~When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.~ Henri Nouwen.
"Lt. Mallik, you are needed in Brig. Gupta's room right
now." A junior officer came running to me, while I was writing a letter to
mother. I put down my pen, and folded the letter neatly and kept the letter in
my drawer. I had been transferred last month to Kashmir,
when a great number of riots had started taking place over here. I reached
Brig. Gupta's room; he was pacing around the room, with a worried expression. "You called me sir?" I asked him and he looked at me and
straightened his back and I saluted him, and he saluted me back. "Yes, I did Armaan, a huge massacre took place in the Indian
Coffee House a few minutes ago, I want you and your squad to check out what has
happened. We think that it was a terrorist attack, but I still want you to
check" He said, I nodded and took my leave. "Capt. Modi, you and our squad is needed. We have to go and
check out some places which have been suspected for terrorists attack." I said
To Siddhant, and he nodded, took his gun and followed me out. We reached our bus, and headed towards the location. Once
reaching there, we saw some people standing there. I got down from the bus and
saw that there still some people with covered faces in the coffee shop. We reached in the coffee shop, and instantly open firing started,
we took shelter and shot them back. With the corner of my eye, I saw many
people lying dead, and some barely alive. I took aim and shot one the people with covered faces, and
now only 2 were left. Siddhant shot one of them in the leg, while the other ran
off. Siddhant got up and held that wounded person by the collar, and started
talking to him in Kashmiri. In the meantime I took the wounded people and helped them to
get to our bus, while we were just going out; I saw a glimpse of something
blue. I signaled them to go and went towards it. Behind a huge upturned table,
was a girl lying unconscious. I pushed the table aside, and saw that she had a
huge gash on her forehead. I looked around and saw her bag, I opened it up and saw her
ID, and it read Shilpa Hassan. I picked her up and her bag and headed towards
the jeep that my squad people had left behind. I placed her gently on the
backseat and headed towards the nearest hospital. Seeing an army officer with her, the doctors started the
work soon. It turned out that there was nothing major, and she'll be fine in an
hour. Even though I had received 2 missed calls, I still waited for her to get
up. After an hour or so, the doctor informed me that she had woken up. I went to her room, and saw that she was taking some
medicines, I sat beside her, and she looked down at me. And then I noticed that
her eyes were a beautiful green, almost hazel, and also mesmerizing. I shook my
head, and she smiled at me. "Are you alright now?" I asked her softly, and she smiled at
me again. "Yes, much better. Thank you for saving me." She replied
softly, and continued drinking water. After some time I left the hospital, and
headed towards our Base. "Armaan where were you? We all were so worried; you could've
at least informed us!" Anjali said, and came running to me and hugged me
tightly. She was my girlfriend of 2 years, and had also been transferred to Kashmir. I looked at her, and stroked her face, and just for a moment
I saw Shilpa's face, in hers… those hazel eyes… I shook my head, I couldn't
think of her, not at all. "I'm fine Anjali, look I even returned in one piece." I
said, and she smiled and wiped her tears, and kissed my cheek softly. It was almost 7 in the evening, when I had returned back, so
I thought of having my dinner, and then finishing my letter. Once I had finished my dinner, I went to my room and started
writing my letter, after finishing it, I gave it to the person who collected
all our letters and posted them. I changed and lay on my bed… thinking about random things. I
closed my eyes, and tried to sleep but my thoughts kept drifting back to that
one hazel-eyed girl…
So here it is the first chapter, hope you all liked it.. and I know it's kinda short, cuz it's the introductory chapter... and the next chapter will have the POV's of all the characters... if I am able to do it! 😃
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