Arjun had enclosed himself inside his cabin listening to the recording continuously. Sameer had fixed an appointment with the commissioner in the evening and was completing his pending works before that. Chotu had went out to meet his informer who had called him for some urgent help.
Ayesha and Shree were engrossed in decoding the third file on the chip and sakshi was still out for work and hadn't returned back.
It was evening and Sameer walked out after assigning others their duties and informing them their scheduled work. He drove towards the commissioner office but the busy hours in Mumbai road never allowed him to move freely. He stopped in a long traffic jam cursing the Mumbai traffic.
He started driving within several minutes but again had to stop in the traffic. His mind was continuously replaying back dixit's words and he was continuously trying to keep the thoughts away. When it was getting too suffocating with SA roaming about all over his head and mind he lowered the windscreen and looked outside. He was stuck beside a residential colony and since it was evening small kids were roaming about the roads in their cycles or some walking with their balls.
He too had went on racing on bicycles with his friends in his childhood days and had hurt himself loads of times. But the wounds were never treated by his parents, they were either treated by his friends family or the servants in his house. Later when he grew up bit more he avoided to heal the wounds. The wounds remained open, hurting him and reminding more of his loneliness.
He was lost in his thought of his miserable life when a dash of red caught his eyes. He looked around and found a small girl clad in a white top and red skirt, unkept small curls falling on her forehead, was jumping in front of a flower vendor.
She was shooting angry glares at the man and yelling at the top of her voice. Though Sameer couldn't really make out what she wanted to say or get but saw the vendor come out and drag her away from his stall to the side of the road. But the kid won't give up.
She stood almost in the middle of the road on the other side, counting something from a plastic bag in complete concentration. He looked at her amused when he found a young boy speeding towards her in a cycle. He tried to call but she was too engrossed in her work.
In an impulse Sameer opened the door and rushed out. He crossed the road between the waiting cars and pulled the girl to himself before the cycler hit her.
He held onto the girl tight and glared at the retreating bicycle. He would have checked her for any injury but to his utter dismay the little girl started wriggling in his hold, hitting and kicking him. He quickly put her back on the road bending down to give her a piece of his mind but before he could even open his mouth, the girl started scolding him in her sweet childish accent.
'ye kya kiya tumne? Dikhai nehi deta mein ek im..po..tant kam kal lai thi? Ab mujhe filse ginna palega. Ek to pehele se pa..leshun hu aul tum..' the girl glared back at him angrily, pointing her for finger at him,
Sameer hadn't expected this. It was getting difficult for him to decide whether to laugh or to scold her. He was angry already so decided the later.
'der foot ki larki..tum pareshan ho? Abhi agar mein nehi ata to chot lag jati. Aise beech raste mein kya kar rahi thi? Aur mummy, papa kaha hai tumhari?' he told her, trying to hide his laugh at her weird expression,
She didn't reply back. She glared at him and then looked back inside the plastic bag. She seemed thoughtful looking inside the plastic back with a sad face. Sameer kneeled down beside her and looked into the plastic bag. There was money inside, mostly coins and a few notes.
'paise leke kya kar rahi thi?' he asked her politely,
The girl looked at him.
'pehele batao, del foot ma..lab?' she asked him with furious eyes,
Sameer couldn't control his chuckle now. Her glare deepened with that and he control himself muttering a sorry softly. He kept his palm on her hair and said,
'itna hai der foot,' he gave her the measurement,
'ohh fil thik hai.' She replied and looked back into the plastic back almost forcing her head inside it.
'kya kar rahi ho? Aur itne paise leke kyu ghum rahi ho? Tumari mummy papa kaha hai? Kiske saath ayi ho yaha?' sameer asked her holding her head before she settles her head inside the bag,
The girl remained silent for sometime and then voiced out her thoughts,
'mumma ne kaha hai..stangle se baat nehi karte,' she spoke up clutching onto the plastic bag tightly,
'stranger...sahi hai, lekin tum yaha akele kaise aa gayi? Mummy dhoond rahi hogi na?'
'naani ke saath, naani wo cake shop mein hai..mumma ko nehi pata, ap bhi maat batana samjhe,' she ordered him showing him her tiny fist,
'samaj gaya madam, Arjun ki lady avatar ho, per itne paiso ka karna kya hai?' he again asked her, looking at the slowly moving traffic,
'mujhe mumma ke liye wo white bo..flowers lena hai,per wo aadmi kehe raha hai, paise kam hai,' she said with a sad expression,' mujhe fil se ginna palega,'she again looked inside the bag,
Sameer was amused at this little beauty. Unknown to him he was smiling. He held her hand and took her to a nearby bench in the flower shop, which she followed quite reluctantly hitting him. He made her sit on it. The girl was continuously shouting gaining attention around but sameer ignored all the disgusted look on the faces of the passerby.
'yahi ruko, kahi maat jana, mein abhi aya,' he said to her with a meaningful look,
As if she understood him and sat down keeping a track on his movement biting her lips and clutching onto the plastic bag more tightly. Sameer had seen the cars move and left her to park his car in a safe side of the road. He kept a regular tab on the little girl he left aside and quickly hopped back to her. He sat beside her and took the plastic bag from her which she kept holding on with both her hands.
'firse ginte hai iss bar shayad pura paisa mile jaye,' he told the girl,
The girl was giving him a suspicious glare but the flower shop beside was too tempting to resist for her. She gave the money to him and both started counting, she giving the coins one by one to him and sameer keeping a count on them. At the end it came down to 37 rupees.
The girl looked at him with wide hopeful eyes. Sameer knew it would be difficult to get a bunch of those white lilies she wanted but the look in her eyes and her innocent getup nudged him to help her.
'chalo uss aadmi se baat karte hai,' he said holding her hand to get down the bench,
Sameer put the money back inside the plastic bag and stepped out. She held onto his hands and stood down, but instantly left it when she realized he was still a stangle'. He took her inside and made her choose a beautiful bouquet but she choose a small simple one . A small bunch of white liles.
She took pride of her choice and held the bunch tight with her. She went with Sameer to pay. It cost her some more money which sameer added from himself avoiding her eyes. She smiled big when the shopkeeper didn't speak a word and gave her the lilies. She walked out proudly holding his hand.
Both walked out and sameer turned to her, who was smiling and jumping smelling the flowers,
'ab batao, tumhara naam kya hai? Aur kaha reheti ho?' he asked,
The girl forwarded her palm.
'Ak..an...sa...ghal mein reheti hu,' she said, (author's note read akansha)
Sameer happily shook hands with her.
'Sameer, ghar kaha hai tumhara? Rasta pata hai? Chalo mein chor deta hu,'
'lekin uncal(author's note read uncle) mumma ne kaha hai kisi stangal ke saath kahi nehi jate, ghal bhi nehi batate,' she told him rolling her eyes,
'mein stranger kaha hu? Hum to dost haina? Tum mera naam janti hu, main bhi, to hum dost haina? ' sameer explained to which she seemed thoughtful and after a silence she looked up.
She had decided.
'to mein tumhe dost hi bulau?' she said with a smile,
Sameer nodded hard to her with a big smile. The chat continued and he walked with her to a nearby cake shop where an old lady came to her worried. She assured the lady and turned back to him.
'thank you dost..' She shouted at him with a big cheerful smile.
Sameer hurried to the commissioner's office. He was already quite late. The day was long and he was tired but the hurting memories he had just gone through some time back were replaced by a cheerful laugh and the call dost' was intoxicating. Finally after years, he was truely happy again.
********
done for now..i know my readers are smart and they have guessed who the girl is...so before sam knows..I am presenting akansha kapoor
hope you like her...
ishi stop drooling on her dad...🤢 aur abhi isi se kaam chalao..😆😆
leave your feedbacks plz
next update will be late...may be a week or more...
Edited by rimi_invisible - 11 years ago
CID
46