GULMOHAR (COMPLETED)

Chapter 28

SAANCHI
✨

'Aunty can I talk to Nishchay!!! I promise I'll only take a few minutes' I tried telling Preet aunty who was obviously trying to stop me saying groom shouldn't be meeting his bride before the wedding.

Now who is supposed to explain to her that I don't really know if there is ever going to be a wedding tomorrow!!!

'Aunty please!!! It's for the sake of Kayu...Just once I wa-' but my words were cut short when I heard Nishchay's voice

'Mumma!!! Let her in!!!' and Preet aunty didn't stop me. I slowly walked into his room. I noticed how the room looked much more neat and clean now. Preet Aunty had insisted that the house must atleast get painted once. Nishchay had got that done. His room however stayed the same pitch white however was much brighter now.

'Why didn't you tell me before?' Nishchay's voice boomed in the room and I looked at him. He was sitting on the floor leaning his back towards his king sized bed. I wanted to see him personally so I walked towards him.

'Stay there! You...you can take a chair kept there but don't come near me. I need my space Saanchi!!!' he said and I respected his privacy. I pulled the wooden chair next to the coffee table and sat there. I knew there was no point in hiding anything further. It was time we get talking.

'Whatever you heard was true Nishchay!!!' I said and pin drop silence followed in the room.

'Since when?' he asked and I closed my eyes shut and gathered my guts. Taking a deep breath I said

'I realised when I saw you with Sudeshna!!! Ofcourse I missed you when you left to Chandigarh. Every single day felt like a punishment but after a year when you came back home and said that you found the love of your life. That's when I realised!!!'

Flashback begins...

'Mehek please!!! You organise it!!!' I told Mehek who was busy decorating the garden area for Diwali. It felt so incomplete without Nishchay. He was the one who did all this but his absence was killing me.

'Sannu...he will be here soon!!! Remember he told he will come!!!"

I looked at Mehek and said
'Yes he said he would...but he said he would come a week early!!! Mehek it's Diwali tonight. He didn't even come for Choti Diwali. What is so important to him that he's ok to miss all this??? His phonecalls have reduced, he is always busy ...I don't understand if he didn't want to join us why did he even promise!!!' saying I threw the decorative paper roll away and walked aside.

I needed fresh air.

It was almost a year that Nishchay had shifted to Chandigarh. Initially he would call everyday which gradually turned into once in two days and then he began calling on weekends. He said he was busy and that BBM wasn't easy for him.

I did understand because he wasn't a commerce student new subjects were new challenges for him. People around consider only science students have tough subjects but Nishchay told me understanding accounts and economics is nothing less than fighting a war on the battlefield where you don't even know if you will ever win or lose. Nishchay kept telling me his accounts never tallied and he could never understand economics.

Given the fact that he was a busy bee and a determined busy bee I let him be but then his phonecalls almost began a rare phenomenon. At times I would get frustrated and call him up asking if he was free and he would end up telling he's busy and wouldn't even greet me a bye. It's like he was in a hurry. It more of felt like someone disconnected his phonecall.

One day when I was going through his friends book profile I saw him being tagged with a bunch of people. But then one girl was a constant. Nishchay kept holding onto her shoulder in almost every photograph. It seemed they were close. When I asked Nishchay he said 'She is just another classmate and her name was Sudeshna!!!'