Do read the Author's Note at the end.
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Arnav walked into the airport with his luggage trailing behind him. His usual three piece suit and goggles intact. Hair set as always and physical posture emitting the emanation of a compiling, composed and confident influencer.
Remove the goggles?
And the adept eye will detect a desolate, dispirited, dismal individual, drowning in an abyss of pitch darkness.
He had managed to make quick arrangements with the help of his Friday man- Aman. For he found it difficult to even breathe another moment in that mansion. Getting ready in a hotel he got the tickets to Mumbai and here he is. The Domestic Departure section.
He looked around standing still at the centre. People were rushing here and there and everywhere. No one had a chance to even pause for a while. Some were excited probably to meet their loved ones they were going to visit. Many were busy for business reasons he mused.
While others were simply moving mechanically.
Everyone was doing something or the other. No one had the time to even stop.
That's how life is. You simply keep on moving. No matter what.
Not like you! Standing and waiting for someone to invite you. His mind mocked.
Who will come anyway! He's alone now. He chuckled sardonically. He broke relations with his family. His beloved wanted him away from her. Who else does he have except his business. Everything about him has come to a standstill.
This is what he had always been doing. This is exactly what he has always done! Run away. He had just been existing. Through and through. And when stuff gets real, he would run away. Away from the maddening chaos of familial relationships. Away from the irritable anarchy between his mind and heart. Away from everything that reminds him what he's missing. Ahd that's exactly what he's doing now. Running away.
The only difference is, this time its not coerced upon him by circumstances. A bit maybe. But not completely. This time it's a genuine need to stay aloof. Especially after everything that has happened.
There was still time for his flight. So he sat on one of the steel benches.
His thoughts rushed back to the situation in his house. His Di was miserable and so was his Nani. They did seem terribly guilty. Including his Mami.
Thoughts of his Di made his heart clench. He doesn't know if whatever he said was right or not. But somewhere down the line she did become the reason for the present state of affairs. She knew him! She understood him! And she also knew the fact that her opinion made a hell lot of difference to him. If not anyone he would always listen to his Di. Why wouldn't he? After all she is his mother figure after his Maa. He ought to give her the control button of his life and he did. Something he too didn't possess. If anyone had the power to control him on her words, it was his Di. For years on after his Maa's death, when he had become a living corpse, his Di maneuvered his mind and soul and helped him get out of the trauma. He had become completely dependent on her since then. And so he didn't have any reason to doubt the dependency. Anything his sister wanted was his priority before anyone else. It was a master and subject relation of the purest form seasoned with immense love. He never had a reason to question the amount of faith he had on his sister. Blind faith! He smirked. So he believed her. If she allowed him to become something, he had taken it for granted that she was right which he guessed she had always been.
When he became that ruthless, cruel, shrewd and heartless personality fir the whole world except his sister, he never knew. Until Khushi fell into his life.
You actually do need a third person to judge who you really are.
What surprises him was that he committed heinous acts of injustice and disrespect upon her and his sister never tried to stop him. She would obviously admonish him at times but he never found it serious enough to take it seriously! Neither did she bother. Only when he would go against her wishes would she start drifting apart from him until he accepts her whims and fancies. Like the time when he refused to allow Khushi into his house and his Di ended up in the temple, huddled up on the stairs. He had also noticed that she did not react when he revealed to her that he forced Khushi into a contract marriage just for her. All he saw was the faint smile on her pale face when she saw the extent he could go for her. He had expected her to lash out on him for playing a woman's feelings and tarnishing her dignity. He had even expected her to slap him right across his face for turning out to be so cold. So stone hearted.
But that never came.
