Aatma

Haunted Part 2

She says if her Mother and he feels it is appropriate then she is ok with going on  a date with their blessing and winks at her father and pulls his cheeks ,the father laughs out heartily he adores his child she has never done anything which will spoil make him shy she knew her limits they had given her freedom to do what she wanted but she also knew the family values and never crossed the limits.The day goes of in a relaxed manner though the mother is worried and wants to know  why her their daughter slept out in the balcony ,so when Nikita goes to her bedroom both of them enter her room and they sit on her bed ,then to put it in a lighter note the mother asks her daughter should she put a bed in the balcony and a pillow with a blanket ,Nikita does not understand what her mother is saying the father looks at her helplessly as to show her he too does not understand what the mother is trying to tell then the Mrs. Mandvi see no help coming from her husband she pulls her daughter near her, and  tells her in the morning when she did not come for breakfast she came to her room and did not find her on the bed and after searching her in all the places they found her fast asleep in the balcony on the floor without a pillow and a blanket ,so she asks her what made her do that Nikita is still not understanding what her mother was saying she looks at her dad he says it is true they found her in the balcony for which she says but when she got up she was in her bed under her cosy blanket and she does not remember going out to the balcony amd sleeping out as she was very tire in the night she had no time to even talk to her friend and she told them to excuse her from the video call they have every night ,  before going to sleep , then she brushed her teeth prayed and covered herself in her cosy blanket and when she fall asleep is not known to her she got up in the morning to a beautiful day she only that. And she gestures them to go out of her room by clapping her hands and giggling ,seeing her child like antique the parents feel relieved and go to their room after giving her a big bear hug and kissing her forehead and the father very tactfully when the mother is still sleeping goes slowly towards the balcony door and latches it carefully in India we have door with latches on the  top portion of the door and also in the middle there are always two latches to the door so the dad locked both the latches .and waved bye to her and went to their room there both were very restless they were discussing what is wrong with her whole night she slept in the cold and does not remember it .Mr. Mandvi suspect something is seriously wrong with their daughter but does not want to think on about it he prays to God Almighty please oh lord let my daughter lead a normal life our one and only child give her good life .and lies down on the bed with a seigh and avoids the eye contact with his wife  she turns towards him keeps her head on his chest and holds him tightly and asks him what may be wrong with her he tells her not to give so much importance to the morning incidence she used to sleep in the hall we used to see her asleep on the swing ,but never bothered to ask her today we saw her out in the cold so we are upset it may pass off she is very young only 20 years of age sometimes she may not be able to take stress,now they  have good days ahead she will be meeting Vicky tomorrow and if both like each other they will soon have a grand wedding in the new place they will call all their Mumbai friends and her friends will be the first in the guest list so so many good things lay ahead for them shifting to a new place can be one off the reason she is in stress she will miss all her friends with whom she has grown up it is not easy to shift your base suddenly to a new place new people new culture as they  both came born and brought up in Rajasthan they have that culture in their blood but their child was born here in Mumbai a cosmopolitan city where people from all over the country come and get mixed  and get used to a culture which is of freedom .Freedom to live life as you want no one will be bothered what one does  or what one  wears  where  one goes at what time one returns everybody is busy earning for survival .They  could not take Nikita to Jaisalmer any time before  as they  had nobody from their side of the family initially they did not go to her parents house as they   had got married against her family’s wish as she  belonged to a rich and  affluent family Mr. Mandvi saw no response from his wife who was still sleeping on his chest and snoring so he smiled and lifted her head very tenderly put her on a pillow and kissed her and whispered in her ears everything will be ok and slowly tip topped out of the room to check on his daughter he opened the door and peeped in she was sleeping like a kitten he thanked god and closed the door went to the kitchen drank water from the pot as the fridge was packed and again was tempted to peep in to his daughters room but he controlled and went to his room found his wife still snoring and slowly slid under his blanket and fell asleep.Morning was a regular one very happy good morning;s were exchanged by the family members as it was going to be a special day Nikita was going to meet Vicky in the evening so lot of discussion was happening excitement and lots of laughter .In India every important issue in the family becomes a topic of discussion everybody takes interest and advices how to go about , and marriage tops the list . In the  meantime  Nikita  is busy talking to her friends about the guy from the neighbourhood named Vicky all the girl gang has their own set of question for her to ask him so the day for Nikita is full of excitement and preparing for the special day meeting a guy for Nikita every issue gives her a reason to dance but her mom tells her not  to strain today as she needs to look good and energetic for the date ..She dresses in a pink knee length floral dress .leaves her hair loose, puts on a light lipstick and a flat sandal takes a delicate sling bag and zooms off on her two wheeler to meet Vicky she parks her scooty checks herself in the mirror and walks in the restaurant she see him as she enters the door he too stands and waves out to her she goes towards him and shakes hand and sit down ,both feel awkward Nikita has completely forgotten the questioner her friends and parents had made her mug up she has gone totally blank she just looks at him and smiles he too picks a glass of water offers it to her when she refuses he drinks it and then looks at her and asks her what has she been doing after school as he was not in Mumbai  he had gone to Australia for further studies ,he was three years senior to her, he also tells her he used to admire her a lot as she was good in sports and other extracurricular activities .He being a nerd and a shy boy never took part in all this activities, it was only studies and his future plans he was focussed what he wanted in life and yes she was in his goal too . She is surprised when she hears him say he was interested in her from school days ,he tells her it was for the same reason he came down from Australia as soon as he heard from his mother that Mandvis are shifting to Jaisalmer for good so he did not want to lose her to some Rajasthani ,she shifts in her chair as she is shy of his admission of his love to her so blatantly ,he asks her whether she wants to know anything about him . she is too dumb struck after what is he said that he was all along waiting for her and knew he would marry her and came down specially to meet her she was too flattered he realises she is nervous and orders her favourite pizza with thin crust and double cheez and chicken toppings she is surprised all that he ordered were her favourite food so she wondeers he tells her in this age it is very easy to know bout anybody she herself used to post pics of all the food she used to eat in social media and he has done thorough study of her likes .She eats the pizza as she had not eaten food properly at home in the excitement of meeting him after listening to his confession her stomach start to roar in hunger she devours the pizza and eats what ever was in font of her then he gives her tissue she takes it gladly and wipes her lips and then looks at him and very confidently asks him after marriage will you allow me to continue with her dance practise . he literally chokes on his food he says that means she  has agreed to marry him and ofcourse he would all that was all the cause he got attracted to her in the first place that makes her personality how can he take away a part of her life ,infact he says if given a chance he would like to learn from her few steps of Kathak . .He asks her so is she really interested in knowing him better should he take it one step further and tell his parents that she has liked him ,she gobbles a spoon full of chocolate mousse and looks at him and tells him does he thinks she would eat so much  food with any other guy whom she is not interested in,of course not she tells him her parents have liked him and so has she and as he will not stop her from pursuing her dance career then she is more then happy. Then both start speaking about their school days Vicky wanted to know about the teachers how were they doing  and about some popular girls and boys from their school so the discussion was more like buddies catching up with each other after many years..Her father calls her up as it has become very late and he was worried so both get up to leave Vicky offers to drop her home she tells him she has her scooty ,so he tells her he will follow her in his car till her house she concepts it and smiles shyly then they leave he waits for her to start her scooter then he he gets in his car and starts following her she sees him from the rear mirror and feels safe as today she doesn’t  have her girl gang to protect her but she feels like a princess and her prince following her .she shows him a thumbs up when she reaches her building and he stops his car near her scooter and says once she reaches her flaat she can call him then he will leave for his house she enters her building goes up the lift and her parents are already waiting for her she calls him up and makes her father talk to him and then he leaves for his house. .She hugs her dad and kisses him they get their answer that their daughter has liked Vicky the father does thumbs up to his wife and she looks at the lord and offers gratitude .she freshens up and comes out the parents want to know the detail of her meeting and when she sees her phone there were 30 messages from her friends to know about her date she .. She first tells everybody in the group in short that she has liked Vicky and details will be shared on video call the next day . She sleeps with her parents as all three are very happy and have  mixed emotions about leaving the house in few days  the daughter will soon get married ., They go to sleep happily

After few days the Mandvis are in the Airport .All have come to see them off  But Nikita was searching for Vicky he had not come he had promised to se her off ,she also wanted to introduce him to her girl gang they ere disappointed she had to go as it was getting late for her she boards her flight and is sad and wonders why Vicky did not come to see her off .when suddenly she hears a his voice next to her seat she is shocked he had booked his ticket to Jaisalmer and he was in her flight she hugs him and her parents who knew about his plans smile at them .Nikita happiness has no bond she was anyways in the cloud now she felt what it really  meant to be in cloud nine .Vicky tells her as they had  no time to know each other well he decided to be with her in Jaisalmer as he has come down to India only for her now when she has agreed to marry him they better know each other more closely ,  She thanks him for all he is doing to know her better..After reaching Jaisalmer the Mandvis take a cab and go to their destination and Vicky checks in to a hotel. .Days go in setting up the new house and meeting Vicky calling home he would also help the family with the setting of the house he had become very close to her parents . They  used to have a  good time cooking ,watching  movies, cleaning ,.shopping buying plants and all four used to go  sightseeing. As  Jaisalmer is a dessert city and camels rides are very popular both Nikita and Vicky sit on a camel together ,it was their first time on the camel and also sitting so near to each other.The camel is made to sit down when the camel sits down it bends the front two legs first and then the back two legs is bend ( hind legs ) when one sees others climbing on the camel one would laugh and roll on the ground but when one experience a ride on it one really knows how the camels walks in the desert and you would just want the ride to get over fast . so when Nikita sat and Vicky sat behind her all was fine and when it was time for the camel to stand up the camel first made its front legs straight so the whole weight of people sittIng on it goes backward and the one sitting behind is very down and screams the most so Vicky grabs Nikitas waist and holds on to dear life and then the camel straightens the Hind legs so suddenly the weight is thrown on the first person so the grip to hold on to dear life brings both of them very close physically they laugh a loud at the experience once they get used to the rhythm of its walk they start relaxing and enjoying the ride and now they are not only enjoying the sight of the desert ,the ride but they were enjoying the closeness of their body they were experiencing the joy of being so close and  Vicky soon forgot the pain he had experienced while sitting on the camel .after a hour of taking the ride they were scared  of getting down knowing the ordeal they will have to go through .But they get down on a platform to their relief .They go back home after have meal and after they rest in the evening Vicky tells Mr.Mandvi .He would like to get married to their daughter as early as possible for which the Mandvis nod in  appreciation . In the night they ask Vicky to stay and spend the night with them aas next day he was supposed to leave for Mumbai so he stays back and after a early dinner all go to sleep and Vicky is given a guest room to sleep ,he does his official work on his laptop and he hears someone walking down the staircase .Vicky was given the room on the ground floor and the mandvis occupied the tow bedrooms on top.he ignores the sound as he feels he might have just heard it ,but now he feels the foot steps are nearing his room he quickly keeps his laptop on the bed and goes and hides behind the door he can feel the steps nearing his heart beat increases ,then suddenly he feels the steps are moving away and faster speed toward the front door and he can hear the door opening and closing , he takes  his cell and runs out of his room to see who had dared to come in ,he opens the door and see a women running full speed her hair flying in the air she was running as if to rescue somebody the urgency was such that she looked as if she was flying in the air he was a bit scared and shocked but wanted to find out who was she .He runs behind her though it was difficult to catch up with her as she was running with the speed of the wind he was short of breath ,he never ran like this in his life he somehow managed to catch up with her though being careful to not been seen by her he did not know who she was a lady or a devil  at last when a river comes the lady reduces her speed he hides behind a closed shop and waits to see her next move she walks towards the water Vickeys feels numb the hair in his body stands like porcupines he is sweating profusely because of running and the sight he is witnessing he waits with bated breath to see how will she cross the river when suddenly the lady faints and falls on the ground .Now Vickey has to jump and help the lady on humanitarian grounds he is still not stopped shivering and he is dreading who she may be out here in the middle of the night he should not have followed her at the first place , but now he has to go and find out he goes very slowly as if he is being pushed by the winds as if the sky is looking at him and laughing at him for following a lady in the night hasn’t he heard about stories where the female devils roam in the night ,he looks around  for help when he sees a shadow it comes nearer and nearer it turns out a wild bull he feels the bull is better than this devil who has fallen on the ground and nobody around he wants to sit on the bull and run out of this place, but the bull ditches him and sit down to rest .He feels more lonely now he is caught between a devil and a bull he prefers to go and check on the devil he goes very slowly and when hears the women she has fallen on her side the long covering her face he slowly sits beside her so that he can run for his life when she catches him he slowly tries to remove the hair from her face and when he does he falls on his buttocks the face is of not a devil it is the beauty he has fallen for it was Nikita he sits besides her making her straight on her back and again reconfirms by puting the torch light from his cell  on her face .and sends that pic to her father and calls him up for help he tells him to bring a car to the river which is flowing near their house .and he sits near her holding her hand and constantly looking at the bull which is also seeing him .There the Mandvis are crestfallen now they are worried what will they tell Vickey about Nikitas condition they are scared he will refuse to marry her,just yesterday they were planning to get them married and in the night Nikita had to get this attack .his wife remind him that their daughter when she is very excited she often does these kind of activity Mr. Mandvi takes the car and drives down the place and sees Vickey sitting next to Nikita .And he does not know how to face Vickey.