《Manan - Entangled》Part 13
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Everyday at the orphanage felt more or less like a torture to Manik. He observed that though Nandini stayed to herself and had got annoyed with him a few times, she never seemed to be annoyed to be at the orphanage or she never tried to back out from any task. Also, he had made up his mind that he would get her to interact with him more, someway or other. So,
Manik : "What motivates you to volunteer here?"
Nandini : "Why do you want to know?"
Manik : "Maybe it will give me a reason to get motivated as well."
Nandini : "In that case, you will have to check with others here because my reason isn't going to help in motivating you."
Manik : "Why so? .. You tell me your reason, and I will figure out if it helps me or not."
Nandini : "I spent a major part of my life in an orphanage. It provided the care and support when no one else did. I will never be able to repay what it did for me in full. This is a small opportunity for me to do something in return."
Nandini's reason was way different from what his friends had predicted. However, Manik wasn't sure if she was speaking the truth or not, but he kept their conversation going.
Manik : "Major part of your life .. so where else were you other than the orphanage?"
Nandini : "I was with my mom for a few years. After she passed away, I was put in an orphanage. Then I was staying in a hostel for sometime and .. now I am here."
Nandini skipped the part between the hostel and the present, she didn't want to talk about that part of her life.
Manik : "Your mom.. what happened to her?"
Nandini : "She had a weak heart. After my birth, her health deteriorated and she left me within a few years."
Manik : "Didn't you have any relatives with whom you could stay?"
Nandini : "Mom's parents had passed away in an accident. She didn't have any siblings. .. Her husband left a few days after their marriage and never returned."
Manik : "It might have been hard on you to lose your mom and adjust to the orphanage."
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Nandini : "I don't remember anything from then except for the day she left me. I was too young to remember."
Manik : "Then how do you know about your mom?"
Nandini : "She knew she wasn't going to live for long, so she left me a diary. Everything I know about her and what happened back then is from her diary. I remember the day she left me because .."
Manik : "Because"
Nandini realized that she had been speaking about herself for long and stopped. Everything she spoke until now was of her distant past, and she didn't want to talk about her recent past or present. Manik didn't let her stop, and he already knew about her claustrophobia so Nandini continued.
Nandini : "Whenever I am stuck in dark closed spaces, it reminds me of the day she left me. I was in a similar situation that day. My mom was struggling and I didn't know how to go out from there and get help. If I knew, may be I could have saved her. It has induced the fear that I may lose someone again and I may not be able to save them."
Manik had initiated the conversation only to get her to interact with him. He was only pretending to show concern at first, but her past made him sympathize with her a little. At the same time he felt a little guilty that they had taken advantage of the situation that was connected to her mom's death. This time, he believed what she said because he had seen her condition when she was locked in the room. She didn't open up usually, but she did so that day, so he continued the conversation.
Mukti had updated Manik on what she knew about Nandini when she stayed at the hostel, so he didn't ask her about that period and he skipped to the present. He didn't know that from the time she was at the hostel to the time Nandini came to Mumbai, a lot had happened in Nandini's life that had changed her.
Manik : "Who are you staying with here?"
Nandini : "As of now, it's only me and my caretaker. ..They will be join me soon. It's difficult to tell in one word what they are to me .. the care, love and support which I didn't receive all my life, I received it from them that too in a very short time."
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Manik was trying to figure out till when she would be there.
Manik : "I remember you telling that you won't be staying here for long. Are you planning to leave from here once they join you?"
Nandini : "Not immediately .. but I have to leave them sooner or later."
Manik : "You mean with them."
Nandini : "No, not with them. I will have to leave them and go."
Manik : "I don't understand, why do you have to leave them and go when they care for you and support you?"
Nandini : "I don't want to be a burden on them. They have stopped focusing on their lives because they are always thinking about me. They are also staying away from their family."
Manik : "Where are you planning to go?"
Nandini : "I don't know yet. I just know that I have to go away from them so that they can get back to their lives."
Manik was lost in thoughts. What Nandini said contradicted from the discussion his friends had about her. They said that Nandini was trying to trap people for wealth and she was breaking relationships in that process, but she was talking about leaving her well wishers so that they can get back to their lives and family.
Nandini : "You know everything about me now, but I don't know much about you."
Manik : "What do you want to know?"
Nandini : "Whatever you are willing to tell me."
Manik : "There isn't much to tell. I was born and brought up here in Mumbai. .. I am the only son of my parents so they adore me. A lot of my relatives and all my friends are from here. .. Music is my passion. I can talk for hours about it, but I know you wouldn't want to hear it."
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Next time, when Manik met his friends he told them about his and Nandini's conversation.
Manik : "Mukti, did you know that her fear of closed spaces was connected to her mom's death?"
Mukti : "No, I didn't .."
Alya : "That girl might have made it all up just to gain your sympathy."
Manik : "I don't think so. I don't know about the rest, but this wasn't made up."
Alya : "Even if it is true, it shouldn't matter to us. Our aim is to take revenge from that girl. We shouldn't let such things change our plan or distract us. Moreover, that incident turned out to be more effective than we had thought. It changed the impression that girl had of you to a certain extent. At the same time, it hurt her emotionally which is what we want to achieve finally, isn't it?"
Cabir : "Yes, that was just a trailer for that girl. The movie is yet to begin."
Mukti : "You have to include your movies in everything, otherwise you can't stay in peace."
Cabir : "I love (he stretched on that word) movies, so what's wrong in including it. Moreover, Manik is acting in front of her, the only difference is there is no camera. Otherwise, even we could watch his act."
It was only Manik who had seen Nandini in a serious condition and heard about her past, not the others, so they didn't feel guilty or sympathize with her as Manik did.
Alya : "Manik, you shouldn't sympathize with that girl. It will weaken your resolution to take revenge. We shouldn't let her past or her present change or affect our plan. It doesn't change the fact that she broke Mukti's trust and cheated her."
Cabir : "She is right, Manik. You should focus only on taking revenge from that girl. You shouldn't let anything else about her bother you. You only have to pretend to be concerned for that girl and not actually get concerned, so don't sympathize with her."
Cabir : "You don't have to feel guilty either. You weren't the one who locked that girl, I did. What she did with Mukti was wrong, so there is nothing wrong in us doing the same to her."
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