Collateral Damage (Episode 2)

Past And Present

“They were the prisoners of their past and beholders of their future”

“Dida, please get up ? see na your Shona is up before you”
Swara Bose yelled for the umpteenth time. She was too excited to let her Dida sleep for a while. It was just 4 on the clock, but she wanted her Dida to wake up and talk to her as she was not getting any sleep.

Her Dida knew that no one can save her from this devil of a granddaughter, she had to listen to her till madam get tired of speaking and go to sleep so after a lot of struggle she woke up blabbering something about the antics of her dear devil Shona.

“What is this Shona you know na how much late I slept, but again, you woke me up at 4 only. What should I do with you silly girl? You are turning into a brat totally. Always up for something mischievous. You should know that you are not a child anymore. You are a young lady, please start behaving the same. Now, why are you laughing? Tell na, why you woke me up this early today? What new plan is cooking in your devil mind?” Shobha Bose chided her granddaughter.

It was not new for Shobha Bose to see Shona coming to her room and disturb her in the midnight. Whenever her granddaughter gets extremely emotional she does the same. She will come to her and talk with her till she gets tired then she will sleep on her Dida’s lap itself. Having no one except her Dida to call her own she was totally dependent on her for her safekeeping. Because of her jovial nature and lovely soul, she had many friends, but none knew her heart. It was only her Dida, who knew her in and out. So, whenever she had to say something, it’s always her Dida that she would come to. Her embrace was her safe-haven.

Tomorrow she was going to start her first step towards her passion and it was getting impossible for her to get any sleep due to the excitement. That’s why she was here in her Dida’s room, waking her up to talk to her.

“Dida, you know na whenever I get excited I talk too much, but there is no one to listen to me,” she said with a sigh, but then added with sparking eyes “But you are there for me now so you have to listen to me”

Her Dida was a bit sad seeing her condition she knew how lonely her granddaughter was but what could an old soul have done to remove that emptiness from her Shona’s life. So she did what she always does. She asked her to come to her lap and said “Now tell what my Shona wants to say” and it was like a green signal for Shona tape recorder to start blabbering and she started explaining her Dida about how happy she was after getting selected to the music academy. How she was hopeful that she would get at least one friend there in the academy and thousands of other things. After talking nonstop for hours, she slept hugging her Dida as if her life depends on that single hug.

After Shona slept, she tugged her in the bed and left for the only place which keeps reminding her of her motives. A room hidden from normal eyes. Painted in baby pink and yellow color it looked as if it had been specially constructed and decorated for a princess. It looked like a princess’s castle, after all, it was his princess’s very first castle. There was everything from dresses to toys to cuddle bear. There was a small pink crib for a very small baby. Shobha never understood why he was planning so much for her when it was not even official that who was coming into this world, but he had his intuition that he was going to get his biggest happiness. This room was the only remnant of his love for her. How much would he have loved her had not been brutally snatched from her? What was his fault that those people snatched him so brutally from her just that he loved her that he was better than them?

After spending countless hours there, she came back to her room and took sleeping Shona in a hug and slept promising herself that she would never let this smile and the twinkle in her eyes fade away. She would do whatever it takes to make sure of her safety and happiness. She was his princess and she will make sure nothing bad ever touches his princess.
“She won’t let Swara be another him. She will never inherit his destiny”

On the other side of the world, Sanskar Maheshwari was packing his bag for a return. Return to a place which had snatched his everything from him in the past. That time he was weak unaware of his friends and foe, an idealistic young lad Sunny who used to think that everything is good in this world. Everyone is capable of being compassionate and do good. Love and happiness are more important than money and reputation. Living in his delusion that lad had created a poetic image of this world. He had started weaving the dreams of fairy tales and happily ever after. But as we say that illusions always break sometime early sometime late but they do. His mirage also broke in the cruellest possible way with her demise. That day with her died sweet, carefree Sunny and born Sanskar Maheshwari. He turned into a cruel monster who has nothing to do with fairness and humanity, he started hating everything that society considers noble. For him the only thing mattered was their destruction and for that, he was ready to take any step good bad or ugly.

Determined to face his destructors Sanskar left the villa for his private jet. It would take him around 9-10 hours, then he will be where it started to finish it once and for all.

In her beautiful castle Ragini Gadodia was weaving the dreams of her beautiful future, why not finally the person she longed all her life had said yes for the alliance. Though this alliance has been just to strengthen their position in the market, she was happy as she was getting the only person she had wished all her life. They had been friends since childhood. For him, she was just a friend but she always loved him. While going to take blessings from her grandparents on her 18th birthday 7 years ago, she heard them discussing their alliance at that moment she knew that she would always be his. He had rejected this proposal multiple times on various grounds in the past, but now the situation was different, their companies were in trouble with back to back project failures it was necessary for Maheshwari’s to merge with Gadodia’s as they were already a minor partner in their firm. But Gadodias had refused for any such deal without Ragini and Lakshya’s marriage. So finally, Lakshya Maheswari had to say yes for the marriage with Ragini Gadodia to save their company from further loss and strengthen its position in the market.

She knew that he didn’t love her, but she believed that with time she would be able to win his love and affection with her charm and love.

Being the princess of Gadodias, her family had given her everything which normal people could only think of. Though she had lost her mother at the tender age of 4. It never felt her that she was motherless. Earlier her Dadi took care of her like a princess and when at the age of 5 her father married his old fling Sharmistha Roy she got a new mother again in the form of Sharmistha Roy Gadodia.

She never understood why her Shomi ma never had her own kids even after loving kids so much. But she was happy with this fact as if Shomi ma might have got her own kids then she might have neglected her.

Sharmishtha loved her more than anything in her life. Her wish was her command. She treated Ragini like a princess and showered all her love on her. She might not have loved her own child as much as she loved Ragini. She still remembered the day when she had first seen Sharmishtha as a bride of her father. She was very reluctant to go to her, but Sharmishtha herself came to her and embraced her in a bear hug and said ” I want to be your mother baby. Will you let me be your mother?” And Ragini had just nodded her head shyly. From that day, onwards Sharmistha’s life was hers.

Shekhar Gadodia was a very short-tempered person, it was not easy to deal with him, but for Ragini, he was a doting father. He would do anything and everything to fulfil her wishes. His Laado was an apple of his eyes. He never wanted to share Ragini’s place in Gadodia household with anyone so he never let Sharmistha get pregnant. For him, Sharmistha was for fulfilling his and his Laado’s needs. Sharmistha also never asked for her own kid from him as for her fulfilling his and Laado’s needs were her top priority. She loved Shekhar too much to let him get hurt by her wishes, she just wanted to please him in any manner whatsoever possible and when Ragini had called her me for the first time she had decided that she didn’t need anyone else to call her MA. She was happy to get Ragini along with Shekhar. Ragini was the part of the person she had loved all her life so she wanted to cherish Ragini like a diamond.

Her Dada-Dadi loved her more than they loved Shekhar especially her Dadi. That old woman could do anything for her Laado’s happiness.

In her formative years, she was a very shy girl that made her look reserved and egoistic that was one of the reasons she never had friends. Lakshya was the only friend she ever had. She still had that image alive as if it happened yesterday when cute 13-year-old Lakshya had extended his hand to shy 9-year-old Ragini for friendship for the first time. From that day Ragini had never left his hand. They had been friends in everything. Lakshya could even kill people if they even try to put a bad eye on her. For him, she was his baccha he would not tolerate any misdoings with her even in pranks. He still calls her baccha. Even though he never loved her he was fiercely protective towards her.

And then there was him the one whom she used to call her Bhai. Being 9 years elder to her he was extremely protective towards her. As he never had a sister so Ragini was his cute doll he loved her more than a real brother. But he left them 10 years ago, leaving a void in Ragini’s life. She still misses him a lot, her Sunny Bhaiya.

She had no idea why she was thinking about all this suddenly, maybe because today was the day, she was wishing for years. Though every day of her life was beautiful, but today she had got the biggest gift from life, her Lakshya. They were finally getting married next year.

Keeping aside all these thoughts, she needed to sleep as she was the in charge of this year’s summer music course and tomorrow was the day when new students were supposed to come. She had to do all the arrangements and handle all the formalities regarding them. Thinking that she closed her eyes to wake up to a new day.

Please, Guys, do provide your feedback as I am really not able to understand what is wrong with it. Anything which you find wrong please let me know i.e grammar, pace, storyline, characters. I will not be able to improve if I will not be able to know what is wrong. Be critical because that makes my most happy.