Chapter 1
It is dark outside as dawn had yet to come. The fresh breeze blowing through the open window into the bed room, caressing the exposed face of the woman sleeping snuggled into the warmth of the cozy duvet. At the other side of the bed, lied a man who had his back to her all covered with the blanket of his own which wasn't shared by her. She felt the cold air hitting her face, and strands of her hairs tickling on her nose. She drifted in and out of consciousness until she was wide awake. Her eyes opened to an unwelcoming darkness around the room. Her eyes wandered around until they rested on the person sleeping beside her. Her face devoid of any emotion, she stared at his back. Seconds passed by minutes until what seemed like an eternity, her trance was broken by the blaring sound of the alarm clock which was on the right side of her bed stand. On impulse, she was fast enough to stop the blaring sound. She looked at the person who was still asleep. Did he hear the sound of the alarm? Did it disturb his sleep? She wondered just like every other day. Seeing him not responding to the sound, assured her that he was still in his deep slumber, undisturbed.
Sighed. Tying her wavey hairs into a messy bun, she got down the bed and forwarded for freshening up. A while later she was dressed up in grey tracksuit, walking out of the room and closing the door behind her and marched towards the kitchen. Where she prepared herself a strong coffee with less sugar in it. Seated on the kitchen counter, from where she could see through the only window the kitchen has. She sipped her coffee as she saw the dark sky was slowly starting to brighten up, spreading the sunlight all around. Once she was done with drinking her coffee, she grabbed her earplugs, mobile and wallet which was placed on the dining table. Then forwarding towards the front door, she wore her grey sport shoes and walked out of the house without making much noise which could disturb the people who were still sleeping in the house.
Once she was out of her house premises, she switched on her music playlist and connected to the wireless ear plugs. Keeping back her mobile in her pocket, she wore the ear plugs. The moment, the sound of the music hit her ears, she started to jog. In the beginning, her pace was very slow. Then as minutes passed by, her pace increased that now she wasn't jogging. She was running. Running as fast as she can. This was one of her routine before starting her day. Now that the sun has risen up and under the rays of sun, her olive skin shined. The hairs which were tied in messy bun earlier, now they were pleated which reached the length of middle of her back. Her black hairs were mixed with copper red colour. Her obsidian black eyes were fixed in the direction she was running. While running through the familiar paths, the emotions on her face varied from minute to minute. It was very difficult for one to point out what she was exactly feeling. Without stopping even for a minute she continued running. They say that the motive behind running for different people is different. For some it freshens their mind, for some it boosts their energy to start their day and some run for only to be in shape. It was something similar for Naina too. The only difference was that she was running to only run away from her past memories that haunted her every single day and night.
Naina stopped running after what felt like an eternity when in reality it was only twenty minutes since she started running. Placing both her hands on her knees, she breathed heavily. Sweat beads rolled down all the way from her forehead to the sides of her cheeks and then down the jaws finally obsorbing by the coller of her jacket which covered her neck. When her breathing came to normal, she straightened herself and looked her surrounding. She had entered the park which she visits everyday. It was a very big park which had many facilities. The tracks for jogging and running were separate. In the right side of the centre, the gym equipments varied from children's to those of adult's. There was also a fresh grass bed on which the people were doing yoga. It had a mini fountain right at the centre which followed by badminton court and basket ball court. Adding to it's beauty variety of tall trees were grown along the sides of its compound. Minute by minute the place was starting to crowd. She walked out of the park and made her way towards the only small shop which was right opposite to the park. The keeper of the shop was an old man who made his living by selling tender coconuts, filter coffee which was freshly prepared by his wife and bottles of mineral water which earned him enough money for his family. As most of the people who visited this park or passed by this path, bought either of these three things.
As Naina reached the shop, she bought a mineral water and distanced herself to a nearby tree. Opening the bottle, she splashed the water on her face washing off all the sweat. After disposing the bottle in the bin nearby, she sighed and started running again towards the direction of her home. Once she reached near the gate, she stood there with so many thoughts running in her mind. It all made her memories rush back to the time where it began everything and turned out into an unexpected journey of her life. Not wanting to go through that lane of memory again, she entered and pushed the main door inwards to open to only see a six feet tall man pacifying seven years old Nia who was crying holding onto her father. He was Aditya Sen. Her husband.
As each and every step Naina took forward towards her husband and daughter, she observed them. In the hall, he was standing sideways where her daughter hid her face in his crook, still crying. He constantly kept on asking for the reason while consoling her, but to his dismay she wanted to tell only to her mother. Though Naina couldn't see her husband frowning, she knew he was. He ran his free hand through his messy black hairs backward only to fall on his forehead again. Not caring anymore about her husband's mood, she strode towards them. As soon as she reached near them, her husband turned to look at her. He wanted to ask so many questions, but couldn't open his mouth. Avoiding him, she ran her hands on her daughter's back.
"Nia, what happened? Why are you crying?"
As soon as her mother's voice reached the little girl's ears, she turned around to see her mother finally standing in front of her. Not able to wait anymore, she leaned forward wanting to be held by her mother. Naina didn't delay a second to hold her daughter in her arms and hugged tightly. Worriedly she tried to look at her husband but couldn't meet his gaze.
Just then, an elder woman appeared. Archana, Archana Sen. She was in her late 50's, wearing a green cotton sari, her grey hairs tied into a tight bun. Her complexion was fair. She was so beautiful that she looked beautiful even when she wore a plane dull coloured sarees. She had vermilion in the partition of her hairs and also on her forehead in round shape, just above the space between her eyebrows. She entered the hall holding the tray which had coffee mugs and biscuits. On seeing that her daughter-in-law has returned, sighed in relief.
"Thank God, Naina you returned." She said gaining both their attention.
She walked towards the sofa where her husband was busy in reading newspaper. She served coffee to him and turned towards the couple standing there.
"She's been crying from the time she woke up. Now God knows for what reason. All she's been asking for you." Naina could feel how much she was worried just by hearing her soft voice.
Naina's husband who had been standing there, all this while walked towards the sofa, taking the mug of coffee and started sipping it.
"Now that you are here Naina, you can only console her as we all failed to do so." Her father-in-law, Pratap Sen, told who looked dejected by the attempts to make his granddaughter stop crying. Though by age he was in his mid 60's, his appearance fooled everyone into believing that he was still in his late 40's. He was well maintained. Only that his hairs were turned grey which he often dyed them with black. Both Pratap and Archana complemented eachother. They were an example for a perfect couple.
Both Archana and Pratap had been looking after Naina as their own daughter instead as their daughter-in-law since the day she married her son. There wasn't any drama between them like they show in the daily soaps. Infact they both insisted Naina to call them Mom and Dad just like Aditya did and not as "sasu maa" (mother-in-law in Hindi language) and "sasurji" (father-in-law in Hindi language). And she was glad for that, thinking at least something happened as she had wished to happen. She wanted to see her in-law's as her parents while they taking her as their daughter. That's it. And it happened. She didn't wanted anything more than that.
"And yes, don't worry about the breakfast for today. I will prepare it. Don't worry. Since you returned late today from your jogging, and you have to console her and still you have to get ready too for your work.... So today's breakfast and lunch is on me, okay?" Archana told while taking sips from her coffee.
"Okay, mom" agreeing with her mother-in-law, she passed through them to go to Nia's room. Once inside the room, she closed the door behind her. All the while, Archana's gaze was fixed on Naina and Nia. Even after them entering the room, she kept on staring at the closed door. But nothing was missed by Pratap. Whilst Archana was busy in gazing at Naina, he was busy in studying her wife. Trying to know what she was thinking so deeply that without her knowledge, she had drank the coffee all in one go. He placed his right hand on her left shoulder, to break her trance. She's was startled by the his actions and looked at her husband who was looking at her questioningly with his eyes narrowed at her.
"What?" She asked him faking the obliviousness.
"What, what? You should tell me what happened? You drank your coffee all in one go without a break and not to forget I did see you looking at them with so many thoughts in your mind.
Can you tell me what are you thinking?" Pratap asked grabbing the mug from her hands and placing on the wooden table, still looking at her.
Archana gazed at her son, who had already finished his coffee and was going through his phone, well aware of the talks going on in his presence. She averted her gaze back to her husband with her eyes warmed up.
"It's really a wonder, how only Naina can cajole Nia into doing anything and everything without even raising her voice. We know how stubborn Nia can be at times, just like-
"Naina is her mother, mom." Aditya snapped at her not letting her to complete her sentence and sprinted off to his room slamming the door behind him with not much force.
Tears welled up in her eyes. She knew the reason for his snapping. But she was trying to state only the truth. Sighing, she looked at her husband.
"Naina is her mother, Archana. Accept this. And never speak about that again in this house. It's good for everyone." He warned her with the exact amount of hurt felt by her.
