IMLIE’S HOME, NOIDA
Imlie is sobbing quietly sitting on the ground. She looks at her mother, Meethi crying, she stands up and rushes outside. Meethi follows her calling, ” No, Gudiya…….wait, wait” Imlie remembers her childhood while running, she remembers herself asking her mother, ” Ma, why doesn’t Papa live with us?” Her neighbours mocking her, ” She is the daughter of two divorcees, her mother is characterless” she screams loud and cries, ” Why God? Why? Why was was this done to me? ” She starts running even faster.
A bike rider sees Imlie rushing headlong towards him, he presses the horn, then tries to alert Imlie, tries to apply the brakes. But in vain, Imlie isn’t listening she is lost in herself, crying, collecting her heart’s broken pieces and running, running away….. or maybe towards something called LIFE. She looks up to see……… but AARGH!…… she is hit……she falls to the ground.
All the people witnessing the accident, surround the biker. The bike rider removes his helmet…… He’s Aditya. He rushes to Imlie, ” Who’s the girl? Her parents? Shall I ask anyone here? No, no, I must take her to hospital before it’s too late.” He tries to lift her.
Meethi reaches there, she sees the crowd, she anyhow tries to make her way through it, pushing the people ways along with her thoughts. She somehow reaches to the centre, she sees her gudiya, on the ground, injured, bleeding, she loses it at the moment and shouts, ” Imlie……” She rushes to Aditya, and thinking of him as DEV, holding his collar reprimands him, ” You, you, rascal, ruthless man, you did this right? First you sucked all the happiness out of my and my daughter’s life? And now you are snatching my sole purpose to live, my gudiya!” ” Arrey, if you didn’t want to give the money, you should have told me, how dare you hurt my daughter?” She continues yelling, Aditya looks on shocked.
He tries to calm her down, ” Aunty, aunty, you are perceiving me as wrong, I didn’t do it on purpose, she was rushing here on the road, I tried to alert her, I even tried applying the breaks but failed, she wasn’t listening to me or anyone else. And happiness? life? I don’t even know you……But aunty, we must take her to the hospital instead of discussing this.” Meethi stands shocked, she looks at Aditya’s face and leaves his collar. She cries bitterly.
Aditya lifts Imlie and makes her sit on his bike, he calls out, ” Aunty, please sit at the back and hold her, she might fall down otherwise” Meethi does as instructed by him absent mindedly. He then sits on his bike and tries to jostle his way through some boys filming the entire scene….. He drives away…
CHATURVEDI HOUSE, HAUZ KHAS
Kalyani is unpacking her bag after returning from coaching, she puts her large books and notebooks on her table. She then calls out, ” Mom, I am back, may I get something? ” Anu replies, ” Sure, sure beta, I am just bringing corn flakes for you.” Kalyani asks, ” Is Malini di, not back yet?” Anu replies, ” No, beta not yet…….you come down to the Drawing Room, Kunal has come.” Kalyani descends the stairs, she greets Kunal. ” Hi, Mr. Lawyer, how are you? Di isn’t home yet.” Kunal laughs and asks, ” When are you gonna stop calling me, Mr. Lawyer? Sometimes, I even forget my real name due to this lawyer and barrister thing.”
Kalyani laughs and asks, ” And how are you doing? Wait for sometime, Di might be coming back.” Kunal says, ” No, no problem, I just came to meet her. And perhaps I won’t be able to attend her wedding with Aditya.” Kalyani is surprised, ” Why? Mr. Lawyer are you so busy that you can’t spare time for your best friend, arr… Sorry, two of your best friends wedding?” Kunal looks on and replies sadly, ” No, I have a lot of time, but no courage, I don’t want to hurt myself.”
Kalyani is confused she asks, “Hurt?” Kunal thinks, ” Oh God! What did I blabber? ” ” Ah! Kalyani! Means that I have to take Mummy ji for operation, she was hurt in her eye, and doctor asked her for operation, otherwise in the long run, she may lose her eyesight. And her operation day is the same as Malini’s marriage day.” Kalyani feels sad.
Anu comes there and is surprised, ” What happened to Asmita ji? She looked quite fine. I had even met her today itself.” Kunal says, ” No, aunty, she might not have informed you. But her eyesight is slowly draining away. So, an operation is required at the earliest.” ” Na- now it’s too late, I need to leave, bye bye” and he rushes out. Anu and Kalyani look on in surprise.
Kunal comes out and thinks, ” Oh god! What did I blabber in there? I can’t reveal it to anyone. Else, everyone will be hurt. Waise bhi sachha ishq kabhi muqammal nahi hota.” He smiles at himself and walks away.