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Anupamaa 07 Apr 2026 Written Update & Daily Discussions Thread
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Why No one is talking about this??
DUDE (MANIK STYLE) - tumhe aise brilliant ideas kaha se milte hai😉 seriously u've always brought a smile to my face when I finish reading the update! It was so so so good that I don't have words to describe it... From nandini giving that speach for manik to the suddenly yet over due kiss, u've got me hypnotised girl! U really are a talented writer and I pray that this talent of urs takes u to new heights in your life! BRAVO👍🏼
Originally posted by: _keertu_
I really enjoying the way u take the story. ..
you r not rushing the story. ..
nd plzz dont make the last past a dream...
plz plz plz..
vihaa
this is the most beautiful chapter for me...in this finally nandini's hard work ,patience,care ,support,understanding etc etc...each and everything won...she gave manik the essence of life...
wow...its amazing...u penned it so so so beautifully...manik is finally prepared to live his life ...
from chapter 1 to 21...he slowly climbed up with the help of an angel and finally he reached his point...
thanks a lot dear for giving me one of the best experience in life...!!!
continue soon
take care
thanks for the pm
thank you all again, love you all so much!! and all those who joined the forum especially to comment on my story, i love you the most and you comment mean the world to me, i was having a bad day yesterday but reading your comments made me sooo happy so thank you from the bottom of my heart
CHAPTER-22
HOW TO SWALLOW YOUR DESPAIR IN ONE SIMPLE WAY?
While Manik was sleeping beneath me, his arms wrapped around my body, my head rising and falling on his chest, I felt contend and sleepy. Something about his heartbeat, his breathing, him living, had helped me relax most nights that we shared the room. It was a fix that no doctor could tell you: fall in love with a beautiful man and listen to his heartbeat. He helped me relax and I drifted off.
"Manik! No don't do this." I was standing in Manik's house in Delhi and all the people who were listening to my speech before were listening to me scream.
"You failed Nandani, you failed, how could you cross the line? How could you push Alia away from me?" Manik shouted pointing a gun on his head, threatening to kill himself.
"I am sorry Manik, I know I shouldn't have done that, sorry but you just kissed me and I couldn't..." I tried to explain but words failed me just like I had failed Manik.
"Oh! I was in shock of my father's death but you should have known better," Manik said and tears started rolling down my face. I wanted to snatch the gun away from his hand but I just couldn't do it. Everyone standing there started shouting.
"GUILTY! GUILTY!" they were all screaming at the top of their voice, I needed a place to hide but first I needed to rescue Manik.
"Manik listen to me..." I started to think of all the things I could say to stop him from doing this and looked around at the shouting crowd when ...
"Goodbye," Manik said and shot himself.
I woke up with a start. I looked at the clock and saw I had only been asleep twenty minutes.
"Okay?" Manik grumbled.
"Mmm."
His arms were wrapped around me tightly, his chest rose and fell. He kissed me again, a little kiss on the lip like we had been doing this our whole lives. And I buried myself in his arms again. His smell was filling each cell of my body, and his breath on my skin still giving me goose bumps. I could feel his warm chest, chiselled to perfection against my fragile body. The feeling brought me back to a calm state and I drifted off again.
I woke up again around four in the morning. Manik was no longer beneath me; he was beside me in the bed. My throat was completely dry and I went to the kitchen to have some water. When I came back my phone was vibrating on the side table, I rushed to answer it before Manik would wake up.
"Nandai, please come to the hospital, something has happened to Chachi," A worried Rishab said when I answered the phone.
"WHAT? You said she was fine, what is wrong?" I asked, panicked and nervous.
"Nandani I was telling the truth but suddenly an hour ago...will you please come?"
"Okay I will be there in half an hour," I whispered.
I reached to the notepad beside my bed and wrote: Had to go, Will explain. See you later.
I pondered adding a X, but decided against it. I didn't want to come across as too much attached, too presumptuous. By then I had wasted enough time and didn't have time to ponder on it anymore. I would be back before he woke up, hopefully. I threw on clothes and in no time was on reception waiting for taxi. Twenty minutes later I was at the hospital.
I went straight to Chachi's room, jogging as fast as I could because running wasn't allowed. Rishab was sitting in outside the room and I rushed to him.
"She woke up yesterday and everything was fine but suddenly an hour ago she started seizing and the doctors have taken her up for surgery." He explained.
"How is the surgery going?" I asked, looking at Chacha ji from the corner of my eyes. He was sitting with his head in his hands; face completely wet with tears and eyes red.
"We don't know we should be getting some update soon." Rishab said, not fully confident and sat down again.
I couldn't sit. I started pacing in the hallway looking around at everything, trying to distract myself from all the negative thoughts that were trying to creep in. The hallway has as much personality as the rest of the hospital. The floor is slate grey and the walls dove. Above the ceiling is made from those polystyrene squares laid on a grid-like frame. The light is too bright for my eyes after the darkening gloom outside, I find it abrasive, enough perhaps to bring on one of my migraines. There are commercial prints on the wall, tasteful in the dull kind of way. This place certainly isn't run by risk-takers and I guess I should find comfort in that. Above every door I pass is a large plastic sign, dark with white lettering- no fancy fonts, just bold and all-caps. It's so new and spotless I feel like the whole building must have just gotten beamed here from some-place dirt is outlawed. Every few seconds I pass a different set of doors with a hand-sanitizer dispenser: to oncology, to geriatrics, to maternity.
After what seemed like an eternity the doctor came rushing from the other side of the hallway. The doctor had the posture of a soldier. Every action she took was precise and purposeful. She smiled in the cold and distant way professionals do. I can never relax around such expressions. I need a genuine face, preferably a smile, but if not I'd really rather they didn't fake it. Her eyes were devoid of any make-up and her hair was in a tight bun, not a strand out of place. The nurse had hovered two feet behind, her relaxed expression of earlier replaced with a grim slash for a mouth and knitted brows. I waited for them to speak as I rushed and stood beside my brother, holding his hand.
"She is safe now, we had not identified a bleed in the brain and that caused the seizure, but she I absolutely fine now. You should give her some time to rest. You can all meet her in the evening." She said and I hugged her. I am not a hugger but in that moment my emotions were everywhere and I had to thank her for not letting the closest thing to a mother I had.
"You can go now Nandani, I will handle everything here, you can come back in the evening and meet her, and she was really missing you" Chacha ji said and I smiled with relief.
"I miss her too, I will be here in the evening." I said and left.
I arrived back at the Taj suite at six a.m., exhausted and completely drained. I wanted to climb back into bed beside Manik;s warm strong body, feel secure, have him recharge me with love and joy, belief and goodness again. This was what I do expect to do, when I walked into the suite he was already up.
The sight of him made me smile and my heart lift, seeing him was medicine enough for me, but then I saw the look on his face as I walked into the room and my smile disappeared. Warning bells rang. I knew regret when I saw it. The shield came up, I had to protect myself from this.
"You have been crying," he said.
I looked at my reflection in the hall mirror and I was a mess. The clothes I had thrown on were a mismatch, my hairs hadn't been brushed, I wasn't wearing make-up, my nose was red, my skin blotchy. I didn't exactly look a sight to win him over. I was about to tell him about Chachi ji when it began.
It began with a look and I knew, I knew before he even spoke a word, immediately feeling like a piece of filth who had taken advantage of a sick man, and I wanted the moment to be over already so I could pick up my bag and do the walk of shame to my apartment. What had I done to Manik? He looked like a mess; had I undone all the good work he had done on himself, disoriented enough to send him straight back to the bridge.
"It's not...we shouldn't have...i shouldn't have..." he tried to start it off. "I take full responsibility," he said finally. "Sorry Nandani, I shouldn't have come to you last night."
"No I should have known better," I swallowed, my voice husky, sounding as if it had to travel a great distance. "You have Alia, the big party, big day and exciting news to share with the world, so don't worry," I helped him say the words. "Let's just forget what happened, and please," I put my hand on my chest, "Please forgive me, I apologise from the bottom of my heart for being..." Damaging? Needy? Selfish? Looking after my own needs when I should have helped you? Where was I to start?
He looked sad.
"It was wrong." I tried to keep my chin up, but how could I? I felt so awkward. "Sorry," I whispered, moving quickly to the bedroom. "I should go, you okay?"
"I am fine." He said. He was drained, exhausted, but I believed him. My being there wouldn't help anything now, I would have to risk leaving him alone now.
"I will see you later?" he asked. "At the party?"
I froze. "You still want me there?"
"Of course."
"Manik, you don't have to-"
"I want you to be there." He said firmly, and I nodded, hoping now that Alia would complete the picture so he wouldn't need me there.
I did well to last until I had arrived in my flat to break down in tears.
I hid in the flat, ignored the phone, the door and the world while I covered my head with the blanket and wished I could take it all back. But the problem was, I couldn't even wish for that properly because last night had been so good, so incredible, something I had never experienced before, more than just good sex. Manik had been tender and loving, but I had felt a connection, he had been so confident and assured as if it was the right thing to do. There was no hesitation, no tentative kisses or touches. And if at any stage I felt a tiny flutter of doubt, one look in his eyes, one kiss was enough to know that it was the right thing, enough to know it was the most natural thing in the world. How did everything change in such short time?
The doorbell rang.
My heartfelt lifted at the thought of Manik at the door, my lost heart in his hands, or even better his heart on a lily pad, offering it to me. But deep down I knew it wasn't Manik on the door.
The doorbell rang again, which when I thought about it was unusual. Nobody knew that I lived there apart from some close friends and family. Most of my friends were busy with their lives and my family was in the hospital. The doorbell rang again and curiosity lifted me to open the door. I pulled open the door faced with Harshad.
He looked more surprised to see me than I was surprised to see him, despite the fact that he had rand the bell four times.
"I didn't expect you to be here," he said, looking me up and down.
"Then why did you keep ringing the bell?"
"I don't know. I came all this way." He shrugged. He looked me up and down again, clearly unimpressed by my appearance. "You look terrible."
"That is because I feel terrible."
"Well that is what you get," he said childishly.
I rolled my eyes. "What's in the box?"
"A few of your things."
It looked more like a pathetic excuse to come over and harass me.
"I also wanted to say--" he began.
"No, Harshad, please no." I said weakly. "Because honestly I don't think I can take any more of what you have to say. I am sorry, really, sorrier than you can possibly imagine, that I hurt you. What I did was awful, but I couldn't make myself love you like you deserved to be loved. We weren't right for each other, Harshad. And I don't know how else to say it..." I wiped my stinging eyes roughly. "I know I am in the wrong here, so I am sorry, okay?"
He swallowed, was silent for a while and I braced myself for another hurtful comment. "I wanted to say I am sorry," he mumbled.
That took me by surprise.
"For what exactly?" I said, the anger rising, even though I was trying to suppress it. "For smashing my car? Or for insulting my friends? Because I know I hurt you but I didn't drag others into it."
He looked away. All the sorry seemed to have gone out of him. "No, not for that," he said angrily. "I am not sorry for any of that."
I couldn't believe his ego. I composed myself.
"I am sorry for the voicemail. I shouldn't have said what I said. It was wrong."
My heart hammered, he could only mean one voicemail, the only one I hadn't heard, the one Manik had listened and deleted.
"Which one, Harshad?"
He swallowed. "The one about your mother, okay? I shouldn't have said that. I wanted to hurt you in the deepest way possible. I know that is your biggest fear so..."
He left the silence and I tried to figure it out. After an awkward pause I got it and realised I had known it the entire time. Sometime you can know something and not know it at the same time.
"You said I would end up like my Mom. Alone and unhappy." I said my voice trembling.
He had the decency to look ashamed. "I wanted to hurt you."
"Well that would have done it," I said sadly, thinking of Manik listening to it and protecting me. "But fortunately I had someone who cared enough for me to protect me from that." I said and shut the door on his face and returned to my bed to hide from the world.
A few hours later I realised I had to go to the Hospital. it was already Five and I had not moved the whole day. I was hungry but there was nothing to eat in the flat so I took a quick shower and changed into fresh clothes and left for the hospital.
The hospital room is as devoid of beauty as I am of hope. Its walls are simply cream, not peeling or dirty, just cream. There is no decoration at all save the limp curtain that can separate my bed from the three others in here. It was perhaps once the kind of green that reminds people of spring-time and hope, but it's faded so much that the hue is insipid. The room as an undertone of bleach and the floor is simply grey. At the far end are windows in brown metal frames, only openable at the top. Not a single person has flowers, cards or home brought food. They are sleeping to pass the time or staring at nothing at all. There are stands for intravenous drips and monitors.
I looked at her lying on the bed, a tube down her throat, unable to speak. But as soon as she saw me she knew I was sad. She knew like a mother would. I can say that because she had a worried look on her face, and held my hand tightly, like trying to comfort me. I sat there for hours, while uncle and bhai went to take some rest and freshen up. I felt safe in her company, like even after being on hospital bed she could save me from all the pain.
At around seven thirty I left the hospital to go and prepare for Manik's birthday party. I hadn't even wished him because of all that was going on and I made it a point to wish him at the party. Despite his claim that he was in a good place now, Manik had barely begun on the road to healing himself. I was hoping Alia would show up and love him. If she didn't, I was afraid I could lose the man I loved forever.
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