EPILOGUE
"Bhai! Gaadi aur tezi se chalaao! I am so excited!", the boy in the back seat of the jeep shouted.
"Nahi! Samar Bhai! Aapko humaari kasam! Aap gaadi tez nahi chalaayenge! Iss namoone ko aap ignore karo!", the girl sitting beside him in the back seat glared at him. He gave her a baleful look but she ignored it.
In the driving seat, Samar Singh Khurana, son of Maan Singh Khurana and Geet Khurana nee Handa, who looked just like his father, chuckled. As he drove he remembered how he reached the situation where he was driving his two cousins off to some adventure trip.
Flashback:
Samar Singh Khurana, age 25, had followed his father's footsteps and had become an architect after which he joined his father's company. Nowadays he handled the day to day duties while his father handled the board meetings only. His mother who had quit her secretary job after Samar's birth never returned to her old job or KC. She had already decided to stay at home to focus on Samar since the day he was born, but few weeks after his kidnapping, Geet Khurana decided to enter charity work and started to help abused women and children. Nowadays she ran the Khurana Foundation where she was the managing director. Samar believed something happened to his mom after he was kidnapped. He didn't get the details but he knew that she was admitted in the hospital for a lot of time. He visited her a lot in those days so he remembered those days very well. But what happened in those days he didn't know and his parents refused to tell. They only told him that those were bad days and they didn't wish to remember them.
Today Samar sat reading some progress reports of KC in his cabin when the cabin opened. He looked up to see his cousins coming in with smiles on their faces. He grinned too. Today both had their convocation ceremony of their college. They were twenty years old and had graduated recently. He missed the ceremony due to a very important meeting regarding the future of his company but he was sure his mom and aunt had taken enough pictures so that he didn't miss anything.
Before Samar could open his mouth and congratulate them for topping their third year in the university both spoke up,
"Samar Boy Samar Boy, You are handsome and tall,
You look like your father, you got the prettiest smile of all,
Mumma's boy since you were small,
You are the bestest brother in the world as long as we recall!"
Samar rolled his eyes but a grin remained on his face. It was a poem the twins wrote when he was fifteen to flatter him so that he would take them to the circus. Since then the poem became a routine between the trio. Whenever the twins wanted anything, they would say this poem and he would reply with...
"Maska laga rahe ho tum,
Mujhe pata hai tumhaari chaal,
Maango jo maangna hai,
Arnav ki Aarti aur Khushi ke Kushal!"
Aarti and Kushal grinned. If Aarti was daddy's girl then Kushal was mumma's boy. But that was given because Kushal looked just like his father down to his glare while Aarti looked and spoke just like her mother. But both children were nature wise a mixture of their parents. If Samar was Arnav's best buddy, then Aarti was Maan's darling as she looked just like his Gudiya and Kushal was Geet' favorite because he called her most beautiful. Infact, once Kushal grew up he used to tease Geet by calling her his girlfriend. His flirting with her and she scolding him was a usual occurrence in the family. And as Maan didn't have any daughter he treated Aarti as his daughter and called Little Gudiya. No one could scold her as long as Maan was around and she threatened both Samar and Kushal many times by Maan's name. Even her father wasn't spared when it came to threatening with Maan's name.
"You remember you promised us! Waqt aagaya hai, you fulfil your promise!", Kushal announced.
"Haan! You have to fulfil your promise!", Aarti stomped her foot while pouting.
"What promise?", Samar frowned. He genuinely couldn't recall his promise.
Kushal's eyes lit up, "Remember! You promised us our first trip somewhere without our parents once we graduated! You said you will take us with you and convince our parents for the trip too!"
Samar sighed. Ah yes! That promise! He was packing for a conference trip some two years back and his mother was fussing around him. He didn't understand why but since his kidnapping his parents were quite overprotective about him. Same could be said about Arnav and Khushi when it came to Aarti and Kushal. Neither of the three cousins understood the reason behind the overprotectiveness of their parents. But all three abided by them because they could see the stark fear in their parents' eyes at the thought of them going somewhere far away.
So while Samar was getting ready for the trip, the twins arrived announcing that they were fed up of the rule and were not ready to wait for some office work that will make them go on a trip as that will take ages. So to stop them from ranting and raving anymore, Samar promised that once they graduated he would take them with him for a trip and as he was also going, he was sure that Arnav and Khushi would also allow them to go.
Samar looked up and smiled, "Ok! Fine! Let me finish today's work and in the evening I will come to Shantivan and convince your parents to let you go with me! I am sure that they will let you go because I am with you!"
Kushal and Aarti excitedly high fived and scrambled out of the cabin while Samar chuckled at their enthusiasm.
Present...
It took them a while but Samar managed to wrangle the permission from Aarti and Kushal's parents. Of course there were conditions. Khushi made him promise that he drove safely and slowly while Arnav told him to come back with the twins in three days. As Samar drove through the long winding road he remembered the changes he saw in Arnav and Khushi since his kidnapping and Khushi's delivery and their subsequent stay in the hospital. He had stayed with Anjali Aunty for few days and was present when his aunt and uncle came home with the twins. Khushi barely laughed and his best buddy Arnav had ordered him to find ways to make Khushi laugh. It took him days to fulfil his task but since then Khushi had changed. There was something haunting in Khushi's eyes that still had to go away. Till she became pregnant Khushi had worked in AR but once her children had been born she refused to even get out of the house, forget about even getting back to her job. Finally when the twins were around six, Arnav and Maan managed to convince Khushi to get back to her job and today she was the head of the designing department of AR. Arnav tried to convince her to take CEO's position but Khushi loved being hands on so remained stuck in her head of department position.
The changes in Arnav was subtle but Samar noticed it. He always held Samar tighter than usual as if Samar would disappear anytime and same was the case with the twins too. He would wake up at odd times in night and check on all three to make sure that they were ok. He had seen the same changes in his parents too and he had woken up many times at nights to see his mother sitting by him with tears in her eyes. Something had happened that had shaken all four of them to their core. Samar had mixed feelings about wanting to know the truth. On one side the curiosity in him wanted to know the whole story but on the other side the fear in Maan, Khushi, Arnav and Geet's eyes made him dread the truth and that part urged him to stay away from the mystery.
And hence Samar was quite nervous today as he drove. Why? Because he was heading to Khurana Haveli in Hoshiarpur with Aarti and Kushal in tow. He had found an old trunk in the attic of their house when he was 16 and was shocked to see the deed to some Haveli in Hoshiarpur. He had gotten very excited at that and was curious about the structure of such an old Haveli. As a student of architecture he was keen to study the area and was shocked when his parents refused to take him there or let him go there. He wanted to argue and fight but the fear in his mother's eyes made him remain quiet. But he promised himself that one day he would go there and check the Haveli out. And today he was about to fulfil the promise. When he had suggested the idea to his cousins, they were first a little dejected at spending the time at some random Haveli but when their parents flinched after being asked about the place the twins were intrigued too. What happened there? What happened that made cheerful KSR and Cunning ASR get scared of a random place? They had to know. So they agreed to the trip. Of course their parents didn't know where they were going. As far as Maan, Geet, Arnav and Khushi knew, the trio was partying in Shimla, that's all.
Samar took a deep breath as they reached the Haveli. His eyes widened as he took in the majestic Khurana Haveli from the outside. He jumped out of the Jeep and Kushal-Aarti followed. They entered the main courtyard and Aarti gasped. The whole Haveli was in ruins.
"What a waste!", Kushal commented.
Samar nodded as all three looked around the courtyard. Suddenly, Kushal stepped back in shock, "Blood!" Samar turned around and looked at Kushal while Aarti looked where Kushal was pointing.
"What did you say?", Samar frowned. Aarti pointed at the area too, "Its blood there! Dried blood!"
Samar turned to where she was pointing and his eyes widened too. A hand print in blood was smeared on the wall.
"Its all around!", Kushal commented as he looked around. Samar looked around too and had to agree. Everywhere on the walls there were dried blood. Some were spatters but some were handprints too.
"What happened here?", Aarti was aghast.
"No wonder our parents didn't want us to come here!", Samar muttered.
"You think our parents were involved in this?", Kushal asked worriedly.
Samar shrugged but the twins could see even he was wondering the same.
They started to walk around, their curiosity piqued. As Samar entered one of the rooms, he was surprised to see photo hanging on the wall. Dust covered it. Kushal stepped forward and wiped the dust as Aarti looked curiously. The photo was of two small boys with an old lady and a middle aged lady. Aarti gasped. When the boys turned towards her she pointed at the elder boy in the picture, "Yeh ladka toh bilkul Samar Bhaiyya jaise dikhta hai! Samar Bhaiyya ke bachpan ke photos mein woh aise hi dikhte hain!"
"But main toh kabhi yahaan aaya hi nahi!", Samar frowned.
"Oh teri! This must be your dad! You look like Maan Mamaji now then you must have looked like him in your childhood too! This is definitely your dad!", Kushal exclaimed. Samar couldn't look away from the photo.
"Who are the other three in the picture?", Aarti asked but Samar shrugged, "No idea!"
Samar looked around and then he found another picture. He wiped the dust and stumbled back in shock. There was a man in the photo, the man who had kidnapped Samar when he was a kid. My kidnapper? He lived here! And my dad lived here too? What the hell!
Just then they heard a noise in the courtyard. All three looked at each other in alarm and then walked out with Aarti behind her brothers as Samar took the lead. Their alarm seemed to be of no use as it was simply an old woman who seemed to be walking around.
Just then the lady turned and Aarti gasped. The lady had grotesque and disfigured face and seemed to be stooping from her middle back. Her clothes were in tatters and as she took in their faces her face changed from confused to rage.
"Aagaye tum teeno?", the lady roared and all three stumbled back in shock.
"Aur sirf teen? Woh kitthe hai? Woh kameeni jiski wajah se yeh sab shuru hua tha! Kitthe hai woh Geet?", she asked with icy voice and Samar frowned. His mom? Why was she talking about my mom? Mom ne kya kiya? Before he could ask about his mother, the lady continued to ramble, "Maar diya! Tum chaaron ne mere puttar nu maar diya! Mere Dev nu maar diya! Maar diya!" Rambling about her son and their killers the lady walked away.
"What the hell was that?", Kushal spat.
"And why were they blaming us and for what?", Samar frowned.
"Not us! Our parents!", Aarti mumbled and the boys turned to look at her.
"Remember! We look like our parents! She must be talking about Mom, Dad, Maamaji and Maamiji!", Aarti explained.
"But why did she say our parents killed her son?", Kushal was annoyed.
"Kya humare parents ne kisi ki jaan li? Mujhe vishwas nahi hota!", Samar mumbled worriedly.
"Tumhaare maata pita koi khooni nahi the! Woh toh humaare devta hain! Woh nahi hote toh hum aaj bhi ghut ghutkar mar rahe hote!", a voice came and all turned to see a man in his forties standing there.
He stepped forward, "Apne maa baap ko kabhi galat mat samajhna! Unhonein ob hi kiya gaao ki bhalaai ke liye kiya!" He turned to walk away when Samar couldn't stop himself from speaking up, "Lekin unhonein kiya kya?"
The man turned and then smiled at them, "Tum jaanna chaahte ho? Toh aao! Chalo mere saath! Aur main tumhein batata hun kahaani uss Khurana khaandaan ke waaris ki jo saalon pehle ghum ho gaya lekin jab iss gaao ko uski garaj padi toh woh hum sabko bachaane waapis aaya! Aao!" He beckoned them and they followed, curious about their parents.
The man sat on a rock nearby and as Samar, Aarti and Kushal watched he spoke up, "Ek waqt ek darinda iss gaao mein rehta tha! Uska naam tha Dev..."
And the story ends! Hope you liked Deewangi!
It was a bit paced and had very little of romance! But I hoped that the action and twists kept you interested and you liked this story!
Please let me know what you think about it and also if you have any scenes that you want to read regarding the newer generation kids aka Samar, Aarti and Kushal, I am game for it!
So drop your ideas in your reviews and I will try my best to write them down!
Thank you, take care and have fun,
Kalpana
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