《Manan - Entangled》Part 29
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It was night time and Sunaina and Nandini were sitting in the veranda. Sunaina saw a shooting star and pointed it to Nandini. Nandini looked at it but didn't make a wish. Sunaina had her own issue too, but since she had met Nandini and seen her state, her issue seemed minor in comparison. Sunaina thought that Nandini didn't believe in it, so she wished on Nandini's behalf.
Sunaina (in mind) : "I wish she recovers fully and gets back to how she was earlier."
Manik who was in the terrace also saw the shooting star. His friends made a wish usually on seeing a shooting star, but he didn't. He felt that he had everything he wanted. The only issue he had was his parents' behavior towards each other, but he had accepted it as something that wouldn't change. Manik remembered the time he had pointed the shooting star to Nandini.
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It was already very late and Nandini wasn't able to get an auto. Manik offered to drop her and she accepted. She had known him for a few days by then. On their way Manik saw a shooting star.
Manik : "Look, a shooting star."
Nandini looked at it but she looked away immediately.
Manik : "Don't you believe in making a wish on seeing a shooting star?"
Nandini : "I did, but not anymore."
Manik : "Why? .. Weren't your wishes fulfilled?"
Nandini : "They were but not in the way I had expected. It would have been better if it wouldn't have been fulfilled at all."
Nandini believed in shooting stars because her mom believed in it. From her mom's dairy, Nandini had come to know that her mom had wished for a family because she didn't have one. Her mom believed that her wish was fulfilled, but she didn't know the truth of her husband and she couldn't stay with Nandini for long too. Nandini had wished to meet her dad, she met him too, but that meeting had changed her life completely.
Back then Manik didn't care for her or her wishes. He had brought it up just to strike a conversation. He wasn't into making a wish, if he did probably he would have wished for her downfall.
This time he wished on behalf on Nandini.
Manik : "If wishing on a shooting star can come true, I wish all her sufferings come to an end and her future is filled with happiness."
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Nandini and Sunaina were having a conversation. Nandini had met people who cared for her and also people who hated her. The ones who cared for her had given different reasons.
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Harshad's dad had caused the accident so Harshad was making up for it and he had accepted Nandini as his sister wholeheartedly. Arya and Nandini bonded because they were in the same situation when it came to their families. Arya had his uncle at least who cared for him, but Nandini didn't have anyone then. Navya cared for Nandini as a good friend, and Manik had helped her saying that he was returning her favor for having saved him. Nandini wanted to know what was Sunaina's reason.
Nandini : "We didn't even know each other well when we were in college, then why are you so concerned for me?"
Sunaina : "May be not that well, but I knew how you are. Do you think only you have the right to be concerned about others? Can't others be concerned about you without a reason?"
Nandini wasn't lucky to stay with her parents. She didn't understand why Sunaina didn't stay close to her family.
Nandini : "Why are you staying so far away from your family?"
Sunaina : "If I stay with my parents, they will pester me to get married and I don't want to get married now."
Nandini : "You could have stayed in a different city from your parents and still stayed close by. Why here, in such a remote place?"
Sunaina : "I felt this place would help me move on."
Nandini : "I thought I was the only one trying to move on, you are too? If it is okay to ask, what are you trying to move on from?"
Sunaina : "I ended up falling in love with someone who didn't reciprocate my feelings."
Nandini : "Is it someone from college? Do I know him?"
Sunaina hesitated to respond.
Nandini : "I thought you had a crush on Arya. I didn't know you loved someone else."
Sunaina : "How did you come to know that I had crush on him?"
Nandini : "I came to know from others. I heard that you were behind him, but then you stopped. Why?"
Sunaina : "I felt that he liked someone else."
Nandini : "You are mistaken. I would have known if he liked someone."
Sunaina : "I thought that he liked you. He used to be with you most of the time. I also heard that he went against his friend too for you. Whenever I tried to get closer to him, he would try to go away from me."
Nandini : "What?! .. He likes me but not in the way you are thinking. We have something in common that bonds us. We both didn't have our parents so we understood each other's situation well."
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Nandini told Sunaina about the conversation she had with Arya.
Nandini : "I heard that someone has a crush on you. Is that true?"
Arya : "How am I to know?"
Nandini : "Do you want to know who it is?"
Arya : "No, I don't."
Nandini : "Why?"
Arya : "If I come to know, it will become awkward while interacting with them in the future."
Nandini : "How do you expect your dream girl to be?"
Arya : "I haven't thought about it and I won't think of it in the future as well."
Nandini : "What?! .. Why?"
Arya : "You know I lost my family, all I am left with is their memories. My uncle loved someone but he wasn't able to marry her and he couldn't forget her either. He is living with her memories. What if I find my dream girl and then end up losing her for some reason? I don't want to land up in the same situation as my uncle. I still haven't been able to come in terms with losing my family, I don't want to lose anyone else."
Nandini : "What happened to your uncle, may not happen with you? See Mukti and Harshad itself, aren't they happy with each other?"
Arya : "They haven't been together for that long. Who knows how their future will turn out?"
Nandini couldn't think of any other example. Her dad too had left her mom and hadn't returned, and her mom kept waiting for him.
Nandini : "Arya doesn't want to get into a relationship because he is scared of losing."
Sunaina : "Does he know that you are alive? When I went to console him after you left, he was very upset that he couldn't be with you when you needed him the most."
Nandini : "He does. I was staying with him and Harshad before I came here."
Sunaina : "Then why did you want to leave them and go to a place where no one can find you?"
Nandini : "So that they stop bothering about me and continue to live their lives. Others can also misunderstand our relationship like how you did."
Nandini : "Though you felt that Arya liked me, you are taking so much care of me. Didn't you feel angry at me that I snatched him from you? Didn't you feel like trying out something and forcing him to be with you?"
Sunaina : "Falling in love isn't in anyone's control. So neither can one get mad at someone nor can you force someone. One has to be lucky to fall in love with someone who reciprocates it."
Nandini : "If you want to meet Arya, I can tell you where he is before I leave from here, but you shouldn't tell him that I was here."
Sunaina : "You aren't going anywhere till you recover. I don't want to know where he is. If he is in my destiny, I will meet him some day."
Nandini had met girls like Mukti, Alya and Samaira, but Sunaina turned out to be a lot different from them.
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Another time, Sunaina and Nandini had gone out for a walk. When Sunaina saw that there was a whirlwind, she held Nandini's hand.
Nandini : "Are you scared of whirlwinds?"
Sunaina : "No, I am not."
Nandini : "Then why are you holding my hand so firmly?"
Sunaina : "I was scared that you might get carried away."
Nandini remembered a similar situation when she was with Manik.
The volunteers were putting up the decorations for the event, but all of a sudden it had turned very windy. Some of them left and went inside and some tried to hold onto the decorations so that they don't fly away or get damaged. Nandini stayed back and held one of the arch decorations, and Manik joined her.
Nandini : "I can handle this, you can go and hold a different one."
Manik didn't go and Nandini tried to send him again.
Manik : "I didn't stay back to save the decorations."
Nandini : "Then?"
Manik : "I stayed because you did. You are under the assumption that you are a superwoman and nothing will happen to you. But I doubt that you yourself will be able to withstand the wind for long, let alone hold this from falling."
Nandini : "I am not that weak as you think. I can manage."
Manik : "I can't take risk. If it falls and you get hurt, you will not be able to bear it. Then I will be the one who will have to manage, not you. You may be fine with falling unconscious and going to the doctor often, but I am not okay with waiting for hours for you to gain conscious."
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