Kaisi yeh Yaariyan Season 3

chapter 121

Chapter 121

It was past 3 am, and while the majority of the world was fast asleep, Manik was strolling on the pavement opposite to Ranbir's apartment. He had tried everything, lying with his eyes shut, a mug of steaming hot green tea, listening to some music but none of it had worked. The restlessness just wouldn't die and he didn't want to disturb the only person he knew could help calm him down. He took the road on his left and continued walking, stuffing his cold hands in the pockets of his jacket.

This was a middleclass locality in lokhandwala; yet another of the many faces of Mumbai. Deliberately leaving his trail of thoughts behind, Manik began to wonder about his equation with this intriguing city.

Did he love Mumbai like he loved Nandini? Or did he just live here out of habit, since he was born and raised here, just like his relationship with Alya. He definitely didn't love Mumbai, the way he craved for Panchgani, the way his memories from there, warmed up even the coldest corners of his heart. Mumbai at best, was bitter sweet, bitter owing to his family or the lack of it and sweet for giving him his friends and then Nandini. It didn't have the charm of the hills, the dreamy monsoon, the cottony clouds, Mumbai was flat and blunt and at times merciless. But then that was his perspective, the way he saw the city through his own lenses. But beyond his thoughts too, there lay a huge expanse of human habitat. And if he looked at it unbiasedly, this city had a soul. Mumbai has something for eveyone, for the rich and mighty that he used to be, as well as for the penniless that he had become, now. You see the multistoried luxury villas and right next to them is dharavi, the world's largest slum...and somewhere in between, there's also the regular middleclass, going about life in the most mundane manner. Mumbai, they say is the city of dreams for all those who come from far and wide, but not all dreams come true. Manik wondered, what happened to those, who had their dreams and hearts both broken here. Did Mumbai also give them a shoulder to cry on, did it also nurse their wounds?

The day had been long. When he returned to Ranbir's place after dropping Nanini, to his utter surprise, his long lost friends were waiting to throw him a surprise bachelor's party. They had decorated the house with flowers and confetti & their photographs.. Photographs of them as kids, photographs of their stage performances in Warrior High, photographs from Space, and then a hundred different snaps with her, Nandini. Sometimes when we are caught in the bubble of time, we barely notice how beautiful it is, until one day when the bubble bursts and everything slips through the fingers like lose sand. What if life hadn't taken the course it had, what if they had never fallen apart, what if he didn't have that accident, what if he didn't have to go through hell in Europe..what if they were still like they used to be, thick as family, a madhouse of friends who could live and die for each other. But then, things are meant to happen the way they do, each one of us has a journey preselected for us. BUT THEN AGAIN, there are few things..few people that do not follow the design of the universe, they break every pattern, they cross every bridge, they take every leap of faith just to be with you..time, distance, circumstances, nothing ever holds good for them and that girl blushing in the photographs was one such miracle.

For a while, he couldn't even feel the rust. No awkward silences, no measuring up of words, no blames, no tears, they were all going bonkers, the old way. Mukti as usual was pulling Manik's leg, left right and center, with tips for the first night to why chocolate could be a better aphrodisiac than the customary glass of warm milk. Alya, at her sweetest, strictly told Manik that his wedding trousseau would only come from her boutique. Dhruv was quiet, but he looked happy, not the trying-to-gel-in-with-others kind of happy, but that kind of happy which reflects off the corner of eyes. And Ranbir was just being himself, like all of a sudden he pulled Manik to a corner and handed over the keys of his house to him. His excuse was : he was getting depressed living in this house alone and wanted to spice up his life by moving in with Mukti and Madhubala. The way he spoke, delivered that line with practiced ease, it sounded like the most normal thing ever, except that it wasn't. It isn't a joke to hand your house to a friend you have known for a month and then act as if it isn't a big deal.