"Better remember this, before messing with us." The senior boy stood from the small body of 4 yr old karan, and dusted his pants before running back.
Karan coughed and tried to sit but the pain in his ribs didn't let him. He laid back and closed his eyes in exhaustion as his arm bleeded. The side of his lower lip was swollen and the back of his head was throbbing in pain as the sun shined brightly.
He remembered how he heard his senior laughing and joking about him. Had it been only him, it would not result in this one sided fight. He would have ignored them. But the moment the seniors started mocking how strict is Vimesh Kundrra is, he lost it.
They were laughing at how vimesh had slapped karan in the parents teacher meeting because of low grades.
And when gayatri tried to calm him, he scolded her, embarssing everyone as he pointed her being illiterate. Karan just hung his head down, just like his mother did. They both wanted to stop him, but they knew better.
The watchman of the school saw karan lying on the ground with such poor condition and he reached to help him. He helped karan to stand on his feet and the toddler hissed in pain, not crying - because his dad hated the weak men.
Despite the teachers asking him the reason of such condition, he remained silent as he knew if the news of the fight reached his father, he will be disappointed. Thus he chose to ask Aviral for the help but the teachers didn't allowed him to leave the school.
A sudden memory crossed his memory as he looked at the small scar on his chest. It was too small to get noticed, and only he knew about this. The feeling of lying to your mother about your well being, when your bones feels crushing and the body is sour, was something he had experienced from childhood.
No doubt why he started hiding his pain, problems, and the feelings. From his own people.
The lack of love, compassion and empathy in the early years of his life, stilled a fear in him. The mental trauma he faced when he was only two and had recieved a tight slap against his soft cheeks, because he disobeyed his father and interrupted the meeting with his clients, was something he could never forget.
Later that day, he had cried buckets of tears while leaning to warm embrace of his mother as she tried to console him. But his dad was irritated to the extent that he shut him in a storehouse and left him with just a single water bottle. He cried more, apologising, but the dimmed lights and lack of sun in night digged a hole in his childish heart.
His mother was crying outside the door, pulling the lock and he promised to himself to never let his mom suffer and make his dad proud. Like he was when Aviral bagged the certificate of high scores in academics.
He was not the man he was.
He was trapped in his own demons which attack him in dark lonely nights. He was depressed and struggling. The need to impress others, was taking a toll in his childish self. The way he felt anxious and panic rushing through his body, was an indiaction of something big.
And the worst thing of all, was that, He was still oblivion. He still thought that struggling to make others happy while burying yourself, is discipline and the principles.
The notification sound of his mobile pulled him out of the anxiety he felt at the thought of meeting his father, after losing the file. He quickly closed the buttons of his amber shirt, and without tucking it under his black trousers, he reached to his mobile.
"We are boarding the jet." The message from tejasswi read.
____
A chuckle left her mouth as Gayatri ran her fingers through the dusty album that was kept in the study with so much care. It had all the pictures of her motherhood with Aviral and karan. And Jia. Her daughter. The one who held the power to make the rude Vimesh Kundrra act like a horse as she sat over him.
