Hai Tujhe Bhi Izazat

Chapter 34

One week has already passed after that night and everything was back to normal again. That means things between Abhi and Aaradhya were abnormal again. They still didn't talk to each other and avoided being in the same place.

Tanu has tried her best to make them sit together in class or the canteen but that all came out to be useless. Aaradhya had a tough time bringing her heart to normal that night. She was almost ready to apologise and mend things with him again but one call from her mother and she came back to reality. She realised again she cannot do this. She cannot risk hers as well as his emotions.

Their semester exams were announced and they all were busy studying for it. Personal problems can wait, studies can't.

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"What are you doing here? Alone?" Tanu asked Yuvraj when she found him sitting in one secluded corner of the orphanage. He always keeps himself busy with the children there. But today he looked a bit down.

"Nothing," he answered playing with a beautiful ring in his hand.

"Wow! It's so beautiful. Whose ring is that?" Tanu asked looking at the ring.

"My mother's," he said after some time.

"You are going to give her this?" she asked. He did not answer instead kept playing with it. Tanu took it as a sign to leave. Maybe she was being too nosy.

"Sorry, I'll leave," she said getting up.

"It's my mother's death anniversary today," he said. She turned to look at him. He never looked this vulnerable. It looked like he was controlling himself from crying.

"Oh! I am sorry. I didn't know that," she said and stood there awkwardly. Should she leave or sit with him?

"You can sit if you want to," he said guessing her dilemma.

"How did this happen? You don't have to tell me if you don't want, I understand," Tanu said after some time.

"I don't have to but I want to," he said looking in her eyes. He has never shared this with anyone before. Just one of his friends from school knows about it.
Tanu gave him a small smile. He considered her to be important enough to share his personal life with her. She felt special.

"She attempted suicide," he said.

"Suicide? Why?" Tanu's eyes widened.

"My father was having an extra-marital affair. She came to know about this. She gave him a second chance, a third and then a fourth till she could not bear it anymore. One day when I came back from school I saw her unconscious body hanging from the fan. I prayed to save her life. I was just seven years old. I cried and prayed. But nothing happened. She was gone. That was the last time I prayed before Teena's incident," he said with no emotion in his voice.

Tanu did not realise when her eyes filled up with tears. How was he telling her all this without showing any emotion? She could feel hate building in her heart for his father. And his mother was selfish too. She had a seven-year-old child. She should have survived because of him. It was not like he was the only man on the planet. But she can't judge her. Suicide is a big step. We cannot feel what the other person is going through.

"You live with your father?" she asked.

"Father and stepmother. I hate him. I've always hated him. I did everything he wanted me not to do. He wanted me to be a good student so I became a rebel. I fought, I did everything which I thought he would dislike but I forgot my mother would also be hating me for the person I became," he said holding the ring tightly.

"Why would she hate you? If anything she would be proud of you. You have cleared one of the toughest exams in the country, you are going to be a doctor in a few years and you are doing so much for these children. I am sure she must be proud of you," Tanu said smiling at him.