A Unique Gift

THREE

Bumping with strangers

The sun rose as a canopy of gold, bright amid the blue, bidding the stars to take their nightly rest.

Birds chirped in the morning sky, spreading enthusiasm in the air, but peace and enthusiasm were words unknown for Vihaan’s heart. After the previous visit to spellbinder, he was unable to concentrate on anything. The spellbinder’s words were echoing in his mind, urging him to search for the answers to all the questions that had been revolving in his brain, ever since he had broken up with her, but Vihaan was too much of a coward to take the initiative.

His fear of feeling the same agony of being heartbroken again had made him bear sleepless nights all restless, yet he didn’t try to search for any of them. Although he hated to admit it, he had been purposely running away from her thoughts since the day he had his heart broken mercilessly by his first and only love. He was scared of falling in love again. He was sacred to facing her.

For then, he had conquered everything he or any other man in his shoes could ever desire for, yet his heart was restless. He could not find the peace his soul had been craving for and the feelings were annoying him. It wasn’t like he had not experienced any happiness after she had walked out of his life, on the contrary, he did. He was over the moon when the little infants cried in his arms for the first time, and when Dasis was launched in the international market. Then why was he feeling empty?

Every day when he would lie on his bed after working like a maniac the whole day, he would die a bit—feeling mortified, ashamed, angry, and insecure and thousand other emotions. He would be reminded about the time they had spent together; those happy moments they had spent in each other’s arms—the romance, fun, love, and charisma of young blossoming love to— how did they end up, hurting each other to the extent to consider the other one dead in their life.

He had been dying a thousand deaths—he was not dead in reality, but his heart was dying. The hollowness in his heart was similar to death, slow painful death that was killing him inch by inch; day by day. No matter how many times he would try to convince his conscience that he was happy, that her absence doesn’t affect him, but he would always end up in tears, asking questions with no answers, no explanations; just plain reality that she was no more a part of his life. He was in a state of dilemma where he had to choose between what his heart wants and what he desires.

“Love can’t die VI. I don’t think love can die. Whether we accept it or not, the love stays alive in every cell of our body. We only refuse to accept it. It’s called the state of denial.” Vihaan recalled Viraj’s words.

Was he in the state of denial? Did his love really die or was it still there? Did he still love her after all she had done to him? The thoughts were frustrating him.

Shaking his head to push the disturbing thoughts away, Vihaan stretched his body in a healthy warm-up ready to begin his workout. After work, working out was the second thing on his priority list. He enjoyed working out a lot. The sourness of muscles used to make him realize that he was alive and breathing, but again his heart would remind him he was just breathing and wasn’t living.

Vihaan wanted to live his life like he used to do years ago when she was a part of his life. He wanted to feel the same charisma, same liveliness, and joy; he used to begin his day with.

Signing at his thoughts, Vihaan witnessed the darkness surrendered to a bright morning, every color changed from tinges of charcoal to vibrancy. There were days he wondered what we give in return for such gifts of divine magic from God; maybe it is our love, maybe we radiate it into space; maybe that is our connection to creation beyond the borders of our world, our reality. Maybe inside he too was gold, a bright flame that burns for another kind. For him, that was thought as warm as any bright new day, one that tickled his mind as much as his heart.

Vihaan walked out of the front gate, wishing a polite ‘Good morning’ to watchmen and hit the sidewalk with multiple thoughts thundering in his brain in a confused heap. Even he could not understand; from where those thoughts were coming from. For him, nothing in this world made sense anymore. Lost in his world, he started to jog slowly. He almost never runs.

Running wasn’t his Cup of tea, he had rather prefer cardio over jogging, but that day he wanted to run. After all, it was what, he had been doing for four years.

He had been running away from her thoughts, her hollow promises of love and most importantly his heart.

His slow gate was almost soundless as his runners kissed the concrete and the warmth of the exercise did him good. The iron-railings of the house, all but invisible in the inkiness, were soon behind him and the tall concrete buildings of the Eastside loomed largely.

Vihaan wasn’t jogging anymore; he was running, running like a maniac in a marathon. His heart beats pumped in his ears and lungs hurt due to lack of oxygen as he passed by a huge mansion and took a right turn, leaving his locality far behind.

Faint barks of pet dogs could be heard in the background when he passed by a huge mansion with tall trees fencing it, shielding the mansion like armor, but Vihaan was least affected by the pit bulls and Saint Bernard which was trying to jump through fences to tear the intruder apart; that was him.

He was too lost to take in his surroundings. He was away from the earth to take in the mundane activity he had been witnessing ever since he was born. It was his body that was running like a manic, but his brain was in a parallel universe where he was having a conversation with his conscience, his soul, where he was digging hard to get answers for all those questions that buzz his brain day and night.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

There were so many why’s he had been dealing with for four years. They were countless in number and each why would squeeze his heart in pain, as if drawing a certain amount of blood out of it.

Every day he would remind himself that she wasn’t important for him anymore, that his love has died long ago, but then he would feel unbearable pain shooting in a dark corner of his heart and his wall would fall apart, so does his world.

Vihaan had been running for a quarter by then. And then came the point when his lungs refused to inhale anymore, his body denied to run and his legs gave up, making him lose his balance and trip over on the hard concrete surface. He rolled over the sidewalk by his elbow and squealed in partial shock and partial agony.

“Hey man! Watch it! You okay?” A younger looking man came running and helped Vihaan in getting up who was out of breath and sweating profusely with all the running he had done. The man helped him sit on a bench nearby the sidewalk placed for passerby.

Vihaan was still out of breath and was panting heavily. He put his head on his hands and gasped for air. His throat felt dry and muscles were sore. He could feel movements of blood in his veins and wanted nothing but to gulp down a few sips of chilled water, but he had not brought any water bottle with him.

Helpless, he let out few dry coughs and the young man patted his back in an attempt to provide some relief. “Here! Have some of this! I swear I did not put my mouth on it. It’s clean!” The man offered his water bottle to Vihaan which he accepted gratefully and gulp down a few small sips.

By then, His breaths had become steady and he was feeling more stable than before. He felt mortified for losing control over his emotions, nevertheless he inhaled and exhaled few deep breaths, calming his furiously beating heart.

“Thanks, bro for helping me out!” Vihaan exclaimed, now taking in full appearance of the stranger who had helped him and immediately recognized the man. He was the same guy from the hotel who had bumped with him on the previous day as well. He recalled his name was, Rudra.

“It’s OK dude! It was the least I could do. BTW Rudra, Rudraksha Singh Chouhan.” The man forwarded his hand and Vihaan shook it, exchanging the greetings.

“Vihaan Malhotra.” Vihaan stretched his lips in a polite smile when all he ever wanted to do was ask him about his breakup and how he has been coping with it. The questions were almost at the peak of his tongue, but he somehow abstained from asking it.

“Aah! Of course, I know you man, have seen your interviews on TV a lot of times. The famous Iraavanan right? You are my ideal, an inspiration that motivates me to follow what my heart wants. You have achieved everything at such a young age.” Rudra smiled, making his dimples visible. He looked younger than Vihaan had expected. He had that grown-up choir boy look except for the tattoos that swirl above the neckline of his light shirt. He’d got the same floppy dark brown hairs as Viraj’s but his eyes weren’t ocean blue, possibly green, but he didn’t want to stare long enough to find out. “Yeah?” Vihaan scratched the back of his neck, flattered.

His mouth was still dry to allow him to speak. So he just nodded and then croaked out a statement he could think of at the moment. “Yeah, I guess you know me then. I kind of know you too, you were there yesterday?” Vihaan asked awkwardly, intentionally avoided mentioning the hotel’s incident. However, He desperately wanted to ask Rudra about the scenario in the hotel the other day, but it was none of his business so he avoided poking his nose in.

“Yeah, I was there! The guy is just amazing so like to hear him out sometimes.” Rudra answered, as he awkwardly shifted from his one leg to another.

An awkward silence hung in the air as both the men didn’t know what to say. “Umm you okay man? You have hit the ground pretty hard. Are you hurt? Any pain? Injury? Do you want me to take you to a doctor? I’ve my car nearby if you-” Rudra gestured toward a black Mercedes-Benz parked nearby.

“Yeah! Yeah! I’m a perfectly fine man. Thanks again for helping me out. I just lost control and didn’t see where I was going. You live here?”

“It’s okay! It happens sometimes. I often lose control of the gym myself. It’s perfectly alright! I understand. Wait Here! Let me bring you to spray.” saying this, Rudra ran and came back after bringing a spray from his car.

He sprinkled some on Vihaan's elbow and massaged his ankle a bit. Meanwhile chatting about how much of an inspiration Vihaan was in his life and how he helped him work hard to achieve his dreams.

“Thanks so much, bro for Ermm helping me out. You didn't answer my question; do you live here?” Vihaan asked, stretching his lips into a friendly smile. He was curious.

“Your welcome man. Yeah! I live nearby, came here to jog as well. I was stretching and saw you tripping so came to help you.” Rudra smiled. The atmosphere smoothed a bit as both the men exchange friendly words.

The man seemed amiable to Vihaan. Rudra was a chef and lived a few blocks away from Malhotra mansion. He was twenty-three and lived with his younger sister who was the only family he had left with.

There wasn’t anything extraordinary about the man, but he had a friendly aura around him that made Vihaan feel comfortable around him. He had the right amount of confidence in him and had a good sense of humor. He was way too cheerful for a guy who had had his heart broken a couple of days ago.

“BTW would you like to get some almond milk or coffee something? My restaurant isn’t far from here. We will be back by ten.” Rudra asked and Vihaan saw no harm in having a round of coffee with his new friend. He simply agreed and jumped in the passenger seat of the black Mercedes-Benz parked nearby.

“Get in Iraavanan; we've got a lot of roads to cover and a lot of topics to catch on.” Rudra joked as he pressed the gas hard, speeding up-to-the place where a new chapter of Vihaan’s life was going to be opened.