The Stigma Called Love - Chapter 71

Dhruv and Vikrant ran towards to him as they saw Nishant collapsing on the floor. Dhruv was the first one to reach him and slid to the ground just in time.

“Nishant!” he shouted but nothing happened.

Shaking, his face, Vikrant tried his best to wake his brother but still nothing.

*******************

Aparna had just returned home with Prakriti but she felt completely alien as she helped her daughter undress and freshen up. Mechanically, she fed Prakriti and made her go to sleep. She stood up from the bed and looked down at her daughter, but still felt empty inside. Some part of her was slowly dying and she could do nothing but watch. 

Silent tears trailed down her cheeks as the numbing pain returned. She will never see him again. He will not take her name again. She will never see him smile at her again. 

Never smell his scent again. 

Never hear his voice again.

Her hurtful, hateful words came back to her and she turned away from the bed. Opening the balcony door, she went out and breathed in and out as much as she could. 

Suddenly, she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. Sighing, she fetched it out and answered the call. 

“Aparna! He is alive,” Madhu said excitement clearly evident from her joyful tone. 

Aparna slowly slid to the floor the moment she heard her friend. The agonising ache in her vanished in a matter of seconds. As Madhu disconnected, Aparna dialled Nishant’s number and then quickly pressed the end call button. The ache got replaced with the painful realisation that she cannot call him. Not after what had happened. She closed her eyes and saw him standing smiling at her. Tears of regret slowly slipped out of her closed eyes and Aparna clutched the balcony railing hard. 

*********************

Sid and Dhruv saw the doctor out and returned back to Nishant’s room where everyone was looking at him worried. Although his left arm was fractured but miraculously Nishant was okay. 

“There is nothing to worry. He is going to be okay,” Dhruv said looking at everyone’s worried faces. 

Nishant was again back at the hill road looking at her picture when a gush of wind blew it away. As he stretched to retrieve it, the rumbling sound of the landslide made him turn. As the debris fell on him, he saw stones falling on her picture and he dived. 

“Aparna!” he screamed and struggled to get up. 

“No, Nishant, no,” Vikrant said soothing him back on the bed but his struggles increased more. Even Meera Naik tried but nothing happened. 

Finally, Dhruv and Sid intervened, and managed to confine his flailing arms. 

“She is buried under the debris. I need to go. Please,” Nishant said fully awake now.

Dhruv’s eyes widened with realisation and he held his friend’s face in his palms and said in a reassuring tone, “She is okay. Nothing has happened to her. Shhhhh! Go back to sleep. You need rest.”

Somehow, Nishant listened this time and slowly closed his eyes. As he rested his head back on the pillow, he remembered the half-torn photograph he had managed to grab before he had finally fallen into the stream below. If it hadn’t been for her, he would dead by now, buried under the debris. 

Dhruv watched him and saw his face twisting with pain and agony. Sighing, he got up from the bed and left the room. 

*********************

Aparna was sitting on the window sill staring at the night sky. Cloudy and growling hard, it reminded her of the night at Tosh when Nishant had gone missing. Her every pore cried out for his touch as her mind played their feverish nights together. 

Why had everything gone all wrong?

What was it that was stopping her from going to him?

She bit her lip knowing the answer too well. Fresh tears welled up inside as her conscious shouted at her. 

It’s your ego.

No, it’s not.

Yes, it is. You know Nishant wouldn’t dream of hurting you. But still, you blamed him for everything. You know you need him. 

No, I don’t, her stubborn mind replied. 

Then cry as much as you want. But remember Aparna a day will come when you will try to reach him but there would be no roads left, her conscious said to her. 

Aparna buried her face in her palms and sobbed miserably. 

*******************

Nishant woke up with a start in the middle of the night and looked around. His mother was just sleeping just next to him and he could see his father on the sofa. Silently, he got up from the bed with great difficulty. The pain in his left arm intensified just as he stood upright. 

Nishant again looked around and saw his friends and family sleeping here and there but his eyes just registered one thing: the trousers he had been wearing when the landslide happened. As he hunched to pick it up, his whole body protested but he still retrieved it from beside the bed. He dug through one of the pockets and fetched out her half-torn picture and then, slowly wobbled outside on the terrace.  

Cold and fresh air welcomed him the moment he ventured outside, and he breathed in hard. As his eyes fell on the canopy to his right, every second spent in her arms came back to him. Shaking his head, he turned away and limped towards the boundary wall.  

Nishant placed his right palm flat on the edge of the wall and closed his eyes as he let the cold get to him. The memories of the landslide flooded back to him making him shiver. He hadn’t been this scared in his whole life. As the debris had fallen on him, every little detail of his life had flashed in front of him. Each face had wakened long-forgotten memories and his only thought had been that he will never see these faces again. 

Opening his eyes, he looked at the mountain in front. 

I know why you didn’t bury me within you. There is still some part of me, which belongs to all those faces. 

He looked at the photograph clutched in his palm. As he flattened it only her wonderful eyes stared back and he stared back until he could take it any longer. 

Nishant held out his hand with the photograph and saw a wisp of air blowing it away. As it flew, his eyes followed the flight but then lost track as it vanished somewhere in the mountains. 

Looking up at the majestic structures in front, he said, “She is yours now. Give her back if she’s mine.”

Copyright © Paromita Majumder. All Rights Reserved.