Together Beyond Time

Chapter 2 - Building softness

/Vihaan's Pov/

"Call Karu?"
(Should I call?)
I asked myself while rocking my chair and fidgeting my fingers on mobile phone.
Finally I gave in and decided to talk tomorrow in-person. Yeah! That's better.
She will be in hospital only. Her discharge is scheduled for day after tomorrow...call ke baare mei tab sochunga, abhi to kal mil  sakta hu.
(Will think about calling day after tomorrow...as for now, tomorrow I can meet her in hospital only.)

I fixed my desk and went outside my cabin to the adjacent door, which is the most comfortable place on this planet! My room.
Discarding my clothes I took a quick shower and dropped my body on the bed, closing my eyes...but as soon as I closed my eyes her face came!
What? Why?
Her emotionless face with traces of dried tears, a tint of redness on her nose, swollen red eyes...and not to mention her lips were also swollen a bit from usual. I didn't know lips also swell from crying.
Well, that's not our matter of concern!
Her hair were half tied and a few curls were continuously irritating her which she was fixing again and again.
I stopped my urge to go and gently fix her hair but seeing her frustration and the seriousness of the matter, I stopped my distracting thoughts and cleared my throat grabbing her attention.
Now when I am recalling everything that happened today in that hospital room, I am feeling the prevailing akwardnes between us.
Obviously! Our first conversation and that too on such a matter. Akwardnes was unavoidable.
I realised how she was not at all interested in answering my
any question with sincerity but she did tell me that how everyone react to this thing is more concerning to her than her own feelings.
I instantly concluded she is a 'people pleaser'.
I did assure her that I am with her and I am not going to leave her but I am afraid if my words did a little effect on her or went completely in vain.

Shifting from her my thoughts went to mom and dad.
I never thought that both of them being doctors would ask me such a question...that i still would like to marry or not!
We three have witnessed how families leave the patients all alone struggling especially girls but still they asked me.
Anyways, unlike how they practically forced me to accept the proposal and get engaged to her, this time mom said to dad that decision will be mine and dad also agreed after a few talks.
I don't understand, first they as usual emotionally blackmailed me like every other Indian parent to get married with their choice of girl because according to them i failed in gaining myself a girlfriend in 27 years of life.
They are love birds, studied together, build hospital together everything together! Their love marriage is a different thing. They were always present for each other.
But I lived my childhood alone after grandparents died.
First grandparents, then here in Amritsar with servants and maid and then in hostel and then in hospital... ignoring the so called few friends of mine, I am actually alone in this world.
And girls...they....they are so ajeeb (peculiar)

I dated a girl once in 11th standard, who I got to know was double timing me. We were kids. We didn't share any kiss or anything of course.
But that incident affected me. I felt I will never be the first priority of anybody. Not even my parents. What should I expect from outsiders. So i started staying to myself.... although I hanged out a lot in college with my room mates and other fellows but it was always the group that had fun but i never had a single person only for myself.
I think that's a valid enough reason to not have a girlfriend...also i don't like the tactics they use to get close to me. Fake acting of cuteness, always ranting about how their ex did this and that to her like announcing her pityful situation purposely to the whole world.
No one is real and I hate it.

I thought my parents wouldn't force me to get married but they are the most unpredictable ones, just like their choice of girl became inappropriate for me just become she can't become a mother!
When will this society see girls, free of any label? She is a daughter, she is a sister, she is a wife, she is a mother and this-that.
She is a human before everything else who has full right on herself before anyone else.
No one would understand this.
I know this engagement was not in my agreement but since i committed to her I am not gonna make her feel like trash.
I know nothing about her, just that she is two years younger to me and a forensic accountant and so we are in some field. Science, medical science. But apart from this my parents didn't feel like sharing anything to me or more like they also don't know anything.

I sighed after a trail of thoughts and said to myself, "Khair! Koi na, Shadi toh kar hi raha hu ab usse. Ab toh poori life tumhe hi jaan na hai Roohi Mehra."
(Anyways! no problem, I am going to marry her. Now, my whole life will be spent in knowing 'You', Roohi Mehra.)

'Mrs. Roohi Vihaan Malhotra'
I thought to myself and smiled a little on my silly thoughts.

My smile immediately vanished when her father's words came into my memory.
"This girl always welcome problems. Finally when I was marrying her off, this news broke! I am telling you Meera I am fed up from her. She is such a burden. Always a problem to me!"
I listened her father saying this to her mother, he was literally whisper shouting at her without any respect and on the top
of it, saying such about her own daughter.
I was genuinely feeling bad for her at that time. Maybe she also got no one.
Like me. All alone.
Her father's words were loveless but when I said I am going to marry just as it was decided, He started buttering me. I politely ignored him saying I need to meet  Roohi.
But I didn't like her father's thinking.

I am started feeling a softness for Roohi which is so new to me.
We both succeeded in completely ignoring and avoiding each other throughout our 'roka' (engagement)

However, she didn't say anything but her face told me so many times that just like me she is also forced into this proposal.
Since she wasn't interested in talking to me, I also never tried.
Not that she isn't good. She is well mannered and decent girl.
She was looking so cute on our roka, wearing embroidered mauve coloured suit and sharara with beautiful white jutti, with minimal makeup, just liner, a small bindi and light lipstick with heavy earings and bangles in the name of jewellery.
Her hair were open. She has beautiful wavy curls, a little longer than shoulder length.
Her eyes are round and dark brown with long lashes, her lower lip is bigger and full than upper one and they fit together like lotus petals. Her nose perfectly broad and curvy pointed.
She has prominent features.
But the only missing part is her smile.
I saw her 3 times before today and everytime I can't deny her simple yet elegant beauty. But i never saw her smiling genuinely apart from random formal curves of lips she had to offer to elders.

"Oh god! Am I not thinking a little too much about her today?"
That's unusual.
Maybe she succeeded in gaining my attention by literally not doing anything.
I mean we didn't even hi, hello with each other, we act like forced kids stated to sit and stand as and when required.
But her emotionless face always pulled me towards her, a weird connection to ask her a lot of questions and talk continuously for hours.
She seems like a mature woman with bold thinking.
Damn! I want to know her.
I want to know you Roohi.

Thanku for reading:)