A tale of love (Episode 3)

A tale of love, episode 3

Dhwani moved on with her daily life. She always came out to the balcony to offer her prayers to Sun God. In the evening, she used to stand in front of the mirror, combing her hair neatly, applying moisturiser and so on. However, in all of these, she never got a glimpse of Paarth. She had deleted his number. She never blocked it. However, she never received any text message from him either. Worst part was, all the gestures which he had done in the past couple of days, were still fresh in her mind. There was not one moment when she did not recall those memories. Nonetheless, whenever she reminisced those memories, she tried to find if even for once Paarth had felt something for her. He had given her his phone number. She had caught him staring at her. He was the one who used to come to the balcony to catch a glimpse of her. What were those moments? How did all of these end abruptly? Was Paarth one of those guys who never felt any emotion seriously? For him, was everything just a spur of the moment? With every question that came to her mind, a drop of tear shed from her eyes. It had been one week since she had heard from Paarth. She could see his car. She could see the towel which he always hung in the cloth string to dry. But, Paarth always ensured that Dhwani could never see him.

For Paarth, life had always been busy. His work called for long hours of commitment and dedication. Back home, he would prioritize his tasks, right from his household responsibilities and then back to following up with some pending work from office. All of these kept him so busy that by 10:00 p.m. he would be fast asleep. Paarth was a person with practical approach to life. He knew he could not focus on many things at a time. Hence, with the rest of the things in his head and his decision of not getting himself entangled in a tussle of feelings vs family, he was winning in his decision. It has been almost two weeks, he had not texted Dhwani. Talking to Dhwani was something he would never do. Dhwani never got a glimpse of him. But, no matter what, in these two weeks, he had never missed getting a glimpse of Dhwani. He never looked at her from the balcony, but he did look at her from his window. He never stared at her while driving to work, but he did look at her right after parking his car. At this point in life, he knew that the decision he took was right. He never knew if Dhwani liked him. If Dhwani had liked him, she would have made an effort to be in touch with him. In these two weeks, she never tried to contact him. No text, no calls, no Hi, no Hello. It only meant he never had any place in her life.

Weeks passed into months. Today was a Sunday. Paarth had gone out for grocery shopping. On his way home, he saw Dhwani. Today she looked different. He had always seen her in a simple plain get up. Today he saw her in a pink and golden silk saree. Her hair was neatly tied into a bun. Some strands of her plum tinted hair glimmered in the sun. The gold bangles in her hands brought a gleaming lustre on her pretty hands. The pink lip colour matched her blushed cheeks. The kohl in her eyes made her look like an angel from heaven. Dhwani was in a world of her own. She had come out to the balcony to put a flower vase on the table there. She never knew Paarth was looking at her. Rather, she never hoped that Paarth would ever look at her. While Paarth was still looking at Dhwani, a car stopped right in front of Dhwani’s apartment complex. Dhwani’s dad was there to welcome the people in the car. An elderly lady, an elderly gentleman and a young chap got off the car. The guy must be in his late 20s. Paarth noticed that the boy limped while he walked. It seemed he had some problem with his left leg. Looking at the way those people were warmly welcomed by Dhwani’s dad, Paarth knew what was happening.

For the first time in these months Paarth was scared. He did not know what was the fear. Why was he scared? This should not have concerned him. Dhwani was a fleeting feeling and Dhwani was an unknown existence in his life. He would not enmesh himself in the complication of a vague relationship wherein he knew nothing about Dhwani and, he might have had to go against his parents if this relationship ever grew. Paarth’s heart started beating fast. He rushed home and went to the balcony. He took out his phone. Dhwani was in the room attached to the balcony. He could see her phone on the table near the flower vase. He did not know why he was doing that, but he quickly clicked on Dhwani’s number and called her. He could hear faint sound of her phone ringing. However Dhwani seemed lost. Paarth called her twice. Dhwani never looked back at the phone.After sometime Dhwani went inside. After getting some glances through the window near Dhwani’s balcony, Paarth knew what was going on. The guests out there at Dhwani’s home had apparently come to meet Dhwani for wedding formalities with their son.

Paarth was not himself after he saw this. Never in his wildest dreams did he ever think that the fear of Dhwani going away would be so scary. He was the one who wanted to nip the bud of feelings before it blossomed. And now, he was scared. Why?

Come dusk, Paarth knew what he had to do. It had been 6 months. Things were not as easy as they seemed. Wearing a pair of jeans, a comfy white round t shirt, he went to Dhwani’s home. His flip flops knew the speed at which he went. He rang the doorbell of Dhwani’s apartment. Dhwani’s mom answered the door. Dhwani’s mom was a pleasant looking lady with a subtle smile on her face, glabellar lines and worried yet kind eyes. Paarth smiled at her and before he could introduce himself, she gave him a warm smile and said, ‘Please come in Paarth.’ Paarth was astonished. How did she know his name. Did Dhwani ever say anything about him to her mom? Asha, Dhwani’s mom said, ‘ Please have a seat son. It’s such a pleasure to have you here. Would you like to have some water?’. Paarth stammered. Being an introvert,talking to someone whom he had met for the first time was an endeavour in itself. He said, ‘ Nno Aunty! Thanks! Actually I have come to meet Dhwani. Is she at home?’ Asha gently said, ‘ She has just stepped out with her father to get some grocery. We had guests today, so could not go for grocery shopping in the morning. Hence.’ ‘Oh Okay!’, said Paarth. Paarth did not know what to do now. He had to talk to Dhwani. He did not know when Dhwani would be back. All the same, if today he went back without meeting Dhwani, he knew, he would never get to meet her again. He glanced around the house. He saw some exquisite art work around. Below every work, he could see a beautiful signature which read ‘Dhwani’. Dhwani seemed to be an accomplished artist. . Paarth stood up and went ahead to look at Dhwani’s artwork. Asha said, ‘ My Dhwani paints really well. I will show you a masterpiece of hers before she comes.’ Saying that, she went to Dhwani’s room. Paarth stood there admiring every piece of art of Dhwani. She was not only beautiful, she was immensely talented as well. Asha came with a huge box. It was gift wrapped. Dhwani had told me to give it to you after her wedding. But, since you are here now, I might as well give it to you now. Paarth was dumbfounded. He took the box, looked at Asha with wide eyes and said, ‘ Gift? Dhwani did tell you about me?’ Asha smiled subtly and said, ‘No! She never said anything. It was I who came to know about you.’ Asha sat down on the sofa opposite Paarth, looked at Paarth with kind eyes and said, ‘ My Dhwani seemed to like you. I am her mother. I knew that.’ Paarth listened to her bewildered. Asha continued, ‘ But Dhwani had this feeling carved in her mind that no one would like her. I saw her hiding her tears from me. I knew, deep inside her heart she had convinced herself that she would never meet someone who would love her for who she is. Today, she agreed to the marriage proposal from the family of the boy who had come to meet her.’ Paarth listened. Some waves of pain pierced some corners of his heart and without saying anything he just listened. Asha smiled again and said, ‘ I was so happy when I felt my daughter fell in love with someone. That someone was you. I was hopeful that maybe this time she will be blessed with happiness. But destiny had something different in store. Maybe you never felt that way for her and she understood that.’ Paarth could not remember when was the last time he felt this kind of agonizing pain. Every word that Asha said reflected truth. Every word that he heard made the pain in his soul worse. So worse that his eyes turned moist. With a choked voice Paarth said, ‘I tried calling Dhwani today. I called her twice. She never answered nor did she call back.’ Before Asha could answer Paarth, the doorbell rang. It was Dhwani with her father.

To be continued…….