Part1
Daya removed his shoes before striding ahead on the soggy sand of the beach...His apathetic eyes kept a glance over the waving roaring sea while his tangled hair was rippling in cool onshore breeze making him to look like a stoical person sunk in deep cogitation...He sat finally on the sand placing his chin upon his knees still gazing out at the whining waves...A stifling loneliness nowadays badly arrested him...It was not the fact that he was gradually getting oblivious about his duty but sometimes whenever he had to spend time with himself he noticed that from somewhere an unidentified melancholy endeavoured to seize him...It seemed as if his breath would be throttled slowly and there would be no one around him to save him from his drowning self...
Coming before the prodigious sea,feeling its enormous vastness...every time he felt revivified...The gigantic sea everytime as if admonished him saying,:'don't you know that a lovelorn heart can only get peace,by loving everyone around him...Spread love, give love to everyone irrespective of the fact whether you would return it back or not... He flashed a dolorous smile to himself and then kept absorbing cool humid breeze of the sea till someone touched his shoulder very lightly,perhaps with much hesitation...
He turned his face quickly only to discover someone whom he hadn't ever expected to see in such a situation...
:'Dayaa...right?' She pressed her lips as usually a little scornfully and sat beside him without caring about the waves which were making them drenched...
:'aap?' Daya was grossly stupefied and a little embarrassed as someone intruded into his privacy with such a directness...
:'jee...' she answered back promptly as if getting revived by his embarrassment,:'mmain...aap ki purana dost... Pradhan...'
A squirm smile crossed Daya's face as he returned back with candour,:'dost kabhi...purana hota hai kya Doctor?'
he paused and thought a little before resurrecting his smile back,:'of course...agar...dosti...' he made his eyes narrower making his face witty,:'sachcha ho to...'
Niyati now flashed a defenseless grin at him and raising a hand towards him for handshake she remarked,jestfully,:'baato me aap se jeetna...' she pressed her lips and closed her eyes to finish,:'mushkil hai...'
Daya too shook hands with her with a big grin and then sighed looking further at the roaring sea, trying his level best to conceal the deep loneliness with which he had come here...
:'to...' niyati sounded mellifluous,:'Inspector Dayaa...' her voice seemed sardonical as usual...:'apna sara kaam chhor keeee...yaha? is sunsan beach me?'
Daya wished to reply back straight but just when he was about to reveal, a mischief infusing into him suggested that he should make her a little riled before anything else and he answered back a little quizzically,:'sunsan beach meee...aya hun to...is ka matlab yehi hai naa...'
Niyati with a hardened face chimmed in before Daya could finish,:'looog pasand nahi...'
A skittish chuckle spread over Daya's face as he remained silent for some seconds before answering back, with an unfeigned grin,:'aaj mera off duty hai...is liye agaya tha doctor...'
Niyati sighed with flared nose before keeping her eyes further over his seeming to be serene face and gazed with smoky eyes until a small wave dashed upon them making her unstable and she grunted with reflex,:'ohh...my ...' Daya grasped her quick to stop her falling from sitting position... Niyati felt embarrassed though she stem her emotion with a flippant smile,:' ttha...thanks...Daya...' Daya too with a titter handled the stiflng embarrassment of the situation and then suggested with prudence,:'chaliye...hum paidal chale...us taraf...?' he waited for Niyati's approval and niyati agreed wiping out the drenched sands from her face...
Daya and Niyati leapt to their feet and kept ambling along the shore in slow pace,feeling a little queer, though the fresh air of the sea perhaps revived their energy and Niyati came back with humour again,:' hmmmm...soch rahi hun ki...inspector Dayaaa...off duty ke din...koi orphanage ya oldage home me naa rehke...yaa...koi...charitable trust ke sath...din na guzar ke...achanak...beach me kyu agaye?' there was a mixture of curiosity and humour in her dark adorned eyes and she added a little scornfully,:'kyaa yeee...ajeeb nahi hai?'
Daya chuckled darting his face here and there before answering back with equal humour,:' ajeeb to ye bhi hai doctor...ki... Pradhan Inspector Daya ko jhagra karte huye na soch ke...kuchh aur soch rahi hai uske bare me...'
Niyati's lips curled and she smirked faintly to say,:'abhi bhi aap bilkul waise hi hain...ziddi aur...'
:'aur...?' Daya asked looking at her straight and the comical smile slowly ebbed away from his face as he experienced something unusual within her eyes...something which was inexplicable and even unimaginable to him...He averted his glance prudently and then in an effort to dispel the embarrassment he countered,:'waise...aaj aap ka bhi...chhutti hai...' there was a slight hesitation in asking her anything and thus Daya tried to conclude it from her appearance in the beach in an hour in which she should have been in her lab...
Niyati gazed at him a little cryptically before evading her glance sharply from him with a half sneer and half smile and replied like an obedient girl making nothing unobtrusive,:'mera abhi...roz hi...chhutti hai ...' she then heaved a long sigh unknowingly giving hints to Daya that she was going through even not severe but a faint mental depression...
His brows drew together as he looked at her reflective face but he chose to maintain decent silence...For about a minute there was deadly silence between the two except the roar of the sea...Niyati divulged finally,:' pichhle saal...nanajee ka...dehant ho gaya...' she kept adding drily,:' nani ko mere pas le ayi thi...unka bhi waqt beet jayega aur...' she paused and then added with a sigh,:'mera bhi...' Both kept plodding slowly...Daya had a concerned anticipation to listen to more from her while Niyati took it a little long to continue,:' magar nanajee ko khone ka gham...woh bhul nahi pa rahi hai...aur ...depression itna hi bar gaya...ki...mujhe laga...agar main ...abhi har waqt...un ke pas na reh pau...to...' she managed a lump down her throat and said,:'to...main un ko bhi...kho dungi...' She now became conscious and said in almost business like voice,:'is liye...professional kaam se...sabbatical liyaa...'
Daya kept looking at her astoundingly, before revealing his thought,:'aapne...bohut achcha kiya hai...kyuki...' saying that much he fended off with an embarrassed glance feeling that his opinion hadn't been called for and he was quick to apologise,:' maaf kijiye...agar maine koi galat baat keh diya to...'
Niyati with narrow eyes and quizzical glance, stopped walking and turning towards him, she commented ,:'mazak kar rahe hain aap?'
Daya feeling more repentant answered back promptly,:'jee nahi...main mazak to nahi kiya tha...bas...mmujhe jo laga tha woh hi kaha...'
Niyati with a curt glance now asked him, as if to test him more intensely,:'kyu aisa laga tha aap ko ki maine achcha kam kiya?'
Daya braced himself to counter the sharp glances of Niyati,:'kyuki...jeevan ...ek hisab ka khata nahi hai...Nanijee ke sath bitaya huya palo ka keemat...shayaad...bohut zada hai...chahe...is duniya ki hisabi logo ke liye nahi...magar aap ke liye...' he stopped finding Niyati staring at him with a smile reflecting a mixture of stupefaction and a little conceited smirk simultaneously...Crimson hue spread over his face as he found the situation grossly uncomfortable and lowering his eyes down he breathed with discomfort,:'chale?'
They resumed plodding ahead and unexpectedly Niyati broke the silence this time,:' aap pehla insan hai...' she drawled in her effort to show her carelessness about everything,:' jo ye kaha ki...mera faisla...sahi tha...'
Daya found himself flashing a dolorous smile at her feeling that perhaps she had to go through a difficult ordeal for her wish to spend her time with her grandmother...
Niyati remarked being sunk in cogitation,:' hala ki...mujhe...logo ki baato ki...fikr karne ki...zada adaat nahi hai...magar phir bhi...' she stopped with a sigh and tried to finish it with a forced smile...Daya too flashed her a courteous smile as they kept wading slowly being almost silent and carrying an inexplicable bashfulness until Niyati's phone blinked ...
:'nani ka phone...' she informed Daya and then received it,:'haa naani...sorry...tumhe neend se jagaana achcha nahi laga...isliye na batake hi chali aayi aaj...' she cooed like a little girl which made Daya nonplused as he had never imagined such an unknown personality hidden beneath her rough & tough exterior...He too stopped walking and waited for her to finish her phone looking around...
:'kkya? aap kaun bol rahe hain?' Niyati's voice changed radically and anxiety seeped through her face,:' My Gwwwd...please aap log rukiyee...main abhi arahi hun...' she started running towards the road forgetting the fact that Daya was her companion and she should inform him something...Daya sensed that something had been wrong, yelled from the back,:'dr. niyatiii...kya ho gaya?'
Niyati with a panic stricken face now informed him,:'woh...nani gir gaye hain...mujhe abhi jana parega...' Daya too stepped ahead hurriedly along with her...As they reached on the road, Niyati now spluttered while panting,:'aap kyu arahe hain...'
Daya stated with a grim face,:'chaliye...ho sakta hai...hospital me le jana pare...aur...' he was interrupted as niyati shrieked out,:'nahi...' at the very next moment she tried to mitigate herself and Daya noticed that tears were rippling in her eyes...
He looked at her sympathetically before jabbering out,:'chaliye...jaldi...'
It took five minutes to reach at Niyati's ground floor bunglow...There was a knot of people in the sitting room and Niyati rushed there frantically before locating her grandmother lying on the sofa...Blood was still oozing out from the back of her head and someone was rubbing ice on the wound...
:'my gawwd...stiches karna parega...' she inferred looking at the wound at a glance...She hastened to snatch a writing pad,muttering out,:'mujhe ye sab ka jaroorat hai...please koi mujhe la ke de sakte hain?'
Daya thrust himself ahead and stated with genuine concern,:'mujhe dijiye...'
Niyati scribbled something on a paper and then handed it to Daya...Daya rushed out without wasting any time...