From the author's desk: Hello people, wish you all a super fabulous 2020! I know, I am late, But technically, this is my first post in 2020... The year has been super busy for me so far, How I wish i know a easy way to transfer whats in my mind to the document instead of typing it out...
Without further ado, here is the next update. Hope you enjoy it
Happy reading!
____________________________________________________________________
Chapter 16: Battle ready
Part 1: Finding the cause
As soon as Abhimanyu mentioned the name, a bell rang at Arnav’s mind.
“Shyam Manohar Jha” Arnav repeated, trying to place him
“Heard of him?” Abhi asked his friend
“I think, I have. But I am not able to place him”
“I am not surprised. He is a business magnet as well. Slum dog millionaire types. Everyone in my department knows where and how the major part money comes from for his business, but not even one evidence to pin him. Quite a shrewd criminal and a king maker”
“Doesn’t matter how powerful hat fraud is. I am going after him.” Arnav was determined.
“With SMJ, we need to tread carefully, one whiff of police getting involved, he would erase all traces.”
“I didn’t necessarily say that I will involve you” Arnav told pointedly to Abhi
“Don’t be stupid Arnav. What are you thinking” Abhi was shocked.
“I am serious”
“Excuse me?”
“He has assaulted my sister, he has threatened her and probably has terrified her with God knows what. And If I go by law, I am afraid, I will not be able to satiate my anger”
“You don’t even know how he plays his game”
“He does not know how I play mine either”
“Arnav, Come on. You need our help”
“May be, But I don’t care”
Abhi ran his hands through his hair in frustration
“Arnav, look, I have been behind this guy for 2 years. Don’t ruin this for me”
Arnav looked at his friend and slowly smirked at him but not in a friendly way
“We are only trying to nab him and we need her help”
“Looks like you need my help now?”
“Alright, we need each other”
Arnav closed his eyes equally frustrated as he balled his fists impatiently and pounded lightly on the cafeteria table.
“Why do I get a feeling that you are about to ask me something that I will refuse anyway?” he asked opening his eyes
“Arnav, this is the only way”
“I am not letting you take advantage of her”
“How could you even think that way, I will never put her in danger for my sake, you know that”
Khushi looked at the two men converse, not understanding half of what the two were speaking.
“I am here too” she said “Can we speak in a language that I understand please?”
Abhi looked at her bemused.
“We are speaking in a language that you understand”
“Pun intended” Khushi said as Arnav sighed at his friend wearily.
“Sorry?”
“I meant that I am not able to follow your conversation anymore. It’s as if you are speaking in codes” Khushi explained.
“For all you know, the encoded conversation could be intentional too” Abhi told her thoughtfully
Khushi looked at him and Arnav in disbelief.
Abhi sighed aloud.
“Shyam is willy and acutely sagacious. The only way we can pin him is to let him believe that Anjali is still game”
“I am not letting you use my sister for this Abhimanyu”
“Wait a minute, did you not say that if this Shyam gets to know that we are involving the police then he would get more elusive?” Khushi asked
“Yes” Abhi agreed with her
“But now, you want to get involved?” she asked him again
“It will be off records. I am not going to file a FIR on this.”
“Forget it” Arnav told him.
“Arnav please, trust me, I will ensure that Anjali is safe”
“Why so specific that it has to be Anjali.” Khushi said
“The other girls who have been victims are either exposed or too scared to do this”
“Why not use someone else? I can volunteer”
“WHAT?” Arnav yelled.
“Calm down dude” Abhi told him “Thanks for offering Khushi, but that will not work. Do you think I have not tried this? There are women in my profession too, it didn’t work”
“You tried with girls who were cops, maybe that’s why it didn’t work”
“I tried with a couple of other girls too, the gang is very specific about whom they want to target. And that’s why I thought”
“I told you to forget it” Arnav interrupted. “It will be neither Anjali nor Khushi. That’s final” Arnav said glaring at Khushi
“Oh really?” Khushi replied almost challenging Arnav
“Khushi, you are NOT getting into this”
“I don’t understand”
“I am already tensed about what to do to get Anjali out of this. Now you don’t complicate things. Stay away from all this” Arnav warned her
“I still don’t understand”
“What do you not understand” Arnav almost yelled again.
“That you want to decide for me or your sister”
“Who else will?”
“We have a working brain; you know? We are capable of handling our decisions”
“Oh come on!” Arnav sounded exasperated.
Abhi who was watching this conversation decided to intervene.
“Khushi, I think Arnav is right about your involvement in this”
Khushi rolled her eyes
“It’s just that I know sending you as a bait is not going to work, simply because I know his mode of operation and this strategy does not fit in. Moreover, I don’t want to put your safety in question to save another”
“I have some basic training in these…” Khushi started to argue.
“Your half-baked taekwondo will not help here” Arnav cut her in half. “nor your skills in acting”
Khushi glared at Arnav.
“So what else will work? Your heroism?”
“Stop it Khushi”
“You stop this first. Stop deciding for your sister”
“What do you mean?”
“That whatever you are doing is wrong” she explained “Stop over protecting her”
“She was assaulted! “Arnav interjected angrily
“She was, I don’t deny that, but how she reacted to that depends on how she was prepared to meet a devastating situation like this”
“Who would be prepared for a situation like this Khushi?”
“Hold on!” Khushi said “Let me complete.”
“You are a woman too, how could you not understand this…”
“I am not denying it”
“Of all the people, I didn’t expect you to…” Arnav exclaimed angrily
“All I wanted to say is that she needs to be given a chance to choose if she wants to fight or not” Khushi told raising her voice above him.
“Fight on her own? Are you mad? She attempted to kill herself”
“Yeah she did, did you realize why?” Khushi told him “She was overprotected all her life and she acted hastily”
Arnav who was about to say something else, paused at her words.
“By all means, teach that scum a lesson that he will never forget in life. But you have a lesson to learn in this too” Khushi repeated “You know what, she grew up with 3 brothers who would fight the world for their sister, but growing up three brothers shouldn’t weaken her, if anything, she would have learnt to fight for herself, she was strong enough to keep the entire thing from you and your brothers. She is not a weakling, you know, at least, I believe she is not. Let her fight her battles. Give her the support, be there for her, but let her fight for herself!”
“She has a point” Abhi consented
“Of course!” Khushi said “and you should be speaking to Anjali if she wants to do this or not, not asking approval for Anjali’s involvement to her elder brother… What is this? School field trip permission form? Prejudiced much?”
Khushi paused to look at a dumbfounded Arnav and a stunned Abhi watching her.
“Prejudiced?”
“Because she is a girl?”
“Not at all. I was just checking with her brother because he is elder and her parents are no more. It has nothing to do with the gender”
“How about asking her then? Last time I checked she is already 19 and is mature enough to decide for herself”
“She has just undergone a trauma didn’t she?”
“If you think she is fit enough to help you nab the criminal, she is good enough to make the decisions for herself”
“Guess you are right”
“She is not” Arnav commented and he looked up at Khushi
“You think so”
“No, I know. My sister will want me to decide for her and she is not getting involved in this”
“Let’s see what she says”
“You are so going to lose Khushi”
“That’s what you think Mr. Raizada”
Khushi shrugged as she got up
“Let’s leave. It’s about to be 8, visitors time will start soon”
Arnav nodded. Abhi watched his friend sitting next to him speechless.
“So much for acting chivalrous” he said as they saw her leave.
Arnav sighed as he got up too.
“Arnav, if Anjali wants to fight, will you let her?”
“I know Anjali, she would turn to me for this decision”
“I feel so too. I want you to re-consider this, I have worked on this for long enough to understand that we can get him with a victim’s help. I wouldn’t get another chance like this”
Arnav didn’t answer his friend, but was thoughtful.
***
Anjali was shifted to a room from the ICU at about the same time and they trio met her. It was an emotional meeting for the brother and sister as the other two stood watching the scene.
Anjali did not need any persuasion to spill the tea. The moment her brother hugged her tight and told her that he will be with her no matter what, she told how she befriended a boy named Jay last year who was her senior at the college and she had grown fond of him. It was a sort of crush from Jay’s side and her friends usually teased them together. During one of the get-togethers, she was given a dare to let a boy sneak into her house without other family members knowing it, she had trusted Jay and had asked him to help with the dare. He had seemed to be sincere when he agreed to help and she had sneaked him into the house at night without the family knowing it.
The two had clicked some pics together at her room and in the terrace for the proof of evidence. At that point it had all been casual but later rumor had got around that she and Jay were seeing each other. When she realized that it had been Jay who had let the news around that he and Anjali were now together and they had already done the ‘thing’, she had gotten angry and called it a close. Jay couldn’t take Anjali ignoring him and was pissed off with her. He and his friends resorted to vengeance and started to threaten her with pics of them both in her room sitting on her bed and extracted money from her by saying that they will show the pics to her dadi and the entire college.
Fearing the repercussion from the family, she had literally paid the gang some money to make them delete those pics that were clicked in her room.
She had believed that the things got sorted as Jay and his friends graduated out at the end of the year and she thought it was done once for all. But last evening, one of Jay’s friends, Sandy had approached her and showed some of the pics that were taken on that day, that he had not only retained, but had also photo shopped it to show them half nude in those pics, which clearly depicted that they had been sleeping together that day. He had demanded her for more money, failing which he would release the pic on social media.
No longer able to withstand the pressure, she had taken the extreme step.
“I didn’t know what else to do. I was so scared and devastated. What will people think? What will happen if those pics got around? Everyone will speak about it… I didn’t have any option”
“You should have come to me. We could have solved this together” Arnav told her
“I didn’t have the guts bhai”
“You had the guts to slice yourself” Khushi asked in a cold tone from the corner where she stood with Abhi.
Anjali looked up at Khushi. She looked regretful
“Khushi!” Arnav warned her
“You keep quiet.” Khushi instructed him “Is this how you handle her? As if she had broken a pot and you are advising her to be careful next time?”
Quietened by Khushi’s behavior, Arnav stood there shocked at how Khushi was handling Anjali at this situation.
“And you how easily you thought that you can take away your life just like that.”
“He was showing me almost nude pics of me” Anjali answered in a feeble voice.
“It wasn’t even you”
“I know, but what will people think?”
“Damn what they think. But what were you thinking?”
“Khushi, how could you talk to her when she is in this state” Arnav asked her angrily.
“I will speak right now and she will hear the truth”
“You will not speak to my sister like that”
“I will do what I like Mr. Raizada. Now if you don’t want to watch it, you are free to stay outside for a moment.”
“How dare you”
“Abhi, please take your friend outside for a bit, I need to give my friend a piece of my mind” Khushi said as she stepped forward, glaring at Arnav to challenge her.
“Of all the people, I thought you would understand the delicate she is right now”
“You thought wrong. I am not going to pamper her like you. She is a Raizada isn’t she?”
“I don’t deserve to be a Raizada. I always brought bad luck to the family. Now, I am about to bring bad name too” Anjali said wearily
“Anjali, please don’t start now” Arnav told her
“Let her speak” Khushi told him and then turned to Anjali “and yes Anjali, your act wasn’t worthy of Anjali Raizada”
Anjali looked at Khushi questioningly
“You were strong enough to handle Jay and his friends on your own, you were strong enough to strife through mean relatives calling you unlucky, you were strong enough to stay positive in spite of being raised in a male chauvinistic, male dominant and biased household…”
“What did you just call us?” interrupted Arnav.
“I called your family a male chauvinistic, male dominant and biased household”
“How dare you…”
“She grew up all her life hearing about how sanskari is only for the girls- which is why she took this extreme step. She simply did not have it in her to go against something that she was again and again made to believe in”
“Just because my dadi is baised, you cannot call the entire household as gender biased” Arnav told her indignantly.
“Oh you all were…” Khushi said
“Excuse me?” Arnav challenged.
“Oh how about the fact that none of the brothers dared to question the fact that while all the boys were sent abroad to study, Anjali had to remain at home only? Don’t tell me that you couldn’t influence your family or was it that you are going to blame that on her interest?”
“That was because she wasn’t inclined”
“and you didn’t try to persuade?”
“She is free to go or do wherever wants, she knows that, don’t you Anjali?”
“How many girls did you bring home in the past?”
“Why do you want to talk about that now?”
“Because I find that perspective is biased as well. Not only you, how many times did Payal visit your house before Akaash and Payal wedding? And NK? he got away with making La stay at your house and they are not yet married”
“What are you wanting to say?”
“Don’t you see the problem?” Khushi asked Arnav “While you boys could bring in girls at the drop of a hat, your sister didn’t even have the courage to bring in a friend and had to sneak him in… It all started there right? That she will be judged- and that’s what that scum has taken advantage of… Don’t you see where the problem lies?”
“Also, It was because we weren’t there when this happened.” Arnav argued.
“Why should you be there for her to bring a friend home? And what would have happened if you were there? She would have asked you for ask permission from Dadi to bring Jay home? Or must have asked one of you to bring in Jay as your friend to finish her dare or perhaps… would have asked you to save her from Dadi’s wrath if those pics got to her?”
“Perhaps”
“The problem is not because of that. It was because Jay and his friends were nasty” Anjali told Khushi.
“Even if they were nasty, if they found that you were causal about bringing friends home, would they have even tried this?
“No, I freaked out when I brought them home the entire time, it was only 10-15 mins… but still, I think they took advantage of that”
“That’s what is wrong… She did not have it in her to introduce the friend as a friend because she was scared of being judged. Don’t you see the difference the household treats you and her?”
“It’s not the entire household- Dadi perhaps, because her beliefs are old school. Yes, we are protective of her, but treating her inferior… We have never done that. Infact, we have never said no to Anjali ever…”
“oh hold on to that thought for a moment and I want to see if you want to say yes to this then” Khushi said and turned to Anjali
“Anjali, I am sorry, I was hard on you but this was perhaps the stupidest thing you could ever do. Imagine how your brothers would have died of guilt if you were successful in killing yourself?”
“I know, I was a coward”
“You know what? If you had punched him on the face, threw his mobile and smashed it against the wall, that would have been worthy of you… If you had planned to fight back, that would have been worthy of you… If you had told that scum to go do whatever he wants to do and you wouldn’t bother any which way- that would have been worthy of you.”
“You want me to go tell him to upload those pics in internet?”
“What big deal? They can morph anyone these days… but the moment you say that you cannot care any longer, he would lose interest. He is after money isn’t he? The moment he feels that you wouldn’t shell anything, he will be gone.They usually look for easy targets Anjali”
Anjali looked at Khushi with eyes wide open.
“What if he uploads my pic for revenge?”
“you know the ACP right? Haven’t you heard of cyber police?”
“Damage would have been done right Khushi? What if it were you? Would you have gone to Cyber police?”
“If it were me, I would have simply told that scum that I have nothing in here that is different from other girls in the world. I would have told him to go try all this might, but I cannot bother less”
“you would?” Anjali asked looking quickly at Arnav for his reaction. “Would your future husband also accept this view of yours?”
“Why? If a man who wants to marry me but makes an issue out of some incident that was resulted due to no fault of mine, then I would rather reject his proposal”
“you are brave Khushi, I am not.”
“You have the courage in you too Anjali, you just have to exercise it in the right way- not by slashing your wrist”
“I don’t know… The milk is split now, isn’t it? I don’t think I would ever be able to tell him that he can do whatever he wants.”
“You don’t have to be me. Anjali is brave in her own way and it is not the only way to fight back”
“What are you saying?”
“What do you think is the next course of action now that your brother knows about this?”
“He will hunt that Sandy and Jay down. He will kill them literally”
“hmmhmm… hot blooded yeah?” Khushi said glancing at Arnav and then turning back to Anjali “That blood runs in you too right?”
“You want me to go avenge him?”
“ACP wants your help in hunting these culprits. Are you game?”
“Wait what?” Anjali said looking to and fro from Khushi and Abhi.
“You could make everything right with this Anjali, you have the power in your hands now… Your decision will not only make things better for you, but also for so many innocent girls who were targeted or going to be targeted”
“Khushi” Anjali swallowed as she turned to her brother “Bhai, what do you think”
Khushi turned expectantly at Arnav. Arnav glared back at her.
“It’s up to you Anjali” Arnav told her finally “we will be with you in whatever decision you take”
Anjali bit her lips.
“We will take care of everything Anjali, we will be there at every step, Please?” Abhi asked her earnestly
Khushi raised her eyebrows at Anjali “Say yes”
“What do you want me to do?” Anjali asked Abhi
“Brilliant!” he responded.
***
Anjali was slotted to get discharged the same day. Khushi sat chatting with Anjali and the men stepped out a bit. Arnav turned to Abhi the moment he came out.
"Hope things turn out right"
“You are ok with this aren’t you?”
“ I am not fully convinced. but since she wants to do it, You will take care of her right?”
“with my life” Abhi confirmed
Arnav nodded thoughtfully
"What are you thinking?"
"Khushi has good convincing skills"
"And a good amount of skills to invite trouble"
“You seem to know a lot about her dude, by the way which part worries you more? Anjali’s involvement in this or Khushi’s?”
Arnav glared at his friend but didn’t answer him.
"Arnavji"
The two turned to see Khushi approaching them.
"thanks for supporting her in this"
"I am not willingly doing it" he snapped at her
"But you are doing it, thanks for that. It means a lot"
"If anything happens to her in this..." Arnav gritted his teeth at Khushi, jolting her.
“Nothing will happen” Abhi assured Arnav
“I will not forgive myself” Khushi whispered slowly, her eyes tearing up as she she hastily went back inside.
Arnav closed his eyes, frustrated with himself.
“Look, Plan this properly, I trust you with Anjali’s safety”
“Leave it to me”
“I am worried about Khushi”
“Khushi?”
“She is not going to stop”
“I sensed it. I will do something about it. But at that cost, you may face the consequence from her- She may think that you asked us to keep a tab on her. Going by her feminist speech, you will have a tough time” Abhi smirked at his friend.
Arnav was but far from being in a playful mood.
“I know, but my worry is we won’t be able to stop her”
“you are so sure?”
“I know how she thinks. I might have unintentionally provoked her ego and she might do something stupid to help in this case.”
Abhi smirked.
" You worry unnecessarily. She can handle herself" Abhi told as he turned towards the direction where Khushi was standing near the water dispenser "and by the looks of it, you didn't touch her ego, you touched her guilt" he said gesturing towards her direction.
" Damn it" Arnav sweared as he saw her wiping her tears and moved towards her direction
" And you are a goner already" Abhi called behind Arnav."Clean bowled"
To be continued.
______________________________________________________________________________________
It was done in a rush, I may review it later, Do let me know your comments on the update, I am waiting for it. Cheers, Vi.
What a brilliant, brilliant piece of writing. I'm in love with this Khushi. The chapter is an eye-opener. Thanks a lot for writing this. Truly awesome!
Khushi is a strong girl she did the right thing that is to let Anjali handle her problem n also showing Arnav mirror bcoz unintentionally all the brothers have made their sister a docile doll n not a strong independent girl n the major part is played by their Dadi who didn’t let her forget that she is a girl who is not suppose to take decisions of her life all by herself.
Loved the update and very intense . Do not want to wait too long for the next update.
Super update
Happy new year to u too dear
Fabulous update. The conversation/argument between Arnav, Abhi and Khushi and then the conversation between Arnav, Abhi, Khushi and Anjali was superb. I am with Khushi in this.
She has done a great job in convincing Arnav and then Anjali. But, I am sure she will involve herself in this case with or without Arnav's knowledge, which is going to make Arnav angry.
We can protect children, but we need to learn to let go and let them stumble and learn from their mistakes.
Cheers..........
| topics | author | replies | views | reply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disnhining_star | 150 | 4254 | ||
| abavi | 247 | 90846 | ||
| Rizz-ington | 34 | 4708 | ||
| spvd | 638 | 41506 | ||
| NostalgiaLove | 185 | 1347 |
comment:
p_commentcount