The entire credit of reviving my novel goes to Swati and Kush. I requested them to carry on with my 'almost sluggish' novel and they have done well to perk up things.
I liked their version very much......Now let's see how it all unfolds. I will also be following their narration closely. ....

....Hope to have you all with me in this ........

Here goes ,



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Binodini Khanna stood looking through glass wall of her living room and at the tiny specks of light that went past blocks at slow deliberate speed. Smallness never impressed her. Her eyes moved up the stair of the yellow rectangles of the building in front of her and rested finally on Mumbai’s skyline that was at the same level with her.

From where she stood now, the past was just a tiny faded smudge on the oblivions she had left behind. She had come a long way and never had there been a need for her to look back. There was nothing there. She was Finance Executive, Karma Solutions and there.

For some reason, she had not looked at the calendar today to check for appointments. She knew what date it was and she had rested her mind at that.

Her mobile phone rang and cut through the silence that hung in her room. Prerona was calling. Her lips quivered and curved upwards in a smile. A controlled smile that was famous for its contemptuousness.

The conversation was short and to the point.

“Hi, I am coming over… Yes, now.”

“I missed you,” said Binodini with a seductive hint.

“I missed you too. And I know about the contract you got yesterday. Sourav told me. Besides, how can anyone ever say no to you?” continued the sweet voice humming through the speaker in a monotone.

“Sourav? Is he back?” She enquired with a tinge of concern that she couldn’t hide.

“No. Sourav just called me. I am his wife, you know. Anyway, he is going to come back next week. I believe he called you up as well. Didn’t he tell you? I think he is a little insecure about informing you of his plans. He knows you are quickly going to take his place.” The sweet voice drawled on in a melody that had enchanted Binodini right from the moment she had heard it first.

“Yes!” Binodini laughed, “I am going to quickly replace all the positions he occupies both in his personal and professional life. And I am doing everything  just for you. I hope you know that. Anyways, I have got to go now. Work beckons.” She said and hung up.

Somehow talking to Prerona on mornings like this always gave her the vigor she needed to get through her packed schedule for the day. She turned on her heel and set out to do the mundane morning activities. 

In the past three months, through the march of mind-numbing meetings, appointments with prospective clients, and her busy professional and social life, Binodini could feel something stiffening within her and taking a permanent shape. It was an organ in her mind for taking shape for the life coming ahead. Much like a species evolving itself with the hostile change in its environment—the life coming ahead. She would have to fight society for Prero. She would have to be the ‘man’ in their relationship.

Today the intensity was evermore. And flashing through her mind in a mocking dance of irreverence was a sense of the past. She thought she would sink into the concrete floors of her spacious, expensively decorated cabin with the sheer collective weight of her two lives.

Someone knocked on the door. She could see the soft curved outline of a woman in a green chiffon sari glinting seductively through the frosted glass walls. It had to be Prero. Sourav was miles away from them so they could afford to stretch their luncheon till late noon. The thought brought her some solace and she turned to the calendar to mark that date in red. She always did that when they went out. And then she knew:

It was on that particular date that her mother had breathed her last breath.

That was 10 years back.

Prero entered through the glass door and said:

“Binni...”

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end of this chapter