Words count- 3150
Attached Song- Phir le aaya dil.
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[ Surfraaz Mehta ]

Aisha has been the life of our house since the day she entered our lives. The only princess of two brothers of her. Days slipped faster than intended. The last two weeks saw endless chats of my crazy family and friends. The madness of my family was revving to the next level. Instead of booking a venue, they were taking days in finalising which mehendi design would look good on her palm.

We showered marigold and rose petals as the couple held each other's hand and circled the holy fire led by each other alternatively. My eyes met Neha's as her eyes seemed to have struck over me. She has been acting queer these whole two weeks. Sometimes barking orders at others or else, sticking to my side.

Neha held the veil up above Aisha's head as Niel filled my sister's hair partition with the vermillion of his name. Soon enough, he rounded the wedding chain around her neck. The love and warmth they had beneath the walls of their heart was pretty much visible, from the way they peeped and gazed at each other. I was really glad that my Aisha got her 'the one', she always dreamt of.

I looked at Viraj Bhaiya as he wiped his tears. I was a crying mess too. We both shared a look and spontaneously laughed gawking at each other. Kiara bhabhi was engaged in consoling the hyper-excited buggie, who was tempted to jump and hop all around seeing so many people around.

I sauntered to her rescue as I viewed her on the verge of falling as her stilettos got twisted.

"Let me handle buggie, bhabhi. You go and manage other things." I advised her, picking up Buggie in my arms.

"Buggie, what do we do?" I asked her in a baby voice as I walked on the red carpet with her in my arms towards the water fountain. It was already past 9:30 pm. The music was blasting in the background as the aroma of the delicacies swirled in the chilly air of night. I showed her the glass chandeliers, which looked multicoloured as a result of the disco lights. The golden metallic balls amidst the red themed decoration of the arrangement looked eye-catching.

I handed Buggie a golden metallic ball, which got her engaged in inspection as she got busy in shaking it near her ear. As there were some sounds coming out of them, she clapped cheerily. Her cheeky smile made me laugh as her round eyes admired the huge water fountain working.

I went near the fountain as some water droplets sprinkled on her face, she squealed. I took out my phone to call Saanvi. It must be getting difficult for her to handle Urvi all alone. I asked her to meet me beside the water fountain. Buggie was now engrossed in checking out my bar locket. Before she could put that into her mouth, I pulled it out and tickled her to divert her attention.

In the meantime as she was laughing, I saw Saanvi approaching me holding an asleep Urvi in her arms.

"Shay, my arm is numb." She complained. Holding Doll for so long must be the reason.

I took Urvi in my free arm, as the other one had Buggie. She stretched her hand and rotated it several times, until her hand felt functional again. I took both the kids to the stalls of starters and let them relish their strawberry ice-cream.

Not even in a minute or so, I saw them throwing ice-cream at each other. I collected a few tissues, and rushed to clean both of them, faking a few lines of anger at them. I saw Priya coming towards my side as I saw her looking at the kids lovingly.

"Both of them are so cute." She exclaimed.

"Yeah, devil incarnations in the disguise of this cuteness." I muttered, recalling how I have been sprinting behind them from last week.

Such a terrible job, I tell you!

I saw Viraj bhaiya's call incoming, and then, he was there in the next moment. I have not seen him a minute away from buggie and bhabhi, past buggie's arrival. It felt like buggie acted like an adhesive force between them and made them stronger than ever as a couple. Probably, they surpassed that point of the hard phase, where we drowned.

I felt a tap on my shoulder as I saw Priya calling me. Out of my daze, I saw Viraj bhaiya kissing Buggie's cheeks and wiping her pinkish- creamy lips. Seeing down, I came across a crestfallen-faced Urvi as she longingly stared at Buggie and Bhaiya.
Understanding what my doll was going through, I held her in my arms and wiped her cheeks gently, placing kisses on her face as her giggles roared all over. Seeing the smile on her face, caressed my heart with peace as her twinkling onyx eyes, flashed the smiling portrait of the once most special person of my life.

"Urvi", the name itself meant beauty. Beauty of my unforgettable past. The souvenir of those days, when my smiles were unmeasured. 'A carefree boy' defined me and music was the soundtrack of my life. This girl was that treasure of my life, that was a chord of my past and held the string of my unpredictable future.

Urvi is that music of my life, that can be illustrated as the memorable language of my past.

Her sadness would be the last thing, I would ever choose to see. She smelt of my missing family. I pulled her closer in my arms as her small head ducked against my neck. Her beating heart against mine, had been the reason for my survival in the long run.

The same warmth I craved for each day, I wake up in the chilled, sanguine ambiance of the balcony. Though I arose to freshness, I missed liveliness in my life, which I lost years ago.

In the heat of the moment, we were so engrossed that we missed that it was already time for bidaai. Bidding a teary goodbye with a promise of visiting once every month, we let her go with the man, she has dedicated her heart to. All the excitement and jitters were suddenly dissolved as the overwhelming realisation of separation from our only sister abruptly dawned upon us, two brothers. Hearing her wailing like a baby in a group hug of us three, bhaiya and I too were left with glossy eyes. Leaving a subtle warning of taking care of themselves, we saw her riding off with another man. With her newly wedded husband to her new home as his wife. A new home, where a set of responsibilities awaited her, with her entrance.

I could still vividly recall the day, she came to us and informed us that she wanted to marry Niel, the same boy who had shot her.

'I would've done the same, if I were in his position, Bhai', were Aisha's exact words. Though we were unconvinced, still their love, trust and mutual understanding was what persuaded us to give in to their wish and get these two love birds married.

At some point of time, a thought too crossed me. They had more trust and understanding towards each other than some married couples.

By this, I was talking about my own marriage too!

Though I have known trust is not a fancy thing to be learnt, it just grows amidst two souls. In a similar fashion, couples grow together in understanding. It is not something, that pre-exists, but is definitely a pre-requisite of a healthy and moving marriage.

Cause, Stagnant relationships stink with failure!

Perhaps, we both never tried. We carelessly spent our early seven months of our marital relationship and thereby, life never gave us a chance to make it move ahead.

Physically exhausted and emotionally drained, we drove home. As I loitered in the balcony, the lucid flashes of a week before elicited in the back of my mind. The morning I woke up to a newly found warmth, pressed to me. It was her.

Her body was curled around and pressed against my bare chest as my sleepy eyes gazed at her sealed eyes, the first thing after they fluttered. It was not a feeling, but a fantasy of mine that I had dreamt long ago. It was previous night, we had our second verbal argument that ended up bad.

That day, when I got to know her feeding me to caressing my hair was only a trick of hers to get me to approve her apology. I knew, it was temporary, but I so wished for it to be not transient, but permanent. But, as always her 'I'm sorry' scattered my hopes.

That was indeed just a way to pacify me. But, I wished her to always treat me the same. Always feed me from her own plate with that same warmth dazzling in her light brown orbs. Yes, I was indeed shit-scared of her behaviour fluctuations, but for once, I wished she could change and choose only me. Just me, like I am!

I still hoped for her to feed me once again after that day, but that never happened. Maybe, she got tired of pacifying my anger in just a day that she left trying all-together. I have always been an easy game for her. But, this only while, my staunch ego didn't let me ask her to pamper me though I badly wanted it. Only because I had come to this conclusion over the years that I was always a granted commodity for her. I know how she saunters to sleep by my side once my eyes shut every night. Neither do I complain. But, I wanted more from her.

All of her!

And, my growing expectations from her were what, I was terrified of.

Because I know, I will end up heartbroken once my expectations are broken.

Because I know, how expectations hurt as hell.

So, I was detaching myself from this emotion to let her go one day. I knew, that day wasn't far from where we stand today. Though that was the reason, I was busy rolling tears that day, but I have finally come to terms with our dwindling rapport.

It's always best to be prepared for the worst.

My mind chanted this all night long. I drowned more into sleep and soon enough, I felt a specific source of warmth snuggling into me.

××

I was engaged in sipping my black and spicy coffee, while continuing my research work on several medical websites. Being updated is demanded from us, being medical professionals. The novice techniques and unique drugs keep popping up once in a while, making research, a quintessential need.

There was a commotion in the ER, so I had to shut down my laptop and rush to emergency. Two females were standing near the reception, while one of the females, who seemed to be in her early twenties was shouting at the nurses to treat the other female, who she termed as her mother. Before I could go, Neha and Dr. Parul hurried to that girl's mother, who complained of persistent chest pain.

That girl forwarded Neha her Chest X-ray, cardiac MRI, electrocardiogram ( ECG), echocardiogram, blood sample test reports and even, heart muscle biopsy.

Neha was indulged in checking the reports, while Dr. Parul was examining and extracting the medical history of the patient.

"Doc, she has been suffering from headache, fever, gum ache and bleeding for the last few days." I heard Sunita, the patient Mona's daughter say. I saw Neha dragging Dr. Parul to a corner.

"Parul, it seems like Pericarditis. But, I feel something is amiss. We need to dig in more." I heard them hush to each other as I was quite near.

They informed them that she needs to be under observation. As Dr. Parul was checking her, Mona vomited on her in an instant. Dr. Parul's front of red scrub and the bare part of her hand, apart from surgical gloves and the short sleeve was drenched in her vomit and Neha's arm was in no better condition too.

Both Parul and Neha stood holding onto their tiniest part of self control, for the sake of their profession, refraining their urge to puke their guts out. I knew, how allergic Neha was to the smell of vomit. But, what rendered me stumped was the traces of blood in her vomit. It was definitely something big. I felt it was not too safe for Neha and Dr. Parul to treat this strange case without masks and surgical gowns.

I made my presence known to them and sent both of them away to clean themselves. Asking the ward boys to tidy the mess, I called out our head nurse to allot the patient a bed in the ward.

The rest of the day went in blur with incoming cases of multiple-diseases. I reached back home to see Neha resting on the couch, her fingers pressing her head. Only this morning, both of us came back to our mansion as Saanvi and Urvi stayed back in Mehta Mansion.

"How was your day?" I inquired.

" Tiring. We couldn't save Mona." Her exhausted voice sounded in the silent hall.

"Sudden death?"

"Yes. She had internal bleeding too. Pericardial effusion. I thought so, something about her is missing. It felt as if she had an 'x' problem, and we were searching for something else. God knows!" She rambled.

"Not all cases are easy to crack and diagnose in a go. Btw, both of you had no time to study her condition as well. Don't stress yourself so much. Want to grab a coffee?" I advised.

"Badly." She smiled back and soon enough, we were sharing cups of coffee with small chatters here and there.

The next four days were extremely tiring with piles of patients lined up, and outrageous numbers of patients in OPD. It was getting difficult to manage with frequent absence of faculties.

"Meena ji" I called out to our head nurse, a fifty year old southern lady. After my second trial of calling out to her, I saw her walking to me in slow steps as her face looked robbed of her usual glow. Her fingers were pressed right to her side hollows of forehead.

"Meena ji, where are the nurses?" I inquired.

"Baba, Some of them are ill, while others are busy with patients." She answered, her voice lacking the usual enthusiasm.

"Do you have any idea, why all the patho lab tests are being delayed? It is creating so much unnecessary chaos." I did nothing to hide my annoyance, as negligence of rest was sewing my work efficiency. It's been over 72 hours, I have had a nap or a break.

"Who will conduct the tests? Most of the pathologists are on leave. Three or four beings can't manage piles of lab tests, can they?" She explained, tiredly.

"God knows, what the hell is happening here!" I murmured under my breath.

"Baba, Dr. Parul is not even seen anywhere in these last two days so, Dr. Neha and Dr. Asmita has been managing everything singlehandedly. They both took a break only last night and their duty is being handled by Dr. Tara and Dr. Arush with few junior general surgery residents." She detailed me about the happenings.

"You can leave if you wish, Dr. Kshiraj and Dr. Abinash are on the way." She suggested. Thanking her, I drove back home after telling her to take care of her own health.

It was already 9:00 am.

I pushed the main door and entered inside to be greeted with silence. I was famished enough to even dare to go upstairs, change my clothes and then, eat. Washing my hands and feet in the guest room, I walked to the kitchen to look for some breakfast kept for me.

The kitchen was untouched. Seeing nothing made, I munched on an apple to vanquish my hunger. Spreading a layer of cheese on the surface of a multigrain bread, I topped it with round slices of onion, cucumber and tomatoes, finally hovering another bread over it. Tossing a few of them in a heated frying pan, my sandwiches were ready to be feasted. I ate two, and kept four for Neha.

That did ring a bell in me, where's she?

Maybe, she is asleep. But she is needed at the hospital too. Wiping the washed dishes dry, I climbed up the stairs. I saw her sleeping, her body tangled in the white comforter. Her snores filled the void of the room.

Wait, but she never snored earlier!

I sat beside her on the bed as my fingers touched her arm, I felt a really soaring temperature, boiling her body. I caressed her hair and patted her cheek to raise her to her senses, her eyes opened weakly. Her once lively orbs were now blood-shot.

"You have a high fever. Had any medicine?" I asked, replying which she shook her head in negative. I helped her to sit and fed her the sandwiches. Thereby, I gave her a paracetamol from the first aid box and she gulped it in a go.

"My head is blasting and I have cramps too." She mumbled as her hand held my tiny finger.

"Didn't your periods just end a week and half ago? Then, why are you having cramps again?"

"Got my periods again. I guess, last week was too tiring so, it happened due to excessive stress. I used the heat patch, it is a bit fine now."

"Okay, Rest well and maintain your fluid intake." I patted her head, as she tried to fall asleep again.

Something was definitely wrong with her!

By evening, her fever was down. She still seemed weak and had cramps. I cooked rice and manchurian for dinner as she had no interest in eating any food item, the whole day. Relishing the dinner, we discussed our plans for the day after tomorrow.

It was Aisha's wedding reception.

We talked for a while with all our family members in a video call and then retired to sleep. Patting her to sleep, I hoped everything goes well ahead.

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