Prithvi... [Vol 1] (Ongoing) (Winner of Wattpad India Awards 2019)

Chapter 19

Nandini tried to light the lamp with unsteady hands, but the matchstick slipped between her fumbling fingers, fell onto the ground and was extinguished. She looked at it feeling a foolish sense of guilt. Then she drew out another matchstick from the box and tried again. When its end was lit, she quickly held it to the wick of the lamp, not wanting to waste another one because of her clumsiness. Once the wick was aflame, she made the customary three rounds around it and then stood praying before it, trying to ignore the fact that her hands were shaking slightly….

Nandini tried to control the shivering in her arms, but couldn’t gather the mental strength for it. Her whole being was overwhelmed by dismay, guilt, panic….She felt frightened….but even more than that, she felt appalled at her own behaviour. Had she gone completely insane….how could she have just stood there silently….what if grandpa hadn’t called her….

She shuddered at the thought of what might have happened.

And Prithvi…how could he….and why….

After so many days of quietly enduring his taunts and callousness, she had gotten angry with him for the first time, and had said some things in resentment. This must have been his way of getting back at her, she thought with eyes stinging with tears of pain and humiliation….a new way to torment her…that was all it had been. It was the only possible reason for what had happened ….

She was still standing, staring unseeingly at the picturesque scene outside the gate when the silence around her swiftly seemed to become overpowering. And without even turning around, she knew that he had joined her and was standing at a distance from her.

Prithvi hadn’t made a sound as he hobbled into the courtyard from the back of the house and stood far behind her, but she sensed his presence as surely as if he were standing before her.

A fresh surge of anger passed through her.

“Nandini, I -” he began hesitantly.

“Don’t! Please don’t talk about it,” she cut in urgently with her eyes closed tight, wanting nothing more than for him to go away and leave her alone.

“You’ve taught me my lesson,” Nandini continued bitterly, “and I wont ever come in your way again.” And then, without waiting for a response or looking at him, she turned around and rushed into the house.

Prithvi stood motionless for a long time after she had gone….and the dusk slowly enveloped him in darkness…

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Nandini splashed water on her face and looked again into the mirror over the sink in the bathroom. She saw despondently that her face still looked swollen and her eyes were red. What would her mother think….

At least her grandfather wasn’t there at home. After calling out to her about the tulsi pooja, he had gone to the temple as some people from a nearby city had come to the temple for a havan. So he would be late in coming home. She and her mother had frequently tried to convince him to keep someone to help him with the duties of the temple. And last year, grandfather had kept a young man for that purpose, but he had not been happy with his assistant and so had reverted to doing everything by himself.