It was already two days since Shyam's death- two painful,
dreadful wretched days passed by with heavy hearts filled with awkwardness and agony not only because of the
loss of a life but also because of the inevitable downpours from the past drenching
their lives once again- rendering them incapable of running away from it this
time.
Everything else seemed to come to a stand still as soon
after Shyam's body was cremated following his death and subsequent closure of
formalities from the hospital and police officials, and as they all returned
back to the hotel where Sid and La had been put up, and broke down, not able to
take in the suddeness of the loss- the fact that one amongst them was no more
-refusing to sink into their minds.
Arnav was more composed than any of them - reason being that
it was only few days since he knew about Shyam's intentions- infact he didnt get
much chance to get associated with the real Shyam. He started taking charge,
urging them out of their mourning mood and to decide on further course of
actions.
If there was one thing that Shyam's death propelled them towards
a positive turn of tables- it was the general feeling to stop defending in the
game and start avenging for his death.
Even though the determination was visible in Gayathri and
Sid- the most virtuous change of the lot was Arnav's willing capitulation for
their objective.
While Dadi agreed to go home with Arnav and Kushi- Gayathri
opted to stay back at the hotel- Even though Kushi tried to take her home and
Arnav remained politely quiet, Gayathri was obviously reluctant to join them.
Sid and La decided to stay back with Gayathri, assuring Kushi that everything
would settle down soon. Kushi didn't try to push anything further, as Shyam's
sudden loss was hanging on top of their heads still.
Thus they split up with further action items decided amongst
them. While Arnav and Kushi decided to get ahead with the wedding plans-
promising to pay no heed to whatever threats that they would receive nor to let
Shyam's death put a hamper on the magnanimity of the wedding celebrations,
Gayathri and Sid planned on putting a check to put a stop to any further
hurdles from Rana.
With Arnav in the game, very soon a workable plan was unanimously
agreed upon. While a straight forward attack on Rana would demand energy and
resource that was not currently at their disposal, they decided to use the
resources readily available at their expense. What with the nation's two shrewd
and young business minds and a person with close knowledge about the activities
of his past, it was only a matter of minutes before they came up with a simple
but an effective plan to put Rana in such a fix that he would have to
relinquish any plans on them and concentrate on saving his own skin.
So it happened that when the Delhi police who were already
being tirelessly bashed from all sides- the public, the ruling party as well as
the opposing party and higher officials from police department itself for not
making any visible progress on the bomb blast case were given an anonymous tip
about the possible involvement of the renowned ruling party political figure-
Ashutosh Rana in the bomb blast activities, they could'nt help but take it a little
seriously. Further anonymous inputs to a
very influential ruling party leader that a dominant person from his own party might
have had a motivation for a facade of terrorist activity in the city capital when
the elections were very close - built up significant pressure for the Delhi
police force to dig up the fact on those lines. The Opposition party with hawk eyes, were just
waiting for such an opportunity and jumped in on such a promising prospect.
A motivation of that frequency worked wonders on the team
which were investigating on the case than it would have had if the personal
motivation was brought to light. The end result was Rana didn't realise what
hit him the next morning after Shyam's death that nearly made him stumble on
the hard built steps of his political career.
Any efforts made by Rana to get the ruling party leaders to shield
him went in vain as all of a sudden a tirade of complaints from all the victims
of his past activities sprang up from all directions- forcing the ruling party
to act mean and let him get out of the mess on his own. Before he had a chance
to figure out the source of stimulus for such actions from all ends, a
definitive arrest order was issued for him.
All of Rana's men were busy figuring out the master mind for
all this ' as Shyam was a closed chapter, Gayathri and Subadra were nowhere in
picture and were last seen mourning for
Shyam and Arnav seemed to be well absorbed in marriage related activities. All
this ensured that a precautionary bail was not in hand when the arrest warrant
was issued for Rana- forcing him to abscond to avoid arrest.
***
Meanwhile at RM ' as planned in advance, the family was taken
into partial confidence and was told about the criteria of the Will but nothing
else about either Gayathri or Shyam was revealed or even mentioned- Though what
was revealed was received with enormous surprises from all of them, the family
accepted it nevertheless, and soon the preparations for the wedding kick
started with full swing.
With a traditional Roka and a private engagement ceremony
getting done in a flash, the ladies settled down for a mehendi ceremony that
evening while the men basically being denied entry into the hall where the
ceremony was being held, got to spend
the evening in eachother's company up in the terrace at shantivan.
Arnav was almost pushed to the breaking point with NK and
Sid pulling his leg to an irksome point while a serene Akaash watched over the
entire leg pulling session with a smile on his face. Mama jovially joined the
fun gang annoying Arnav further when Ashok walked into the terrace with a serious
expression on his face.
"Arnav, read this" Ashok pushed a paper into the direct view
of Arnav's eyes as they all looked up.
"This is serious- I happened to glance at yesterday's paper
in the hospital lounge and see what I found- The person who died in the recent
bomb blast- the police cop- he- he looks very much like Shyam- see notice his
initials- Police Commissioner SM Jha- too much of a coincidence isn't it? "
Arnav looked at Sid who had gone very quiet suddenly. He pondered
a little and then let out a sigh. The past two days had been very busy for the
family that no one had bothered to browse through the papers or to switch on
the TV to grab the news. Some vague points on the dirty game of politics being
in display for the last two days was a more juicy topic than to discuss the
unfortunate and unknown face of a deceased cop- who was almost forgotten. Those who knew about Shyam felt that it was all for good as they wouldnt have to deal with Shyam's truth revealation to the fmily at this juncture. But now Ashok has brought it to front - Arnav decided that he wouldn't be breaking his
promise to Shyam if he told Ashok and other men present there about Shyam.
"This is the same person- Ashok" Arnav spelled out slowly "Shyam
was a lawyer and a police commissioner too"
"What?" Shock itched on Ashok as
well as the others faces were justifiable.
As Arnav shifted himself, getting prepared to give more explanation to the stunned faces around him, Anjali marched up the stairs carrying her naughty nephew. Arush had squeezed out the entire mehendi out of a cone which was left unattended a little while earlier spoiling his dress and smudging his hands and face with generous amount of the paste.
"look at your hands and face... " she grinned at him looking at the reddish tinge left by the mehendi before he was given a complete wash again and changed into another suit.. "your dadda really spent a good amount on your suit for their mehendi ceremony. He deserves it from his son... they left you out of their Men's party na? " she told him as she pulled his chubby cheeks.
"Hmm But now I think we should have denied entry for you as well you naughty little fellow.. enjoy with your father and chachas for a while - until we finish this mehendi ceremony - or your mother will really blow her top soon...Poor soul...how will she be able to keep her mehendi intact if you keep trying to smudge it all the while.. what were you thinking when you tried to taste her mehendi? you dont like palak anyway- what did you think it was?" She smiled at him as he looked at her curiously as she took the stairs to the terrace oblivious to what was being discussed there at the moment...
To be continued
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