Kal: A PV Story (Chapter VI, Page 23)

First Previous

Page

Next Last

Frequent Posters

Samanalyse

@Samanalyse

Sparkler

+ 3

Posted: 13 years ago

#161

@Indu: Thanks again, my friend! It is true, though I don't update often, I think about this story a lot before writing down each part. I can't tell you how honoured I am that my story is part of your "me-time." 🤗

@Kesha: I would really love to see some more of the kids too, especially the girls, as Ansh will be in focus all through out the Prashant fiasco. I LOVE your idea of Payal being jealous of not being the littlest anymore. That would be adorable and perhaps the perfect way to bring her into the spotlight. 😃

Quote

Kesha_H.

@Kesha_H.

Sparkler

+ 2

Posted: 13 years ago

#162

@Samna: I think so too let's give Kat this idea CVs always seem to take ideas frm her stories😛🤣 but I don't think tht they mite show how he will truly cope with the situation lyk a real child would they seem to have sumthing against the children 😛 and only focus on Yash and Arti which is understable cuz the whole show is abt them😆

Quote

Looks like you are new here. Register for free, learn and contribute.

Samanalyse

@Samanalyse

Sparkler

+ 3

Posted: 13 years ago

#163

~ VI ~

As they drove in silence, Ansh's mind wandered back to the first time his father and he had made this trip together, the first time he had experienced a combination of anger and sadness so deep that it made him forgo all rationality in a blind and desperate bid to willfully force the world back in place.

About a year ago, Ansh had been on the organisation team for his school mela [fair]. One of the traditionally more popular booths involved a game, guessing the identity of students from their baby pictures. When Ansh asked his mother for a baby picture, she confessed that while she had brought a few with her when she remarried and came to live at Scindia house, he would have a much better selection in the innumerable albums at the Dubeys'. So one evening, after school, Ansh had gone over there with Payal and Palak, who never turned down a chance to eat badi-mummy's rajma-chawal.

As Palak and Payal sat in the living room, drinking juice and chatting with Shobha, Ansh went inside his mother's old room with his grandfather, who took an enormous album marked "Baby Ansh," out of the cupboard and handed it to him. Ansh sat on the bed and began to flip through the pictures one by one, trying to find one that was least recognisable, to prolong the guessing game for the participants at the booth. He chuckled as he looked at himself as baby, chubby and smiling in most of the photos, with only the occasional shot of him bawling uproariously. His mother had always told him with a twinkle in her eye that for the most part, she couldn't have asked for a happier, more sunshiny baby, except for the rare occasion when something upset him. Then the adults would be frantic, trying to figure out what was wrong and pacify the bellowing Ansh, who could and would scream for hours without reprieve.

Ansh grinned as the next page revealed a shot of him in his mother's arms, sitting on the terrace swing. In the picture, he was laughing and reaching out to the person taking the picture, probably badi-mummy or bade-papa, while his mother held him around the waist, looking down at him with a gentle smile on her face, one that revealed both overwhelming love and an unmistakable longing, as though she was desperately searching for something in his little form. Ansh felt a tug at his heart, and as though radiating from the picture, her loneliness washed over him in a wave of melancholy.

He took a deep breath and tried hard to shake the feeling, after all he knew the happy ending of this story. Not many years after this picture was taken, his mother had married Yash Scindia, a man who had slowly but surely eased every ache and filled every void in both Aarti and Ansh's lives. He hadn't seen that dreaded expression in her eyes, the one that he had known so well as a small child, for a very long time. It had been replaced by a tranquil ease of being and a joy for living that no longer came in spurts and gushes, fighting the odds, but flowed serenely from what seemed like an eternal spring, deep within her.

Ansh knew this, probably better than anyone else, so why was this picture bothering him so much? He shook his head and flipped to the next page rather more violently than necessary. A single, loose photo fell out of the album face down. Ansh absently picked it up and turned it over… a punch to the gut.

He felt the blood drain from his face as he stared at the old photograph. It was clearly a very intimate moment, a moment meant for no eyes but the two in the picture, as proven by the visible edge of the outstretched hand that had taken it. They were sitting on the same swing that Aarti had sat on with Ansh, two years later, but the Aarti in this picture could not be more different. She was blushing, and grinning impishly as something was furtively whispered in her hear… by him. Ansh knew who he was of course, knew him, as a friend and a complicated reality, but he had never fully understood until this moment: his mother had been in love with Prashant.

She had once looked at him the way she looked at Yash, stealing glances across the room when he came home after work, as though one look at him could refresh her after a tiring day. She had once teased Prashant the way she teased Yash, about injections, and firecrackers and the way his shirt had to be ironed. She had shared secrets and made plans with him, just as Ansh knew she did with Yash, from nights he spent in their room, falling asleep to their indiscernible whispers.

And then he left.

Ansh felt sick to his stomach as he continued to look at Aarti's young, fresh face, filled with confidence, as though nothing in the world could conquer her happiness… and just a few months later, he had left her, to become that sad, lonely, woman, searching vain for what he had promised her, hoping that by some miracle he would see reason and return, and fighting desperately for even the smallest happiness.

For the first time in his young life, Ansh felt entirely consumed by a fury that seemed to permeate every cell in his body. He didn't remember much, through the angry haze, of how he had curtly told his grandparents, Palak and Payal that they had to leave, before storming out the door, his befuddled sisters following in his wake. He didn't remember the silent, hour-long car ride home either, only the two contrasting images of his mother, that seemed burned into his gaze, constantly alternating and teasing him with their message. What had that confident girl done wrong that she had to bear such a punishment? What right did any man, let alone Prashant, have to play with so many lives as though he was god? What right did he have to take away people's happiness, their smiles? Ansh felt utterly helpless. What was the point of it all, if good people had to suffer and all the perpetrators got in turn was forgiveness?

As soon as they got home, Ansh headed straight for his parents' room, where his mother was sitting on the bed, embroidering a dupatta and humming softly to herself. She looked up with a smile as he came into the room:

"Did you find a good picture? I have always loved that one of you eating a banana, with more on your face than in your mouth, or what about that one with you in the bathtub with a hat made out of bubbles, or the one wi---"

"Mumma!" Ansh exclaimed in frustration. Aarti's eyes jerked into focus and caught his expression.

"What's the matter Ansh?"

Ansh clenched his teeth, "How could you forgive him?"

"Forgive who, Ansh?"

"HIM!" Ansh yelled, not able to bring himself to say Prashant's name. "He promised to be with you forever and then he abandoned us, abandoned you! HOW could you save his life, with my bone marrow, and then FORGIVE HIM?!"

Ansh saw realisation dawn, and Aarti's facial muscles tense, as she steeled herself to face this unexpected question. Some part of Ansh, deep down inside him, was begging him to stop because a familiar expression had flitted across his mother's face for a split-second before she had snapped back to her usual calm, but for the most part, his whole body was still quaking with suppressed rage, making him unable to control the words that came tumbling out of his mouth.

"Did you love him?"

"Yes Ansh, I loved him very much."

"But you stopped after he left us, right, when he showed his true colours? You stopped loving him and moved on!"

The silence was deafening as Ansh watched his mother grope for the right words. Even though she couldn't seem to gather them, the answer was written clearly in her eyes. And even though it tore him apart from the inside to watch her helpless, he couldn't hold back, not when all he wanted to do was shake her for being so stupid. As though from far away, he heard his own voice bellowing,

"YOU KEPT LOVING HIM, DIDN'T YOU?! YOU WAITED FOR HIM, YOU WANTED HIM TO COME BACK TO YOU, AND YOU WANTED HIM TO BE MY FATHER!"

Ansh was caught off guard by Aarti's reaction. Instead of the tears he had both expected and feared, he saw nothing but a compassionate empathy in her eyes. For some reason this irritated him further. He didn't want to make her sad, but he wanted her understand what a fool she had been and how much pain she could have avoided if only… he just had to make her understand!

"WHAT ABOUT YOUR SELF-RESPECT? DID YOU HAVE ANY? DID YOU EVEN CARE WHAT KIND OF FATHER I GOT AS LONG AS YOU GOT YOUR HUSBAND BACK?"

Ansh finally saw a slight tremour on his mother's face and hated himself for it. He wanted so badly to stop, hug his mother, and tell her that he was sorry, that loved and respected her for her strength and grace and that she was the most selfless person he knew. But something kept gnawing at his heart, that image of her on the swing, so lovesick, so confident, so naive, so STUPID!

"HOW COULD YOU BE SO---"

Ansh felt himself being firmly spun around to face away from Aarti by a strong grip on his left shoulder. As he turned, he came to face his father's stern gaze.

"Ansh Scindia," Yash said evenly, "I don't know what you are so upset about, but I will tell you that talking to your mother that way under any circumstances is completely unacceptable, and I will not tolerate it. Am I clear?"

It was only at that moment that Ansh had felt the burden he had been carrying, since seeing those pictures, lifted from his shoulders. He felt a welcome relief wash over him as he buried his face in his father's chest, and let the tears roll silently down his face. He didn't know how long they stayed like that, with Yash holding him patiently until he was ready, but by the time he lifted his head, it was just the two of them in the room.

"Papa, I didn't mean--- I mean, I couldn't--- I mean… I'm sorry."

"It is not me you should be apologising to, Ansh, but I think I understand what you do mean, and we have to find a better solution than you lashing out, and hurting yourself and others."

"Is there a solution, Papa...?"

That was the first time Yash had brought Ansh to the boxing club.

--------

I have had this chapter in my head since I wrote the last one, as it is very much a continuation [this arc is not done yet, either!]. But so much happened with the show that confused me about where to go with this story. In the end, I decided to take the plunge and write this, with some minor changes to fit all my new knowledge of PV characters in the last few weeks, even if it does end up straying from the original story in the end. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments as always!

Quote

Indu Ghosh

@InduG64

Rocker

+ 2

Posted: 13 years ago

#164

@Samana: This hit me...hit me right where it was supposed to ...at the center of the heart. It sucked me in a vortex of whirling emotions that reeled me under...under the heartrending cries of a wronged son of a wronged mother. This day Ansh understood the wrong done to his mother, the woman in her...it angered him, consumed him in a fury that was unleashed at the one person he defended throughout his young life. He was angry for her and took it out on her. It angered him that this is one hurt he could never save his mother from...then why didn't she save herself? Why did she make herself remain so vulnerable toward that man?

And now he was trying to right the wrong done years ago...save her from her naivety...trying his best to convey that he would have saved her all those years ago had he understood then. But the words came out all wrong. He couldn't understand why the mother in her could not completely overpower the woman in her...why though the mother in her found solace in him, the woman in her still carried a torch for that man? It pained him to realize that he could not defend her against this hurt then. So what was left done yesterday (kal) he was trying to do today...defend the woman against the mother. That's why, "DID YOU EVEN CARE WHAT KIND OF FATHER I GOT AS LONG AS YOU GOT YOUR HUSBAND BACK?"

I am so amazed to see how much of Yash Scindia's son Ansh is...He saw a picture and judged it in black and white...right and wrong. That's why in such extremely agitated state only Yash can handle Ansh... a son who is his mirror image.

This was beautiful...and definitely worth the wait, my friend. This has to be the most brilliant, most gut-wrenching, most insightful part of "Kal". Stand up, take a bow, and embrace all the accolades coming your way!!! Cause you deserve all...Your writing prowess is as admirable as your understanding of human emotions are. Thank you for sharing this brilliance...

Edited by InduG64 - 13 years ago

Quote

lulujjjj

@lulujjjj

Inactive

Posted: 13 years ago

#165

@Samana Really a Beautiful update wonderfully written about the unsaid feelings of a boy who has grown up into an Adult , Ansh and Aarti part was so perfect and the words were flowing emotionally it might be wrong the way he spoke but he has that Haq to ask his mother,
as i read i cried tears rolled down my cheeks silently.

I just tell you what i feel deep in my heart whenever i read your post it makes me more emotional and makes me think about the character from a different perspective , you and Indu are just two beautiful Gems that DC has.

Edited by lulujjjj - 13 years ago

Quote

Sheema Rajoo

@sheema_rajoo

Dazzler

+ 2

Posted: 13 years ago

#166

I read all the parts in one go and it was fantastic.. Loved the way ansh and palak bonded.. Finally Papa schindia has loosen his grip on ladies and performing on stage.

I'm very sure that when Ansh finds out the truth, he'd react the same way as you depicted.. Awesome SS..

Quote

Deepti1808

@Deepti1808

Rocker

+ 2

Posted: 13 years ago

#167

Not the boxing club !!! 😒

A very late entry into your world Sam, but better late than never.

Just read all the parts at one go and it was amazing.

Not a single part felt out of place, smooth flowing narrative,great characterization and continuity.

I can so see the kids grow up exactly like this.

I hope we do get to see this in PVland too.

Coming to the latest update, that is exactly how Ansh would react, had i been in his place, i too would have questioned why did Aarti kept loving P for as long as she did.

But no one quite understands the ways of the heart until it is you who suffers the rejection at the hands of the loved one. One can be judgemental all one likes but I am sure Yash would have made Ansh realize that matters of the heart are never that simple.

P changed in Pra-Aarti relationship. Aarti was the constant.

And she remained constant till her PV. That is Aarti,she gives all she has to her relationships even at the cost of suffering herself.

But I dont think she could have imagined how Ansh would see all this.

I would seriously like to know how they patched up later.

Amazing piece of work Sam.

You made me your FAN all over again !!!

Edited by Deepti1808 - 13 years ago

Quote

Mohini Singh Narayan

@MSN_Vanny

Rocker

+ 3

Posted: 13 years ago

#168

Sammy...*sighs* That was a fantastic update! 👏 👏 👏 As much as the confrontation was heart-wrenching, it was needed! I think Ansh needed that closure from his mother. As a kid, he was always protective of his mother, hence, he avoided anything that hurt her. But at some point, things must come to a brink! And that's exactly what happened with him. And more over, I'm extremely delighted to see that Yash remained the "Superman" to Ansh, no matter his (Ansh's) age. 👍🏼

I'm certainly eager to read your next update! 😳

Quote

ruchshah

@ruchshah

Navigator

Posted: 13 years ago

#169

Beautiful update...Thanks for the PM!!

I loved reading how the current track is woven so maturely in this story of yours!👏Please update quick!!! Waiting to see 2 lean n mean men(almost man) work out their anger in boxing😉