Hello all............a small correction, I had mentioned in the 2nd part that Robbie was attending JNU, actually he is not 😆 , he is attending Delhi University. I have updated the part.....I changed it based on some insider info given by Anjudiva!
Re-cap : Ajay has planned some surprise for Kasturi. Robbie gets to stay home on a Sunday. He is fooled big time by his family. Chitra, Alaana's best friend is introduced who has a huge crush on him!
PART - 8 : DANCING DIVA
Ajay drives his father and sister to South Extension. Kasturi cannot sit straight in the car, she is that excited! They drive to a medium-sized shopping complex. They take the elevator to the 3rd floor. It is a Sunday, but still the place was bustling with activity! They walk down the 3rd floor till they reach the last door on left. Ajay unlocks the door and all three walk in. Its a large open spaced room, 1800 sqft!!
The room was spread out and had wood floors. The side of the room that faced the street had huge glass windows panelled in them that were letting in abundant sunlight into the room. The walls were being painted a pale green.....work was still in progress. On one corner a raised platform was being constructed and light fixtures were still being fixed in. Inspite of the pending work, the room just beckoned you to come and get lost in it! There was such warmth in that place that Kasturi falls in love with it instantly!!! She walks the length and breath of it, speechless and intrigued!!! She even checks up the womens and mens locker rooms and when the tour is done, she just stands in the middle of the room, staring at the whole room. And then she turns to her brother with eyes that are dancing with excitement and says..'I LOVE IT!' 👍🏼
Ajay smiles satisfactorily 😊 he had no doubts that she would love it! In fact the space was so attractive that he had decided to buy it even if it was not located in a posh shopping district. While it was not posh, it was beautiful and was a prestigious place to be in! He had infact wanted to give this as a surprise to her, but he knew his sister too well to risk it! If Kasturi hated something, nothing or no one could induce her to change her mind!!! And he wanted to ensure that she liked this, because it was the only dream she had........to have her own dancing studio!!
Kasturi had never been inclined towards academics much. She did not believe that learning the Classical Economic theory of Lionel Robbins or reading the Wealth of Nations of Adam Smith or solving complex problems of Calculus was going to give some meaning and purpose to her life!! She did not need that education for a job.....in fact she did not need a job! She needed a purpose and that purpose was her passion for dance!!!Kasturi Chawla was an accomplished dancer. She had trained classically for 6 years and could dance three dance forms effortlessly....BharatNatyam, Kathak and Odissi. She had given several performances too and was getting very popular in the dancing circuit. But, off-late Kasturi had started to get very attracted to and involved in fusion dancing! While she loved classical dancing, she felt very constrained in that form and wanted to be free. She wanted to experiment and explore 😳 Fusion dancing was a relatively recent trend and there was really no place to learn it as such. So she wanted to start a studio and start a trend where by more people like her whose passion was to dance free, would have a place to turn to. He comes back to the present when he hears his dad speak to him.
JP : Ekdum badhiya hai, Ajay! Mujhe bhi bahut pasand aaya. 😃
Kasturi walks to her brother and hugs him 🤗 and thanks him. Ajay suggests that she can come here and direct the interior decoration efforts, as and how she wanted it and Kasturi likes that idea. She did have a particular conceptual design in her mind. Its close to lunch time and all three decide on a restaurant to go to. Ajay locks up the place and they walk up to the elevator. Enroute, Kasturi checks the shops adjacent to her studio. The one right opposite to her studio had a board hung outside their door....."Arunodaya Naatak Mandali".....apparently a theatre group...thinks Kasturi. Soon they reach their car and drive out. Kasturi is talking excitedly about her plans for the studio when she is thrown rudely forward as Ajay had brought the car to a screeching halt!!! 😲 Ajay was not paying much attention when driving out of the gate onto the road, as he was listening to Kasturi and so did not observe the two people who were just at that moment crossing the gate and he almost hit them......almost!!! 😲😲 He had to literally stand on the brake!! Ajay brings his window down and says
Ajay : Dekh ke nahi chal sakte kya? 😡 (Jaisi behen, waisa bhai! 😆 😆 )
Puru and Shivani stare at Ajay angrily 😡 What the hell was he talking about?? He was the one on the wrong! 😡 😡 JP feels the same and so he quickly leans over and says
JP : Sorry bhaisaheb! Galti hamaari thi! 😊
Puru relaxes a little and says
Puru : Ji, koi baat nahi.
They again give Ajay an angry stare and leave. Ajay turns to his dad and says
Ajay : Aapne unseh maafi kyun maangi?
JP replies : Kyonki galti tumhaari thi! 😕 Mujhe tum dono ko kitni baar samjhana padega ke, maafi maagne seh tum log chote nahi ho jaoge??
Ajay says : Come on Dad.......it does not work like that anymore. Jiskaa paisa uski dhauns...that's the world for you today!! 😳
JP thinks at what Ajay had said....."Iss vishay mei donon Kaushalya peh gaye hai!" And he reflects on his life.......The only thing he gave Kaushalya was his last name.......everything else, she had given him 😕 ......Kaushalya was the only daughter of her rich dad who was the best friend of JP's dad. Their alliance was fixed up by the elders and JP really did not have much of a choice. He married her and became a ghar-jamaai. Consequently he had to join his father-in-law's business. Upon the death of her father, the entire business fell on Kaushalya's shoulders and he had started to work for his wife. His wife was a shrewd, smart, ruthless business woman under whose guidance the business grew by leaps and bounds and became an empire!
JP was the complete contrast of Kaushalya. He was a soft-spoken, simple man whose needs were very limited and who was usually satisfied with what he had. But Kaushalya was never satisfied with what she had......there was always a hunger for more and more......and to satisfy that hunger she had spent a major part of their married life, working. They had stopped being a husband and wife in the true sense of those words long ago, now they were simply two strangers sharing a common name . Their kids shared both their genes. They had qualities from both of them. But his qualities were dormant in them as Kaushalya had moulded them since childhood to be like her!!! As a result Ajay was one of the most promising young business baron these days....
"Dad.....hum pahunch gaye".......Ajay's voice brings him out of his thoughts and he gets out of the car to walk into the restaurant.
The weekend is over and on Monday when Robbie reaches the bus stop he quickly scans the whole bus stop but does not see her 😕 He admits to himself that he was a little restless over the weekend! He knew this was nothing but infatuation, but it was also true that he was attracted towards her!! He waits till his bus comes but she is not there. He waits the whole week and by the end of the week he has lost hope of seeing her again and Robbie tries hard to forget her, but he finds it difficult 😳
Kasturi meanwhile has started to visit her dance studio during the week and directs the decorators to work on the studio around the plan she has in her mind. The painting, the woodwork, the plumbing, the electric-work....everything will progress smoothly and it is estimated that within a month it will be ready to be occupied. During one of those days, when Kasturi is driving back home, she stops at a traffic light. She sees a young woman bearing a child on her waist moving from car to car asking for some monetary help. Suddenly Kasturi remembers Robbie!! She wonders if he was still taking the same bus home and if he remembered her and wondered about her??? She keeps staring at the woman who is approaching her car. Just then the light turns green and Kasturi drives away.
Robbie's mid-terms are complete. He has done them very well. The last day of the exam, their sports director calls a meeting of the hockey team to discuss the team's final schedule. They have played inter-university matches throughout the year and were in the final season. In 2 weeks the first match of the final season is scheduled with the Bombay University team at their campus. Practice sessions after school are scheduled. When the meeting is over, Robbie walks out with Raunak. Raunak was their goal-keeper. Sunil Chauhan, their captain calls them from behind......."Guys........wait up!" Robbie and Raunak turn and wait for him. Sunil catches up with them and they further discuss game strategies.
That night during dinner, Alaana informs him that Nithya had called.
Alaana : Bahut ghussa ho rahi thi, bhaiyya! Poore do mahine ho gaye.......hum sabko mile hue. She has arranged for a meeting tomorrow evening. Woh chahti hai ke hum zaroor aaye. Kya aap kal free hai?
Robbie says : Haan. Kal chalte hai......shaam ko koi aur program nahi hai.
That night Robbie sleeps for a full 10 hours.........he has been surviving on 4-5 hours of sleep for the past 2 weeks because of the exams!! Next evening he and Alaana drive over to the meeting they were supposed to attend. They walk up the stairs as the maintenance crew was working on the elevator. As they walk to the office, they notice activity opposite to their door. Robbie says
Robbie : Lagtaa hai kisi neh yeh space rent kiyaa hai.
Alaana : Haan. Good! Bahut dinon se khaali padhi thi!
They knock on the door that had a board hung against it.."Arunodaya Naatak Mandali"!!! Nithya opens the door and a wide smile spreads on her face 😃. She welcomes them and announces inside......"Aa gaye hamaare hero saahab aur unki behenaa!!" A cheer goes up in the room 👏 👏 , there are about 7 people inside.....everyone gets up one by one and hugs Robbie and Alaana.........its been almost 2 months since they all have met! Everyone is talking to everybody 😃
They were all like a close-knit family. This was a free-lance theater group with service/Sewa as its aim. They performed plays and dramas in the Delhi theater circuit and nearby rural areas. Their plays had the basic aim of spreading knowledge and information for the general good of the society. Their group consisted of script-writers, musicians, actors and directors. Everybody could multi-task. They were all working professionals, whose love for acting and interest to serve the society had brought them together. They had enacted plays on family-planning, drug-abuse, untouchability and many other sensitive issues. Alaana was the one who had first joined the group as she absolutely loved to act. And constantly dropping her and picking her up from performances had gotten Robbie interested in the group too and he was now a stong volunteer!
They all discuss the next couple of plays they need to work on and again decide to meet in a week. Robbie and Alaana walk out. They walk towards the elevator, which has been fixed now and press the elevator button. As the lift is coming up, Robbie realizes he has left the scooter keys back in the room, so he runs back asking Alaana to take the elevator and go down. The elevator comes up and Alaana who is turned the other side and talking to Robbie who is running back to the room, does not realize that somebody was getting out of the elevator and dashes against him as he is coming out!! By the time she realizes, it is too late, her elbow has hit him solidly in the stomach!
Ouch!! says Ajay and looks at her angrily........but his anger melts the instant he sees her. The concern in her eyes and her sweet..........."Oh God, I am so sorry!!! Kahin aapko lagi toh nahi???"............ has completely melted his anger and he is taken aback to see how beautiiful her face was!
He manages to reply......"Its Ok....I am fine!" and gets out of the elevator.
The door closes as they look at each other and she is gone! Ajay walks to the studio still nursing his stomach and thinking about her. She was beautiful !!! He enters the studio and the next moment Robbie exits the theater group and walks out!
Edited by pragalbha - 15 years ago
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