Page 174 - Till the Last Breath . . .

responsible socialite, wouldn’t mind. She had always found it bizarre to tell

her friends that her daughter was doing engineering from a premier
institute. Kajal knew her mom’s friends thought they had paid for her
daughter’s admission into an engineering college. The day she had cleared

the entrance examination was a day of rampant gossip in her mom’s circle.
The news of her daughter applying to a college that taught liberal arts and

not switchgear mechanics would certainly gladden her.
Only yesterday she had talked to her sisters and they seemed enthusiastic

about their sister’s career move. But they seldom opposed her choices in
life. She was the spirited little girl who was loved to bits by her family. She

wondered how much of her decision was influenced by her recent break-up
with Varun and Dushyant’s behaviour towards her. Was she running away
from things which had the capacity to hurt her? Or did she realize there was

nothing left in Delhi for her to stay back? For she knew she had a perfect
life apart from a few speed bumps—Dushyant, Varun and Fourier

transforms—that upset her rhythm here and there. Impulsively, she left her
hostel room, her hair still in disarray and her clothes crumpled and untidy.

She waved frantically for an auto to stop and asked the driver to take her to
GKL Hospital.

As the wind hit her face, pulling her back from her own dreamlike world,
she started to grapple with the reality of facing Dushyant again. Dushyant
had always struck her as someone who loved once, and never again, so she

knew Dushyant was intentionally pushing her away. The rage in his eyes,
the Angry Vein on his temple and the clenched fists were just a physical

manifestation of how Dushyant still felt about her. She had seen and faced
his ire before, the day they had kissed their last.

The autorickshaw driver dropped her at the entrance of the hospital and
Kajal nervously clutched her handbag. She was sweating now even though

there was a slight nip in the air. Her heart was pumping furiously and her
mind argued the futility of such an exercise. Reluctantly, she trudged
towards the receptionist and asked if the patient was still in the same room

as before. The receptionist checked the database and confirmed this.