5. HOPE

Yashoda:- call me regularly, ok? ( while keeping her hand on his head )May Waheguru keep you both happy.

Manik smiles and kisses her hand and bent down to take her blessing. Yashoda blessed him with a whole heart and took him in her arms once again.

Yashoda:- ( in warning tone ) keep her safe and be happy always. And the most important thing is don’t trouble her more with your mood swings. ( hiding her smile ) Keep your pregnancy hormones in check.

Manik:- ( pouting ) dadi……… you are my grandmom. So you should be worried about me.

Yashoda:- noo… I know that Nandini would take good care of you just like I did and even better than me.

Manik:- and how do you know?

Yashoda:- experience! You can say that my face reading talent works sometimes except on your dadu.

Manik giggled lightly and gave one last look to his room before walking out leaving his grandma in a crying mess.

When here both grandmother and grandson are spending some quality time one last time. At the same time, Nandini is facing all the accusations which are making her more guilty.

Varsha:- I don’t know what type of a girl she is? ( with venom for Nandini ) Such an unlucky girl!! She entered just sometime back and broke my family into two pieces.

Innaya:- I know this type of girl’s aunty. They just want rich guys so that they can spend their whole life smoothly.

Nandini :- ( stammering ) no….. Y…ou… are….tak….ing……all…..th..i..s….in a wrong…. way……

Divya:- ( cuts her in mid ) don’t your parents teach you values?

Innaya:- bloody down market girl. I know your type of girls who have innocent faces just to make rich guys fall.

Kiran:- ( shouts ) innaya be in your limits. You have no right to talk to her in this way.

Innaya:- wow … Just wow… What magic you know that for you, my own grandma shouts at me. Great just great!!!!!  Blo*dy commoner!!!!! BITC*!!!!!!!!

Suddenly a roar came from stairs which startled everyone.

Manik:- innaya…….. Just keep your not-so-beautiful mouth in control. You are saying her commoner may I know why? Because she doesn’t have money just like you have or she doesn’t have a big house just like you have. Sorry to burst your bubble miss Dixit. The money, the house which you claimed as yours is not yours. You are just living on your dad’s money. It’s your dad’s hard work. And Nandini is an independent girl not like you to boast herself on someone else’s money. May I tell you one more thing…. She is more beautiful than you inside and outside. So you are not even able to compete with her single nail. 

Divya:- Manik! You can’t just insult my daughter like that only because of your stupid love.

Manik:- I am really sorry aunty. But your daughter deserves a reality check. She just forgot that SHE IS AN ADOPTED DAUGHTER OF DIXIT’S.

Innaya:- MANIK!!! 

Manik:- ( angrily ) keep your voice down miss. Innaya. I am not your bloody servant on whom you can rule.

Saying this Manik clams himself and forwards his right hand towards Nandini asking for her hand. Whereas she denies while crying and speaks in a broken tone.

Nandini :- this…i..s not..right mani.k. This is……..not the solu..tion. We c..an talk…an.d tries to solve this…..in a matured way.

Manik:- they won’t understand. Right now they all are thinking about innaya only. They won’t understand our love….

Manik grabs her hand and walks towards the exit while dragging her. But Nandini stopped him.

Nandini:- ( emotionally )  at least we can take their blessing. They are our elders. 

Not wanting to break her more he agreed reluctantly. Everyone heard this small conversation. Someone was happy and satisfied whereas someone called all this fake.

Both move towards Manik’s grandfather and bend down to take his blessing. But what shocked Manik is that neither he put his hand on their head nor he moved back which is a shocker for both. This gave Nandini the hope that everything will get fine with time. They will accept her for Manik. 

When they got up, what Nandini noticed made her hope stronger. She saw a tear which rolled down from vishember’s eye. 

Then they move towards Manik’s grandmother who blessed them with all her heart and kissed Nandini’s forehead while wiping her tears.

Yashoda:- may you both live long. Always stay happy and together.

Further, both walks towards manik’s parents for taking their blessing but both turn their faces with disgust while looking at Nandini. Then they walk towards Kiran who blesses them wholeheartedly and secretly hands over some money to Nandini while whispering in her ear. 

Kiran:- take this……. Your shagun. Baba ji will keep you away from every evil eye. ( while glaring innaya ) 

After all this Manik moves towards the exit dragging Nandini with him. But Nandini stops him in mid and points towards his dadu as if saying just talk to him once. But Manik denied and left the house with her, for her, for their love.

Manik and Nandini both reached Nandini’s house. In the whole drive, both are silent and taking each other’s presence. They walked inside and seeing their state Ashok got worried.

Ashok :- kya hua? Nandu…. Tumhari aankhen itni kyu sooji hui h? ( what happened? Nandu… why your eyes are swollen? )

Nandini runs and hugs him tightly while crying in his embrace like a baby.

Seeing her state, Manik told everything to kaka.

Ashok:- ( shocked ) yeh kya kar diya tumne?, Manik. Yeah sahi tarika nahi tha is situation ko sambhalne ka. ( what you did? Manik. This was not the solution for this problem.)

Manik :- mujhe pata hai, kaka. Lekin woh log meri koi baat samajh hi nahi rahe thai na hi mere pyaar ko samajhne ki koshish kar rahe thai. ( i know that, kaka. But they were not in a state to hear me or to understand my love )

Ashok:- thik hai abhi tum dono rest karo baad mai sochte hai ki aage kya karegai. ( ok, for now, you guys take a rest. We will think about what we can do next? )

Saying this he wipes Nandini’s tears lovingly and tells her to take manik in her room and rest for some time.

Both move towards Nandini’s room silently. She is standing near the window, looking outside. She recalls everything and starts crying. She is accusing herself of separating Manik from his family.

Manik comes inside after some time and sees Nandini’s back. He knows that she is crying. He moves towards Nandini and turns her towards himself and wipes her tears.

Manik:- why are you crying Nandini? You don’t take tension, I will make everything right. Give me some time. 

Nandini:- ( crying ) Manik why you left your family for me? They are more important to you than me. Never in my life have I got my parents’ love but you got a beautiful family. Why did you choose me? Manik leave me and go back to your family, please. I will take care of myself. I don’t take this guilt anymore. You know people call me unlucky but I never take this seriously but right now I realized that they were correct. I am an unlucky Manik, that’s why all this happened because of me. You left your family because of me. Please Manik leave me and go back. You will regret it.

Still now Manik listened to her patiently but when she said the last line he lost his temper and was ready to blast on her but stopped after seeing her tearful eyes and cheeks which got wet with her tears. He calms himself. He knows that right now he has to handle her with care and love. 

Manik :- keh liya jo kehna tha. Yaa kuch rehta hai. ( are you done? Or you want to say more. )

Manik sees her tearful face which pinches his heart. He holds her both cheeks and wipes her tears with his thumb.

Manik:- nothing happened because of you. I am the one who chooses you and will choose you every time. You are not just a girl to whom I love. You are like oxygen to me which I need every damn second. You are my soul Nandini if you are not with me then I would love to die the next second. 

Nandini kept her hand on his lips stopping him to say further. 

Nandini:- please don’t say like this. You know na…i hate whenever you talk about death. I have only you and Kaka beside me and trust me I don’t want to lose either of you.

Manik smiles and caresses her hair, making her smile in tears. He holds her cheeks and pulls her towards himself and hugs her. She kept her head on his chest and relaxed.

Nandini:- why do you love me so much?

Manik:- because I have no brain. 

Nandini punched his arm and broke the hug while Manik giggled. 

Nandini:- this is not the answer to my question.

Manik:- umm I know. There is always a stupid answer for every stupid question.

Nandini nods her head in disbelief. 

Nandini:- tumhara kuch nahi ho sakta. ( you are hopeless manik. )

Manik:- ( proudly ) I know!!!

Nandini:- ( getting serious ) Manik, now what will we do?

Manik:- ( tries to divert her mind ) what about a dance with your soon-to-be husband?

Saying this he bent down and asked her hand like a gentleman. This instantly brought a smile to her lips and placed her hand on his. Nandini encircles her hands around his neck and both start moving slowly-slowly without any music.

The atmosphere turned romantic and both the love birds drowned themselves in each other’s eyes. Being tired of all the happenings Nandini placed her head on his chest in order to calm her raging heart. 

Manik:- don’t stress yourself, Nandini. Just trust me I will make everything alright and give you everything which you deserve.

Nandini:- I don’t need anything Manik if you are beside me. Just stay like this for some time.

She hugs him tightly seeking his presence.

Manik smiles and cubs her both cheeks and moves downwards to capture her lips. He sucked her lips so softly as if confessing his love again. A tear slipped down from her eye after receiving so much love and care from him. 

Manik kisses her tenderly and breaks it after 2 minutes. But before detaching himself from her, he pecked her lips several times. 

Manik :- I LOVE YOU NANDINI.  I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. 

Nandini:- I LOVE YOU TOO MANI.

Manik again takes her in his arms and hides her from every evil.

To be continued…