MishBir: Someone You Love(d)

|1| Melancholy

Abir Rajvansh, in all these years of his life, had never ever thought that a day would come when he would hate the sun rising. He had always been an early riser, someone who loved watching the sun come out of its hiding place and shower the world with light and warmth. It used to fill him with energy, and he used to sprint through the day, laughing and making people laugh.

Used to.

He closed his eyes as he realised it. All that was in past. He didn't do it anymore. He didn't watch sunrise anymore. Forget sprinting through the day, he literally counted hours for the day to finish, every damn day, since two months now.

Since the day he broke her heart.

His angry chorni's heart.

Sighing out loud, Abir threw the covers off and walked straight to the washroom, as soon as his alarm went off. Getting ready for one more waste of a day, Abir wore a red glassed aviator, and finally walked out of his personal heaven, or hell, whatever you call it.

The noises from the living room faded in comaprison to the noises inside his head, and he would have walked out straight had Kuhu not called his name.

"Abir Bro, breakfast. Hashtag Important for good day".

Abir turned with the widest smile he could manage, and shook his head.

"The day is already awesome bro, I have some work to tend to right now", Abir smiled again, too grateful to his aviators and walked out, ignoring the sympathetic looks of his Parul Maasi, while others shrugged and tended to their breakfast, unbothered.

After all, nothing new or out of the box happened in the Rajvansh household.

Parking his car at a little distance from the temple boundry, Abir closed his eyes for one split second as a happy Mishti's twirling image crossed his mind. How was he supposed to explain people his obsession with these aviators? Apart from hiding his swollen, red and almost always misty eyes, these also helped him close his eyes any moment and dive right into his secret treasure or memories.

The entire trunk of his moments with his angry chorni that were his only solace, and only escape.

He opened his eyes when another car zoomed passed him, and he realised it was the one he had been waiting for, every friday, for the last eight weeks.

Rajshri Maheshwari came out of the car, trying to balance all these little things she brought for the Puja and made her way in, solemnly aware of a certain pair of feet following her. She kept her gaze focused, walking ahead, but her heart knew she was being followed, and she very well knew who.

That's the thing about mothers. They are hurt and are forgiving in the same moment. They don't neee you to reason all the time, some conversations occur only between a child's heart and the mother's, without any word or expression exchanged between them. So no matter how hurt she was with her Mishti's broken heart, she could not hate her Abir either. When she told him he was her son, she had actually meant it.

Which was exactly why, fifteen minutes later, both were sitting resting their backs on opposite sides of the temple pillar, in silence. It was their thing, since the very first week Abir had fought this pain that paralysed him to walk up the stairs of this temple without Mishti, but he still had done it because he needed to see the woman who wasn't biologically related to him, but the one he knew will soothe him anyhow.

"Aaj bhi nashta nhi kiya na?", Rajshri spoke, worried, and yet didn't face him.

" Wasn't hungry", Abir's voice cracked. He waited an entire week to listen to her caring for him from afar, without directly looking at him, without directly speaking to him, but this five minutes of indirect conversation kept him going through the week.

Taking out a samll tiffin that had some fruit salad and sweets, she pushed it towards him, softly, and heard him let out a chuckle.

"Why do you still care for me Badi Maa?", Abir asked, trying hard to fight the
traitor tears that threatened to leak out.

"Because that's what mothers are meant to do", Rajshri answered back, not knowing the avalanche that she had set in for the guy she called her son.

They kept sitting in silence, until Abir actually finished the food and pushed the tiffin back to her, and was sure of the smile that would have adorned her face. He was grateful to Mishti for letting him know how it feels to have a home for a while, but he was also grateful to her for introducing him to her Badi maa, because in her embrace he had actually understood a mother's warmth.

Pulling himself up, Abir was about to go when Rajshri's shaken voice stopped him.

"Take care Abir".

He didn't reply, because his throat was clogged and also because he didn't know if he could keep this promise. He already had a huge burden of promises he had broken, the ones he made to the girl he loved, and now he didn't have it in him to break another promise to the woman he saw as his mother.

The steps down the temple felt heavy, like every week.  Like The drive to the Office that made him nauseaus, every day.  Or The courage he needed to face his mother, Meenakshi Rajvansh and smile at her, or talk to her in any way, drained him out completely every time. Yet he kept on doing all those things, every single day, just to keep this pretense of a family together.

Entering the cabin, he settled in his cabin and opened the laptop to see the merger of the new project they were working on, when the door flunged open.

"Bhai!", Kunal barged in, holding a file.

"Nanko?", Abir looked up, and pretty soon both were engaged in this discussion of the pending project.

"Btw Bhai, Maa said to inform you about the lunch she had planned for us today, together", Kunal spoke, measuring every word and the way Abir's face immediately grew pale didn't escape his eyes. Neither did the smile that Abir forced on his face immediately to cover that up.

"That's awesome but you know I like Khichdi for lunch. I have already ordered for me since I didn't have breakfast na. You guys have fun, I will join someday else", Abir managed to throw a random excuse that he prayed his Nanko didn't doubt, like every other excuse.

Kunal simply nodded and excused himself.

"Something is going on between Maa and Bhai. He tries to escape her like plague without giving the impression. Should or should I not meddle?", Kunal thought to himself as soon as he reached his cabin, but like every other time, could not reach any conclusion.

Unaware of the choas at Rajvansh members, Maheshwaris were busy planning a small party at home, because after so long, two of their special children were returning home, but they were neither aware of the storm that was awaiting them nor of the storm they were bringing together.

Nishant Maheshwari and Mishti Agrawal were about to come back home, the consequences of which were going to be grave, probably in a good way!