Walking together through the Memory Lane – Episode 20

[ FlashBack Scenes – Normal Font

Present Scenes – Bold + Italicized ]

20. Rakesh confronts Arjun

[August 8,2016, 7.45 PM – The day when Naina met Sameer]

Naina leaves the bus stand and walking to her colony. She is cherishing those memories she had with Sameer. She wants to relive it again with the same amount of joy and glory. She knows she was late to her house by almost 3 hours, but she didn’t really care about the reason that she has to give to her father or elders…She enters her colony with a dreamy smile which was intervened by a noise from her house… Coming back to her senses, she is pretty nervous that her father might be shouting and breaking things in the hosue because of her missing….In a pace of snail, she walked upto the door but the situation was completely different… Rakesh is slapping Arjun wheras Naresh giving orders not to slap a adult wheras Anand is defending him…Bela and Beena are standing helplessly crying who is being consoled by Prakash… Preeti is standing as if she witnessed a horrific ghost… Shefali is standing near Arjun wheras her parents are standing again helplessly… Seeing this, Naina predicted that Rakesh came to know about her brother’s affair with Shefali…Brushing the thoughts aside, she stands at entrance…Rakesh stares at her and within a second he get back to rebuke Arjun…Preeti and Bela signs Naina to get inside…She gets in and goes to her room, washes her face and while wiping, Preeti pinches her… Naina is about to shrill but Preeti press her mouth before that. In a husky tone,

Preeti – “Why were you late?”

Releasing Preeti’s press, Naina – “I went to meet Sameer, What is going on now? Why is Dad slapping Bro?”

Preeti – “Bhai revealed that he is in love with Shefali. He created a big scene then by calling Victors to home…”.

Naina is astonished to hear the same…She knew about Shefali-Arjun’s love but she never thought Arjun himself would speak about the same to Dad…He was calm, composed even shy boy who never got guts to speak about this sensible issue to his extremely strict dad…But he did it… Love has change anything…Nothing is permanent whether it is habits or things…She don’t know how she will change after falling in love for Sameer. If I confess the same to him…What will be his reaction? If…

As soon as another hard slap interrupt her thoughts, Preeti and Naina gasp and enters into the hall where the whole scene is going on…

Nothing has changed in scene, except Arjun’s face was little reddish than the previous slap and Naina’s presence in the room…

Rakesh starts to yell loudly now as a typical father and also it is bit more complex because of inter-caste marriage…He starts to scold Shefali too.. When Rakesh raised his hand again, Arjun hold his hand…

Arjun (matching Rakesh’s voice) – “Dad, I respect you a lot…It is the reason I told about my love to you to get approval from the elders.. I am going to complete my studies in within 8 months… But I have started to earn by now… I hold the responsibility of being a lover, son, nephew to fulfil all my duties…I know it is not really easy to accept the affair or not mediocre for the people to accept inter-caste marriage…It takes time to realize… I promised Shefali to safeguard her without making her shed out her tears…Our love is not a mirage…Its true… Please try to understand me…”

Shefali holds his hands – “Arjun, mind your words. He is your father..”

Beena comes in between and shuts her..

Beena – “Just shut up… You are the reason for all the problems.”

Rakesh – “Oh, sir has grown so big… Pyaar Vyaar things… Now your patni (wife) is advising you… When you mind goes behind a girl, it means you are betraying your family members…And that Shefali would eat non-veg food items, wears short skirts and don’t know about her character though…”

Arjun (raises his voice) – ” Don’t dare to speak anything about her character, dad…She is my responsibility… Size of the dress doesn’t have any role to determine their character…We are loving truly… Love doesn’t come seeing the caste or cost…. If I am betraying you, why should I confess this to you? I shall runaway with Shefali anytime ago…”

Rakesh – “How dare you? After all you are a….”

He raises his hand to slap, seeing the wrath in his face, Naresh and Anand controls him. Shefali stands in between him…

Naresh – “Arjun beta, you go… We can talk about the issue tomorrow. Victor ji… I am extremely sorry his bad behaviour…”

Shefali and the Victors leaves… Arjun goes to his room and shuts the door… Naresh and Anand takes Rakesh to his room… Naina and Preeti are shocked to Arjun’s boldness in the ugly fight…Bela and Beena are shocked to see Arjun’s drastic personality change…Bela and Beena move to their respective rooms… Naina too move to her room… Prakash and Preeti looks at eachother helplessly…

After some time,

Rakesh is standing at the terrace reminding of how Arjun retaliated his slap and how he disrespected him in front of the family members… He was no more angry now but sad and gloomy He always had the inferiority that people might disrespect him because of being a librarian… He hesitate to keep smiling as he suspected someone use his smiley face and mocks him for job… He knows how tough being a school employee is… His children’s mark is compared with other staff’s children mark… If it is more, then he can be proud of him… If it was less, until next exams, he was mocked by other staffs… His elder brother was the respected lawyer wheras his younger brother was a doctor and now a bank manager of a reputed bank… He always wanted Naina and Arjun to shine in their lives… He never wanted them to follow his footpath to recieve mocks and cusses. For him, Arjun is invaluable and always given him everything he wanted… He never gave compliments  directly, but he did his every duty as a father…

Tears escaped from his eyes… He could feel that a hand is placed on a shoulder…He looks back and it was Arjun standing with a apologetic look…Rakesh removed his ahnd from the shoulder and decides to move from the place but Arjun holds his hands. Arjun come in front of him. Rakesh feels dejected and looks at another side…

Arjun (glittery eyes) – “I am sorry dad…”

Rakesh (calm tone) – “Its fine Arjun… Even I was at mistake, I should not raise hand on a boy who is at my height now.”

Arjun – “No, you have full rights to slap me… I am still your child…Plus, Mistakes are on my side… I love Shefali but that doesn’t mean that I disrespect you… My respect for you is increased more when I fell in a commitment…I could understand the expectations and responsibilities on me… I could understand what you feel, dad…You gave me life and supported me at all the instances.. When I was studying at late night, you would give me some snack at every one hour… Just because I have to wake up early to study, you never sleep and wake me up at time. I could understand the pain you undergo when other teachers mocked you because of me for securing second rank not the first rank.. But you never shown any grudges on me or anyone…  Don’t think I never have idea about your sacrifices…I know everything but never react…That’s it… I should not have raised my voice at hall.. Its my mistake… Please forgive… Don’t live up to the impacts…You’re my first hero…”

Rakesh cries hearing that…..Arjun hugs him tightly and he also cries…They had a peaceful reunion…Rakesh’s heart breaks out hearing all this…. He was astonished to see his son is very much matured and intellectual… He is proud to see that he values relationships…Breaking the hug, they both sit on a stool…

Rakesh: So, you apologize to your father…So you will obey whatever I say!

Arjun: Yeah, dad… You are important to me…

Rakesh: Will you leave Shefali for me?

This questioned shocked him more…Why does his father starts again from beginning?

Arjun: You are important to me dad but that doesn’t mean I would leave Shefali….

Rakesh stands up and Arjun does the same…Rakesh pats Arjun…

Rakesh: I am proud of you, Arjun… I am privileged to say that you are my son… A real man takes responsibilities from the beginning to the end… You didn’t back off from your words and you really value relationships… The words you’ve said was not disrespect, Arjun, its defence… If you really said you would leave Shefali, then the words you spoke is really disrespectful and you are brutal to your lover…I am sure that Shefali would be proud to have you as her other half… But I have to ask Shefali’s parents consent too… then only the marriage…

Arjun hugs Rakesh…

Arjun: So, is it just a test dad?

Rakesh: Not actually…  I did a blunder by questioning a girl’s character but I never meant that… I know I should apologize Victors for this behavior… Also, In these days, love marriages are so common but not all the lovers are united for long… Most of the girls are gold-diggers and boys are opportunistic  I am not generalizing but this is what happening in the society… Then within few days, they part ways and come to their parents for silly lust or so called infatuation…And your age is just 21…I was sure that it might be lust and so I used those harsh words to get rid of that lust but it wasn’t lust actually…   You actually fight for your love and tried your best to convince me…. When you could fight for love, then I don’t have any problems with religion or diet…. But a strict condition…..

Rakesh keeps his face angry – “You must get married only after 18 months…Its not actually a age to get married…If you get married now, we should count the bars” (laughs)

Arjun smiles – “Sure, dad…”

Rakesh wishes him good night and leaves….

The next day,

Rakesh apologized Mr.Victor and Shefali for his harsh behaviour at the previous night… Mr.Victor was still angry with that issue… Arjun and Shefali managed to convince him after much struggles…

Mr.Victor hugs Arjun and Rakesh hugs Shefali… Shefali teases Arjun regarding yesterday’s issue… Arjun fakes angry and punches her lightly.

Mr.Victor, Rakesh and Mrs.Victors laughs at their childish problems…

After few days,

Naina and Preeti are walking towards the road for buying something… They reached the shop but no one was found there…The wait for sometime and turns….A hand from the shop pinches Naina’s back… She turns but no one is there in the shop… She again turns… A hand pats Preeti lightly….Preeti looks confused….

Naina – “Do you find anyone in the shop?” (husky)

Preeti – “I too suspect, agent Naina.”

A hand from the shop is about to pinch but Naina and Preeti hold the suspect’s hands – “How dare you? Let me call police….” The hand is Shefali’s… She stands, which shocks Naina and Preeti…

Naina – “Hey, Shefali… What are you doing here?”

Shefali – “Not only me, I have crime partners too…”

Preeti – “What?”

Rakesh and Arjun slightly show up…

Preeti: Oh my god, Uncle ji… Bhaiyya… Silly Shefali… Its not your shop… Have you bought this?

Rakesh: Oh, don’t you know Sharma ji… my friend… He got some emergency so, he asked me to take care of this shop for sometime…. Just then Shefali and Arjun came… While we were talking, you both show up so Shefali plans to prank you guys…

Preeti: Only Shefali could think of these silly pranks…

Naina: Let it be… Taiji wanted to buy somethings… Here is the list…

Rakesh gets the list and busy in taking those things from the shop. Meanwhile, a paper ball falls on Preeti….Preeti looks back in irritation…  Shocked to see Pandit and Munna there…

Pandit: Munna…. They have seen us….

Munna: It seems it was her father’s shop…

Naina signs her to wait somewhere and not to call them…

After buying things,

Naina and Preeti come to Munna and Pandit…

Naina: Nice to see you boys, Has Sameer sent any letter?

Munna: Yeah, this one…. Why don’t you speak in phone? It seems something very important….

Naina gets the letter from Munna and she leaves..

Pandit: This letter is for you…. (smiles)

Preeti smiles….

To be continued…..