of him.

"Please don't uncle! What I did is nothing compared to what Nikhil did for me!" Sanskar's gaze was lowered. His guilt was so heavy that he couldn't raise his gaze.

"You called me uncle! Can I call you beta?" Shekhar asked.

Sanskar couldn't say anything more. Shekhar's soft behavior increased his guilt more.

"Beta! What Nikhil did was his duty. What you did was your duty. Please don't feel guilty." Shekhar patted his shoulder. He could understand what Sanskar was going through.

"Uncle! But what about Dr. Bose? No amount of self satisfactory phrases can change the reality that I am the reason of her misery. A would be bride, with freshly applied heena over her hands, eyes brimming with joy, has been converted to a ..." Sanskar cloud speak further. His guilt choked his voice.

"I should leave!" Saying so, he left from there but not before taking a last look at Swara.

Durga Prasad was observing Sanskar. He felt happy that still there is a soft heart beating inside his iron shell in which he had isolated himself after his divorce.

"How is Swara after the incident?" Durga Prasad wanted to change the topic. As well as he was concerned about the girl who lost her happiness so that Sanskar should remain fine.

Shekhar sighed. The pain of father was visible in his eyes.

"You may call her fine. She wakes up, smiles, goes to hospital. In short, she pretends to be happy but she isn't. I have heard sobs from her room late at night. I have seen how she places roti back to casserole as she has lost her appetite. She just stares at moon at night and wipes her tears. You may call her fine because she pretends to be. But I know she is not." Shekhar said all these things to Durga Prasad who was just a stranger to him. But he felt the need to let it out. He was helpless and thus, frustrated.

"Since childhood, she has this habit of not saying her pain to anyone. She was 10 when her dear mother passed away. She saw me broken. She saw her little sister and brother crying. Though she was just a kid, but that day, her childhood ended. Just from the tender age, she started playing the role of a mother to Uttara and Ayush. I was too drowned in my own sorrow that I always overlooked her emotional needs. I never acknowledged that she has also lost her mother. She too needs love." Shekhar put his face in between his palms, " I am not a good father to her. But I love her. When Nikhil came to her life, I saw changes in her. I never knew that my daughter looks so precious when she smiles from her eyes. I never knew the voids she had in her heart untill they were filled by love of Nikhil. I felt guilty and happy simultaneously for her. And then, that black day snatched everything from her."