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Episode 18
“Shona” a familiar male voice called her name out. The little girl opened her eyes to see her father and mother infront of her.
” happy birthday shona” her mother wished, kissing the girl on side of her head. Her dad carresed her hair and they both went downstairs.
” close your eyes” he ordered and the girl closed the eyes and opened when she is asked to.
” thank-you mama and papa..love you” she hugged them after watching a cycle infront of her
” we love you too dear” they kissed on her cheeks.
Swara opened her eyes only to realise that it is her dream. That was the last birthday of hers with her parents and they died after two months. Her heart became heavy. It is almost midnight and the entire room is dark.
” it’s raining again” she murmurmed completely annoyed by untimely rains. she drank water and turned to her left casually. The lightening brightened the room and she saw a shadow standing near the window
“who is that?” She asked scared. There is no answer. She turned on the main lights and shocked seeing no one in the room. Her palms started become sweaty. She composed herself and wiped the sweat away from her forehead before turning off the lights.
” who is that?” She asked again when she heard someone whispering. She is so scared now and stated chanting hanuman chalisa..she closed her eyes tight.
” happy birthday ” three familiar voices greeted her. She opened her eyes to see sanskar, ragini and laksh standing infront of her with cake in laksh’s hand and the room is brightened with lights.
She closed her mouth with her left hand , tears flowing down her eyes. It is her first birthday after her parents demise.
“Than..thank you” she said between her sobs. Ragini sat beside her, caressing her hairs.
” happy birthday sister” swara hugged her tightly. It is like she really got a family now.
Sanskar and laksh smiled looking at each other.
” will you stop emotional drama and cut the cake?” Laksh said them in a irritated voice which he really didn’t mean to.
“I am famished” sanskar completed him placing his hands on stomach.
Swara smiled at them And she blew the candles. She lifted her head in confusion with a piece of cake in her hand. She strongly wanted to feed sanskar but also laksh and can’t even ignore her new sister.
“eat yourself” sanskar suggested her seeing her face. She smiled and stood up from her place, determined.
She went downstairs followed by the other three
” ramu kaka” she called his name and he appeared infront of her within few seconds
” today is my birthday kaka. Bless me” she informed him and made him eat the cake. His eyes gleamed with happiness and tears came through its way as swara’s.
“Open this” laksh gave her a gift box once they all ate the whole cake. She stared at him with confusion before taking it from his hand. He smiled, genuinely.
She opened the wrapper and found a box. She is really impatient sometime. Without wasting a second, she ripped the box but he blood boiled seeing another box in it. Laksh chuckling increased her temper. She opened the boxes until the number is seven.
” how many more” she shouted at him to which he shrugged, simply.
” by the way, you are such a coward swara. I never expected” he teased. She ignored him ofcpuse she knew that he will pay for that later. Swara’s face became free of creases of irritation when she opened the final box. Her lower lip trembled out of happiness.
” I love you laksh” she whispered, taking her lower lip into her mouth.
“and I love you too” he smiled ” lplease wipe those tears my dear friend”
Swara took out a friend ship band from the box and carressed it.
” then what about me?” Ragini asked srucnching her nose. Laksh totally forget her presence at the moment.
” oh baby, I love only you..I just hate her” laksh tried to console her but she turned to the other side.
” let’s sleep” she said to sanskar wrapping her arm to his and then left. Laksh burned with jealousy.
Swara kneeled down infront of her parents grave seeking blessings from them. The four started their journey early in the morning in car. Swara kept asking all the way about the destination but no one answered. Tears came to her eyes when they reached grave yard. Seriously, she is lucky to have those three in her life.
” don’t lose your strength ” ragini sat beside her. Swara nodded and they went to the car.
” have a nice day dear” ragini said to swara. Seeing her puzzled face, she continued “work, sorry”
Swara nodded unwillingly and three of them reached Manison.
” so, do you have any wishes?” Laksh asked swara. She nodded no but suddenly, something came to her mind.
” laksh ”
“Hmm”
” why did you forgive me?” She asked him because no one can change in overnight. Laksh smiled.
” I was just angry with you that you used our friendship swara. It just needed sometime for me to settle down. And I can’t even loathe you after knowing about your past” he lowered his voice at last.
Swara inhaled deeply ” sympathy, I hate it laksh”
Laksh furrowed his eyebrows and then fisted his hands ” why do you always take words in other direction? This is not sympathy because it is life. I won’t be pity for anyone” he snapped and left the place. Her heart swell for his words. Yes one must be pity for other bit should not even forget that it is life’s game and showing sympathy would just worsen the situation that it is. Laksh is really mature, she thought.
Swara opened her wardrobe to select something special for evening as sanskar said that he had a surprise for her. She opened the door casually but her jaw dropped seeing the stuff. Her dresses are no more inside the closet but are replaced by new ones with tags still on them. She randomly picked a price tag and her eyes widened seeing 14,500 on it.
“Who gave the right to change my wardrobe” she yelled descending the stairs. Sanskar raised his eyebrow before fixing his eyes to laptop.
” will you just answer my question?” She asked him crossing her arms
Sanskar sighed humorously “you really suck at fashion swara. So I just decided to…”
” what’s the need of expensive dresses?” She cut him off completely annoyed but not angry.
” you should learn to live rich” he stated and walked past her “and ha, I am waiting for you in car” with that, he left the room slipping keys into his back pocket. Swara rolled her eyes and followed him and soon they reached police station.
” here is our artist. Just give him the details of the one whom you saw day before yesterday” ragini said to swara pointing an artist who occupied a corner of the room. swara bit her lip nervously but gained courage when sanskar patted her.
” so, how did laksh react about kamala bai?” Ragini asked sanskar when they came out of the room leaving it for swara.
” shocked, depressed ” he shrugged “and finally uttered few philosophical lines about birth and death” ragini chuckled at his words. Sanskar’s mobile rang flashing ‘bade papa’ on it. It has been nearly a one month that he contacted him. He took a deep breath before receiving the call.
” hello papa” he greeted nervously.
” oh, you remember me?” Durga Prasad questioned sarcastically which pained his heart.
” I am sorry..actually… I..I was busy” sanskar fumbled. He didn’t want to say any circumstances happening here that would become a threat to durga Prasad.
” is everything fine there?” He asked ” I called laksh”
Sanskar’s heart skipped a beat. What if laksh had said everything? Of course laksh too didn’t like to inform badepapa
” his voice was nervous and tensed so I call you” durga Prasad ended. Sanskar let out a breath of relief.
” nothing as such papa..take care. Gotta go” he immediately disconnected the call. Deep inside, he felt bad for lying to his own but he did it for the good health of his badepapa’s heart.
” will you come out today?” Sanskar yelled from behind the door.
” more five minutes” swara responded adjusting her hair. She is so excited to see the surprise of sanskar. She chuckled listening the curses given by sanskar outside her room and took a final glance of herself in mirror before leaving but much to her surprise, sanskar is no more. She turned her head to check the corridor but he is not there even.
“Sanskar! ” she screamed his name descending the steps to hall. The entire Manison is quiet and her words echoed from the walks. Sanskar asked ramu kaka to leave early in the evening and she didn’t see laksh after lunch.
” sanskar” she calmed again when something bad came to her mind. To raise her bad thoughts, she saw a boquet of red roses similar to the one she sent to Sanskar in Sydney on kitchen counter. Her heart raced as she approached it. She saw a small note between the flowers.
‘You shouldn’t have be late’
Swara gulped and tiny drops of sweat formed on her face. She tried to compose herself thinking that nothing would have happened to him but her wits are not allowing her to do so. She ran upstaris to her room and is all panting when she opened the door. Her eyes widened seeing another note on bed. She immediately grabbed it.
‘ you need to pay for being late. Come to terrace to see what you are wishing to’
Tears came to her face. What if she gets to see a dead body of his. It would be easy for anyone to kill sanskar as no one is in the house. She stumbled and staggered all the way to terrace. Second by second, she grew pale. Cool breeze touched her cheek when she opened the doors of terrace. The air smelled so fresh.
” this way mam” someone said to her in a very polite way and she opened her eyes just to see a man of some thirty years dressed in white uniform standing infront.
” what?” She asked him totally confused.
” sir is waiting for you, this way” he leaded her to the other side of the terrace. She forgot to breath for a minute at the sight.The blue and metal colored helicopter infront of her looked so huge. She has never seen it so close to her. It had ‘maheswari’ engraved at one end of it. Sanskar is standing beside it dressed in her and his favorite black suit with sky blue shirt. She gulped seeing how handsome he looked.
Sanskar smriked and came forward covering the distance between them.
” ready?” He asked. Swara is still staring him and helicopter with open mouth.
He rolled his eyes and motioned her towards the copter.
“You own a chopper!” She exclaimed. Sanskar smriked at her innocence “ofcourse swara, we lead in business”
Swara sat inside it and he immediately shut the door before walking to the pilot’s seat. She saw him and the man talking something and after few minutes, he is by her side.
She turned to him still not believing what is happening around her. Sanskar smriked at her and gave her a set of head phones.
” but…h..how?” She fumbled.
” you are becoming amnesiac day by day swara” he complained before turning few switches on ” you said to me in early days of our friendship that you dream of having a chopper ride.”
Did she?, well she is really suffering from amnesia.
She glanced around. Her heart is becoming heavy out of happiness thinking how he can eaisly read her like a paper. She felt something getting tight around her waist and looked down. Once again, her breath stopped seeing sanskar leaned to her buckling the seat belt.
” ready?” He asked winking. She is officially dead now. Receiving a faint nod from her her he positioned himself.
” maheswari Manison, MAHESWARI is ready to take off, is everything clear, over” sanskar said to someone through his speaker of head phones.
” yeah sir, the route is clear, over” she heard answer coming out from a speaker infront of her
” you…you are going to fly this?” She asked him with a horror expression.
” of course” he shrugged ” we will use it sometimes when we have to reach places at time” and she understood how they managed singhania’s project.
” does laksh know to fly?” She questioned and he nodded.
” Kolkata tower, MAHESWARI is all set to flight, over and out” sanskar once again said. He sounded so professional and breath takingly hot to swara. Her heart is pumping in her mouth. sanskar turned to her with a smile and placed his palm on hers
” breath” he ordered. She then recognized that she stopped breathing for a while. She felt butterflies all over. The chopper slowly started to raise from its place. Swara screamed out of excitement. She tried to avoid meeting his eyes because she didn’t want to make the atmosphere more suffocating already that it is. Sanskar kept exchanging glances with her and his intense eyes held a emotion, a strong one.
Swara is at the top of Everest with the building happiness inside her. His care, his intensity, his love is all she want for rest of her life. Her palms started becoming sweaty due to pressure as it is her first time to ride in a copter. She turned to window to enjoy the beauty of night. The whole land of Kolkata is bathed with various lights ripping out the darkness that is the color of night. Howrah bridge which is so familiar to her looked strange viewing from high altitude. Hooghly river flowing down the bridge added more charm to it.
Soon they landed on a building probably a thirty storey one.
Sanskar got down and opened the door for swara
” welcome to Mumbai sir” a very young man welcomed them “I hope you had a good time travelling”.he handed some keys to sanskar.
” come” sanskar wrapped his arm around her shoulder to which she flinched.
” it has been two years sanskar. I didn’t visit Mumbai after leaving my orphanage” she sounded like a child with his favourite chocolate in his hand. She tears in her eyes.
They both reached to ground floor through elevator. Another man who looked like a watchman, opened the doors of the restaurant.
” Audi?” She asked surprised.
The same person opened doors for both of them and sanskar started driving.
” it is so uncomfortable for me to be treated like some higher official by your employees ” she said in a low voice completely embarrassed.
He smiled ” you need to learn to live rich swara”
” restaurant? ” she asked him after few minutes of comfortable silence.
” yeah, we have partners in almost all fields of business ”
” but the restaurant name isn’t it MAHESWARI, is it?”
” no, we have our names on what is ours. We are just partners of maria’s group of business of hotels, simple” he explained.
” where are we going now?”
” that is for you to find” he answered sheepishly and her heart again skipped a beat.
Their car slowed down which felt a very know place to swara. She got out of the car followed by sanskar. The whole place is dark. He held her hand and took her inside the house, which she thought to be. Suddenly the lights are on and she saw many familiar faces infront of her.
” happy birthday swara di!” All of them exclaimed. Swara cried now realizing that he brought to her to her home, the orphanage. The decorations looked like a preplanned one.
” happy birthday once again” a chirping voice made her turn back and she saw laksh along with ragini.
” how..how did..I..mean..you” she fumbled. Her vision becoming blur due to dizziness that is in turn because of over happiness
” our India is blessed with air transport my sister” ragini winked. Swara turned to sanskar who is with all others smiling at her. Love is written on his face.
Everything is so perfect now. this is the best ever birthday for her because, life gave her a sister, a friend and a family in name of sanskar after snatching her family from her, tweleve years ago.
I love you sanskar
****
A small curiosity. As this chapter is a very light one, I just wanted to know your opinions about the story just to know how successful I am in getting it to your brains.
Whom do you think is back of sanskar and why?
Kamala bai’s murder mystery.
Anyword about kunal or Dean dayal gadodia and do you think they have their fingers here?
Who might be the murderer of swara’s parents? And why?