Hasti ka saamaan (reason for existence) was the last song she sang that night. When she sang the first verse, and as the words left her lips, she came to the bittersweet realization that those words, in fact each and every song she had rehearsed and sang and regaled the world with, was an ode to Abhimanyu. It was a realization that filled her with emptiness. How could she go on without him? How could she sing to the world in the absence of his reassuring gaze? A gaze that felt like an embrace. An embrace so protective that she felt completely naked without it. Overcome with longing, she broke down. Mid-song, her voice cracked and a sob escaped her, and she walked off the stage.

Every member in the audience rose to their feet, each taking away their own meaning from the cry that reverberated in the hall. In her grief, Meera made them relive theirs. It was a quality of hers that might have unconsciously been showcased at the award show, but soon became a constant in her repertoire for years to come. She could sing the same song ten times and bring forth ten different emotions with subtle variations – she would sing in Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Russian and English, but still speak the language of the heart every time.

Sadly, Sahil misinterpreted the language. He misconstrued Meera’s crying as having something to do with him. He was already enraged when she refused to thank him in public, but her walking off stage halfway through the song was an insult he couldn’t take lying down. Sahil could see the adulation he received just moments ago come crashing down. There was no doubt in his mind that Meera was very close to publicly accusing him for what he had done to her.

To this day, no one knows whether the act of poisoning her was premeditated or if Sahil had done it in a fit of rage. No one knows what enraged him more – Meera turning down his advances or his fear of being outed as a molester. He must have done it in a fit of rage, people would argue later, he couldn’t have just been carrying around poison now, could he? But like everything about Sahil, there was more than what met the eye.