𝐄𝐇𝐒𝐀𝐀𝐒

P R O L O G U E: 𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐋𝐓

"Dadu, mujhe pakdo..
Pakadke dikhao dadu....

Nahi pakad paoge
na? Yu..yuvan ko
pata tha ki dadu Yuvan
ko kabhi nahi pakad
payega... Dadu haar gaye!
Yuvan se dadu haar gaye...."

Yuvan's voice echoed through the large halls of the Rathod mansion. His playful acts, his giggles, everything felt so fresh even after all these years.

"You were right. I really could not hold you back. Your dadu sa really could not hold back his Yuvan from going away...."

He thought to himself and he admired one of the sweetest pictures that was hanging on the walls of the large, empty and lifeless hallways of the mansion. It was a picture of him and his little Yuvan. The little Yuvan he knew and the little Yuvan he had loved.

Devraj Singh Rathod, one of the strongest and the most well established businessman of the entire Jodhpur. But for Yuvan, he was his dadu sa. He had loved him more than his life and more than everything in this world. He often used to say, that "dadu sa" was the sweetest name he had ever got and Yuvan was the one of the best gifts he had ever got in life.

"I wish I had listened to you Yuvan beta, i wish.. I had trusted in you.
Wo raat, wo pal, tera mujhe zor zor se bulana aur mera-- mera muh pher lena. Sab kuch yaad hai mhare ko."

He could never really forgive himself for what he did with own grandson. That night still haunted him after 7 years. It was no less than a nightmare filled with screams and blood.

"You loved someone didn't you? But did she love you back? She did not. If she did, she would have never compelled you to leave your family, she would have never compelled you to live the life which you had never deserved and if she had loved you, then she would have never ever forced you to go against your entire family, your dadusa.

Yuvan apne dadu ko kabhi bhi chodke nahi jayega, ekdum-- ekdum pakka pakka!

This is what you used to say right? You had promised me that you will never leave this old man alone. Then why did you? Why did you not keep your keep promise? You forgot me for a person who was never in love with you, you forgot me for a person who took away everything from you and you forgot me for a person who destroyed you to the core"

He teared up as he confessed his own feelings to himself.

"I wish I could just get back to that day. I wish I had just listened to you when you were screaming my name."

Dadu, dadu le chalo mujhe yaha se dadu, Yuv-- yuvan ko le chalo yaha se

You screamed your heart out that day, but I did not pay heed to any of your words. The only thing that mattered to me that day was betrayal and revenge. I saw you as a person, who had betrayed me, betrayed his entire family for a woman, who was no less than curse.....dangerous and misleading---- We could not see her, but we could feel her"

He continued to caress his grandson from the photoframe as he recalled all those moments. He never wanted to recall those moments, but he was helpless. Whenever he closed his eyes, all he saw was that night, that scream, that nightmare and his grandson. He was guilty, he wanted to apologise but it was too late to be sorry. He was not here anymore and he'll never be. He went away with the woman he loved, he went away with the pain that life had given him. He was happy in his own world now, but not in the way egeryone wanted it to be.

"Bohot gussa hai na tu apne dadu sa par? Pata hai mhare ko. Isiliye to tu mhare ko phone bhi nahi karta, chittiyan bhi nahi likhta, aur mhare se milne bhi nahi aata. Bhul gaya to Yuvan mhare ko. Uske liye bhul gaya, jo na kabhi thara tha, aur na hi kabhi kisika tha".