Chap 31 LIFE AFTER MARRIAGE

Ghazal entered into another stage of her life. From the sweet cosy little  home of her grand father , she had come into a huge house with large rooms but no one to occupy them. Arun lived all alone with an army of staff to look after the huge mansion. Ghazal seemed lost in the large house with no one to share her thoughts and feelings and no one to answer her queries. Arun seemed to have time only for his business, even when he was at home, he had some or the other work to deal with. Loneliness seeped in gradually into her life. He didn’t even like her friends, and whenever they came to meet her, his indifference made them feel bad, and slowly they stopped coming at her house (yes house it was, never her home, for she never belonged there.). But Mihir could not leave his best friend alone in her misery. He kept in touch, calling her alternate days and sometimes visiting her too, until that doomed day , when Arun insulted him with abuses of very low order , blaming him for interfering in their married life. Ghazal couldn’t take her best friend’s insult , with tears in her eyes, asked  Mihir to leave and never to return again.
          That was the day, her tears never dried. Slowly she lost all interest in life, her pretty face withered like a dried flower. She rarely visited her grandfather now, fearing that he’ll see the reality in her sad eyes. But how long could she hide her feelings from him, who could read her mind by just looking at her. The shock of seeing his delicate doll shattered once again, was too much for him and one morning Mihir found him lying in peace, with dried tears on his face. He had left this world, leaving Ghazal all alone in her misery.