Prithvi... [Vol 1] (Ongoing) (Winner of Wattpad India Awards 2019)

Chapter 12

Diwakar Jalaan was a very happy man this afternoon. It had been a long time since he had had the pleasure to talk to such a brilliant young mind that held so much potential. And even more than that, a student who appreciated the subject for its own sake, and not for the rewards it would fetch him.

"So it's decided, the meetings will be held twice a week," he said. "And we can discuss the detailed study plan in our next meeting."

Prithvi nodded.

The professor hesitated for a minute. "I wanted to ask you this before but it slipped my mind. You have a strong resemblance to someone I knew a long time ago...and your name..." he looked down at the forms in front of him, "it's familiar..."

Then he looked up straight at Prithvi, who knew exactly what was coming.

"Are you related to Adityaraj Singh Rathod?"

Prithvi didn't answer for a long moment. And then just when the professor was staring to think that he had asked a wrong question, he responded.

"He was my father," Prithvi said unemotionally.

"I knew it!" Jalaan exclaimed.  "You are so much like him, and not just in your appearance, your personality too. I met him very long back, when he was only a few years older than you are at present. And we only interacted once, but his personality was such that a single meeting was enough to impress itself on the mind."

"I couldn't believe it when I heard of his family background. You would never have deduced it from his behaviour. He treated the lowliest of people with utmost courtesy and respect, and even though he was younger than me, I am not ashamed to say that I was inspired by him," Jalaan beamed. "And he had such a magnetic personality! He would just walk into a room and everyone's eyes would be on him. But unfortunately, I could not interact with him again." He sighed heavily. Then he looked up at Prithvi hopefully, "Is he in Shamli too? I would like to speak with him again."

"That might be a little difficult," Prithvi said dryly. "He's been dead for almost 20 years now."

"Dead!" Jalaan repeated in shock. "But he must have been so young! How did he..."

"Accident," Prithvi replied tersely.

The professor waited expectantly for more details, but Prithvi met his enquiring gaze in silence.

Seeing that no more details were forthcoming and assuming that the boy was finding the topic too distressing to discuss, the professor sympathetically said, "I understand it must be very painful to talk about your father."

"Not really," Prithvi said impassively. "I didn't know him at all, so it doesn't make a difference."

Jalaan was a little taken aback at the apathy in his voice, but then he could see the logic in what the boy had said. Prithvi must not have been even a year old when Adityaraj passed away, so his unsentimental attitude was perfectly understandable. And sensing that Prithvi did not wish to discuss his father anymore, he moved to more practical topics.

 "The principal wishes to meet you. And after that we'll have a walk around the institution. I'm sure that will put to rest any doubts you may still have about joining this college over so many others," he said proudly.

Prithvi looked at the elderly man smiling at him with so much hope that he would soon be convinced that he had made right decision in coming to Shamli. Little did the professor know that almost nothing could convince him of that...

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 Nandini had managed to reach her class just before the lecturer and sat in the first empty spot she saw in the front benches. Then she had speedily scanned the faces in the back rows for her friends. But they were nowhere to be seen.