Prithvi... [Vol 2]

Chapter 48

Nandini quickly kept the receiver down on hearing her mother. She badly wanted to talk to Rajesh Garewal but not in front of her family.

“Nandini!”

She started on hearing Sarojini call out again, and quickly traipsed up the stairs to her mother’s room.

“What were you doing downstairs?” Sarojini asked quizzically as she walked inside.

Nandini wavered a bit, but then decided to be honest. “I was trying to phone Rajesh uncle,” she said uncomfortably, walking over to the bed to help with the clothes.

Sarojini looked at her in astonishment. “Rajesh? But why?”

Nandini concentrated on folding one of her dresses into a neat bundle. “Nothing special…it’s just….I was missing papa,” she mumbled.

Sarojini felt like a hand had gripped her by the throat.

In the years since Siddharth’s demise, she had somehow compelled herself to get used to Prakash’s frequent questions about him. But in all this time, Nandini had never spoken about her father. For her daughter, as for her father-in-law and for Sarojini herself, Siddharth’s death was a wound that had not healed fully as yet….

Alarmed, Nandini saw her mother turn slightly pale, and instantly regretted having mentioned her father. 

She quickly kept the dress aside and knelt down on the floor in front of Sarojini.

“Nothing to get upset about, ma,” she said hastily. “I just felt like -”

“How can I not get upset? When my daughter no longer feels the need to share her thoughts and feelings with me?” Sarojini asked quietly, looking steadily into her daughter’s face.

Nandini looked at her silently for a moment, too stunned to react. Then she nervously asked, “Why – why are you saying that, ma?”

“You’ve been very upset for days now, but you won’t tell me why! You’ve hardly eaten anything in the past few days and I know you haven’t been sleeping well too! But you still insist that you are perfectly fine and expect me to believe it!” Sarojini said, sounding frighteningly close to tears now.

Horribly distressed at the gathering moisture in her mother’s eyes, Nandini swiftly tightly clasped her mother’s hands.

“Ma, please don’t cry! I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” she said desperately.

Sarojini forced back her tears and looked at her searchingly. She had to ask the question now. “Nandini, whatever I ask…you must tell me the truth. I promise…I will not scold you or react badly.”

Nandini intuitively knew what was coming…..she had been expecting this round of questioning for days, but had not been able to think of any way to tackle it….until this evening.  In some strange way, the confrontation earlier in the evening with the prince of hell had dulled her pain and fuelled the anger and determination to cut off all ties.

Sarojini hesitantly continued, “From your behaviour in the past week, I’ve been feeling like something….unusual…special…has happened in your life. And if it has, I’ll understand completely. At your age it is natural to develop – new feelings for someone,” she said gently. “If there is anything like that in your heart, don’t feel shy about telling me.”

Nandini didn’t answer for a moment. In her mind’s eye, she was seeing Prithvi walking towards the small idol, seeing him crush it ruthlessly….

With or without your consent, you’re mine until I decide to throw you out of my life….whether it happens in days or weeks or never….

“No, ma, there isn’t anything like that. I don’t like anyone in…in that way,” she said assertively.