🩷 Ishita Sharma's Perspective

Location: Early morning, outside Kalka Mandir

It had been a month.

A month since I almost fell at the Shiv Mandir stairs... and instead fell into something I couldn't name.

Since then, I had seen him four times.

Always at random temples.

Once near Bangla Sahib again.

Once outside a Shiv murti mandir on Monday morning.

Once outside a Ganesh Chaturthi pandal.

And now... again at Kalka Mandir.

I didn't know how or why.

Maybe the universe was plotting something.

Or maybe it was just me... imagining too much.

But I saw him.

Same height. Same frame.

Same ocean blue eyes, sharp jawline, crisp white shirt, sleeves rolled up.

Looking like a living storm.

Today too, I was there with Aditi We were laughing about some reel on the way up the stairs when I caught a glimpse of him again.

There.

Across the road.

Standing near his black Range Rover.

Phone in hand, but eyes on me.

Every single time...

He never entered the mandir.

But he was always around.

And each time... we'd stare.

For a second.

Sometimes more.

But not a word.

Not even a smile.

Just... silence.

"Why doesn't he say something?"

"Or maybe... should I?"

"No... how would that even look?"

My heart thudded painfully as I climbed the last step. My mind was a mess.

"Why am I like this?"

"I don't even know his name."

"But God... why does it feel like I've known him forever?"

And then I prayed. Like I always do.

Not just for success. Or peace. Or family.

But for something else now.

For him.

Whoever he is.

Wherever he came from.

And whatever this is turning into.

💙 Rudra Singh Rathore's Perspective

Location: Inside his car, parked near Kalka Mandir

A month.

And he had seen her four times since that first encounter.

Every time... unintentionally.

Every time... without a single word.

The first time it repeated, he thought it was a coincidence.

Second time? He stayed silent.

Third time? He began to wonder.

And now?

Now he was obsessed with the question he never got the courage to ask her.

"Why does she keep appearing?"

"Why can't I talk to her?"

"Why does my heart start thudding the moment I see her?"

"Why the hell am I acting like a teenager?"

He had her name.

He even had her Instagram handle - thanks to Laksh.

But he never followed. Never liked. Never messaged.

Why?

Because she didn't cling.

She wasn't fake.

She didn't chase him like the others.

She... was real.

And that terrified him.

He sat there now, in the driver's seat, pretending to check an email while his eyes darted to the mandir stairs.

And there she was again.

Pink suit this time. Hair in a braid.

Her hands full of flowers.

Her laughter echoing faintly as she talked to her friends.

He hated that sound wasn't clearer.

He could stare for hours.

But he couldn't move.

Couldn't cross that damn road.

"What if she has someone?"

"What if she finds me arrogant?"

"What if I scare her away?"

And the worst part?

He didn't even believe in God.

Yet here he was - fourth time in a row - near a mandir he'd never step into.

Not for God.

For her.

The moment she looked up, their eyes locked.

Time stopped again.

Her face softened.

His fingers froze mid-scroll on the phone screen.

He watched as she walked up the stairs and vanished into the temple.

And he let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"What the hell are you doing, Rudra?"

"You run multi-crore empires... and you can't even say a damn 'hi'?"

He banged the steering once in frustration.

This couldn't go on.

He needed to do something.

Anything.