My dear Avantika,
This one has an odd, dreamy quality to it, like the waters of that babbling brook by which Sakshi and Arjun have that vital (though neither knows it as yet) conversation.
There is the same turbulence in the thoughts of all your main characters - Professor Khanna, Sakshi, Arjun, and even the guilt-ridden Shree - as there is in the rushing waters. And just as there are sudden pools of stillness in the flowing stream, as opposing eddies and current cancel each other out, so is it with Sakshi and Arjun . The one is now clear that she will not succumb to the hidden weakness in her psyche that the events of the previous night had laid bare, though the going will not be easy. And the other is now relieved, after a fashion, that she seems to have pulled back from emotional collapse, though he is unsure if her new found strength will last.
Your Arjun is superb, Avantika. He is all that the TV character was, and then some more. His acute sense of responsibility for everything that was done under his aegis makes him apologise to Professor Khanna with a degree of humility and sincerity that is as impressive as it is rare. To right a wrong is easy, especially if you are in a position of superior authority. But to acknowledge a failing that is really not yours, and then to act on that regret without any sense of ego is truly admirable.
I am growing to like your Sakshi a lot too, which, for me, with an aversion of any and all Sakshis of every shape, size and nature who proliferate in this forum, is saying a lot!
She is, at one level, a gentle girl and a a loving niece, and the warmth of her affection for her Mamaji reaches out to the reader like the warmth of a camp fire.
At another level, she is also a would-be-tough professional, who discovers all of a sudden that undercover work is far tougher and more dangerous that she had thought it to be. Luckily for her, she is your leading lady, and nothing really bad ever happens to leading ladies, so her knight errant arrives (to justify your claim to being super filmy!) just in the nick of time to save her and beat up the villain good and proper.
As I had told you the last time, I enjoyed Arjun playing Nemesis, and like Oliver Twist, almost said Please, Ma'am, may I have some more (bashing)?
I loved the fits and starts conversation, if one can call it that, between Arjun and Sakshi besides the stream, at the end of which, both of them seem to have found that "tiny window of hope", though Arjun probably does not realise that as yet.
It was a surreal exercise by two people, almost strangers, but bound by a shared experience courtesy the slimy Trivedi. There was Sakshi, struggling to come to terms with what had happened and what had, very luckily, not happened to her the night before, and there was Arjun, struggling to get her back on her feet, literally and otherwise, and hoping that he could do this without her shutting him out of her life. It could not have been an easy one to write, my dear, but you can rest content, for it has come out beautifully.
As for the cheeky chat between sakshi_stargazer and Arjun_footballfanatic, that was as unexpected as it was a sheer delight. You are a very clever girl, Avantika, to think of such an unusual and cheerful twist to your tale. I am, as you know, not at all given to fruitless speculation about the future of any FF, but here, even I cannot help picturing the scene when the two find out about their (almost) past life bond. So this was what you meant when you had Sakshi look back with nostalgic regret:
But it hadn't always been the case. She did have someone she could rant to, about practically everything under the sun, without having to bother about being judged.
He wasn't exactly a friend; she'd rather preferred to call him her enemy but he wasn't just that either. He was a complete opposite of what she had been, composed and matured, a bit too much for his age and he kept her grounded. But Sakshi had given up on him, on the day she decided to step out of Mumbai. And since then, he had ceased to exist for her..
Well, she might have given up on him, but who can prevail against kismat?
Oh yes, how can I forget your opening para, so redolent of the cosy charms of Mussoorie? It took me back straightaway to the National Academy of Administration, and the days of my faroff youth!
Shyamala Aunty
PS: I have, as you might have noted, carefully refrained from quizzing you about your new, fancy moniker!😉
Originally posted by: Fantasia_junkie
Hola! Me is back.. Yeah, after a long unexpected break..
NOTE :-
I've read all your comments on the previous one and I'm really grateful to each one of you who's read it and taken out the time to leave a feedback..
Here's the next one.. It's slightly longer than usual, coz I had to make up for the delay and also, coz I had to avoid cliffhangers (lollipops) 😆
Chapter 9
Anupamaa
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
Indian Mythology
Sampoorna
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