Abhimanyu Birla:
Dobara Ishq Hua, Tumse hi hoga,
Khafaa Hoon Main, Bewafa Nahin!
-Mirza Ghalib
Askhara Geonka:
Tum Hi Aa Kar Thaam Lo Mujhe,
Sabne Chod Diya Hai Tumhara Samajh Kar!
-Mirza Ghalib
Prologue
Rajasthan to the world was a State of royals, a tourist hotspot. The state of beautiful dunes and palaces had an ugly underbelly that was hungry for power and money. After independence, power in Rajasthan shifted from the royals to the Zamindars. These people suddenly had a better hold of people and controlled all the crops and handlooms. More territory meant more money which led to more power. Then in 1975, Indira Gandhi declared an emergency and imprisoned some of the most influential royals creating a power vacuum.
The Zamindars filled that vacuum. These Zamindars swung elections, made or broke politicians, shaped government policies, and followed their own laws. The most prominent and influential of these families was the Birlas. They controlled two-thirds of Rajasthan. The other one-third was split between the Goenkas and the Bajajs. There was so much fighting and killing in between these families that a Council of Elders was made to keep these Zamindars in check, otherwise, they would all end up killing each other.
Twilight is when the day meets night. It is the time when the light gets consumed by darkness. He felt his light consumed by the dark too. The shades of the amber sun made the scene in front of him more gruesome. His clothes are soaked in blood, and his knuckles are bruised. The cut on his forehead will leave a scar; his right arm would need a minimum of 10 stitches, while his left leg would need a cast. His entire body hurt, yet no amount of physical pain reduced the hurt in his heart. Abhimanyu Birla was the only standing man in the courtyard of Goenka House.
The people lying on the floor crying in pain were why his parents and baby sister died today. Yet he could not bring himself to kill these men because they were uncles and brothers of the girl he loves. These were the men who raised her when her parents had passed away. They were her world. Her world had killed his world. All he wanted was to marry the girl he loved. Love was his crime, and he paid a hefty price for that. Akshara Goenka has betrayed his trust, yet he could not bring himself to betray hers.
They were supposed to get married today; instead, he performed the last rites of his family. The Goenkas’s used his love for their daughter to kill his family. His naivety and love have cost him his family. Only Akshara knew his family's route to come to the temple. Their car was ambushed on the way to the temple. All of them were mercilessly murdered. All in the name of stupid enmity and struggle for power.
Abhimanyu, since childhood, was kept away from violence and politics. He was sent to boarding school in Dehradun the day he turned thirteen. He did his MBA from Harvard. He had come back six months ago and was actively helping his grandfather and his father in the export and hotel business. Having lost his older son to the violence, his grandfather wanted to avoid bloodshed. So he has broked peace between all three families where the Goenkas and the Bajajs got a small portion of land, but conditions certainly applied.
On one of his trips to the shared lands of their families, Abhimanyu met sweet Akshara. Abhimanyu Birla, the scion of the Birla family, fell head over heels for Akshara Goenka. She was home on summer break from her medical school. They knew that their families did not see eye to eye, but it did not matter. So when she went back to medical school, he would meet her there. Abhimanyu always believed that violence was not the answer to their problems. He wanted to get all the families back to the negotiating table just like his grandfather had and develop a more permanent solution for their situation. How naive was he?
The enemies were waiting for a chance, and they played straight into their hands. Their love was the fire that burned everything around them. The monsters took the first chance to destroy the peace his grandfather tried so hard to build over the years, and now he was an orphan. Violence was the language these people understood so Abhimanyu replied in bloodshed. After performing his family’s last rites, Abhimanyu made his way to the Goenka house where they were celebrating with Bajajs. Rage running through his veins, love for Akshara forgotten, he embodied Lord Shiva and destroyed everything that came in his path. As he left the Goenka house limping, the courtyard would never forget their screams.
The next day the Elder’s Council came to his house to meet with his grandfather. When he had come home yesterday, he had seen disappointment in his grandfather’s eyes, but he did not care. His grandmother and Tayi Ji tended to his wounds, but his grandfather never came to him. Once the elders were gone, his grandfather said the words that changed his life. “ You need to pack your bags and leave. That is the price of the peace this time, Abhimanyu. You are my oldest grandchild, my only hope for peace. So go, calm down, and don’t come back until I die. This will all be yours, and you will handle all of it remotely. Rajasthan is out of your bounds until I am alive. You are made for bigger things. So do not let this rage consume the goodness in you and your love for my daughter-in-law.”
While Abhimanyu was on his flight to Dehradun, all he could think was that he could not kill them as they were her family, but there were other ways to ruin these people. And when he would be done with them, they would hope that he killed them today. They have turned a carefree boy into a terrifying monster who would be terrorizing their nights for years to come.
This story is set in an alternate universe. All rights reserved except for the names of the characters that are borrowed from the show.
Comments and Chappals are welcome! The comments will decide the continuation of this story.
Love,
Blues
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