Chapter - 1
The morning sun has just risen. But Bhupat Rai Sood was already awake and hyper. And why shouldn't he ? He was ,after all, in the middle of two most happiest days. The day before, he had finally got his childhood friend as his neighbor. And today he was going to turn a lifelong friendship into relation.
Narayan Sharma was Bhupat's childhood friend. They were more than brothers. They grew up together, got married together, even had two sons each around the same time. Their wives, Nayantara and Yasodhara too had become best friends. Not only that, their sons also grew up together, right from infancy to adulthood. It was only during their college years that the group had to go different ways. But they were still in touch. The elder Sood, Bhuvan and the elder Sharma, Keshav were more close. While the younger Sood, Jawahar and the younger Sharma, Pratap were friendly but not that close like their elder brothers.
It took Bhupat many years to convince his friend to settle in his compound as his neighbour. His business mind told him to register the portion, where the Sharma house was being built, in Narayan's name. He didn't want his friend or family to suffer in any future because of staying on his property. Narayan wasn't ready to accept it but Bhupat didn't give up. Finally Narayan agreed but on one condition - he would pay for the land. Bhupat would have argued but his wife made him understand Narayan's pov. And thus it was settled.
He had one more close friend from his college days. His name was Anupam Khurana. He became a business man like himself. While Bhupat was in construction business, Anupam was in export-import business. And the tie-up worked well.
Anupam had only one daughter, whom everyone called Gudiya affectionately. Her mother died when she was still a kid. She was like a doll, sweet and cute, younger than all the four boys and the favorite of both the mothers. Whenever she came over, she used to tail the guys, especially Bhuvan who treated her well. All the parents could see that she was a big fan of Bhuvan and Bhupat dreamed of getting them married. At first Anupam wasn't sure about the idea. He wanted to talk to Bhuvan first but Bhupat was sure that he won't have another opinion on his father's decision. Finally all were in favor of the proposal. Now they are just waiting for Bhuvan to return from his MBA studies abroad, to get them engaged.
Bhupat couldn't wait for evening to come. His son was finally returning home and he had kept a surprise party for the occasion where he was going to announce the engagement. He was glad that Jawahar, Keshav and Pratap were there to take care of everything.
He felt proud that he had two best friends with him forever, a loving wife for support, a motherly sister, four sons to depend upon and a beautiful daughter to dote on.
Little did he know that it was probably the last time he would feel so proud or happy.
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Edited by ashred12 - 11 years ago
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