Hello, Hello, Hello,

I'm here with another chotu sa shot with AvNeil after a pretty long time.

I hope, the readers didn't vanish away.

OS: BAARISH

A lightning slit tore away the vast spread of pitch-black sky in half, roaring. Simulating Avni's present mood. She is more than ready to charge and roar her disappointment if given a chance.

Her husband of five months had ditched on a promise he made to her. In this span of few months of knowing him, the first adjective she had started to associate with her husband is dedication. But then, it's not supposed to be easy to be Thee ACP Neil Khanna.

It so happened that her best friend Ali had managed to arrange an Open Mic Poetry Contest at their 'Chamko Cafe' after much hassle. It wasn't something as big to create a Page-3 story but was enough to stir a buzz amongst the city's influencers. Again, spiking the popularity of their cafe and so the business.  A win-win situation, overall.

Her teeny-weeny interest in poetry was no news to her family and friends. After a long time, she was looking forward to this evening that perfectly fits her idea of fun.

Neil being the dotted son-in-law intervened and wanted to tag along. Avni wasn't oblivious to her husband's hidden intentions of adding his two cents to this event in his own way, with the publicity his presence would bring and the added benefits. She smiled fondly at the memory of him promising earnestly to accompany her. There hadn't been many instances in the past when they went out, together. She didn't give herself the leverage to think about the possibility that he might be doing this to spend some time with her.

After all, their's had been a marriage of convenience devoid of a charm of love or affection. Not that either of them minded. After getting heartbroken by the sly game of fate losing his love to death, Neil wasn't looking for a love-filled relationship anymore. So was the case with Avni except it wasn't death per se but the death of her dreams and tender innocence by the atrocities of her stepfamily.

That is the reason Neela Maa and Shweta Aunty, the known acquaintance of the business circle, somehow bound them in this arranged marriage at the first opportunity they got. Neil's loyalty, transparency of his emotions, and expectency out of this marriage came in handy for Avni to rest her case.

As they were all set to leave for the lovely evening, Neil's work happened and he had to rush to solve some urgent case that had come out of nowhere. And now, he's taking forever to return.

Right now, she's sulking alone in her room, not wanting to miss any of those poetries and very much looking forward to rubbing this disappointment on her husband's face.

As if the universe wasn't satisfied with the intensity of her annoyance and only wanted to add more. It started raining, heavily.  The comfortable silence in her room had been slashed by the rattling of the window panes and the pitter-patter of seemingly harsh downpour.

Avni didn't share any sanguine notions for rains. Far from it. These rains had always been the cold and shrill reminders of things she never wanted to remember, things that create vivid pictures of her troubled childhood in front of her eyes, things she had pushed at some forlorn corner of her heart but still carrying the weights of.

But, this is not one of those times for her. Something compelled her strongly and she did the unexpected. Flicking aside the curtains of the window and probably her heart, she let the radiance of light rays reach her. A triangular reflection of a dimly lit lamp from their house's garden seemed to be magnified on the window's glass, given the darkness.

Her wandering gaze spotted a young couple at the passenger walkway of the street across her house. They had been sharing an umbrella that couldn't do much in shielding them from the rains. Still, they appear unbothered.

Instinctively, her subconscious reflected an image of her husband trying to pull his coat over her head, protecting her from getting wet under the weather when they had formally met for the first time.

She remembered how she didn't care of her getting soaked and charged him with her fury at the terrace when he had asked her to not bother about his family. But ended up smiling, unexpectedly, with him at one of his lame jokes.

A dimly lit gazebo flashed in her mind where she had hugged him for the first time, after baring her soul to him. Including him in her sorrows of the past and displaying the scars on her wounded heart felt natural to her. There wasn't any thought given behind it. It just happened.

Definitely, she didn't want to let her thoughts run to that particular day of heavy rainfall when she stood at the entrance of their house and watched Neil with some unusual emotions. That idiot was repairing his bike, for god's sake in heavy rainfall. It didn't take minutes for him to join a bunch of kids playing football nearby. His petite soaked frame effortlessly moving behind the ball.

Neil's love for rain was beyond her level of comprehension. He wouldn't care about his surroundings, his clothes, his health, or anything for that matter and would enjoy rains, embracing it wholeheartedly.

There was this one time she had found him playing in rains in their backyard with his outstretched arms and upward leaned face towards the sky. That day she had witnessed the child in her husband, brimmed with soft tenderness and unadulterated love, even if he claims to have lost it.

A soft ping of her cellphone broke her trance and she bent to retrieve it from the couch. A knowing smile graced her lips as she read Neil's message.

'Might take another half an hour or so. Your frienemy has held me captive in a traffic jam owing to the flooded roads. Hopefully, you won't miss the poetries and even if you miss we may demand them to be repeated. Perks of being the organizers. See you soon.'

Avni's smile only widened at his cheekiness. She slowly tipped her head towards the sky, similarly the way she had seen Neil doing it, and let out a tired sigh. The warmth of her breath painted her agony in the form of a halo of fog over the glass of the window.

Suddenly, she wasn't cold anymore.

A distorted reflection of her face stood out in the contrast of the glass and the foggy circle. And to her, it only appeared a bit.. different.

Slowly, the realisation dawned. She had started to replace her bitter memories of rains with the moments spent with Neil. She didn't realise since when but she had started to associate rains with Neil rather than the animosities of her past, consciously or subconsciously.

Carrying a sack of subtleties, Change has seeped into her, into their relationship. It's thriving and breathing between them, taking much bigger forms than she could imagine and in much lesser duration than she could adjust.

Although, she couldn't stop being annoyed with the rains but this time for holding back Neil from reaching home soon.

ना इस बेमौसम बारिश से गीला है
ना इसकी शरारती बूंदों से,

तकल्लुफ तो उन यादों से है
जो यह अपने साथ समेटे ले आती है
दबे पांव, खामोशी की चादर ओढ़े,

कभी माटी की सौंधी खुशबू की तरह,
कभी गर्म चाय की चुस्की की तरह,
तोह कभी उसमे डूबी गीली toast की तरह,

कभी भी, कहीं भी, अपनी बेपरवाह मर्जियो की तरह।

****

I hope there wasn't something disappointing with it. It was a very vague idea!

Still, do let me know your thoughts.

Love
Riya