The Christmas party was in full swing.
Abhimanyu Birla, the famous cardiac surgeon, the prodigal doctor of the Birla hospital had finally let down his hair and was laughing his heart out - not with the elders but with the kids. He didn't dare to look at corner where his family and the Goenka's had gathered. Turning that way would mean seeing her, and right now after tolerating her presence throughout the day and over the course of this party, he was dead tired of the pretention. And so, he had escaped and sought solace with these small bundle of joys - the children.
A ludo game was going on in full swing right in front of him while another chess game progressed just a table away. Another table held the more boisterous kids, eating chocolates and playing monopoly. All Akshara's doing, he knew by now.
While the elders partied, the children too needed to do something and so she had included board games for them to keep them in one place thereby making it easy to keep a track of them. Abhimanyu marveled at her ingenuity. Who thinks of board games in the era of computer,laptop and other digital modes? Only she could do it.
The more time he spent with her, the more he realized the proportion of mistake that he was making by marrying Arohi - it was colossal. But he had himself agreed to this marriage in his rage and blindness. He had thought that seeing him on a daily basis with her sister would break her and lead her to confession, but he had not accounted for her tenacity and loyalty. She went around making preparations for the wedding with a 1000 watt smile on her face. He wondered if her mask would ever slip.
Rubbing his temple with the pad of his fingers, he tried to keep the forming headache at bay. He had night duty after this. He could not afford to fall sick. In front of him, the children cackled and tried to hit each other with paper balls. He laughed as he watched a small girl ducked an onslaught of paper balls of various sizes.
Perhaps he had eyes for that group and that is why he could see a one of those offending pieces of ball flew towards him. With a smile, he plucked it out of air and pocketed it with grin. He had just meant to tease the kids, not collect trashes. They surrounded him clamoring for the paper ball but he made them run around the tree.
His light mood was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. "Taiji!"
"Bade dino baad tumhe muskurata hua dekha hai. It looks good on you, Abhi."
He gave a small smile, not trusting himself to talk and then say something unpalatable to everyone.
"I hate to pull you away from this party, son. But could you do me a favour?" Mahima continued after a while.
"Sure Taiji. Tell me what's it."
"I had ordered some gifts for the NGO kids. But the man forgot to bring them here. And now, he has gone home and it won't be possible for him to come back. If you could pick up those gifts for me..."
"I will do it, Taiji."
She thanked him with a smile and left and he walked out of the party all the while looking for that moonshine face which,all of a sudden, was missing. It was strange - he had just seen her here. Where had Akshara gone?
~~~●~~~
Akshara had escaped out of the party with great difficulty. It was only after she told her Bade Papa about gift distribution in the dance academy did he let her leave. She had no idea what she would do there, but she knew that she needed to escape if she wanted to keep her sanity intact. Because seeing Abhimanyu there and to be unable to be with him hurt her and it hurt her bad.
Kya kahun duniya ne kiya
Mujhse kaisa Bair
Kya kahun duniya ne kiya
Mujhse kaisa Bair
Situation had forced her to sacrifice her love for her sister. And with her luck, no one in her family realized her pain and her heartache.
Wiping that solitary drop of treacherous tear which had dared to roll down her eyes, she pushed the brake and parked in front of her mother's dance academy. Birla Hospital and NGO be damned, she needed to be in a place where her heart and mind would be at peace. And what better place than the academy which had her mother's imprint and memories.
With a soft smile she took out the gifts that she had bought for the students and walked inside.
Little did she know that her mother's blessings were going to change her life in a span of few hours.
~~~●~~~
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