The Girl With A Dream | ✔

18

Dinner went off very peacefully, neither Anika nor Nirav spoke a word. Also, the walk back to their hotel was silent. Nirav tried to initiate the conversation but Anika had simply brushed him off. In spite of being together, Nirav felt like he was walking on a lonely road. That was a very strange feeling. In the hotel room, Nirav didn't dare to utter a single word. He quietly sat on the bed staring at Anika who was standing in front of the mirror and gently applying the lotion to her arms. She turned towards the bed and found Nirav staring at her. She gradually moved towards the bed, folded her legs and sat beside him. She stared directly into his eyes trying to decipher what his eyes were trying to tell her. She took his right hand in hers, brought it near her lips and kissed it gently. Nirav sat there dumbfounded not knowing what to do or how to react. She played with his finger for a few moments and Nirav, unable to speak anything, stared at her innocent face. 

"Nirav, you remember when you had first come to my house with your parents to see me, you had asked me to tell you about myself, remember?", Anika asked.

"Yes, I do.", Nirav said in agreement.

"At that time I had honestly told you everything. Everything about my dreams, my life, how I was forced by my parents for this wedding. Remember?", she asked and Nirav nodded. She further continued,  "At that time you had said, ' you can understand the pain one goes through when not allowed to pursue the dreams.' Remember?"

He nodded again. She further added, "At that time, when I had asked you what do you exactly mean by that, you had said, 'Nothing. Lets reserve this one for our next meet.' Remember?"

"Yes.", he answered.

She continued playing with his fingers, in between caressing them. "Nirav, it's been almost two months for our wedding now, and you still haven't found the appropriate time to tell me what you exactly meant by that statement. Why Nirav, why? Don't you trust me? Why are you taking so much time for sharing things with me? What's stopping you?"

Nirav looked at her with a blank face searching for appropriate words to answer her. "I wanted to tell you everything, then and there, on that day itself when we first met at your place. But you were already so worried about your life so I thought better talk about this next time."

He took a pause to check if Anika wanted to say anything on this. But when she didn't he continued speaking.

"The reason I am taking so long to spill everything to you is that those memories do nothing but only hurt me. But today I am gonna tell you everything. I was 8 when I developed the liking towards music. I told my parents that I want to learn music, musical instruments. I literally begged them to find a good teacher for me. I learned music for almost 14 years. Music was my passion, it was my life. I wanted to make music as my career, even my teacher suggested my parents the same. But my parents clearly said no. They said that the music industry is risky, there are so many examples where in spite of having a great talent, you don't get opportunities in this industry. Plus I am a boy and the responsibility of entire house will be ultimately falling upon my shoulders. They didn't want me to risk my career. They emotionally blackmailed me to agree with their decision. I agreed with them, I took over my father's business. But after that until today, I had never touched any musical instrument nor I tried to sing. My teacher tried his best to convince me, he used to say that I am the future star, I was his best student. But I was totally dejected at left everything behind. It hurts me to know that the only passion in my life was literally snatched away from me, it really does."

Anika who was listening patiently to him had tears in her eyes. Her heart cried for her husband. It was then when she realized the pain he must be going through. He stared at her expecting her to say something. He waited patiently allowing her to gather her thoughts and speak her heart out. But instead of saying something, she moved forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. He hugged her back. Tears continued rolling down her cheeks and Nirav kept trying to console her by moving his hand over her hair. She cried her heart out and Nirav didn't stop her. He gave her time to calm down. When she finally broke the hug, he wiped her tears still being quiet.

"And I used to think that I am only one who had gone through such pain of giving up the dreams for parents' sake. I always kept telling you about my dreams, how I feel bad that I can't pursue it. But I had never imagined that you also might have gone through something like this. But trust me, you are an amazing singer. Your 14 years of hard work totally reflected from your song today. You had rightly said in your song, 'Our dreams are young and we both know. They'll take us where we want to go.'  I respect you even more after knowing all this. And I also believe that our dreams will take us where we actually want to go." Nirav just gave her a weak smile at her words.

"But you know Nirav, where we go wrong? We don't fight for ourselves. I am really very happy for you. If you were firm with your decision back then, they would have agreed to you. Yes, they wouldn't have agreed to it wholeheartedly, but ultimately seeing you happy, they would have felt happy. I wish I had the guts to speak up for myself, and I still don't have. If I had, I would have been working in some good company by now, instead of sitting at home for the whole day doing nothing.", she further added.

"Anu, you are right. But they are my parents. How can I go against them?"

"But we can't simply agree to each and everything that our parents say, isn't it? Before the wedding, I had hoped that leave further education, but I can at least continue my job. I had even asked you the same and at that time you had agreed to say that you had no problem if I'll work. And what happened after the wedding? Your parents said no and hence I am sitting at home. I don't have any problem with your parents. I respect them a lot. They are sweethearts. They are like my mother and father. But when it comes to working, I don't know what gets over with them. That's not fair. You didn't stand up for yourself, for your dreams, back then. What are you gonna stand up for me? Seriously Nirav, if this is going to continue, trust me, I'll leave everything and go away. I am just fed up with my life. What's the use of such life when I myself cannot decide what should I do and what I shouldn't?", she blurted.

Nirav cupped Anika's cheeks in his hands and said, "Anu! Anu! Anu! Calm down. We will find a way out of this. Just have faith in me, please. And please don't think of leaving me alone. You are the only happiness left in my life. Please don't snatch it from me. Please."

Anika didn't say a word on this. She simply put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.