Meherbaan (Hinglish) [Book 1]

5 | Tujhe Bhula Diya Hai

Seven years ago Ishita's world had crumbled into the shreds of her broken heard whose scars were still visible today. Ishita was dumped not only by her fiance but her extended family too, not for being infertile but rather for being in a relationship with a guy for twelve years and then being successfully dumped by him. She wasn't marriage material anymore considered her orthodox relatives. Only she knows what they did behind closed door all those years. He had her way with her and now her wants out. Maybe she couldn't please him, they had said.

You do not have any other option but my Subbu does, get out of his life Ishita, his mother had said. And throughout this stood a girl who comforted herself. Though her Bala jiju went against his family and stood by her, she didn't want to cause problems in her elder sister's marital life. Her parents were busy fending for her and she thanked them for that.

As the days flew by Ishita was mocked, ridiculed and laughed at. She had stopped attending wedding ceremonies - her wound was fresh, or naming ceremonies - they were the harsh reminded of what she could never have, she stopped attending family get togethers to avoid the mockery they made of her and she stopped interacting with anyone from her part apart from selected people like her parents, sisters and Bala. Without realising it Ishita had sunken into a state of depression, where she cried her heart out, watched sad sitcoms, cried, skipped meals and stared into blank space. Less than a month into the break up Subbu's mother and come home with an invitation card - an invitation to Subbu's wedding. She claimed that her son wanted to get married immediately. Ishita met Subbu for these time that night, she had bawled her eyes out and asked him why he did this to her. Didn't he tell her that he would always love her, no matter what. She had asked him where his love of twelve years disappeared to. She had banged her fists on his chest and wailed like a mad woman. Only hours later when he had held her into his arms and kissed on her forehead had she felt repulsed by his touch.

She had pushed him away as if he has struck her. That night she had pulled the plug on the person she had known as Subbu. She had looked into the adjacent mirror, composed herself, fixed her attire and makeup and then looked back at him as of nothing had happened. She remembered having walked to him and as she stood in front of him, she had wished him a good life with his new wife. "Don't hurt her like you have hurt me, Nalini has always loved you. I'm sorry that I came between you'll."

Ishita had attended all of Subbu's wedding functions, right from the engagement till the reception party. She had smiled and laughed along with her jiju as if others had happened. She had wished his bride a good life. She had placed a peck on Subbu's cheek as she wished him goodbye.

Ishita had then focussed on her studies, taking up new courses and learning about kids. She moved into a hostel away from her parents and reminders of her past. Subbu had stopped affecting her. Later, she worked at an University Hospital with an internship of three years - her parents had moved to the vicinity during which Bala and Vandita welcomed their first son.

She remembered being called up by an ecstatic family as she prepped for a surgery, she had genuinely laughed for the first time in ages and thanked Murugan for showering his blessings on her sister. Shravan then was am integral part of her life, she pampered him to no end, he was her Shravu.

Shravu's naming ceremony had been a small affair when Ishita had named him followed by a reception party that Ishita chose not to attend, blaming it on her appointments.

Two years ago Ishita had over to Delhi, to work in Dr. Batra's clinic. The pay was astonishingly great and the work experience there would greatly affect her career graph. Vandita, Shravan and Bala themselves had located to Delhi a year ago. So the Iyer's too had relocated to Delhi. A year later she had met Ruhi who introduced her to her Raavan Kumar and the rest was history.