Chapter 2
The morning sun shone brightly in the sky. People were sipping their tea and enjoying the sunlight. A six year old girl was busy playing in the garden of Nirmal Jyoti Society. She had short hair, doe shaped hazel eyes and a petite frame. She was a very beautiful child. A girl of same age came running towards her. The girl had an aura of mischief and liveliness.
"Naina yaar, jaldi chal mummy bula rahi hai"
The said girl immediately stopped skipping and frowned.
" Itni jaldi Kyun, hum abhi to aaye the na Preeti"
"Ab kya kare yaar, chalna hi padega, shayad Taiji Ko koi kaam hai"
At the mention of Taiji, Naina quickly wrapped the rope and the two girls ran home.
The Aggarwal house was quiet. The men had already gone out for their work and the ladies were home. A beautiful girl of about fourteen was sitting on the sofa, pretending to read a book, but was actually listening to the daily banter of her house.
Bina Aggarwal was sitting on the swing and was complaining of her daily morning headache, while Bela was in the kitchen, pretending to listen to her sister in law's complains about neighbours.
" O bai, itna sar dukh raha hai. Bela zara jaldi chai leke aana, aur elaichi bhi daal dena. Pata nahi yeh ladkiyan kaha mar gayi hai. Kaam ka Naam sunte hi khelne bhaag jaati hai. Ghar ka saara kaam mujhe hi karna padta hai."
Fourteen-year-old Pooja laughed at this, but immediately became silent at the glare from her Taiji.
"Aaj kal ki ladkiyan kuch nahi kar sakti, sivaye khi-khi karne ke."
Naina Preeti entered the house and lowered their eyes seeing Taiji's already bad mood.
" Aa gayi dino maharaniya. Uchalna koodna khatam ho gaya ho to zara kuch aur bhi Kar lo. Aur tu Naina, bilkul baap par gayi hai. Pata nahi kya hota tera, na kuch aata aur na kuch seekhna. Vo to daya hai Bhagwan ki, shakal soorat theek thaak hai warna to teri shaadi mushkil thi, dahej to hai nahi tere baap ke paas..."
And she continued. But calling Naina as average looking would be an understatement, since she was regarded as one of the most beautiful girl of Aggarwal clan.
Naina was barely 2 days old, when her mother's health worsened and she passed away. She had been living with her Chacha-Chachi, Preeti and Pooja didi since then. She can barely remember her mother, but the thought that she had been showered with her mother's love for two long days, did make her spirits higher. Chachi tried her best to be a mother to her. She never loved her any less than Pooja didi and Preeti, but the constant taunts from Taiji never made her forget that she was the cause of her mother's death.
As she grew up, Preeti became her constant companion. She was her "Hanuman". She could never survive without Preeti's presence. Other person who always stayed with her was her Chacha ji. He was her father, mother , friend, teacher and everything. He told her to focus on achieving something and making him proud. Pooja didi was mostly busy in Bollywood magazines and hardly paid attention to Naina-Preeti. Naina also recently made an equally filmy friend Swati. They studied in the same class and instantly became friends.
As for others in the house, Taiji mostly taunted Naina and blamed her for taking way their "Bahu", though chacha ji tried his best to stop her. Her father conveniently forgot that he had a daughter and focused on her brother and his career. Her Tauji stayed away from all the banter, and tried His best to have a child of his own. Even her own brother ignored her presence. He was very talented from childhood and Papa looked after him. Her father used to save Arjun from the taunts of Taiji, but never did the same in her case and even joined in the scolding sometimes. All this made her crave for her mother, and she wished to have a share in her father's love.
Taiji finally stopped her daily hymn when she saw her eight year old nephew Arjun and his extremely rich, also eight year old best friend Sameer entering the house. Her expression changed and she put up a fake smile.
"Arey Sameer beta, kaiso ho tum. Itni subah kaise aana hua"
Sameer could hear her taunting Arjun's little sister and smartly replied back,
"Ha Taiji wo hum to bas bat lene aaye the. He paused and looked at the six year old girls. "Tum dono bhi chalogi kya? Aake fielding hi karwa Dena. Agar acche se catch karogi toh batting bhi de dunga."
Preeti's face brightened at the thought to escaping her house and said
"Ha bilkul. Tum batting nahi doge to bhi chalega. Hume to fielding hi pasand hai..."
"Chup. Zubaan kaichi ki tarah chalti hai is ladki ki. Arey Sameer bada hai tumse. Izzat se Arjun ki tarah "bhaiya" bulaya karo use. Tameez nahi hai kya"
"Arey nahi Taiji. Iski koi zaroorat nahi hai. Mujhe sirf Sameer sunna hi pasand hai. Aap please Inhe bhej do"
Taiji blinked twice and was about to refuse, when she remembered her husband's words of never refusing Sameer. She looked at Sameer and then the girls and nodded.
Sameer smirked and took the girls along with Arjun's bat and headed towards the ground, where Munna pandit were waiting for them. He never liked taiji due to the taunts she gave to Arjun, but somehow he just could not stand little Naina being subjected to harsh words. She was so cute. He smiled a bit. She was too innocent and had to be saved. Wasn't it his duty to look after Arjun's sister? She was his responsibility too right...?
Naina however was busy thanking Sameer in her mind. They met two years ago, but hardly talked to each other. He was her brother's best friend after all. He was very polite to her and her family , but she hardly knew him. He mostly ignored her, like her brother. However, he saved her from Taiji on more than one occasion and that made him compare to Preeti.
They reached the park and Naina, Preeti Munna, Pandit went to fielding while Arjun was balling and Sameer was supposed to bat. They were about to start when Naina mustered her courage and walked to Sameer. He was surprised to see her. She never came to him. What did she want? Sameer suddenly noticed her hazel eyes and wondered if she ever noticed how they changed their colour.
" Thank you Sameer"
She ran away to her spot. Sameer looked here and there to see if anyone saw them, but luckily no one did. He thought about what just happened and went back to his batting spot and smiled.
He definitely liked listening his name from her sweet voice!
Pls comment... Sorry it's short.
| topics | author | replies | views | reply |
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| kavitha_r | 11 | 640 |
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