Hi everyone,
I’m Zara. I’ve started watching Imlie recently and I’ve been inspired by some of the wonderful creativity present in this forum. I’m a beginner to writing, but I do enjoy it immensely. This is a short piece focussing on Aryan and his feelings. In the show, we haven’t had a chance to dive into his character yet so this is purely my imagination of how he is feeling about the whole situation.
Any comments and feedback is warmly welcome 😊
Hope you enjoy it xx
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Today was painfully long. It had been the most turbulent, most emotionally and physically draining day of the week. As Aryan Singh Rathore lay on his sofa, staring absently through the window, he reflected on the last week. The days leading up to today had been incredibly stressful for himself, his team, his family and most of all his lead reporter, Imlie.
Weddings were supposed to be happy affairs, a celebration of love and togetherness. However, the wedding in the Tripathi household was anything but. Aryan struggled to fathom the complex dynamics of the Tripathi family and how neither the bride or the groom reflected any joy about their union. Each and every individual was trying to prove a point, avenge someone else and cause pain and suffering. For a moment, he was grateful for his tiny, close-knit circle. Ma and Di adored him and he cherished them in return. Despite the tragedy they had gone through, they had managed to hold onto each other tightly and continue to welcome life, particularly Ma and he smiled thinking about how she was always looking at life with the glass half-full.
But his thoughts kept going back to Imlie, as they often did these days, which he was painfully aware of. He was conscious that he was beginning to care for her more than an employee. Her well-being, her future, her happiness was starting to matter and he was desperate to see her get her life back on track. How could life be so cruel? How Mr Tripathi and Imlie had ever been united was something he was struggling to fathom. Knowing and working alongside Imlie and his few altercations with Mr Tripathi, they seemed an unlikely pair.
He had never asked Imlie about her past and neither had his family. Whatever he knew was due to what he had witnessed, heard and seen himself either through Imlie or through the whole wedding fiasco. All of that had been enough, enough for him to see how harsh life could be, how fate could bring Imlie from a village in Pakdandiya to a city with a husband who’s distrusting nature and judgemental attitude had ruined his marriage. How he was blinded by envy and rage over a non-existent relationship which he assumed Imlie shared with her boss.
Aryan couldn’t stop pondering over the past events and each train of thought led to Imlie. Imagine what she was going through right now. Today, he had seen hope ignited in her. She was desperate to save her precious relationship with her BabuSaheb. He had seen love in her eyes, that lived behind the layers of pain and rage on previous occasions too but he realised today that she was still madly in love with her husband, ex-husband now. After being abducted and locked in a car, her first thoughts were BabuSaheb. Aryan shook his head and sighed. Humans were really complex creatures. What on earth had BabuSaheb done to earn the sincere love and devotion of a woman like Imlie?
Imlie… she was a tornado of a woman. From the minute they had first met up to now, she had never ceased to infuriate him. Everything about her was different. She had always been unpredictable and fearless. He remembered her brutal honesty after she had thrown mud all over his ‘Mrs’. Then, when she had sneaked into his meetings dressed as the chaiwallah, she had admitted the truth as soon as he asked. She had challenged him directly whenever she felt her precious BabuSaheb was being mistreated. He admired this fiery spirit of hers. She didn’t hide or run away from the truth but faced it. In spite of how tough she seemed to be, he had seen countless glimpses of her selfless, kind and giving nature too. No wonder his Ma and Di were obsessed with her. She had won their hearts in such a short time due to her charisma.
What he loved the most about her was that despite all of the things she had suffered, she had not let it change her values, her core beliefs. Aryan remembered the day she had come to defend her BabuSaheb. Now, after knowing everything that had transpired, he wondered how Imlie could continue to love someone who has inflicted so much pain.
After the wedding, Aryan had quickly asked the team to pack-up as soon as the guests started leaving. Sensing Imlie’s emotional state, he had asked Di to take her home with Ma. This time there was no resistance of any kind when he firmly asked her to go home, she stared at him blankly and left. Aryan was uncomfortable with her expression, he couldn’t get it out of his mind. She will need time to recover from this, time away from the toxic Tripathi clan and time to process and realign her life. He had made a promise to himself that he would be there for her.
But why? Why did he care about Imlie so much? Why was she affecting him? He had distanced himself from people and from forming any close friendships since his beloved brother-in-law had passed away. Now the only people who got a glimpse into his thoughts were Ma and Di and they had been the only ones who mattered to him, until Imlie.
He shook his head and got up. He heard a soft jingle from inside his pocket. The anklet. He had kept it in his pocket and had been meaning to return it but wasn’t quite sure how. He was still uncomfortable with the thoughts about why he kept it in the first place. He had been dazed, attracted to her when he had seen her all decked up in that ridiculous Simran outfit. An involuntary compliment had escaped his lips and her over the top reaction had embarrassed him to no end.
Today, she had reluctantly worn the lehnga that he had chosen. He had told her it was a fake designer one, but he had chosen it himself. He wanted her to look beautiful, wait… she was beautiful. He had a chance to give her the anklet today, which would have been the perfect opportunity, but then they ended up colliding and bickering. What was happening to him?
His thoughts were getting too uncomfortable so he walked outside of his room and to the kitchen to get some water. As he walked past Ma’s room, he heard Ma and Di speaking in hushed tones. He knocked on the door and walked in.
‘All OK? Aap log soye nahi? Sab theek hai?’
Ma was lying on her bed and Di was perched at the end. They both looked up and nodded.
‘All is OK Aru, tu ab tak soya nahi?’ Ma called him over and he went and crouched by her.
Holding her hands he said, ‘I know I don’t say this often but I love you Ma, I love you Di.’
Di gently squeezed his shoulders and said ‘kya hua tujhe?’
‘Kuch nahi Di, bas yunhi… Imlie sogayi?’
‘Haan sogayi, bichari ne bahut suffer kiya… ek do din usko chutti de,’ Ma suggested.
‘Haan, usko thora time de,’ Di agreed.
Aryan nodded and stood up. ‘I have to go, I have a meeting tomorrow morning. Aap dono ek doosre ka khayal rakho…’ He walked back to the door, looked back and said.. ‘Aur…’
He paused, unable to voice his concern.
‘Aur Imlie ka bhi… yehi kehna chahta hai na?’
He smiled, how did his Di know him so well?
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