An ineffable discomfort engulfed him-it seemed to Daya...It was the high time he should leave the residence of Niyati after the quiet yet blissful celebration of her birthday but ...his vow to listen to her words kept him riveted there like an irresolute creature who had been shackled by an eccentric inconvenience...Niyati had offered him soft drinks after dinner and he was waiting for her to come sitting on the stair like seats in the garden...His face was brightened with the lights of the candles and his serene eyes seemed to wander over the flagged passage of the garden...

Niyati stepped sluggishly towards him, holding two glasses full of drink...The coruscating effect and the swish of her lehenga seemed to be merged with the mystical darkness of the night...A faint smile of profound reverence reflected over her face till his feature was getting visible to her...She stopped, watching Daya's gleaming face which seemed ethereal at that moment...It seemed if she had the magical power to stop the flowing time, then perhaps she would use it at the very moment...to gaze at him for hours, being destitute of awareness and the happenings around her.. The spasmodic trembling within her couldn't be controlled and she could felt her rising pulse as the tension grew inside her..When she was desperately fighting with the quivering surge in her veins, her every effort shattered as the man started humming a tune of ghazal and the sonority of his voice dashing upon every nook & corner of her heart & body,seemed to mingle with her flowing blood, leaving her weak against her knee..She wished to plump herself down there for listening to his melodious croon making herself inconspicuous..but...Daya's restive eyes abruptly fell upon her when he was looking around him,perhaps to fight with the loneliness?

:'are!'he was embarrassed initially,:'aap aa gaye hain..' stated he with a very genial smile as he advanced towards her suavely..

Niyati ventured to smile back, but gradually the smile trailed away as her gleaming eyes pregnant with unspoken messages and queries, regarded him scanningly...

Daya felt disconcerted under her queer glance...and almost impelled to clip his tongue as the time was flowing by and the coolness of the midnight started descending upon the garden besieged by the greenery..

:'doctor...'he murmured with an odd scare and the ripple of discomfiture over his face perhaps brought her back to wakefulness...Forcing an inane smile over her overwrought face she raised one glass towards him...Daya received it with an amiable smile and then cued her to come to the place where he had been sitting...Niyati followed him like a bewildered one who had become bereft of awareness..

The distant sough of the sea was getting audible and a half moon was peeping through the rustling foliages of the trees...

:'cheers,'Niyati muttered in a flummoxed state of mind, though wearing the veneer of a confident one...

Daya further with a courteous smile, started sipping the drink slowly, fixing his eyes at elsewhere...

Niyati's expectant eyes though concentrated upon his moving lips those radiated a vitality that drew her like a magnet...It seemed that the swooshing leaves were mocking at their long brittle silence...

Niyati's lips parted and stiffened feeling the bottomless helplessness of her heart...to unravel a simple truth to him...She took a long breath punctuated with several even gasps..

Daya perceived the need of having a conversation and cudgeling his brain he forced himself to start it,:'ajeeb sa...shaam tha na...aaj?'

Silence of Niyati drove him to turn his face towards her and to his utter consternation he noticed that she was slowly and perhaps unmindfully pouring the drink out of her glass into a tub..Before he could utter anything, Niyati began answering him,:'haaa...'a note of faint scorn seeped through her voice,:'hoga aap ke pas ajeeb...'she paused and resurrected back soon,:'magar mere pas...yaadgar ban ke rahega ye shaam..'

Daya's eyes narrowed in astonishment and he kept scanning her face with a quizzical glance..

Niyati took another minute in looking at him with a forced smile that unknowingly turned lugubrious, revaling her stabbing pain,:'thanks...'she succeeded in uttering, pressing her lips,:'aap ke karan...aaj...'she was desperate to conceal every pant of her in between every two words,:'nani ko...bohut hi zada...khushi mila...' It seemed that her heart would burst with the burden of pang having been insanely restive to divulge,:'aur sab se zada khushi mila nani ke natin ko...Kya aap ko kuchh dikhai deta hai? kaise dikhai dega aap ko? Kabhi mere akho ki bhasha padne ka koshish kiya aap? Kabhi aap ke patthar jaise dil ko ye jan ne ki jee kiya...ki...kyu ye ladki...adhi raat me...aap ke sath baithe hai abhi? Ajeeb to aap hain Dayaa...' A woebegone smile rippled through her face and her eyes darted here & there in her vain effort to appease her pent up pain and when her eyes accidentally fell upon him,she boggled at his normally softened face which flooded with a horrendous gloom..

:'sahi kaha aap ne..'he clipped his tongue,dismally,:'yaad dila diya mujhe...'he sighed perhaps in dejection,:'ke...nani mera koi nahi hai...'

Embittered repentance swirled inside Niyati for her indiscreet remarks but...she was too late..Her guilt burgeoned gradually as Daya further added,:'unko khush dekhne ke liye...kuchh karne se...mujhe thanks milega..'tears glistened at the corner of Daya's eyes which he daubbed quickly with a bleak smile...

Niyati gazed deep at him and felt within a minute that her eyes were brimming with pain as she continued cursing herself for her impetuosity..The man who had left no stone unturned to make her grandmother happy,she would do no good for him except being the reason of his pain & discomfort..She kept fighting & floundering within agonizing maelstrom until it weighed her down beyond human endurance and in fierce restiveness she did what she never dreamt of doing,in coherence...Her embellished hand with bangles touched his artistic long fingers with chinking sound while her voice flickered dangerously as she spluttered,: 'please...aise na kahiye...'

Daya was staggered and his luminous eyes were widened in astonishment...Before he could react, hot exultant tears trickled down her pinkish cheeks and glossy lips started quivering in her hopeless effort to curb her emotions..

Daya reached perhaps at the paroxysm of bafflement and some seconds went by in bridling his perplexity...

:'I am sorry,'Niyati's voice choked and turned more husky than usual,:'agar...maine...' she paused and swallowed a knot of pain..:'aap ko...taqleef diya to...'drops of tears sparkled standing over her lashes...

Daya waking up from the morasses of confusion,muttered out,:'maafi...shayad...mujhe mangna ..chaiye tha doctor...' deep anguish imprinted on his face..:'shayad...main hi...galat keh diya..' he paused irresolutely while a stifling silence throbbed between them till he came back with a wan smile,:'aap...shayad..thak gayi hai...Aap ko...aram ka ...jaroorat hai...'

Deep sobs racked her inside and in her effort to repress it,she clenched Daya's palm tightly...

Daya felt that icy fear twisted around him and with an apprehension as his sympathetic eyes fell upon her,the galvanizing glance of her created a tremor inside him...What had been transpiring since the evening though was queer but satisfying until now...Eccentricity could perfectly be matched with doctor Pradhan..but...her behaviour didn't seem to be outrageous but rather disorganized...It seemed as if there had been a tight knot within her, begging for release...Something very serious with which perhaps her life had been merged, lurking beneath her friendly, smiling bantering exterior...Had she been pretending to be happy & jovial? Had she been striving with difficulty in cracking witty jokes? The lines of concentration deepened along his brows as the pressure of her hand was quite perceivable to him...

There was a spark of some indefinable emotion in her eyes which he ...He cudgeled his brain to stop musing about all these as an inconceivable scare was scampering inside him...

:'aap se...' Niyati's voice lowered to almost a whisper,:'kuchh kehna tha..'

Daya replied looking at some tub, masking his restiveness with feigned apathy, :'kahiye..'

One full minute elapsed with the stillness of the atmosphere...The leaves were swaying sluggishly making them aware about the peaceful yet fervent quietness between them...

:'aap ne...'spluttered Niyati,with glowing eyes,:'shaam ko aaj kaha ke...'she paused, sighed and returned back,:'meri khushi khushi...is duniya me...jeena hi...' cyclonic waves of shyness tried desperately to seal her lips but she vanquished every obstacle and continued in unswerving spirit,:'mere parents ka...safalta hoga...'

Daya waited for her words to be completed while an innate tenderness reflected over his face...

Niyati temporized perhaps in mustering her thoughts twiddling with her bangles and came back lately,:'mmagar...meri khushi...' she paused closing her eyes as her pulse skittered alarmingly...

The silence was long and queer testing stringently the patience of the man...He kept studying her face,unhurriedly,feature by feature,and an anxiety mingled with apprehension seeped through his face when he at last murmured,gently,:'doctor...'

The pressure of her ornamented hand rose as very slowly and almost inconceivably her fingers found places within his long ones to clench his palm...

Beads of sweat gathered and glistened over her forehead & neck as she was heaving to find her own voice and it finally transpired when Daya jabbered for the consecutive time,:'doctor...aap...' his words trailed away as Niyati breathed fervently,:'aap se jura huya hai Dayaa...' Her glowing eyes wandered through the face of Daya which was brightened mystically with an opalescent hue due to the hide & seek of the moon and the buffeting leaves of the trees.. Sheer bafflement & surprise siphoned the blood from his face as he gazed at her bereft of speech...

The parlance of her eyes turned opaque as her susurrated words blending with the cool breeze rustled through the trees...:'ye na keh ke...main reh nahi pa rahi thi Dayaa...dus saal se...jo chhupane ki...koshish kiya...woh...aaj...' her words quivered with bellowing emotions,:'aaj...na...kehti...' her voice flickered vehemently; cheeks stained with crimson in pain; nose flared dangerously...:'to...' She was on the verge of breaking down but fended off and startled as Daya's left palm touched her palm that was locked with his right one...He averted his eyes finally though a shocking incredulity left over his face...His restive eyes seemed to settle finally over a distant tub with a vague glance...

Niyati's expectant eyes gleamed with luster when she whispered further in her unbridled urge to penetrate into his mystical yet enchanting musings..:"kkuchh...kahenge nahi aap?"

Her breath was getting choked with an apprehension but she fought well with it as a wan smile of him revived her dwindling hope...Daya,dawdled in answering her perhaps to be more poised and the candle light though failed screening the discomfort that reflecting over his face,aching Niyati...

:'pata nahi chal raha hai...'he could manage to utter after almost five long minutes,:'kya kahu...' perhaps he was going to say more but before that he felt the pressure of Niyati's hand released abruptly from his and as his face turned towards her,Niyati's face had been contorted in her dangling efforts to repress her emotions...

Before she could surmise any idea about his feelings within her mind,he hastened,urgently,:'kyuki...aisa lag raha hai ...ki...mujhe...itna uchai me...bithane ke pehle...kash...'

The surging pain was getting mitigated by itself as she concentrated on his words that appeared most precious for her life at that moment...

:'kaash...mere bare me...main aap ko...kuchh keh pata...' rueful hue glowed over his face,:'kaash aap ye jan pate ki...' it seemed that a pensive shimmer trembled over his eyes,:"jis aadmi ko...aap ...' a discomfiture contained a little shyness & embarrassment,rippled through his face,:'ye darja de diya...woh...kaisa hai...' he paused & sighed,:'kya hai uska ateet...'

Niyati's eyes deepened as she murmured beneath her breath,'Na samajh...buddhu...ye bhi nahi pata hai aap ko...ke...mera dil...sab pad liya...bas aap ka muskurahat dekh ke...aap ka jhuki nazro ka bhasha dekh ke...aap ka akho ka natkhatpan dekh ke...aap ka...' her breath caught at her lungs as Daya glanced at her with a rare tenderness & sympathy that she had never noticed before..

:'kya faida?'Niyati's impassioned whisper reverbrated through the air,:'jab...samundar me...' A frightening tremor electrified him locking his eyes with her melting magical eyes,:'koi kud gayi hai...'

Daya evaded eyes with a flummoxed expression that already written over his face...Indeed,what would be the gain if one had already committed a blunder? A weary sigh escaped from his throat and a searing guilt swirled up within him,to even look at her brimming & expectant eyes...When he was grappling in the dark to find a plausible reply,her words made him more befuddled spreading russet hue over his face...

:'ab to ya phir...samundar utarna hai..nahi to...dub jana hai...' her words pregnant with unbridled passion & emotion,arrested his mind forcing him to glance at her even if with a reticent face..

Their lips were sealed for couple of minutes enveloping the atmosphere with a throttling discomfort for both until Daya broke the silence with a little forced & inane smile,:'mmagar...main...' he ventured to smile normally but failed...

:'jan na ...nahi chahenge aap...'acquiring a veneer of poise,he jabbered out,:'ke mere jeevan me kya kya hai? kis kis daur se guzar ke...' a faint inconvenience was visible over his face,:'aaj yaha pe ake ...pahuncha hun main?'

The silence was queer & long enough to drive him to look at her...Flooding cheeks of her were glistening in flickering candlelight as her quivering lips revealed in a trembling voice repressing a suffocating pain,:'aap ko...keh ke...achcha lagega...to main...sunungi...'

A pall of gloomy darkness pervaded his face as he put effort to flash a smile that unconsciously turned bleak..His body hunched forward as he kept looking in the distant darkness reflectively...Every moments seemed carrying heavy burden and clueless they were how much moments passed by,until Niyati spluttered in wavering voice,:'kaun hai woh?'

Daya was startled in the beginning but slowly he possessed the composure to reply back with a dolorous smile,:'hai nahi...thi...'

A chinking pain stirred within Niyati which she tried to appease forcefully for asking him in a trembling voice,:'thi?' her wandering eyes kept scrutinising his face minutely before spluttering more,:'matlab...uski...shaadi ho chuka hai...' she put the query rather like a conclusion...

Daya had no hurry to reply back looking at her,:'jee nahi...' Though it was an onerous task to defeat the stabbing pain inside,he decided not to torture the patience of the lady more and with a dismal smile, he declared,:'shaadi to nahi huya abhi bhi...magar jald hi honewala hai...'

:'to phir...'niyati murmured in bated breath,:'abhi bhi to kuchh kiya ja sakta hai...'

Daya's luminous eyes couldn't resist reflecting sheer surprise seeing Niyati's expectant face that was slowly recovering from hopelessness..

:'abhi bhi ye shaadi ...roka ja sakta hai...'she repeated emphatically as a faint yet optimistic smile appeared on her face..

An inadverdent tenderness spread over his face as he finally shook his head to divulge,:'nahi doctor...'

Niyati daubbed her eyes with quickened pace and countered in a suggestive tone,:'kyu nahi? main baat karungi usse...'she looked like fully restored back into her own self perhaps acquiring a semblance of exuberance...

An intense yet inexplicable burden of agony abruptly weighed upon his heart as he looked upon her ostensibly joyous face...Had he ever felt the urge to place her in a situation where she would long for his peace and well being? Since the forensic day nine years back till date,doctor Niyati Pradhan had been always a figure for him with whom he would have exciting repartee and with whom he loved to talk..But never for an iota of second the thought visited his mind that doctor Niyati who had maintained stringent exterior ever since he knew her,would be able to be stirred with such fervent emotion; with so much yearn to see him happy...It appeared ...incredulous! but...

:'soch kya rahe hai aap?'she butted in within his straying flummoxed thoughts,:"mujhe jaldi uski naam bataiye aur pata dijiye..' she was dubiously prompt and incredibly sincere & cheerful...

Daya kept scanning her face in faint almost extinguishing candle lights...

:'kya?'she asked him trying desperately to bring an animated grin,:'kya dekh rahe hain aap...aise?'her vain efforts couldn't resist the impassioned whisper as her eyes were shining abnormally...

Daya averted his glance with a dim smile..How could he divulge that it was apparent what was lurking beneath her forced gaiety...How could he reveal that it was too miserable to accept that...her gaiety and her truthful emotion had been submitted to such a man...who...had been weary & emptied in handling with such a delicacy...She could be at the beginning of a journey but...he had ambled along a long path so far 'emotion for a woman' was concerned...He had accepted the grim fact that it was simply not for him,whose life had been engulfed with crime & brutality...But why everytime,when he prepared himself to accept such an unpleasant truth about his life,some upheaval occured to him? He had allowed and agreed to live a recluse life,if not happily but peacefully but then why his fate catapulted him in an uncomfortable predicament everytime forcing him to reconsider his thoughts? It perplexed him the most and left him at the muzzled state of mind...

A flippant smile crossed Daya's face when he averted his glance once more to reply back,:'kuchh nahi doctor...bas ye ke...' a tormenting guilt seeped through his face,:'ke...mere karan...aap ko...kitna...taqleef pahucha...'

Niyati felt the ripple of pain trying to burst out but her eyes were as crystallized as could describe her poised...

:'aap ke zindegi me koi hai...'she swallowed the lump and spluttered,:'ye jan ke taqleef kam ho gaya...'a forced smile contorted her face...

:'nahi doctor,'Daya was gentle yet prompt perhaps to rectify her,:'woh mera galatfaimi tha...' dreary smile spread a gloomy pallor over his face..:'magar...'he returned back quickly desperately trying to conquer the tremble inside him,:'magar mujhe koi afsos nahi hai...kyuki...' he fumbled with a fatuous smile,:'woh kaffi khush hai uske mangetar ke sath...so...' he paused as his eyes wandered vaguely into the darkness before he shrugged in his lame effort to dismiss the chinking pain inside..:'I am quite happy now...' he tried to infer perhaps to persuade himself but his smile dispelled looking at the gleaming eyes of Niyati which seemed not at all convinced...

:'maine woh sab bhula diya,' he repeated emphasizing his words to coax Niyati,:'aur koshish karke ab main us se bahar hun...' he faltered as suddenly it struck him that he was nattering on quite foolishly...

:'woh to dekh hi rahi hun,'Niyati remarked in a teasing tone with a visible scoff..

Daya looked back at her taunting face and her scornful smile satisfied him lifting a burden off his heart...

:'aise hanste huye aap achche lagte hain,'commented Daya earnestly along with a sigh of relief...

Niyati smirked again though the darkness mercifully concealed the grief she had been carrying...

Silence prevailed for a minute, before Niyati urged with a thick voice,:'bohut raat ho chuka hai...Aap ko...atak ke rakhna...thik nahi lag raha hai...'

Daya spluttered with discomfort,:'dost dost ko...aise nahi kehte hain...'

Niyati maintained silence until it lasted for too long and Daya looked at her anticipating some words...

:'dost samajhte hain aap mujhe?'she shot the question then with a dreary smile..

A faint yet significant smile decked his face and it gradually broadened when he nodded endearingly...

Niyati hunched towards him with misty eyes murmuring with vehement fervour,:'please mujhe uski naam bataiye...please...It's ...'

drops of tears coursed down her cheeks copiously as she ventured to continue,:'it's...urgent...'

Daya clenched her begging hands with sheer shock and as she broke down with sobs,Daya in his desperate yearn to lessen her pain,patted her hair,at first hesitatingly and then with gentle care...

Several seconds went by before he decided to clip his tongue,:'doctor...'

Niyati laughed like a bewildwered histrionic within the sobs,with inconceivable pronunciation,:'dekha? aap to mera naam tak labs pe late nahi...kya koi dost dost ko...aise pukarte hain?'

Daya was utterly aghast at the vigour of her emotion and he was desperate to bring her down into a normal state however he felt inconvenient...

:'Niyati...'he uttered gently in a way one lull a baby...:'aise rone ke pehle...'he ventured daringly,:'mera kuchh baat sunenge aap?'

Niyati sniffed several times before wiping her tear-suffused face and trying ardently to restore back her mask of a dignified & nonchalant woman but she failed as violent sobs were betraying her...Finally she could settle herself steadily only when Daya's arms wrapped her from behind making her to look into his gleaming eyes with fervour...

:'mera vishwas kijiye..' muttered Daya trying to spread a placid smile over his face,:'mujhe ...'he faltered with irresoluteness,:'mujhe sach me...kuchh nahi chaiye...'he revealed like a child who tried to console his mother seeing her in tears..but before he could add more,Niyati butted in with fervid yearn,:'aap ko to sab samajh me ata hai!'her lips quivered and her palms trembled in her efforts to bury the sobs,:'bas ye chhor ke...ki...khud ka khayal rakhna ...'a painful grunt escpaed from her lips as she uttered the rest,:'bhi jaroori hota hai...'

Daya's befuddled eyes were keenly surveying each & every hue of her face ...The person whom he encountered with, twelve years back in the forensic,seemed to die...The person who used to smirk every now & then with superfluous smugness,seemed to vanish into the air...The person within the body of that lady named doctor Niyati Pradhan appeared to be a person whom he was not familiar with...A person-gentle,sympathetic,loving,emotional and...immensely sensitive and how much he was watching her,it appeared beyond that he could believe...An unknown tenderness somehow seizing him slowly pricking his heart with a searing pain..

:'jaroori hai kya...' he was startled as Niyati resumed after a long pause,:'ke...har kaam...bas...jaroorat se hi...karna parega?'

Even remaining within the morass of perplexity,he found a weary smile on his face discerning that his words of the early night had been rebounded on him and who could be more witty than doctor pradhan to do it?

:'baato me aap ki sath jeetna...' he endeavoured,:'na mumkeen hai...' finished Daya with a humorous look and it worked magically as her teary eyes gleamed and drenched face brightened with a smile even if for some ephemeral moments..The smile faded away in her yearn to search something within his precious smile...search for a crust of affection...tenderness...sympathy...search for an insanity which was tearing her apart...search for passion that he had ignited inside her,leaving her thirsty of his gentle care...How could she make it apparent what her lovelorn heart was murmuring inside? Wasn't it insisting her to make him happy? to see him happy?

Daya felt the flame of fervour,that was visible through her eloquent eyes and shrunk in an emotion that could be perhaps defined as an assortment of scare,discomfort & pain...she would perhaps be hurt if he reminded her about the time and silence would do no good either in that very moment when she was at the summit of her emotional outburst...He kept preparing himself for speaking something that would make her a little happy mitigating her pain but before that she spluttered in wavering voice,:'bohut torture kar rahi hun kya...main aap ko?'

Daya put effort to flash a smile before replying back, with a visible incredulity over his face,:'aap ko...pehchan pana...mushkil ho raha hai...doc...' A shy smile appeared over his face as he corrected himself,:' matlab...Niyati...'

Niyati initially sunk deep into the coyness of Daya's face but then she answered back earnestly,murmuring with vehemence:'ye badlav...bas aap laye hain Daya...'

Daya found himself dumb,staring awefully at her imploring eyes...Her risen breath was perceivable to him and before he could recover himself Niyati's eyes were almost getting closed and her head was leant against his shoulder...Everything around her seemed to be dizzy and thus she took refuge to the arm where she felt safest at that moment...She wasn't in a state to analyse whether she had crossed the limit or not,whether her incoherent behaviour would bring her shame afterwards or not...but she was in a confounding state from where she could only muse about him and she could only see his face coming unbidden before her bemused eyes...It seemed as if she was swimming through a haze of feelings & desires,specially so when the heat of his body infiltrated through her...Insulating herself by the warmth of his,she kept lying there while the dimmed consciousness merged with the peaceful slumber...