Part 5
Creating misunderstandings between you and Ram was my game plan.
When we reached KM Pihu was given a seperate room with a bigger bed and you
made sure to sleep there with her. That was a drawback in my plan because we
weren't sharing a room. Nobody knows what happens behind closed doors but
everyone would have been curious, including Ram. Shaaq is a slow venomous
poison that can be easily injected in any relationship. I knew that our
relationship was bothering Ram. When I saw Ram alone in the bar that day, I
took that opportunity to see where our friendship stood after I married his
Priya. Ram is such a nice guy, everyone in the world can hurt him but his heart
is worth more than all our companies put together. But off course I don’t have to tell you this,
you already know. You are the one that has always owned his heart after you
uncovered this priceless possession.
Ram was sitting at the
bar sipping on some scotch and watching cricket. This was all a charade, to
show Priya that he doesn’t care less about her. He chomped down a big dish of tandoori
chicken and requested Bansi kaka to bring some more. Soumaya came in and tried
to talk Ram out of this stubborn and unhealthy rage but he dejected her so
rudely telling her to mind her own business. After she left the room with tears
in her eyes he felt bad and wanted to stop her but instead he stopped himself.
Ram (thinking out loud):
Nahi Ram let her go. Let them all go far away from you, don’t let any of them get
close to you. Who ever comes close to you leaves you and hurts you. First Priya
and than Rajat (he grips his glass tightly and chugs down the scotch and turns
up the volume on the TV)
Rajat was standing by the
door observing all this and deciding whether or not to go in and talk to him.
Against his best judgment, he decided to go and talk to him.
Rajat (walks in the room
casually): Ram buddy, there you are. What have you done to yourself? (he grabs
the remote to the turn the volume of the TV down but Ram grabs his hands before
he reaches the remote)
Ram: Kya yaar! Why are you
after everything that belongs to me? Let me live my life and you leave
everything in my life the way it is. (he pushes his hands aside)
Rajat: Ram yaar, I didn’t mean to hurt you. But
you hurt Priya badly by taking her child away from her. I mean at first it was
a huge loss to my business, she wouldn’t work nor would she pay the rent. But than after when I tried to
understand her I realized her pain and suffering. Ram I was only trying to
help, no hard feelings. Besides you have moved on, so let her move on also.
Soumaya and Kush are your life now and Pihu and I are Priya’s.
Ram gets infuriated and
snaps at Rajat.
Ram: Don’t you dare bring Soumaya
and Kush into all this especially when you are comparing them to that
characterless Priya. Besides how did you sympathize with her? Weren’t you the one who told me
about her being alive and how it was really wrong of her to keep Pihu away from
me?
Rajat: Ram I was wrong about
Priya. I mean I was right that she is not right for you. You deserve better.
But isn’t this what you wanted,
you wanted a girl like Priya to come into my life and show me how to love.
Ram: I SAID a girl LIKE Priya…
Rajat: yaar you know about my
miserable past with love, but with Priya I am able to forget all that. Just
like with Soumaya you were able to forget Priya in these five years.
Ram: you and your disgusting
thoughts. She is my sister-in-law, rishab’s wife. Truth is I was never able to move on and nor did I ever
try.
Rajat: ram you should try now.
Priya and I are happy . . . please let her have Pihu you have Kush.
With this Rajat gets up
and leaves the room, looking back at Ram one more time before exiting. The
anger in his eyes was noticeable. He smiled slightly and thought mission
accomplished. Ram slammed the glass on the floor, apiece of the glass
ricocheted of the hard marble floor piercing the skin on his index finger. He
winched in pain as he pulled the piece of glass out of his skin immediately
after he did that blood trickled down his index finger. He walked to the bar
counter grabbed a napkin and roughly wiped his finger before he grabbed the
bottle of scotch he was drinking from and began chugging directly from there.
Love must be so versatile as I witnessed that same night. When I
came into Pihu’s room to see you, you
weren’t there and immediately I
knew where else to check, the bar. This realization of the obvious had to do
something with my newfound understanding of love.
I stood by the door of the bar silently and watched your every
action. When Ram grabbed you, when you both uttered those three insignificant
words, I felt a strange feeling inside my heart. What was this feeling? It was
completely screwing up my game plan. But this caring avatar of yours was truly
breathtaking.
Priya had put Pihu to sleep
and was on her way to the kitchen to get some water. Pihu was still recovering
from her fever and last night she had woken up in the middle of the night
asking for water, so Priya thought this time she would be prepared. Heading
back to Pihu’s room she heard the TV on very loudly and someone snoring. She
recognized that snoring any day. The same snoring that she would fall asleep to
five years ago.
Priya (speaking to herself): Ram? Itne raat ko bar mein hain?
She walked towards the
bar and saw ram sleeping very awkwardly on the sofa. His feet rested on the
floor while his back was positioned on the sofa, his spine was positioned out
of alignment as he leaned slightly to the left. Priya’s heart broke at the
sight of Ram. She walked towards him to take the TV controller from the coffee
table and saw that that there was broken glass on the floor. Turning off the TV
and observing Ram she stood there in a daze.
Priya (speaking to herself):
Ram why are you doing this? I have to lay him down properly or else his back
will hurt tomorrow.
Silly girl, she is more
concerned about his back which will heal in two, three days but what about his
heart that is shattering to pieces being away from her? She grabbed his
shoulders hesitating at first because it had been so long ago that she had
touched him. She placed her hands on his shoulders and began to move him down
so that he laid flat on the sofa. She stepped forward as Ram’s upper body moved down
on the sofa but she stepped on something hard on the floor and slipped, falling
down flat on the sofa herself. Priya was startled and lay there for a few
seconds trying to make sense of what had just happened. She turned her head
sideways looking down on the floor to see an empty bottle of scotch.
Priya (still laying flat on the
sofa, now staring at the ceiling, her legs on the floor): he drank the entire
bottle?
Tears welled up in her
eyes, thinking about his suffering. She was about to get up when suddenly she
felt Ram moving up on the sofa beside her. His back must have been hurting
because in his sleep he adjusted himself. He put both his legs up on the sofa
and pushed himself up the length of the sofa. She quickly tried to get up but
he wrapped his arms around her waist and positioned his head on her chest. Now
she was in an awkward position and he lay peacefully on her fast asleep. She
stroked her fingers through his thick messy hair with a smile on her face.
Priya (thinking to herself):
Thank you god for not stripping Ram of his innocence.
Priya lay there stroking
his hair, thinking about all the wonderful times they had together in the short
time that they had lived together as husband and wife. She was brought back to
the bitter reality of their relationship by his snoring. Than she thought of
what she had come in this room to do. To put him to sleep as comfortably as
possible and then get back to Pihu. She slowly lifted his head up trying not to
wake him up she placed his head on the sofa and slid out from under his grasp
by holding his hand and lifting his arm off her waist. Succeeding in her plan,
she escaped from the sofa with him still fast asleep. She placed his hand to
his side but suddenly he gripped it tightly and turning more towards her. Priya
got scared she wondered what would have happened if he had woken up. But
luckily for her she didn’t get a chance to find out as he was still sleeping.
Ram (in his sleep): Maat jao
Priya, Main nahi jee paoga tumhari begair. I love you Priya…
This startled priya
before she realized that he was only talking in his sleep. Tears rolling down
her cheeks, she was careful that none of her tears fell on him. With great
effort she managed to free her hands from his and placed his hand gently on the
sofa when she saw the dried blood stain on his index finger from the wound. She
kissed his wound softly, and whispered
Priya: I love you too Ram. I can’t see you like this Ram
why are you doing this???
Her heart felt question
was greeted by his snoring. She got up wiped her tears and took off his shoes,
she asked bansi kaka for a dustpan and a comforter. He brought them to her and
she tucked him in, he curled up into a fetal position the best he could on the
sofa, than she used the dustpan to pick up the broken pieces of glass off the
floor so that he doesn’t step on it when he wakes up in the morning. She wasn’t paying much attention
to what she was doing and this carelessness caused her index finger to be
pierced with a piece of glass. She gasped in pain, removing the glass from her
finger and watching the blood gush out.
Priya: I deserve this for
hurting you Ram. Please forgive me…
She got up and discarded
the broken pieces of glass in the dustbin. She placed the empty bottle of
scotch on the bar counter before she grabbed a napkin and wiped off the excess
blood from her fingers. She took the jug of water she had fetched from the
kitchen, shut off the lights and went back to Pihu’s room to be greeted with
her snoring. She smiled slightly through her tears, wiped it and then stroked
pihu's hair, kissed her on the forehead and went to sleep.
That night I saw hurt in Ram’s eyes
that I never wanted to create. I wanted to open Ram’s eyes and show him your
true colours. But your actions towards Ram in that bar that night made me
question my understanding of you as a person. It’s
funny because I had my mind made up that Ram deserved better than you but after
witnessing your caring nature towards him despite the circumstance baffled me.
Sure you hurt Ram by denying him of his rightful place as a husband and a
father but this past decision was beginning to look more like a sacrifice that
hurt you more than it hurt Ram. In the time that I have known Ram he was always
smiling and the reason for that was you despite not being in his life. In the
time that I have known you, you have always been struggling by yet smiling in
the face of adversary. You lived like a pauper even though you were Ram’s queen. After I married
you to make Ram hate you, his life became miserable. So it was not you who was
hurting him it was me and my actions to drop you in his eyes. That night he
drank because I made him believe that you had moved on and that we were happy
together. This lie spiraled him into a fit of rage in your name but you came in
like sunshine after a storm and cleared the havoc his rage had created. You
tucked him in and in the process you hurt yourself. Soumaya and all the other
family members gave you crap for leaving Ram but you never once tried to
justify your reason behind your decision to leave. You told me that if they
vent out their frustrations they would be happy and relieved. But as long as
everyone loved Pihu, which they all did, you were fine with any punishment that
they spewed at you. I wanted to back away from this plan and leave you and Ram
alone but I couldn’t.
Your heightened thinking of love and your endless sacrifice was strongly
attractive. The strength you portrayed, your attempts to mend your past
relationship was commendable. I have faced many business colleagues and came
out victorious. But the more I attacked you the farther away I was from
winning, your business was loving your family and my business was tearing your
love down. You won on each level and although my mind was focused on the next
attack my heart wanted to be your partner in your business, I wanted to be a
part of your life, your love life. If there wasn’t evil
than there can be no good. Just like that if there is no hate than how will we
realize the value of love? My hate bowed down to your love and I had no choice
but to let it.
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