Monday, October 28, 2013

Crushers and Crackles - Part 1

Ferociously, she slammed the door behind and walked out of the restaurant. She had never tried to fight with her low gutty spirit and upsurge from the shell that she kept herself hidden in. But today she had finally managed to break through and roar her hatred towards him.

Nina Shah had just fairly mocked someone and slammed him hard at the very point which he would never want to be hurt. Born into a conservative Gujurati family, Nina was enslaved by the realms of culture and its dogma. It was only because of her work location, did she have the grit to ask her parents to live away from home.

Pune reckoned her for a job at one of the multinational companies and freedom loomed over her. Her capabilities were crushed inside the streets of Valsad which was her home. The conventional city that she bred in couldn't open the doors of opportunities for her. Eventually, her desire to experience the world outside the sleepy lanes of Valsad had come true. Settling in the crowd of Pune and its newfangled culture took her a while. Like every girl who was celebrating the glorious age of their 20's, she wished to hang out at pubs, spend the nights at the disc and enrich her taste-buds with the various flavors of the magical vodka.
 
However, she wasn't fascinated with the aura that city life brought with it and she always gravitated towards maintaining her low profile social status. Thanks to her upbringing in the small city of Valsad.

She worked in a team of ten in her company and was reported to her lead, Vikram, who mentored her from the very first day. The rapport built between her and Vikram was commendable and Nina had started to confide on him. His husky voice captured her senses. She would sometimes blindly listen to his voice without analyzing what he actually meant. What started off as a mentor - protégé relationship turned into friendship and before Nina and Vikram could cognomen their accord, they knew they had fallen for each other. 

Everything was bright and sunny in the first few days of their courtship. Vikram continued to be her guide and Nina could hardly keep her foot on the ground. Namely, because of the attention Vikram gave her. They began their mornings with a sumptuous breakfast at Vikram’s single bedroom apartment in the posh locality of Koregaon Park and ended their day with Vikram dropping her at her place in Kalyani Nagar.

“Why don’t you move in, Nina?” Vikram would suggest.

“We should give maintain our privacy ,Vikram. Anyway after we get married, I will be around you for 24 hours and you would land up being bored of me”, Nina would ridicule.

Like every couple, they both would have their lows and highs and it was always Nina who would make up for every fight. She overlooked Vikram's big fat ego which would stop him from apologizing. 

Life had suddenly taken an upswing and Nina was savoring the sweet fruits of her freedom. It seemed to be a cake walk with a cherry on top and a layer of free flowing white chocolate coupled with buds of dark chocolate. 

Weekends often started with a movie date and continued with a long drive to the lofty hill stations around Pune.

 Dreams however, didn't last long and Nina's fantasies were short-lived when one day they had a visitor at their breakfast table. Nina rang Vikram's doorbell like every morning. 

Today, however it wasn't Vikram who answered the door bell. 

Standing at the door was a woman in her late 20's. She had a baby cuddled in her arms.

"Kaun hai?" Nina could hear Vikram's voice enquiring about the person at the door.

“Arre, Nina I will be coming a little late to office. Can you leave the files at my office desk?” Vikram’s behavior left Nina stunned. She stood numb, fighting back the tears that were choking her throat.

“Sunaina, this is Nina. My colleague at work”, Vikram introduced Nina to the woman at the door.

The next sentence that Vikram was about to spurt out left Nina dumbfound.

“Nina, meet my wife, Sunaina and my son, Sudhesh”, Vikram behaved normal.

“You have a beautiful wife……. Sir”, Nina managed to speak a sentence and rushed out of the lobby.


To be continued...

To read the second part of this story click here.

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