Love Mania

^Natasha worked with an international agency and she worked from home. Her day started at afternoon 2 pm and ended around midnight. She did not have a desk table and she often sat over her bed to work on her laptop. Natasha would rest her back on a pillow. She wrote articles, transcribed and sent communications to clients. At times she had to chat or speak over the phone with international companies and PR agencies.

In the evening she would keep her windows open and one fine day her eyes were delighted to see a handsome young man cooking in the opposite home through her window. Natasha was restless. She gulped a glass of water and kept her work pending. She mentally named him Rahul. He was not looking at her and she assumed maybe she was not that beautiful. She was sad and blamed herself for wasting a day. Next day her eyes were glued on his window but he was nowhere. The windows were closed and some pigeons were drinking water from his window money plant.

Natasha could not control her emotions.There was something in Rahul. She could not concentrate on her work and her heart was in another world. She waited till midnight but the window never opened for the next 7 days. She was getting firing from her boss for the number of errors she made day by day. She wanted her job and she would now work with closed windows. She had almost forgotten about Rahul. She worked hard and won the hearts of her seniors again. They gave her a long weekend. Natasha again opened her window and saw Rahul cooking.

She went inside her room and immediately got dressed in a Red shimmer dress. She stood close to the window till Rahul looked at her. And the magic happened. Rahul too could not take his eyes from her. The game of love began in the evening between 6-8 and to play that game, Natasha worked two hours extra in the morning. She could not compromise with her work, after all that was her bread and butter. She was a single independent woman with more dreams. She had left her home in anger after her parent's blackmailed her to get married to someone who was not educated but rich. Natasha wanted a modern guy and Rahul was exactly her dream man. The stealing glances now turned into smiles. The smiles turned in to extended time in the game of love.

A few more days passed in the Cupid eye game and Rahul was again unavailable for a few days. Natasha was restless. She made silent prayers for him. She was missing him badly and her eyes were always stuck on his window.

"She was soon realising that Rahul is not an infatuation or attraction. She was just in love with him."

Natasha was so mad in love that she befriended a girl with her mesmerizing smile at Rahul's building. She learnt from that girl that Rahul was mute. He was an artist and now he has gone to a foreign land for an award. Natasha was sad. She had already imagined her happy self dancing and singing with Rahul. One thing she was happy that Rahul too gave her attention and his real name was also Rahul.

Her life moved on and after two years she was happy to see Rahul's proposal in a marriage portal. She rejected it immediately. She was now dating someone else, yet somewhere her heart searched for him on the empty window. She was going back to her hometown as she was getting married to Rohit, a client and friend whom she dated for two years.

She kept her fancies away and happily got married to Rohit. They had a beautiful honeymoon and Natasha was blushing like a Red Apple.

15 days of the new bride days flew like butterfly and she got an invite for her cousin's wedding.

The card read :

"Rahul weds Disha."

She could not attend their wedding but she was invited for a traditional ritual at their home for which she went happily.

She was surprised to see it was the same Rahul who was talking to the guest. He ignored Natasha and when Disha introduced him, he pretended to be a stranger. Natasha was curious.

" Was Rahul really mute in his past?"

Like a spy now she was chasing him. At last, she decided to ask him openly. She pretended to visit Disha and indulged her in cooking. Rahul was watching Kuch Kuch Hota hein movie.

Anjali screamed: Rahul is a cheater in the screen.

" Natasha," Rahul called to the balcony.

She and he were generally discussing traffic in the city, shopping malls and a lot more things.

Suddenly Natasha said:

" I hope you are happy with Disha. I am happy with Rohit. "

Rahul frowned and Natasha was embarrassed as Disha stood in front of them with some coke.

Disha called Natasha inside and yelled:

" Are you planning to break my marriage, Di?"

" No- no ...I was just casually asking," Natasha replied. To make Disha happy she praised her a lot in front of Rahul. Rohit had come to pick her up from Disha's place. Natasha still wondered if Rahul had a mute past. Rohit was playing some romantic music in the car but Natasha was lost in her thoughts.

Her phone beeped.

" You thought I am mute so you rejected me. Disha was ready to accept me the way I am and God's grace I got my true love, Natasha. I was never mute. The girl in my apartment lied to you because she liked me. She proposed to me and I rejected her. I learnt from her friend about the white lies she told you. Disha may not be a good cook or organised but not selfish like you...

"When I first met her I did not open my mouth. The same idea struck my mind and I asked my cousin Rohit to lie to her that I am mute and your husband is my cousin. You have just married him to look happy in front of society but Disha was wanting to marry me out of love. Well, I have not told Rohit about our window love. You be happy with him is my sincere wish." Rahul had sent her this message to Natasha with a heavy heart.

" Rahul you are judging me and you don't know how much I wept at nights? My pillow got wet with my tears and I had sleepless nights just staring at your dark window...

"I missed you madly and I realised I was in love with you. I would have accepted you the way you are but your emptiness filled in life was brightened by Rohit...

"I could see your mirror image in him and so I married him. I hope you too stayed blessed with Disha because she is not mentally stable." Natasha replied.

"Rohit did your family not check Disha's background?" Natasha questioned her husband.

" She is a nice girl and they belong to your family. So we did not have second thoughts." Rohit replied.

Natasha sighed: " God save Rahul. Let Disha be sane in his Love"