Time Travel Maneet part 1 pg 3

Geet stepped down on the platform and was immediately pushed out of the way by the passengers trying to get inside. She was almost steered out by the crowd, her feet sore from all the stamping. She pulled out her notepad where she had jotted down the number and address of the hotel she was supposed to stay at and asked an auto to drop here there. She had always known that she would be undertaking this journey one day. But it had always been a dream and now when she was living it, she had no idea how to react.

Flashback

12 years ago

She huddled behind the door, careful not to reveal her presence. There was no need for her to press her ears against the door, her drunk father's voice could be heard from another room as he screamed and insulted his dead wife, Sugandh.

"That @#$%^. She cheated on me and then got this stupid disease that cost me a fortune and now she is dead. Why the hell did I even meet her?"

Geet clutched her mother's journals close to her heart. She had somehow managed to save a few articles from the relatives who had come to take them off. Her mother's bangles, a cotton scarf, a wooden money box and 4 journals were all she could fit into her only drawer with the lock. That was not for the first time she had heard her father talk about her mother that way. But she had not expected him to say such things right after her funeral. She felt more tears form in her eyes and drop to the floor. She had known her mother to be sick ever since she could remember. She was often too weak to get up and play with her or make her meals. Yet she had never imagined that she would have to see her vacant bed ever in her life.

Her father had withdrawn to himself after that day and remarried after 6 months. Her stepmother was a nice lady who never behaved like stepmothers are supposed to behave, making her do the chores and stuff. Yet it was not long before Geet had come to terms with the fact that her stepmother could not be expected to replace her mother. She was brought up in a loving and disciplined manner. Yet she could never ignore the nagging feeling that her father had never really gotten over her mother. She had tried to talk to him about her only to face cold stares and hostile answers. She did not do the homework passage about my mother and endured 5 sticks on her chubby palm.

But it was not until 10 years later that she decided to do something about her mother.

Her family had relocated to their village when her father remarried. And it was there she had grown up, amongst cousins and elders. They had fixed up here marriage with a city boy who had refused to marry her at the last moment, embarrassing them all.

She had to endure the usual taunts and became the butt of jokes in the village. And one such sentence carved itself into her mind

"She must have taken after her mother. No body in our family has ever seen such bad luck before. Definitely not what is expected out of our girls."

She had shot up, enraged at the words but received this reply

"What do you even know about your mother to defend her?"

It was that day that she had decided to find out everything about her mother. Was she really what people thought her to be? Why did some people in her family adore her like a fairy and others despise her so much? What had she really done or not done?

She knew she could not live with these questions forever.

Back to present.

Just as Geet was about to step in the auto, somebody tapped her shoulder. She spun around and saw Maan standing there. She had not hoped to find him here. He looked slightly irritated but then that was his eternal expression.

"I was not expecting to see you here."

"I told you that I would be accompanying you. I missed my train. Had to take the bus."