A/N: Happy Holi to everyone!
COLORS
[Part 4]
"HOLI HAI!"
Colors flew in the sky. Pink, green, blue, red and different colors decorated the Government's bungalow. The green grass had made red and blue her friends and played with them as people ran from corner to corner with colors in their hand. There was joy; there was fun, there was COLOR of life. All men and women were painted in gulaal from tip to toe and enjoyed like kids. Nobody could ever believe that they were reputed officers of the Mumbai crime branch.
Now, talking about CID:
ACP and Salunkhe came in first with other senior officers early in the morning so as to attend the inauguration program. Girls (Tarika, Shreya, and Purvi) had already reached the ceremonial hall and prepared sweets with other lady officers. Men were late as usual and their reason for this was that they don't get up so fast on holidays or HOLI-days, considering BOTH, the same. They reached there at 11 o' clock in the morning in white clothes. As soon as they entered the gate, known-officers-seemed-to-be-unknown came with colors in their hands and shouted 'HAPPY HOLI!'. They were all covered with colors and hard to identify. They hugged each other and battled with each other to put color. And Done! Now our CID officers also looked like the animals of the same zoo.
Daya came in a bit late. Abhijeet and others were still at the entrance, playing with colors.
"Arey DAYA!" One of the monkeys screamed and raised his hand to put color on Daya. Daya looked at him perplexed and immediately caught his hand. He smiled at him with a 'sorry' look.
"Kya yaar?" Another man-turned-monkey asked.
Daya scanned the whole ground looking for somebody and answered, "Who….. mein thori baad khelunga. Don't mind."
"Kya yaar? Isme mind ki kya baat hai?" They said and spoke to each other about work. Meanwhile a group of girls came and attacked Abhijeet. "Abhijeet Sir, Abhijeet Sir!" They all screamed and applied color on his cheek. He blushed and played with them. He took handful of colors and rubbed it on their face. Abhijeet played with one of them and asked Daya, "Kya yaar? Is baar sabse pehle rang Shreya se lagwaoge. Huh?"
Daya looked at him as he played with the girls. Daya smirked and answered, "Yaar, mera toh….. (He stopped to avoid color which was being applied on Abhijeet) Mera toh pata nahi, par iske baad Tarika tumhe rang lagayegi ya nahi, iska toh nahi pata Boss."
Abhijeet looked at the direction where Daya was staring. A lady in white churidar, was standing at the hall's entrance and glared at him. She held a Belan (Roller) in her hand and clenched it hard. Her anger was on her face and it seemed like she would burst any moment. Abhijeet gulped when he realized she is Tarika and left the lady officers hand he was holding. He managed to smile and took a handful of pink color from the plate. Tarika looked at him for the last time and turned to enter the hall back. Abhijeet ran with the color in his hand.
"Oh Majnu! Pehle ACP sir ke pass chalo!" Daya yelled and clutched his hand to stop him from going to his Tarika. Abhijeet went on struggling to free his hand but Daya pulled him to ACP sir.
ACP stood on a stage with Salunkhe and other senior officers. Daya and Abhijeet climbed up the stage followed by their juniors. Daya bent down to touch ACP's feet and wished him 'Happy Holi!'
ACP sir blessed Daya by placing his hand on his head and wished, "Happy Holi Daya." He waited for Abhijeet who looked at the entrance of the hall. ACP looked at Daya and he smiled embarrassed.
"ABHIJEET!" Daya whispered angrily. Abhijeet looked at Daya and with a sudden realization jumped to ACP's feet.
"Happy Holi Sir!" Abhijeet smiled.
ACP looked at his face and said, "Maar khake aaye ho ya khane wale ho?"
Abhijeet gave an embarrassed smile and was about to open his mouth when Salunkhe screamed from behind, "Khakar hi aaya hoga Boss!" He laughed. Everybody laughed (except Abhijeet) and Daya touched Salunkhe's feet. He hugged him and blessed him. Abhijeet didn't move."Kya yaar? Itna gussa?" Salunkhe asked Abhijeet as he stood glaring at him.
Abhijeet faked a smile and said, "Nahi Sir! Aisa kabhi ho sakta hai? Aap toh itne ache…." He continued when Salunkhe gave a hard pat on his back and hugged him. Abhijeet hugged him back and touched his feet honestly, forgetting everything, as it goes, 'Bura Na mano! HOLI HAI'. The other officer touched ACP and Salunkhe's feet and after a few minutes all dispersed in the crowd running behind each other.
Abhijeet and Daya came down of the stage and looked for their respective girls. They had checked all the girls, right from the gate to the hall.
"Zarur hall mein hi hogi!" Daya screamed as the DJ played the music as loud as possible.
"Meri wali toh pakka hall mein hi hai." Abhijeet screamed back. "Who bhi Belan haath mein leke!" and gulped.
"Ab Abhijeet… kaam aise karoge toh bhugatna toh parega hi!"
Abhijeet glared at Daya. "Daya, tum uski side le rahe ho?"
Daya looked up in the sky with an 'Oh God!' look and turned to answer, "Abhijeet! Tum dono bache ho? Bachche hone ke umar mein tum dono aise karoge toh pata nahi kya hoga?!"
Abhijeet's face lit up at the word 'bachche'. "Waise idea acha hai, bhang peekar….. Shreya!" He yelled pointing her out. Daya looked at the direction Abhijeet was pointing and glanced, as, even she had no colors on her body. She was wearing a white Anarkali and looked beautiful, Daya thought!
"Shreya!" Abhijeet said waving. Shreya saw him and smiled.
As she came closer she recognized a similar face standing beside Abhijeet and smiling at her. Her natural smile slowly turned into a fake one. She didn't know how to face Daya and walked quietly.
"Happy Holi Sir!" She wished Abhijeet when she reached there.
"Haan, Happy Holi! Tarika hall mein hai?" Abhijeet asked hurriedly. Shreya gave slight nod and he rushed towards the hall with two intentions. One, to save himself from the Belan and two and the most important, help Daya in reaching his destination.
Now, Daya and Shreya were left alone. Daya looked here and there and didn't know how to start the conversation. He had a mild smile pasted on his face which he simply couldn't resist. It was his first Holi with Shreya. He wanted to grab her and hug her tight. He had never imagined that he would fall in love with a girl he never offered much attention. It was the day when he could touch her. He felt more and more excited about it and blushed hard.
"Shreya-/Sir" they both started together. Both looked at each other embarrassed. Shreya simply wanted to go. She had imagined so many things since the day she heard from Tarika that Daya loves to play with colors. She thought playing with Daya and run here to there till he clutched her hand and stopped her. But dreams are not reality! After what she had heard last night she didn't want any of her thoughts to come true. She gathered some courage and looked up at Daya, "Sir.."
"Shreya!" Daya interrupted impatiently. "Ek minute….." He said and grabbed handful of colors in his hand. "Happy Holi!" He had just raised his hands when Shreya stepped back to avoid him. Daya looked at her perplexed and shot a question look as she moved another step back.
"Sir, who…." She stopped to look for word. "Who mein holi nahi khelti." She looked down and lied.
"Oh…." He faked a smile as his heard his heart break into thousand pieces. "I am sorry, mujhe…. Pata nahi tha."
"It's okay sir. Mujhe rang se allergy hai." She lied again.
Daya looked at her sympathetically and tried to calm himself. He told himself that she's not doing it purposely! She has a serious reason to do so. "Toh tum, bilkul hi nahi khelti?" He said softly as his voice trembled.
"Nahi sir." She said and looked up to meet his eyes. His eyes looked like he had just returned from a lost battle. She really felt bad at that moment and just wanted to say 'Lagiye Sir! Jee bharkar Lagiye!' but she couldn't. She sighed and said, "Sir mein jaaun? Tarika akeli hogi?"
Daya looked at the color in her hand and answered absentmindedly, "Haan, jaao. Akeli hogi…."
Shreya couldn't control anymore. She turned and even after avoiding so much a tear slipped down her eye. She wiped it and moved away. Daya turned and started walking the other way.
"Shreya!" Daya heard Nikhil screaming in joy. He turned and found out something he had never expected, even in his worst nightmares. There, his Shreya, who had just refused him, played Holi with Nikhil, Pankaj and Purvi. Nikhil was rubbing blue color on her cheek and Pankaj struggled to move him aside with green color in his hand. Purvi attacked Nikhil from behind and he turned to grab her. Pankaj took advantage and yelled 'Happy Holi Shreya!' painting her green. Daya stepped forward to help her but he was shocked when he saw Shreya picking a handful from the plate and stormed at Pankaj. Purvi saw her and moved to help Shreya. Both girls were now yelling and shouting and played with Pankaj as he fell on the ground. Nikhil came running with a bucket full of color and poured it on the three. They all laughed and ran after each other.
Daya observed all this. Shreya, who told him that she's allergic to color was now playing with her colleagues and screamed with joy. Daya's eyes filled with tears. He thought: "Did anything actually happen? Had he hurt her by any chance? Did she mind when they were at Abhijeet's house? Or, was it like... she's playing with his emotions? What if she never actually loved him? What if she really had somebody else in her life? But, why did she refuse him? She's playing with her other colleagues? Then? Why? Why? Why?"
He looked at her as he felt his heart burning. He clenched his fist hard and the untouched color slowly, dripped from his hand and colored the ground red-the color of love as well as color of rage.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review :)