Hello YRKKH forumwasis. With Abhimaan finally moving towards marriage here is a small one-shot about an AU where they had met in previous lives before finally uniting as Armaan-Abhira.
Warning: Discrepancy in Historical Facts tailored to suit the narrative fiction.
Cheers!
- Niki
In Every Life
They were one soul in two bodies. They lived to meet each other but could never live. Even before they became Armaan and Abhira; they came together only to leave.
For the time was never right.
And it went on.
Again, and again!
*************
Vasundhara was the only child of one of Kalinga's most prominent merchant families. At the tender age of thirteen, her marriage was decided to a nobleman thrice her age.
Fierce and undaunted, Vasu eloped from her home and took refuge in the city. But chaos broke out in the dead of the night when Chakravartin Samrat Ashoka finally moved towards Kalinga. Soldiers began to file into the city and Vasu tried to flee only to get injured in the stampede.
A newly-inducted soldier saw a woman falling in the rush of the mob. Something inside him stuttered to a halt. Forgetting all rules of filing and formation he broke the line and delved into the crowd fighting against the onslaught of desperate people trying to escape. By the time he reached her, she was brutally injured. He half carried; half dragged her aside.
Vasu never learned the name of her saviour. The last thing she ever saw was beautiful eyes; green like the lotus leaves.
The soldier closed her blank eyes and a strange hollowness gripped him. He had never known her but it felt like he had lost something invaluable. The hollowness stuck with him, haunting his entire life till ten years from that day, a sharp blade pierced his heart and death lulled him to peace.
*************
That his people could commit such atrocity was barbaric. Mahendra had always been a man of ethics. He had lived his entire life in discipline; never a moment of doubt. Joining the army of the East India Company had been the suggestion of his father and as told, he had acted only to rise high in ranks due to his rigid determination and obedience to the law.
He had been a proud member of the force; a trusted one. And then chaos erupted.
It was 1857. His fellows had mutinied against the Company and he came under fire. Years of goodwill were destroyed in a single lapse and deeply humiliated, he decided to prove his loyalty by defending the Residence in the siege of Lucknow. In a situation of extreme odds, he along with a couple of British officers managed to hold the fort and protect the women and children for more than 80 days. Rescue came but the aftermath was brutal.
She was dragged along with 13 other women. All were rebels of the mutiny.
He would have ignored them but it was a sudden fragrance that jolted him out of his thoughts and his eyes followed. She was a petite one, a thin pale thing, starving from the looks of it. She was the smallest out of all of them but proved to be the biggest challenge when she suddenly got out of her bindings, jumped across the line and strangled the officer steering them in the blink of an eye. The other officers jumped into action and something in him propelled him to run; to catch her. He had to catch her before others did!
He nearly reached her.
There was a loud shot in the air and she stumbled.
Another shot and she fell.
The last thing she saw was green eyes before all went black.
*************
The next time was another twist of fate.
Arunima loved poetry. An ardent fan of Rabindranath Tagore and Sarojini Naidu; she would spend most of her time hunting for different anthologies to read.
After the 10th Independence Day celebration, Arunima managed to convince her father and brothers to let her tag along with them to the Indian Coffee House. Her eldest brother then accompanied her as she browsed through bookshops in College Street.
As her eyes glossed over book upon the books; a sudden blue volume caught her eye. Intrigued she reached for it and opened the book to look at the first poem.
“Every time I meet you
I fail to see…
Is it a twist of fate?
Or a fallacy in me….”
A feeling of startling warmth and curious restlessness filled her. She wanted to read more.
Swallowing she searched for the author’s name.
Amar Datta, it read.
“I will take this,” she motions to the shopkeeper.
Her brother peeps at the book and rolls his eyes. “Finally, someone new. Or else it's always the same ones”.
Days went by as she kept reading and re-reading the poems. It was as if they spoke to something deep inside her and those words began to imprint themselves in her. Unable to stop herself she decided on a course of action. It took a couple of months but she finally managed to find his address and wrote the first letter to him.
It went unanswered for months.
But then in early January; an unknown post reached out to her. With shaking hands, she opened the letter and nearly swooned. His handwriting was beautiful. Her kohl-lidden eyes traced the loops of his words and her heart began to thunder rapidly.
The next day she posted her reply.
Three months later, another post came.
And it went on.
Unknown to her mind, Arunima fell in love with the writer behind those words, the mind behind those thoughts. She did not care how he looked, or whether he had a station in life. All that mattered was that she had lost her heart to a man she had never seen.
A man who would create stories with his words, paint pictures of a world far alien for her. He wrote to her about his travels, about his research, and composed poems just for her. And then finally the day came when he wrote that he wanted to meet her.
He mentioned the date and time and promised to wait.
But fate had other plans.
Her father found out about the letters and in an absolute haste fixed her marriage with a man who was a stranger to her. Kicking and screaming she was dragged to the mandap and was married forcefully.
He waited and waited. But she never came. And nor did any letter from her.
In pain and anguish at her betrayal, he wrote a poem for her in his last letter; metaphorizing his never-ending wait to the slow gait of the tortoise. He beautifully illustrated the poem with little green tortoises in the margin and posted it to her.
But there was no answer.
Heartbroken and depressed, he began to deteriorate and two years later fell to the arms of death.
Arunima’s sister-in-law had hidden the last letter and after finding out about his death; she gave it to her to get rid of her guilt. The news of his death broke Arunima and she died holding his last words close to her heart.
*************
For him, it was love at first sight.
She was the daughter of the school headmaster.
And he was the biggest troublemaker in the school. Getting repeatedly punished was his everyday routine and then one day, a small giggle changed his life.
She laughed at him as he held his ears and sat on his knees outside the school building.
Her eyes shone and his heart thundered.
He told his mother he wanted to marry her.
His mother laughed at him and told him that for that he had to grow up first and educate himself. But he was relentless and from that day everything changed. He pushed himself to his education and renovated his entire life.
After completing his school, he met her and proposed.
She laughed and told him that she would marry him if he became like those Barrister Babu’s. She liked the black coat.
He took it seriously and pursued law.
A few years later he knocked on the door to her house and formally asked for her hand.
The families came together and the date was finalized. She looked ethereal in red and he felt like the luckiest man in the world.
She became his wife and they had a whole year together to celebrate their love. Then came the biggest news of their life. His little wife was pregnant.
The news sent their joy skyrocketing and he lived the best moments of his life with her as they awaited their child.
But destiny had other plans.
The birthing bed was drenched in red.
From being the luckiest man on earth, he became empty-handed.
A dead wife and a dead child.
He followed soon after.
*************
Something struck the windshield of the car cracking it.
Armaan sat frozen. His cousins screamed and he hurriedly got out of the car and saw something near the car. He picked it up. It was a tortoise; a wooden one.
There was a gasp and he turned around to look at the culprit.
A young woman stood there grimacing clearly at fault.
He stepped towards her and she swallowed.
Her eyes met his and something in him stuttered into place.
Time stood still.
He could hear his Dadi Sa arriving at the scene and chaos erupting but he could not intervene. It was as if something had gripped him tightly from the inside; choking him. He needed to escape. He needed to leave.
She was the Resort Owner’s daughter. The owner was his once-upon-a-time teacher. An advocate herself, Akshara Madam had been a guiding force for the young Armaan Podder.
And so, he could not completely leave. And slowly things began to pull him back towards her. Ruhi, a girl he met, was a perfect distraction. He almost felt he could envision a life with her. But even that could not stop destiny and he was sent back to Mussoorie. But his client turned out to be a criminal and things went out of hand ending up with him being married to her.
Abhira Sharma. Or more like Abhira Armaan Podder.
It was a deal; nothing more. He can never have a life with her. Something inside him told him that clearly. They were not meant to be together.
But he could not help it.
He felt peaceful with her smell around him.
He even liked the tortoise she had flung at his car. That one got a special position right on his worktable.
But there could not be a life for them.
It was a routine they fell into but then chaos erupted again. She hid a vital truth about his sister and their deal marriage was revealed. He felt desperate, angry, blindsided. He yelled at her. He was angry. He was scared. He was in pain.
She lied in the court!
She said she hated him!
His mind switched off.
Everything faded. All colours, all feelings, all hope.
Then she blurted out that she loved him.
And he began to see colours again.
Months later he stood staring at her as both looked at each other with teary eyes. Dadi Sa had finally agreed to their marriage. They are going to be married soon.
Armaan was still scared.
He prayed.
Please let me have this life with her!
Please!!
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