MAJNU (Lover)

***This is not my story. I’ve taken this plot from Ajeeb Dastaans on Netflix and tried to modify it***

Heart pounding out of rhythm and hormones taking over her body, Lipakshi sat in her royal bedroom in her extravagant red wedding lehenga. Her nervous emotions were all over the place, exerted due to the wedding yet handling herself with grace, she waited for her husband. The door opened and Deepraj walked in, but his steps stopped all of a sudden. He stood at the entrance in his cream sherwani and sandpaper rough face, hesitant about her reaction yet quite firm about his decision. “ I’ve married you only because my father told me to…I am in love with someone else so I can’t love you and neither can I give you any children. Let us consider this marriage a sacrifice between 2 political parties for money and power.”, he stated this as loudly and bluntly as he could. But Lipakshi wasn’t just going to let go, gathering her most savage poker face, she said, “You men will always remain hypocrites…if you are going to cheat me in the very start of our marriage, well… then get ready to be cheated on”.

Deepraj walked out of the room leaving Lipakshi in a puddle of tears. She spent hours crying her eyes out until she couldn’t take it anymore. She had realized that this marriage was nothing but a deal between her MP father and a mafia boss. Her feelings were played by her father’s politics but she wasn’t among the ones who live a hopeless life lost in sadness when there’s no hope visible. Her decision was finally made, she was going to avenge everything that had happened to her. She did not care about life or death anymore and started seducing Deepraj’s mafia men. She started having affairs with them. Men who were genuinely loyal to Deepraj ignored Lipakshi’s behaviour and those who weren’t, started dating her or asking her for sex. But none of them lasted for more than 3 days because DING DONG, you can mess with demons but you cannot mess with Satan himself. Deepraj always caught them and like a true mafia boss he didn’t even flinch before taking their lives. As time passed, experimenting while killing his own men became his new hobby.

Months passed and so did years, Lipakshi’s grudge against her husband was not a news anymore. Everything was going on as usual until one fine day when “he” came. That one fine day was situated in the summers of May. Lipakshi was sitting on the huge swing in her front yard peeling a Mango while Deepraj sat miles away from her. Resting on his armchair with his feet slightly grazing the grass, he spoke to his driver, “Babloo, isn’t your son coming back today?” Babloo’s chest swelled with pride, “Haa sahabji, he is already here. He flew back from London yesterday. But he’ll soon be leaving for USA to start his new job…he’s gotten a job for 1.5 million dollars over there…” Deepraj cut Babloo off, “Uh…what was his name again?”

“His name’s Rajkumar, but Raj feels more modern na…so he’s switched to Raj nowadays”

“Acha?..a few years in a foreign country has changed him so adversely”

“It’s not the way you’re thinking……”

“Invite him over someday. Even I want to see how big he’s grown now.”, Deepraj cut Babloo off.

Out of nowhere, Lipakshi entered this small meeting, fed her husband a slice of mango and left without even bothering to start a conversation. She really was one hell of a savage.

“Ha Babloo, even I want to see your son”, said Ranjhesh, Deepraj’s right hand who was sitting right next to him to break the awkward silence after Lipakshi left.

“Jaroor sahabji…I’ll invite him over”

Half an hour later an army green coloured jeep entered the front yard. It stopped right near Lipakshi’s swing. A 6 feet figure got out from the jeep, “Raj beta!”, Babloo shouted from the other side of the front yard lawn. Raj adjusted his denim jacket over his shoulder and started walking towards his father only to glance at Lipakshi who caught his eye and winked at him. Raj got flustered for a moment but then regained his posture and resumed walking towards his father. “Namaste bhaiyya”, he said to Deepraj while touching his feet. “Welcome to our village Raj”, Deepraj said with a semi-smile while holding Raj by his arms. “Rajkumar is okay sahabji”, Babloo muttered. “Arey Nahi Babloo …he is a city man now, Rajkumar won’t suit him”.

Raj reached his pocket to take out a little transparent box. “Bhaiyya, I bought this Rolex for you”, he said as he handed that glistening box over to Deepraj, “Thank you bhaiyya, thanks a lot for everything that you’ve done for me and my family, especially when baba was in the hospital”

Ranjhesh found this suspicious “You know that Deepraj was the one who broke your father’s leg, right?”

“Yes, he did. But dad deserved it and Bhaiyya’s done so much more to help us that it outweighs everything. Also, I like to return people’s favours with even more fervour”, Raj said without any sign of hesitation.

“You’ll be waiting for dinner today, right Raj?”, Deepraj asked as if commanding him to stay for dinner.

“Sure, I’ll never refuse this honour”, Raj said.

“Hey Raj! This is Lipakshi, Deepraj’s wife”, Lipakshi said as she gave Raj a weirdly touchy hug. She wasn’t going to miss out on this guy, was she?

The atmosphere shifted 180 degrees to being extremely awkward and suffocating as Lipakshi kept staring at Raj who preferred to face the ground instead of facing Lipakshi.

“Namaste bhabhi”, he said looking down.

“Raj, why won’t you look at me?”, Lipakshi asked using her best baby voice.

“The right to look at you only belongs to Deepraj bhaiyya, bhabhi”, Raj replied trying to avoid eye contact.

Anger and the lust for revenge shot up in Lipakshi’s brown orbs as she locked eyes with her husband. “The only regret is that your bhaiyya doesn’t know the value of this right”, Lipakshi said as she reached Deepraj and gave him a little peck on the cheek which was meant to be more of a taunted slap.

Dinner was served hot and tasty that day. Deepraj, of course, sat at the centre of the dining table. Everything was going smoothly, dinner was midway over when Deepraj started talking, “So … Raj, I have an offer to make to you”, Deepraj sounded rather nervous, “ha bhaiyya, bolo na”, Raj said. “Well, I have a job offer for you, would you like to work right here for me, would you like to handle my business for me?”

“But bhaiyya… I already have gotten a job in the US… and I am leaving soon”

“Then tell them you won’t be joining. That job might be great, but I think you should think about staying here too. My business is quite huge right now and with you here to help me…who knows what we would accomplish.”

“But bhaiyya…”

“We all are a big family, right and what in this world is better than working with and helping your family. The company owns worth more than 500 million dollars of shares in the US market. Acha, I promise you a 4-million-dollar salary here. Now….don’t tell me that didn’t convince you”, Deepraj cut Raj off in a rather dominating manner.

Dollars flashed in Raj’s eyes. He took about 10 minutes to speak up and finally agreed with an “Okay bhaiyya”

Rest of the dinner progressed quietly.

Raj’s father was absolutely disappointed with his decision. “I worked hard to send you to the US just so you could come back here and join this slavery! Are you also going to serve those bastards for the rest of your life? Are you going to serve the same people who broke your baba’s leg? Do you even have any idea about what you’ve done?!”, he shouted at Raj as soon as he heard about Raj’s decision. “Baba, do you even know how much money 4 million is! It’s more than 100% of what the US people are offering me.”, Raj said his last words rather hastily as he left for the terrace. Raj’s bungalow had a clear view of Deepraj’s mansion.

He shared a cigarette with his local friend Badraa as they chatted about the village’s happenings.

“Rolex watch for that bastard and nothing for your yaar, ye kya Insaaf Hai bhai!”, Badraa pouted. “Choop baith, I don’t want to hear another lecture from you. The Rolex is fake, that man doesn’t even deserve a hit from my shoe. Also, what’s up with Deepraj’s wife?”, Raj asked. Even a dog is a king inside his own house, no matter how well he was fed at Deepraj’s mansion, he loathed him with every single nerve inside his body. “It’s been about 2 years and she’s not even pregnant. Now that tells you a lot about their marriage. Nahi toh, you know how fast Deep bhaiyya is”, more and more chuckles followed as they stared at the so-called “Deepraj mansion” under the starlit sky gossiping about the what-nots of the village.

Raj’s knowledge about stock exchange was remarkable and so was his willingness to work hard. He used to stay up late at Deepraj mansion to get his work done. Deepraj’s not-so-disciplined company had joined hands with the disciplined efforts of Raj, hence it did receive multiple rewards. In no time, the company started booming with money as Raj brought about 250 million worth of profit. Raj had now become Deepraj’s most trusted underdog, he was trusted even more than Deepraj’s own right hand Ranjhesh. As of Lipakshi, well, she had fallen head over heels for Raj and Lipakshi being Lipakshi never stopped her efforts. She used to flirt with Raj all the time and Raj being the most loyal underdog always ignored Lipakshi which was the most important factor fuelling the trust between Raj and Deepraj. He used to stare at Lipakshi when Deepraj wasn’t around but never did he ever manage to speak a word with her. He knew how big of a deal it was to flirt back with that lady until the day arrived when he mustered up the courage to do so.

One day, Deepraj was leaving for Lucknow for some work, “Raj, we need to attend some important business in Lucknow tomorrow. The Range Rover is already cleaned and washed, get ready at 7:00 am tomorrow morning. We need to leave as soon as we can” “Deep bhaiyya”, Raj put on his puppy face as he walked towards him, “Bhaiyya…actually I’ve got some important work to do here…so I won’t be able to accompany you. Instead Badraa will join you for the trip. Will that be fine?” “Acha thik Hai… you sure you’re not coming?”, Deepraj sounded a bit desperate for Raj’s company. “Sorry bhaiyya, I really have got a lot to do right now”, Raj rejected him with the softest words that he could gather. The night ended with deep talks over beer for the 2 of them… Deepraj went to sleep quite early. The next day arrived and Deepraj left early in the morning.

It was supposed to be a bright sunny day but the weather was quite windy and moist that day. Windows of Deepraj mansion were banging against each other as strong wind blew by. But it seemed like a fine day for Raj to make his first move on his so-called “Bhabhi”. He entered the mansion at lunchtime. Lipakshi was working out in her bedroom in her sports bra and yoga pants and the weather got steamier when Raj entered the room in his white shirt and black fitted pants. Lipakshi noticed his steps from far away and switched to squats. Raj finally entered the room and all that he could do was to stare at Lipakshi’s sultry figure. Lipakshi ignored him, continuing her squats. There was pin drop silence in the room but it wasn’t awkward, heat was building up in both of their bodies. Raj didn’t even dare to open his mouth, he tried muttering “Lipakshi” but when he couldn’t, he finally gave in. The spontaneity of the moment was too much to hold on to, Lipakshi just couldn’t hold herself back from the six feet, handsome meal standing right in front of her. She finally stopped her workout and turned towards Raj. “ahh, you men …aren’t you the greatest hypocrites of the world?”, she said as she held Raj by his collar. The first move was finally made and Raj was all ready to do his part. Clothes were torn, undergarments were destroyed, kisses were smothered, love bites were engraved on both of their bodies. Lipakshi was her happiest self now, she had finally found somebody with whom she could share a part of herself. But she was so, so afraid of getting caught this time, that she took every precaution possible to hide her beloved from the rotten eyes of her husband.

Lipakshi and Raj’s relationship had started growing beyond their sex. Their relation had grown into something beautiful and memorable. Deepraj spent most of his time outside the mansion which gave these lovebirds even more private time. But the best days were spent every time Deepraj left for Lucknow for 2–3-day trips. Raj used to find various excuses to avoid these trips but Deepraj never suspected him about doing something malicious behind his back. Trust really does take up the best out of a person.

It was one of those nights when Deepraj was off to Lucknow and the whole mansion belonged to Raj and Lipakshi, their bodies were tired after a long session of love making. Lipakshi was resting in Raj’s arms and she decided to start a very deep conversation with him. “Raj, you know that I love you, right?”, she said but Raj straight away ignored her question “I am tired of living in this mansion, being the wife of a stranger and longing for you all the time. I am soon going to book 2 tickets for us so that we could elope to somewhere peaceful. Where do you want to go?”, another question was ignored but Lipakshi continued,” I’d love to explore Shimla with you. But it’s okay for me if you want to go somewhere else. We can finally find our happily ever after there…Oh my god, I’m so excited, good days are finally on the way! But Raj”, Lipakshi’s tone suddenly grew serious, “Are you willing to leave everything for me….do you really love me?” Raj was quite hesitant but he composed himself enough to say, “sure darling, whatever you say, I’ll be there right beside you.”

A year later…

A year had passed since Raj had joined Deepraj’s company and summer was back to its best. Deepraj was returning from one of his Lucknow trips. It was 12:00 am already and he pulled up his rover in the parking lot. Exhausted due to the journey, he started unlocking the door, and stumbled upon something. He saw a khaki envelope sitting right underneath his feet. He opened up the envelope only to find some photographs he was too tired to look at.

The next day at the mansion was a lazy one. Deepraj relaxed on his armchair as he bathed in the vitamin D filled sun. He opened the envelope of photographs and he couldn’t believe what he saw next. The photographs were of Lipakshi and her new lover. Getting such photographs anonymously was nothing new for him, but this time the photographs enraged the hell out of him. Lipakshi snogging other men was morning tea but the person she was snogging immediately raged him up.

How did this little fuck even dare to look at my wife? he thought to himself.

He immediately called Raj and told him to come over to the mansion at 8:00 pm, “Bhaiyya…actually my parents are leaving today so I need to send them off. Is it okay if I join you at breakfast tomorrow?”, Raj said

“Nahi Raj. You can come after sending your parents off. Any time after 8 is fine with me. Tonight, I need to discuss something very important with you. You’ll come, won’t you?”

“Jaroor bhaiyya, I’ll be there as soon as I can”, Raj ended the phone call only to get another one from Lipakshi.

“My beloved husband is too tired to even move a muscle, he’ll soon fall asleep that’s when I’ll be packing my bags for tomorrow’s train at 6:00 pm. The tickets are already booked. It’s time for our ‘together forever’ now”

“Ah ha…my monster seems too excited today”, Raj teased Lipakshi.

“Raj, I am Hella serious about this, I’ll be waiting for you at 5:30 on the platform. You’ll come na… won’t you?”

“Sure baby, let’s meet at the platform tomorrow, done it is, I love you “

The phone call ended and the remaining day went by quickly.

It was 11 pm when Raj arrived at the mansion. Deepraj was sitting on Lipakshi’s swing with a beer in his left hand while his right hand balanced himself on the swing. His plain white kurta was stained due to his tears and they were rolling down his eyes continuously. Overall, he seemed to be in a pretty horrible state. “Bhaiyya!”, Raj exclaimed as he saw his bhaiyya’s condition “Kya Hua bhaiyya, why are you crying?” “Don’t call me bhaiyya …please”, he said while grabbing Raj’s hand. He leaned in to give Raj a tight hug which made Raj extremely awkward, Deepraj then got even closer trying to kiss Raj on his lips and that’s when Raj reached his limits. “Bhaiyya what is happening…please tell me”

“Tum hi ho yaar Raj” Deepraj said as his tears turned into waterfalls, “You are the only one who loves me for who I am. You might wonder why me and Lipakshi are not able to have kids right?”, Deepraj said out of nowhere.

“Nahi bhaiyya aisa kuch Nahi Hai…”, Raj tried to explain but he was cut off by Deepraj as always.

“Ruko Raj. Let me talk now. Let me tell you about all the hurt I’ve been carrying over my shoulders all this while. I was a very different child since childhood, an introvert and a completely opposite person than what I am now. There was this boy called Saumya whom I loved. We were a couple since high school. He was my best friend and my life partner. He was the only close person I had opened up to until my father saw us together, making out in the back of a car and that was the end of our story. My father then locked me up and forced me to marry Lipakshi for some bullshit political alliance and as of Saumya, till date I have no idea about what happened to his family or him. Life ended the moment my dad separated us from each other. You tell me Raj; how can I satisfy a stranger woman for whom I don’t even feel anything. Hence, I decided not to have any children of my own. Baba died without having any grandchildren but his punishment still lives on. Lipakshi never stopped being a pain in the ass. But in the midst of all that was going on… I found you Raj, I finally found my happiness. I found my peace. Work has been so much fun since the day you joined my company. I loved spending time with you, may it be discussing business strategies while working or just having deep talks over beer late at night. It took me so long to realize how madly I was in love with you”, Deepraj said as he gently placed hand on Raj’s, “I love you Raj, I love you to the moon and back and I want us to be together, I want to make this work”, Deepraj lifted their intertwined hands together. Tears were welling up in Raj’s eyes as if he was desperately waiting for this moment to arrive. Raj pulled Deepraj into a tight embrace.

“Ek aur baat”, Deepraj said without breaking the embrace, “your friend Badraa seems quite interested in Lipakshi. I never even imagined that dumbfuck to be so brave.”, Deepraj said pointing towards the photographs on the table. “He really did dare to make a move on my wife. And according to what Ranjhesh heard, they are both going to leave the town using the 6'oclock train tomorrow. But I am going to end this torture, once and for all. I am going to teach Badraa the biggest lesson of his life tomorrow. But I need your help. Will you help me Raj?”, They finally made eye contact. “Have I ever said no to you Deep? Batao, how can I help you?”, Raj said.

“I need you to kill Lipakshi”, a moment of silence followed as Deepraj completed his sentence.

“Ha….Even I want to eliminate that nasty woman out of our life”

Our life? He really does love me, Deepraj thought.

“I’ll be there at the station and I will be the only one to witness her struggle for the last breaths of her life. I’ll kill her right when she reaches the station to catch her train”, Raj said without showing even an inch of hesitation. Raj and Deepraj had spent loads of nights together in the front yard but this one hit different. Every embrace felt short as time passed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day in both of their lives, so their little get together didn’t last too long.

Lipakshi’s doomsday had arrived. She packed her suitcase and escaped her house using the backside gate. The moment she stepped foot out of that house, she felt like the freest bird in the world, just the way it was before she got married. Lipakshi started her journey towards the station as Deepraj was beating the shit out of her presumed new lover Badraa who begged for mercy even though he had done nothing wrong. For the first time in his life Deepraj felt happy, not because he was punishing someone, but for the fact that he was going to be happy for the rest of his life now. He was going to live a life he had always dreamt about. He received a WhatsApp message from Raj right and he stopped everything that was going on and opened the message only to find a video clip. Like every lover in this world, he was quite curious what that might be about so he opened the message.

“Hey Deepraj, I am recording this as I leave for another country. Surprised, aren’t you? Maa and baba are right beside me. You want to see them? Hey maa baba, say hi to the camera for me please”, Raj’s parents waved to the camera with a wide smile having no idea about what their son was doing. The camera again switched to Raj. “Well let me tell you a little something, I was the one who sent you those photographs. And my god, I was so damn sure you would believe them and believe, you did. Bhaiyya”, Raj chuckled as he used his baby voice, “how could you not know there’s something called photoshop in this world. That guy in the white shirt wasn’t Badraa, it was me. So, leave my friend alone please. Also, ain’t I a pretty good actor? For what I did yesterday, I seriously do deserve an Oscar. Ohh… before I forget, let me remind you that I’ve taken all my profit money. Those 250 million dollars belong to me, not you dickhead so don’t panic when you find your account empty. And don’t you dare try to find me… even though you won’t be able to do that even in 1000 lives. This is the reward you get for breaking my father’s leg for no fucking reason, for hurting my family, for pulling generations and generations of my family into being a slave for you, for disrespecting my father, for trying to ruin my life with your “better job offers”, for not even letting your own wife be happy. You deserve everything that has happened to you. You deserve your sadness bhaiyya, YOU DESERVE IT”

Deepraj went blank after what he saw and Badraa took that moment to escape before anything much horrible could happen to him. Deepraj fell to the ground out of shock. He just wanted to fade out of existence. He wanted to go back to his real happy times. He wanted to go back to Saumya. His feelings were too genuine. He had been played once again. It was as if there was no end to his pain so he decided to kill his emotions.

If not Raj, then let it be me who kills Lipakshi. I just can’t stand the sight of her anymore.

Deepraj loaded his gun as he left for the station. It was 6:30 pm already and the train had left the station. There was pin drop silence everywhere as this was the last train for the day. Deepraj saw a silhouette from far away and assuming it was Lipakshi, he started walking towards her. He knew for a fact that Lipakshi won’t leave by herself. She was sitting on a bench and she stood up when she saw Deepraj. “You must be feeling so happy, right?”, she said as tears gathered in her eyes. Deepraj took no time in pointing the gun at her. “oh… so you’re here to kill me”, she regained her posture, “Maarna Hai to maar daalo mujhe… even I don’t wish to live with a husband like you. Even I am tired of living this loveless life” Deepraj pressed his gun hard into her skull but he just couldn’t find the courage to pull the trigger. She might not have helped him through his heartbreak but she had always been the one to stand right beside in these 2 years. Deepraj collapsed into the ground and so did Lipakshi. Death was all she wanted, but how can a person who is already dead from the inside kill her. Tears flowed and the only thing Lipakshi managed to day was, “I am pregnant” and at that moment Deepraj Raj’s words resonated in his mind “ I like to return people’s favours with even more fervour.” Raj’s favour was too much for Deepraj to handle but what else could he do than face it all, after all, he did deserve his sadness right?