Part 1
“How dare you Karan Shergill?” Monami shouted. She couldn’t control her anger, something that rarely happened. But what Karan did was inhumane and she couldn’t bear it.“I actually thought tum utne bhi bure nahi the but I was so wrong. Aaj tumne prove kar hi diya ki tumhe hume torture karne mein maza aata hai. You’re a sadist.” Karan glared at her, but she didn’t care. Let him throw her out. Right now she only cared about what was right, and he was in the wrong. “Tumhe Sid se problem kya hai? Woh kal se infirmary mein hai. Aise kaun koi kisiko janwaro ki tarah pitwata hai? Tumhe pata tha ki woh Sanjana ke saamne tik nahi payega phir bhi tumne aisa kiya. Yeh koi test nahi tha, this was personal! Tumne jaan bujhke aisa kiya.”
“I don’t care agar tumhe yeh personal laga. Yeh academy rules aur discipline se chalti hai. Koi bhi, kabhi bhi muh uthake nahi aa sakta join karne.” Karan said. “Tumhara woh fiancé jhooth bole toh thik but maine use ek test dene kaha toh tumhe itni takleef ho rahi hai? Mujhe jhooth se sakht nafrat hai aur sirf main nahi, usne sabke sentiments ka fayda uthaya hai jhooth bolke.”
“I know but that doesn’t mean ko tum Sanjana se use pitwayo. Tum keh dete ki woh join nahi kar sakta. Yeh sab karne ki kya zaroorat thi?” Monami asked.
“Use chance chahiye tha maine use chance diya.” Karan said. “Woh chahta toh boxing match stop kar sakta tha. Par pitne ki choice uski thi. And Doctor Mahajan, I don’t need to justify myself to you. Agar aapka ho gaya ho toh aap jaa sakti hai.”
Monami glared at Karan who ignored her and retreated to his own room. She stormed back to the infirmary to check on Sid. He was still sleeping, a result of the large dose of painkiller she had given him. She still didn’t understand why Sid didn’t stop the boxing match. No matter how hard Sanjana kept punching him, he kept taking those and he kept standing back for more. He had promised to leave but came back to join the academy. It wasn’t like him. Actually it was like him to do something so crazy and impulsive but completely unlike him to join a military camp and get beaten up. The guy had never gotten in a fight in his entire life.
She went back to her room where she found Sanjana. Monami decided it was best to ignore her. Sanjana felt slightly bad for beating up Sid so much. Even she couldn’t understand why do he didn’t stop the match, accept defeat. Monami ignoring her felt even worse. Of course she would, she was his fiancé.
“Dekh, Karan sirji ne jo bola maine woh kiya. Uss Chirkoot ko rokna chahiye tha.” Sanjana said. It was her version of an apology.
“Karan jo bolega woh karogi tum? Great! Matlab Karan tumhe kisi ka murder karne bole toh woh bhi kar dena.” Monami said. “Jab koi galat hota hai toh use rokna chahiye, chahe woh koi bhi ho.”
“Yeh academy anushaasan pe chalto hai. Woh Chirkoot aise aake saare niyam tod nahi sakta.”
“Toh rules uski jaan se zyada important hai?” Monami asked. “Aur Sanjana, uska naam Sid hai. Itni buri tarah se maarne ke baad uska naam toh thik se le hi sakti ho.”
Monami laid down on her bed, and went to sleep without saying another word, making Sanjana feel much worse.
***
“Tujhe bhi lagta hai maine galat kiya?” Karan asked Faizi.
“Mere kehne se kya? Tu kaunsa meri baat sunta hai?” Faizi frowned. “Woh jaisa bhi ho, woh yeh deserve nahi karta.”
“Usne hum sab ka mazak bana ke rakha tha Faizi. Mrs. Batra, woh Sid ki wajah se kitna emotional ho gayi thi. Aur ab uss raeeszaade ko academy join karne ka shauk hua. Aur waise bhi mujhe nahi pata tha woh khade khade maar khayega. I thought Sanju ke ek punch maarte hi woh bags pack karega aur yaha se chala jayega.”
Faizi saw a hint of regret in Karan’s eyes. “Par woh toh test pass kar gaya. Sanju ne jitna maara, chup chap khade hoke maar khaya. Jitni baar gira utni baar utha. Karan Shergill, tujhe bhi pata hai aisa sirf ek achha soldier hi karta hai. Bande mein jazba toh hai. Hum use jitna useless samajh rahe the, woh utna bhi useless nahi hai.”
Karan didn’t respond to that. He went to the training field. All the recruits were already in line. His eyes straightaway landed on her. She was standing right in the front, but she wasn’t looking at him. Normally she’s get really nervous whenever he looked at her, but today there was no hint of nervousness on her face. She looked straight ahead, ignoring him. Karan thought it was good riddance.
They started the drill as usual. Today they were working on strength training. It was all going normally until it wasn’t. Monami ignoring him just felt irritating. He doubled her weights and asked her to carry on, hoping for some reaction. She did as she was told, but didn’t look at him even once. He made her run an extra lap. Still no reaction from her. By the time their training ended, Karan had been utterly defeated by Monami’s ignorance. So he took revenge in his own sweet way. He asked all the recruits to go back to the dorm, making Monami stay. Then he ordered her to run another five laps. Monami looked angry, but she still didn’t look at him. She started her laps quietly.
“Stop!” Karan was getting even more annoyed. He stopped her when she was on her second lap. Even though he was mad, he couldn’t let her get hurt because of over-exercising. He thought of what to say next. Perhaps something that would make her react, but nothing came to his mind. “Aap jaa sakti hai.”
Monami strode away.
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