Waqt

Udaipur
August,2024

"Hum iss ladki ko apne ghar ki bahu nahi maante, Armaan Poddar."

" Ek title tum pe bilkul fit bethta hai, gold digger."

"I'm very sure isne aur iski chaalu maa ne humaare Armaan ko phasaya"

" Thodi toh mature bano, Abhira"

" Jis ladki ne rishton ka sirf ek hee rang dekha hai, woh baaki rishton ka mol kya samjhegi."

"Tum itni childish aur immature kyun ho,Abhira?"

"Rohit tumhari wajah se ghar chod ke gaya."

" Ruhi meri perfect life partner hai. Woh mature hai, mujhe usse bachon Jese sambhalna nahi padhta."

As she walked away from that cursed Poddar Mansion, the words that she had been told over the last 11 months revolved in her mind.

She saw broken pieces of a mirror on the road and glanced at her reflection.

She couldn't recognise herself.

Who was this person?

This wasn't the Abhira her mumma had raised.
This wasn't the Abhira who loved life.

This Abhira, she looked lifeless.
She looked lost.
She looked alone.

She was alone.

That was the ultimate truth wasn't it, she was alone.

She knew this, she had known it since the day Yuvraj shot her mumma but somehow the weight of this realisation felt a little heavier today and so drowning in her sorrow, she fell to her knees as tears dropped from her eyes, like an endless waterfall.

She had no one to take care of her in this big world. She didn't have someone who would take care of her or love her unconditionally and so maybe to try and attain that from the people around her which at the time were Poddars, she had become this person, this person who she hated.

She had gone from being a happy go lucky girl to this shell of a person who just listened to people berate her and shame her, who didn't reply, not even when her mumma's integrity or her character was at stake.

She had become exactly what she never wanted to be, Majboor.

She remembered the countless promises that she had made to her mumma about becoming a successful lawyer, about building a career for herself and what had she ended up becoming, a wedding planner who was arranging the wedding of the man she loved to the woman that she despised.

She had compromised her ideals, her self respect, her morals.
And all for one man,

Armaan Poddar.

But was he worth it?
Was losing her integrity and self respect all for a man, worth it?
A man who didn't even love her, at that.

She knew the answer was no but she tried to justify her behaviour.
She wasn't someone who would compromise on her morals for something as fickle as feelings, right?

She had just started working as a wedding planner at Armaan's wedding because she was in a dire need to money and there was nothing else she could do, right?
She tried convincing herself.