FF-'Trust me, I am with you'- Promo pg 149 - Page 7

Part 4 :

Arjun was smiling all the way till he reached the factory. Humming the same song he went in and got involved in the discussion his dad and jignesh were having. He just needed a couple of minutes to catch up to the speed. Someone needs to go to mumbai for 2 weeks to supervise the textile industry there and also to do invite some tenders for new machinery for the spinning mills and rudra was expecting that arjun would want to go . He asked arjun the same to which he surprisingly denied 'me ? I thought of staying her for some more time with you all dad, I did not mean to go back so soon' Rudra clarified

'you wont be gone forever, it is only for 2 weeks and then you want to stay there or come back is ur choice' hiding the disappointment in his voice while saying the 'you can stay there' part. Arjun hoped jignesh would interfere and take up the task, he simply was not feeling like leaving this town right now, arohi's smile had done something to him that he ached to see that smile again. But in vain , it seemed like he was expected to go and did not have much of a choice. Rudra chose Arjun because he was swift and perfect at his work. He was a topper in the university and would grasp everything within short time and was an able businessman already. He also did his work in his own way, he would take off during office hours just to clear his mind or hang out with his friends and even then he would know what was happening at work and would be ready with his plans.

At the same time as this , arohi had gone inside the school and first went to see if guddi had come out of her mood. She had, she was already missing arohi , it had been more than an hour and she wanted to see her. As soon as she saw arohi she was happy, she just widened her eyes and gave a big smile with an open mouth. Arohi was satisfied. Phew what a start to the day , she started setting up the table for the art session , there would be lot of spills today she thought. She got flashes of arjun driving the car, coming to her door, saying bye while he left, this time she did not remember what he was wearing , but she perfectly remembered his sharp features. She should have just come along with others, unnecessarily made him drive up and down, but like sanchit said he did look cool. She was brought back to the present by her collegue. She couldnot believe she drifted off into thoughts of a man whom she hardly knew, I should concentrate she thought. Her collegue asked what she thought about the art therapy workshop. There was a workshop being held at mumbai , 'art becomes therapy' ** , and it was a 2 week session just for special educators so they can implement it and help the special kids heal by using art as a medium. It was a proven study and arohi wanted to learn more so she can use it in her school. But the question was who would go, from past 2 days they were deciding on who should go and it would come roundabout to arohi. Should she take her sister with her? Or leave her with lovedeep or take bua also with her. Where will she stay? but right now it was time to see which color soothed them most what patterns came out of their minds and soon it was an art galore in the room. They also had the anniversary even coming up in 4 days. The kids had been rehearsing for a dance and an act, their art work would be displayed , parents and some eminent people were invited , there would be speeches , lot of planning for that was going on side by side.

Arjun, rudra and jignesh reached home by lunch, dadi wanted to know when the work would start. Rudra replied it would take few more weeks and arjun would be going to mumbai to care of some matters. With daadi it was masti time for arjun and rashi , they were like little kids around her. And she knew them like the back of her hand. She wanted to go out in the evening to the bazaar. Be it a small gali or a big mall , it was the same excitement for rashi, she can shop anywhere anytime. Sigh , thought arjun, what a boring evening it would be. Fine he will drop them there and go around see if he can crash with jay and then come pick them up .

It was evening and bua had come directly to the school, she knew arohi was upset in the morning and only way to make up to her is to spend the evening with her. Arohi was too sweet to be angry at anybody, she forgot all about how bua and sanchit had brushed her off . she skipped the school van and she bua and guddi made their way to shopping.

Arjun who came to drop them off , was forced to stop and get down after he saw arohi walking towards a shop. And the day just got better he thought. He sheepishly followed his dadi, and prayed that she enters the same shop and viola!! She did. He had never been so happy about dadi as he was today. It took less than 5 minutes for them all to get introduced to each other and less than a second for dadi to find out the difference in arjun's looks, she caught him several times glancing at arohi with fondness. She observed arohi too, who seemed to avoid looking at arjun after the first polite greetings. Arohi was first surprised to see him there , this was the first time she saw his sister and dadi. His grandmother reminded her of her own. It was like arjun was a replica of her. She avoided looking at him again , it only made her think of how she drifted of that morning thinking about how he looked while driving and talking, it is best she doesnot pay much attention to him, arohi concentrated on the rest. Other thing arohi noticed about them was , they reacted well to guddi, they talked to her, asked her questions, made her feel important, and acted very casual. Some people would give curious stares at her sister, she was used to it. But this family was warm in their interaction, bua and dadi were talking like they know eachother since years. Looks like god put all good people in one family, she thought.

Dadi was curious to know more about arohi and only source would be bua. And the time was just right, bua told them about the school day and invited them all on behalf of arohi, she was going to send a formal invitation later, dadi was more than pleased to hear that, first off the girl is so pretty , she is responsible , she is also good hearted and mainly her grandson seems to have taken a liking to her. She also noticed how arjun had dropped his plan to go meet jay and stayed with them and wanted to know the exact feelings of arjun. Sooner the better she thought. And raashi would jump in to do anything for her brother.

That night was even harder to sleep for arjun, what did dadi mean by that, did she notice something about him, was it too obivious the way he looked at her, dadi was very sharp and she knew him inside out, but what does he really think. does he really like arohi? so soon ? why did her smile made his day brighter, and when he saw her in the evening, he felt like going and telling his dad once and for all that he doesnot want to go to mumbai, he wanted to just stay there and be able to see arohi daily. What was her opinion about him? Or did she even notice him? She seems to be so involved in her work, she might hardly remember how he even looked. Will she like it if he went to their school for the event, but that is 4 days away, what will he do till then, should he crash at sanchit's place, and how did he get into all this, it had been easy for him to deal with girls. They would approach him and it was not the other way around. He had couple of girlfriends or it is best to say friends who were girls because he was never emotionally attracted to anyone and it was all part of hanging out. But this felt different. At 27 is it too difficult to understand if it is love or just another attraction. Does she think of him like he is doing right now. He slowly went to sleep, and as they say you usually dream about what you think about during the day , he dreamt of arohi with a pink flying dupatta and arohi running away from the crowd towards a beautiful garden , the similar one he saw at her house, plucking a pink daisy waying her hand towards him asking him to come , he was following her command, a blur of people with faces similar to rashi, dadi and bua among the crowd, and a person who resembled guddi came out from the side of a building that looked like their school , to hold his hand and join his race to reach arohi , how that dream ended he never knew , as he drifted into deep sleep.

Arohi was back from bua's house and went to sleep with clutter of thoughts, will she be able to go to the workshop in mumbai, how the school day would go off, should the practise session continue till the last day, what should she wear tomorrow, will she meet arjun again? The last thought shook her up, what is happening to her, why does she keep coming back to him. This is not good for her, she has to just focus on the purpose of her life, the promise she made to her parents the school that was her life, she should not be thinking of anything else. Forcefully she went to sleep.

Promptly by next evening the singhania's received the invitation to the school day by hand, it was bua and uncle's first visit to the singhania's and they were treated well. But it was a hard day for arjun, because he could not see arohi that day although he wished she too came with them. That night at dinner , jignesh thought the invitation was just a pretext to receive donation, like most institutions expect from rich people. 'we have already paid enough for the factory , just saying' he corrected his statement when his logic was not received well by others. Arjun replied 'yes but we got something back for the money paid. But charity or donation is done without expecting anything back and if it is for a noble cause , we should not step back', a difference of ideals was always there between them. Jignesh cared less, as long as he had the work and money coming, rest did not matter, he decided of staying away from all this.

It was decided that rashi and arjun would go to the event. And the thought that it would be after 3 whole days was making arjun restless.

That was for today guys, sorry it is very narrative, could not put much convo in between. it was to work up to their next meetings. Hope you will like it. Will proofread later, sorry for any typos.

stupid IF is not telling me 'like' ur post...but such an awsomely written peice. Brilliant..story sounds very interesting...i'm gonna have to catch up on it real quick.😛