Anila had married the second time. She had divorced her husband when she was twenty-eight, almost five years into the marriage. It had been a decision of sorts. She loved him and she didn't. There was a quirkiness in their relationship and a lot of their family and friends felt suffocated in their presence. Mainly so because they would hurl the choicest of abuses at each other and then make up the very next moment. The display of both the love and hate of their emotions would be in the public view and they did not even spare the social media.
Anila had carried the same set of feelings with the added tag of a divorced woman in her head into the new relationship. She would function with the same response system and additionally, with the past baggage.
And it was not working out at all. On top of it, she had no clue of where she was going wrong.

Lakshita had been in a relationship for seven years and had never felt the need to marry. She was in a happy place with Kabir. But recently some cracks started appearing and both of them had voiced them and had sat together to try and iron out the differences. When they found that it was not working out, they parted ways.
Lakshita got married after three years and found happiness in this relationship as well. Both she and Shubh did have a lot of difference of opinions, but they would talk and find a way.

It is what one brings to the table. And that is what gets eaten. No one is bad or good. If we choose not to clean our cobwebs and carry them with us, then we will get entangled in them each and every time. Till we learn to choose our reactions and responses and change them for good. Till then the circle will not get an opening. Till then the cage will not open.
Till then.
Only we are the culprit. The doer.
Same people. Different strokes.