Grievances

“No one is alive!” Dr.Maheshwari repeated this sentence once in his mind, his heart went out to his student: for a second he actually felt the pain in his own guts thinking about how her family had passed away, she had to give up her career, and even her daughter had been estranged; it had been really difficult for the poor girl. He knew nothing he could say was going to comfort her, but he couldn't stop himself from questioning about their deaths on account of surprise as well as curiosity.

“It's a really long story, we will talk about it some other time, Sir. I will definitely take you up on that meeting you just promised me”, Sagrika gave a polite reply with a diplomatic smile, trying to hide her actual emotions.

*For a second he thought why our society still thinks that women can't handle things by themselves, it is always said they need support, almost as an insult. But doesn't everyone need a support system in their lives, why is it still used as a crutch to reaffirm our gender biases?*

Dr.Maheshwari gave Sagrika an understanding look, and with a warm smile said, “It's okay, child. We shall have sufficient time to talk about things, but remember to bring Manya to my clinic, she really does need assistance in navigating her grief.”

“Of course, sir.”

“See you then, take care of yourself!”

“Bye sir, and thank you once again.”

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Hearing Dr.Maheshwari clear his throat and suddenly proclaim this reunion as the work of fate, Sia was pulled out from her dream-like state of childhood nostalgia and smacked in the face with the broken reality of things.

*Just then, Sia realised she was not a little girl anymore, and that she had been hugging this person she hadn’t seen for the last twelve years, throughout the duration of this conversation!*

She let go of Arjun and stepped back almost abruptly, her face red with embarrassment and eyes set on the floor; she was just glad that nobody had noticed her reaction as the doctor had just asked Manya to visit, said his goodbyes and rushed out of the room, as if in a hurry.

Mr.Rahal was asking Arjun about his and his parents’ whereabouts, trying to catch up on what all had happened in the last twelve years. Taking this opportunity, Ishaan quietly sat beside Manya and asked, “Come ti senti ora?” [“How are you feeling now ?”]

Manya tried to smile after his question, using this as a chance to disengage from the fight going in her head. “Sono totalmente okay; ma avevi paura eh?” [“I am totally okay; but you were scared, huh?”] she said playfully, bumping his shoulder with her own in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Ishaan grinned, hugging her in reply and murmured, “You scared me like anything today; next time you are not allowed to do this, understood?” softly enough that Manya was unable to hear that. Finally freeing her from his embrace, he asked, with a smirk on his face, “So this trip is totally going according to our plans, right?”

Manya giggled and nodded at the absurdity of this statement.

Arjun clocked this interaction and his envy was rising with every minute but he had to make a superhuman effort to control his emotions in front of Manav Rahal; his priority was to look for Maenu. He asked Mr.Rahal about where they were staying, invited him along with the entire family to his home and left the room under the pretext of making a call.

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Leaving the room, he rushed down the corridor, looking through all the doorways for Sagrika. After searching for a few minutes, he finally found his Maenu standing by the window. He slowly approached her and stood close enough so she could hear him, and spoke with a puppy face, “Maenu, you love me more than Minni na ...so you will give me the bigger mango, right?”

Sagrika was startled, then shocked for a second; she had heard this sentence after ages. She whipped around and whispered “Juno?” in disbelief, half expecting the corridor to be empty and the sentence to be a figment of her imagination.

Arjun stepped up and hugged her without any hesitation, she returned the hug and tightened her grip as well, tears flowing from both sets of eyes. They stayed in the embrace for a minute; after that Arjun pouted and confronted her with a hurt expression on his face, asking why she had left him; everybody had just vanished from his life one day all of sudden, without any explanations, goodbyes or even any warning! For so many years he used to write letters and send cards to her at their old address, believing they were reaching her; but he never got any reply, why had she done that to him, had he been that bad of a son?

*Arjun was sobbing like a child, spilling out all the complaints he had stored in his heart for almost twelve years for both his Messo and Maenu, but now only his Maenu was there to hear him out. Despite that, he was determined to speak everything that day, afraid he might not get another chance. He was disregarding his reputation, his position or even his carefully constructed persona of the aloof CEO. He had declared that day as being reserved for drama and had his plans scheduled for the next day: he had a lot of pending work regarding his business and personal life,that he would definitely get back to. But that day, he needed to find some closure for his fourteen year old teenage self, who had been so lost without his best friend and her family- the constants of his life, that had just disappeared into thin air one fine day of spring, leaving him anchorless.*

Sagrika was guilt-ridden, trying to soothe him by rubbing circles on his back, and repeating “I’m so sorry Juno, I promise Maenu will never do that again...At the time I felt like I had no other option, but I was being so selfish. This was not fair to you- none of it. You are my good boy, so please stop crying now; you know what I always say, nobody looks good while crying.”

Arjun rubbed his eyes harshly and asked, still trying to catch his breath, “Then why are you crying with me?”

Sagrika tried to smile, and said, “See, and don't I look horrible as well?” Arjun started smiling through his tears. When Sagrika felt Arjun had a better hold on himself, she asked about his mother; she knew there was one more person she owed an explanation to, apart from many more secrets that were hidden in her heart. Thinking about this, her heart started thumping wildly and then almost skipped a beat.

Arjun noticed that she had zoned out again after asking the question, he understood that there must have been so many things going through her mind. He replied, “Mumma is good, she will be so happy to see you, Maenu!”

He felt strong enough in that moment to ask her about Manya, but he knew that the courage could leave him any second; so he changed his tone and said in a complaining manner, “But do you know, Minni refused to recognise me! Can you believe how dumb this girl can be sometimes?!”

Sagrika struggled to keep the smile on her face and faked a light tone, “Don't worry, Juno! She might not have recognised you because she is back after ten long years and look how handsome you have become in the meantime-” Sagrika was still in the middle of the sentence when Arjun interrupted her with mock anger on his face “What do you mean, I have ‘become’ handsome? I was born this way!”, he said playfully.

*This time Sagrika laughed genuinely, she recalled a much younger Arjun saying, “Maenu see, this Minni is so bad! She is refusing to admit that I’m handsome, that too after she asked me to sing a song in her praise! I will not play make-believe with her, especially not in the role of her husband!”

Meanwhile Minni had sauntered up to them and mocked him with a bratty smile, “As if you will ever deny me!”*

Sagrika was absorbed in the sweet memory, smiling; when Arjun felt like he had to ask her, he couldn’t tolerate the cognitive dissonance that Manya’s accusation had caused in his mind for even a second more. He took a deep breath and finally asked “Maenu, why did- why did Manya call you a murderer?”

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