Bhoothnath was walking slowly towards home, when he saw the young man nearing Ayodhya’s gate.

“Prithvi!” he called out happily.

Prithvi stopped a few feet from the gate and looked around at the smiling old man hurrying towards him.

He smiled briefly and waited for Bhoothnath to catch up with him.

“Where have you been? I’ve hardly seen you after you returned from that trip!” Bhoothnath said as he drew closer.

“I’ve been a little busy!” Prithvi muttered, not quite meeting his eyes.

“But you are free now, aren’t you? Come and have dinner with me!” Bhoothnath said affectionately, and began urging him towards Vrindavan by the arm.

Prithvi uncomfortably mumbled, “Actually, I really have to -”

He broke off as the door to Vrindavan opened and Nandini stepped out, evidently having heard Bhoothnath’s voice.

She looked around until she saw them. Even in the minimal light, he saw her stiffen instantly, though he couldn’t see her face as she was silhouetted against the light in the living room. Then she walked down the steps and came towards them.

“You’re late, grandpa” she said coolly, ignoring his companion.

“I met some friends and didn’t realize it got so late,” Bhoothnath said sheepishly like a chastised little boy.

“Come in and have your dinner soon. Its time for you to take the medicines,” she said firmly.

Bhoothnath warmly said, “Prithvi will join us for dinner today.”

“There isn’t enough food in the house,” Nandini said instantly.

Bhoothnath gaped at his granddaughter, completely astounded by her uncharacteristic discourtesy.

 “Nandini! How can you say something like that?” he said blankly, too stunned to get angry. “And if – if there isn’t enough food, you can make more, cant you?”

“No, I’m too tired,” she refused flatly.

“Nandini…why are you behaving like this,” he protested weakly, utterly flabbergasted.

“Grandpa, come and have your dinner before it becomes cold,” she said calmly, and simply turned and stalked back into the house.

Bhoothnath remained stuck to the spot in bewilderment, trying to understand what had just happened.

 Then he remembered that he owed an apology to his young friend. He swiftly turned, but found that he was standing alone. Then Ayodhya’s doors slammed shut, leaving him staring at it with mingled guilt and helplessness.

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

Nandini tried to walk swiftly through the corridors of the college, trying not to look at anyone. If she happened to know them, she would have to smile, and occasionally, be drawn into conversation. And she wasn’t in the frame of mind for any of that.

“Nandini! Wait for me!”

Gladdened by that particular voice, she spun around and smiled at Nishi.

Nishi smiled back, but as she approached closer, the grin faded and a concerned frown took its place.

“Nandini, are you okay?”

Nandini gave her a quick, reassuring smile. “I'm fine. Where's Vrinda?”

"She's got a headache, so she hasn’t come today," Nishi said, studying her friend's face very closely. Something was very wrong. She had never seen that pain-racked glaze in Nandini’s eyes before.  

“Nandini, what -”

The first bell rang suddenly, and Nandini hastily said, “We should hurry or we’ll be late for class!”

Conceding temporary defeat, Nishi nodded and they hurriedly made their way inside the already packed class.

It was when they had finally caught their favourite seats at the back and were taking out their books that Nishi remembered their last face-to-face conversation. 

“Has the fight between you and Prithvi been-“

Nandini stared at the desk and clenched the pen in her hand so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"I don’t want to talk about him," she said quietly. "Please."

Nishi witnessed the dark shadow falling on her face with dawning comprehension.

They sat in awkward silence for a minute. Then Nishi shifted closer and affectionately linked her arm around Nandini’s.

“Come home with me today!” she said suddenly.

“What? Why?” Nandini asked, surprised.

“Come on, we’ve not done anything fun in so many days. Let’s just sit and talk about all kinds of nonsense and laugh for hours like we used to!” Nishi said earnestly.

Overcome with emotion, Nandini sent a silent thanks to the heavens. Friends always were a blessing, but best friends who understood and accepted your silences, and then desperately tried to brighten up your life in their own sweet ways were living miracles.

She held back tears and succeeded in curving her lips into a smile. “Let Vrinda come tomorrow, and then both of us will come over to your place!”

“You’ll not insist on running back home within an hour?” Nishi demanded.

Nandini shook her head with a grin.

“You’ll stay the whole day?”

“Until you throw me out yourself!” Nandini promised staunchly, and Nishi chuckled.

A familiar hush fell over the class signaling the arrival of the professor, distracting her friend.

As the lecture began, Nandini stared at the blank pages of her notebook, trying to control the tremble on her lips and threatening onslaught of tears.

Once it had been impossible for her to stay unhappy even for a short period of time. But now….the strain of putting up the lighthearted front even for those few moments had almost killed her.

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

Nandini followed her family as they bustled out of the house on the way to a wedding. She had wriggled her way out of it, citing a headache. But the truth was that she couldn’t bide the idea of being in the middle of a celebration right now.

She found herself looking forward to some hours of solitude. She needed the respite.

It was taking extraordinary effort to conceal her emotional state from her family. Several times since yesterday, her mother had approached her with a hesitant, questioning look, but something seemed to have stopped her every time.

Thankfully, Sarojini hadn’t been informed by Bhoothnath about her behaviour with Prithvi, or she would have been skinned alive by her mother. But then she was guiltily aware of the fact that her grandfather wouldn’t say anything that could get her into trouble. Since childhood, he had always tried to shield her from being punished on the few occasions that she had been naughty, and had never scolded her even once in living memory.

However, post the unpleasant incident yesterday, her grandfather had been cautiously trying to discover the reason for her rudeness towards Prithvi, and she had been trying to dodge his questions with vague answers. Prakash too was completely confused with the odd behavior of all the adults in the house.

Now they were all leaving for the wedding of a family friend’s son, while frequently stopping to give her instructions about not opening the doors to strangers and having her food on time. 

Prakash went on ahead to locate a rickshaw and soon came back triumphantly riding in one. Bhoothnath and Sarojini boarded it quickly, waving to Nandini once ensconced in the vehicle. 

When the rickshaw had gone out of sight, Nandini looked up expectantly at the thick grey clouds splattered across the sky. It looked like the town was in for a bout of summer rains.

The hint of dampness in the air was very pleasing. It would start raining soon….at least she hoped it would.

As if from a previous birth, she remembered days when she spent happy hours in the comforting peace of nature on such days, sitting snugly in the shade of a tree with a book in hand....

And all of a sudden, there was an intense longing to return to that time. It was impossible....but perhaps she could try to recapture some of those moments...maybe it would help ease the pain a little....

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

Prithvi’s bike drew to a halt by the side of the road to answer the incessant ringing of the cell in his pocket. 

He looked at the name and annoyance marred his stunning features.

“What do you want?” he answered irately.

Sankatmochan’s indignant speech came down the line. “That old man of yours has gone off somewhere and I need to go to the temple immediately because Nandini’s grandfather is going for a wedding and I don’t have the key so I can’t lock the house so  -”

Prithvi impatiently interrupted, “I’ll be there in minutes. You can leave without locking the doors.”

Without waiting for a reply, he cut the phone and restarted the bike. But he stopped again on seeing Bhoothnath, Sarojini join Prakash in a rickshaw at a distance away.

His eyes instantly sought out the house to see a slender figure at the gate, waving a goodbye. When the vehicle had sped off in the opposite direction, he saw Nandini waver indecisively for a moment and then head back into the house. Almost instantaneously, he saw Sankatmochan emerge from the house next door and limp towards the temple.

He had spent the last 3 hours in a dusty, crowded lane of the huge market in town until he had finally got what he wanted. But he had been uncertain about how and when he would give it to her.

Well…no time like now, he thought with a sigh.

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

Nandini kept the last book aside in resignation. None of her old favourites seemed appealing. Perhaps, she could find something interesting in her grandfather’s collection of novels.

She traipsed down the steps again and was midway through the living room, when the door opened wide. Startled, she stopped mid-step in alarm. A few silky tendrils of her hair escaped the tight knot at the back of her head as she jerked to a standstill.

And then anger flared up in her eyes. Reining in her temper with difficulty, she tautly said, “No one is at home.”

Walking in unaffectedly, Prithvi raised his brows. “That’s funny. I could swear I can see you standing right there.”

Nandini flushed. “No one who likes you is at home. Is that clear enough?” she asked, incensed. 

“Exactly why I thought it was the best time,” he muttered.

He had seen them leave, she realized with the beginnings of a strange uneasiness.

“Best time for what?” she frowned.

To her surprise, he shifted uneasily on his feet, looked unusually hesitant and nervous

“I – I just wanted to give you this,” he murmured, and stepped forward.

Nandini’s feet retreated automatically. He frowned at her reaction and came to a stop. Then instead of coming towards her, he moved towards the table and kept the gift on it.

“I -” he hesitated, and after a tiny pause said, “I got this for you.”

His tone was very casual, but there was a vulnerable, tense light of hope in his eyes that were at odds with his outward indifference.

Nandini didn’t see it. She was too stunned by the object on the table to look at anything else. It was a small, exquisite marble statue of Krishna, an astonishing replica of the one he had destroyed.

I’ll buy you a thousand more in its place if you’ll just forget about this and let it go.

This was her inducement to forget all the unpleasantness and move ahead with their relationship.

So simple…so convenient…

Struggling to curb a rapidly growing fury, she looked at him coldly.  “I don’t want anything that belongs to you in my house, and even though I wish to, my faith in God won’t let me throw it in the trash. So please take it back.”

There was no discernable change in his expression, but in the space of a second, the air in the room seemed to have become slightly chill.

But Nandini felt undaunted. She didn’t care what he did next.

Prithvi gazed at her in silence for a minute, then quietly asked, “Is this your final decision?” and she knew he wasn’t only referring to her rejection of the idol.

“Yes,” she said flatly.

To her stark relief, he merely nodded slightly and turned away towards the door.

She was just about to ask him to take the unwanted gift back with him, but then her voice died in her throat.

Instead of going out, before her shocked eyes, he closed the door firmly and locked it from the inside.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded angrily.

“Just needed to discuss something with you,” he said calmly, turning to face her again.

“I don’t want to discuss anything! Just – just leave,” she spluttered, and tried to walk around him towards the door to open it.

But he moved smoothly and blocked her exit, startling her into coming to a halt.

“I haven’t finished with you yet. And that door wont open until I do, not even if you call upon the whole town with your screams,” he said grimly. 

The statement was made very quietly, but the smouldering anger in his form struck out at her with almost physical force. Nandini strove to quash the intuitive terror mounting inside her.

“What do you want?” she asked tensely.

“There is one other thing that belongs to me that’s still in your house,” he said with deceptive mildness. “I intend to get it back.”

Confusion darkened her beautiful eyes for a moment. She began to ask him what he meant, when his implication suddenly struck home. 

Livid colour gushed into her cheeks. “I’m not one of your possessions! I never was and I’ll never be,” she snapped.

“You seriously believe that?” he enquired amusedly, starting to stroll towards her at a leisurely pace.

 “Don’t come any closer! If I yell, people will come running!” she warned.  “And they only have to look in through the window to see what’s going on.”

“You’re right,” he conceded.

But instead of leaving, he strode forward and grabbed her arm.

And to her horrified disbelief, he began tugging her across the hall towards an empty bedroom, which had been his temporarily a long time ago.

“What are you doing?” Nandini cried out, resisting fiercely.

But he seemed impervious to her reaction. His grip didn’t slacken and he didn’t pause for a beat until he reached the room. Without uttering a word, he swung her inside, causing her to lurch unsteadily.  She steadied herself and stared at him in mute shock.

There was nothing casual about his expression or attitude now. The fury simmering inside him as he moved towards her was so physical that she could have reached out and touched it.

It was very real, intense fear that was causing her to tremble, no matter how hard she tried to hold on to the pretense of courage. 

He had never shown so much physical aggression with her before…..

 It was a sudden, brutal reminder that they belonged to two completely different universes. She had grown up in a gentle world, and had been taught that all life in the universe, big or small, was sacred. He had been brought in a vicious, pitiless world with no rules, where blood, pain and death were an ordinary part of existence.

He could endure immeasurable pain, and inflict it too. Infatuation had blinded her to that side of him. And she was being rewarded for her foolishness with this terrifying slap of reality.

In desperation, she attempted to move past him with no other thought but to get out of the abruptly frightening confines of the room. But a hand whipped out and caught her by the waist. In a second, she found herself being hauled against him. She tried to shove him away, but stopped with a pained gasp as his fingers grasped the back of her hair and gave an agonizing tug to force her face up to look into his own.

Pale with fright, she stared into jet black eyes that looked so cruel and unforgiving that she unconsciously became still ….afraid to move or breathe or even blink…

His eyes kept their hypnotic hold on hers as his fingers burrowed into her hair and yanked hard. The heavy mass gratefully escaped the confines of the hair band and uncoiled to her waist.

He had done it before. Only this time, it wasn’t an act of tender mischief, but an unspoken….almost primal….act of domination.

The grasp around her waist relaxed, but his fingers remained powerfully entwined with the silken tresses that had tumbled wildly down her back and over her shoulders, not permitting a withdrawal.

When he spoke, his voice was dangerously soft. “From the time I moved to this cursed place, I told you a million times to stay away from me…to stop interfering….but you didn’t listen. Now after you’ve messed up my life, you want to leave, and you think I’ll accept your decision just like that. Are you really that stupid?” he mocked. 

“I agree. It was my fault that I tried to befriend you when you first arrived,” she said bitterly. “But I only did it because of the letter that -”

“But you went a little overboard while fulfilling your promise, don’t you think?” he asked brutally. “She had only meant friendship. I’m sure she didn’t expect you to melt in my arms every time I touched you.”

Nandini stared at him in numb silence. As memories of her infatuated behaviour replayed before her eyes, the fight slowly drained out of her, and she felt sick to her soul.

It was true. He had tried very hard to keep her out of his life. But she had been too optimistic and confident, and later, too much in “love”, to listen and understand. She alone was responsible for this mess….

“You’re right….I’m sorry for everything I did,” she said wearily, “But we need to put an end to -”

She stopped and winced as his fingers tugged hard at her locks again.

“It will end only when I feel like it,” Prithvi said icily. “And if you’re doing this to bring me to my knees, that’s not going to happen either. Not now, not ever. I live on my terms, and that’s how it’s going to be - always. You came into my life without my consent, but you’ll not leave without it”

He meant every word. The callous arrogance in his gaze was telling her that.

The slow burn of tears was pushing against her lids, but she forcibly kept them at bay. She had lost much, but she wouldn’t surrender her dignity and self respect.

“You’ll only be wasting your time,” she whispered, meeting his gaze unflinchingly.

He smiled derisively at the scathing challenge in her eyes.

“With or without your consent, you’re mine until I decide to throw you out of my life….whether it happens in days or weeks or never,” he murmured ominously. 

And then his arms withdrew, and he was pulling away from her.

“I don’t care what you do! I won’t let you take over my life again,” Nandini said vehemently with very dry lips.

“Put up all the defenses you want, I’ll enjoy breaking them down,” he shrugged, and swung away from her to leave the room.

“Go to hell!” Nandini said fiercely.

He halted and half turned at the door with a curiously vulnerable and bleak expression.

“You sent me there a long time ago,” he said quietly.

Then she was standing alone in the room, trembling with rage and frustration at his staggering arrogance.

But mingled in those emotions was a pang of helplessness and fear at the knowledge that she had thoughtlessly triggered something that was far beyond her control….and his.

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

Sarojini kept the pile of dried clothes on the bed and started to fold them one by one, but her mind was far away.

She had tried to talk to Nandini several times, but somehow, found herself wavering at the last moment. She knew her daughter would never do anything to harm the family’s name and honour, but instinct refused to let her rest.

And to worsen her worries, when they had returned from the wedding, Nandini had looked even more distraught and pale than usual, though she had tried to put on a convincing show of cheerfulness.

How long could she postpone the conversation. It would be best to get it over with as soon as possible.

In the midst of folding a shirt, Sarojini paused and sat down on the bed, trying to decide on the manner in which she could raise the issue. For a long time, she remained motionless, deep in thought. Finally, she gave a small nod to herself.

Steeling herself for whatever she was about to hear, she called out to Nandini. And then began waiting on tenterhooks for her daughter to arrive.

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