Chapter Text
After they embarked on a journey with no definitions to their bond…
After she took the first step towards her dream…
After the first exchange of numbers…
After the first attack of panic as he sent her a text first…
After she replied with a genuine warmth…
A steady flow of conversation that soon became routine, unhindered by distance, encouraged by technology…
After shy words turned to playful banter…
A tentative request for coffee, in the café across her hostel…
After weekly coffee evenings gave away to Saturday lunches…
Glimpses into each other's thoughts and ideologies…
Seeing a side of the other that they kept hidden from the world around…
Appreciating what they discovered in each other…
After an occasional dinner that made way for any occasion that could be turned to a dinner together…
After he became the omnipresent support in her life…
After her heart recognized him as the shoulder to lean on, the hand to hold on…
After they shed their inhibitions, hesitancies, and awkwardness; yet not intimate but closer than evero…
After meeting his Dadi, knowing she would readily accept what made her grandson the happiest…
Not meeting her parents, as they would never understand the joy their daughter finally found…
After her only friend became his too; his work became a familiar acquaintance to her….
Him, being content with the way their life had stepped forward. Their life, as his did not see a reality where it was merely his anymore…
And still they had unspoken words between them…
After all these transpired between the two who were beyond what the world was…
After all the eternity he waited and would wait for…
In short, three years later.
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(Khurana Group of Companies)
"Maan, could you come to the café today evening?" she asked as soon as he attended the out-of-usual call she made in the middle of his meeting.
"Yes, of course. But is everything alright, I mean…"
"Everything is fine. I just needed help. It's the final semester and every assignment that I have to submit seems as if my neck is on the line. What was our professor's idea of a just-for-fun exercise is turning out to be a nightmare. Pinky is away for the weekend and I really need a sounding-board to throw my jumbled thoughts at."
"I will be there."
"See you then."
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(the Café across the hostel)
Maan shifted in his seat, visibly uncomfortable as he struggled with the impulse to run away or stay back and help her in whatever way he can. He would stay, obviously. But not without at least once trying to get out of it. "Look you are the soon-to-be famous author over here…"
She mocked glared at him. "Pinky is a bad influence on you," she quipped back.
"So, how do you see me helping you? You know words are not my forte, I can't even…"
"I am suffering from a writer's block Maan. I am not asking you to help me with the words. Just toss around some ideas, discuss the plot, stuff like that. Umm, like say, what is love to you? What are your thoughts on this emotion?"
"My thoughts? Err…isn't Love something to be experienced? I mean that is what the books say..."
"But love means different things to different people. Please Maan, try it once. Think about how it is supposed to be like."
Maan closed his eyes for a moment to prevent his tongue to run away and blurt out that it is the same what I feel ever since you came into my life. He opened his eyes to find her steady yet expectant gaze on him. He always ignores his mind's warning not to look into those deep hazels. He would always drown.
"How is it supposed to be like?" he looked out through the glass pane into oblivion.
"Maybe when you realize that you have chanced upon a secret no one else is privy to…"
He recalled the day he first saw her.
"When one word peels off the layers of darkness that had held you enveloped…"
The day he heard her name. Geet.
"An impulse that turns to a habit, an obsession that your conscience condones…"
His repeated visits to the bus-stop across her street. His gratitude to the moonlight shadows that aided his cause.
"When your heart cries out for their heart; like calls to like and every part of you has a reflection in them."
The piece of paper that gave him a passage to her soul.
"When you are so drenched in them, when you can still feel them around you, inside you; even when they are not around. You fail to keep the promises you make to yourself, but reach out and make everlasting ones to them," he recalled the moment when she had accepted his request with simple sincerity and complete trust and her presence in his life ever since, "When for the first time you realize what being complete truly means."
He took in a deep breath to hold his words back as they spilled without any encouragement on his part. It was always like that for him. He could never hold back the voice his heart found when in her presence. He looked back at her to assure himself that he had not stepped over the boundary, that his promise to her was still intact. But before he could allay his fears, his cell phone sprang to life.
"Jee Dadi, I am on my way…"
"Geet…"
"Go on, do give my love to Dadi," she bid him good-bye as she gave him a affectionate smile that she always conjured up for his grandmother.
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(Khurana Mansion)
Maan wasn't sure what happened today, but he could feel a shift in the dynamics. The ethers were in disarray and he only hoped that the change would not disrupt his equation with Geet. He would lose all if he lost her.
He looked beyond his window. It was raining again today. The single factor that had turned his life for better.
"Maan," Dadi peeped into his room, "could you go out to the terrace. I fear Nakul is not as diligent as before. I hope he has not left anything that would get ruined by this downpour."
Maan frowned at his Dadi's request. What possibly could be out in the terrace that would get ruined in the rain? But he still went ahead if only to keep his mind from wandering to thoughts he was scared of considering.
He ventured onto the terrace as far as the awning sheltered him from getting wet and spared a cursory glance at the balcony's expanse.
His eyes threatened to escape his sockets at the sight he before him.
He looked back at his grandmother who gave him a sly wink and left him alone.
Left him alone with Geet.
"Geet," he rushed towards her, "what, I mean, why…how…uhh…what's happening here?" he let out a incoherent stream of inquiry all the while attempting to shield her from rain with his hands held up over her head.
Geet smiled warmly at him and held his gaze adoringly. "Remember you once told me, three years back on a rainy day such as this, that you had found the answers to your life."
Maan nodded slightly. He remembered everything, of course. Why was Geet asking, is what he wanted to know. But he hesitated to ask. Hesitated to hope.
As if she read his confusion, she decided to meet him half way and closed the distance between them. Her eyes shone with a never before seen glow as she cupped his cheeks, "I wanted to feel what it is supposed to be like when you have finally found the answers to your questions, when you finally find yourself."
Maan stood immobile for a moment as her touch rendered him breathless albeit with a realization humming through his veins.
"and how is it supposed to be like?" he let out a rugged whisper.
She leaned in and rested her forehead against his. "When your heart cries out for their heart; like calls to like and every part of you has a reflection in them."
His hands slid down to rest on her waist. "Geet..." her name slipped off his tongue as a reverent prayer.
"For every dream you have stood behind, I lost a part to you, of what was mine. And for every dream that you will stand along, only to you shall I forever belong."