Broken Strings...

Chapter 2.

      Veer Pratap reaches Adheer's cell. He looks at Adheer through the cell bars. He is sitting with the support of the wall with his knees buckled up to his chin. Adheer , who appears to be in a deep sleep, is looking nearly lifeless sitting there, like a stuffed dummy. Veer hits the bars with his patrol stick several times in a pattern to wake him up and then opens the lock of the cell.

      "Wake up, Wake up officer, its story time," Veer shouts at Adheer.

      Adheer opens his eyes at this and struggles to make a smile with his lips.

      "So, you actually came, huh!"

      "I had to, you refused to answer my questions straight-short."

      "Dont worry you are going to get the answers only by knowing my whole story. By the end of it, you would get all of your answers. But i hope you haven't forgotten our deal" said Adheer.

      "You dont worry about that. Just start with the story, I am a busy man you see" said Veer to which Adheer starts the story.

........................................

(June 1997, Jammu)

      "Everything started the day i saw her for the first time. April 1997. I still remember that day like it was only yesterday. I had joined a new school in the 7th grade. I was totally not happy about it. I was nervous. Going to a new school at the age 12 is not a play for kids, it takes guts. The time was 6:30 in the morning and i woke up to the sound of my parents who were fighting. Their fights were a routine since i was a child. Their loud voices had become my alarm clock to which i would wake up every morning. Yes, My home was like no other.

      Suddenly, i heard a scream from my mom . I ran all the way to their room. The door was closed so i opened the door a little bit. I saw my mom lying on the floor with a red mark on her face. She was crying silently so that her son couldn't hear her. I saw my father too , who was pointing his index finger at her.

      "It shall be a reminder everytime you think of shouting at me" My father told her.

      My mom wiped her tears after crying a bit more and then walked out of the room. It was now 7 am and she was knotting my school uniform's Tie. She didnt talk at all. I touched her cheek where that red mark was and kissed it. She gave a big smile and kissed my forehead.

      My mother , Meenakshi Randhawa , was the sweetest lady you could talk to , except for the times she fought with my father. Though we were not Muslims , I used to call her Ammi. I think the reason behind it might be me as a toddler calling 'Mummy' as 'Ammi' because it was spoken more easily and it became a habit eventually.

      "Ammi ?"

      "Haan mera sher puttar!(Yes, my brave boy!)" she replied.

      "I dont want to go to this new school .I wanna be in my same old school please." I told her.

      "Dont worry beta. Just go there today and you'll love your new school. It is quite better than your old one and you would make really good friends there" Mom said with a kiss to my cheeks.

      It was raining that day from morning. The rain had covered the whole space under its mist. Clouds had covered the whole sky. But at that time , the 12 year old me wasn't aware of what that rain and that day was going to do with the rest of my life.

      "Bahut Baarish hori hai (It's raining a lot). I don't think the school bus will come . You have to drop him school by scooter" Ammi told my father in a hard voice.

      He held my hand and took me outside our home. He started the scooter and i sat behind him. If Ammi was my favourate person in the world, My father was the person i hated the most.He was a lieutenant colonel in the Indian army. He had a deep wound on his head which was the result of a bullet that came from enemy site during a shootout at a rescue operation during a terrorist attack. He had to take a voluntary retirement after that. I didnt remember him speaking a word of love to me like normal fathers. A very good army officer , a respected lieutenant colonel , an aesthetic patriot but a failure as a family man and as a father . My father was devoid of everything that one would associate with a 'fatherly father'.

      Suddenly the scooter stopped with a jerk and we had reached my new school. My father asked me to keep wearing the raincoat as it still was raining heavily. With my bag at my back , I walked into the school premises unwillingly. The falling rain drops slided down my chin, like the rain was whispering to me - 'Today , your whole life is going to be destined.'

      It was the science period , I remember and I sat on a desk in the 2nd row all alone. The teacher came and asked every student to tell their names to the class as it was a new session . Abhisheik , Aditya, Anubhav , Payal , Palak and so on the children were telling their names and the turn came up to me .

      "My name is Adh..Adheer Randhawa", I murmered and after that , the whole class started laughing at me.

      The Turn soon came to the 4th and the last row , and a girl stood up as the teacher asked her name. I could only see her from behind as I was sitting on the last bench in the 2nd row and she was sitting on the 1st desk of 4th row. Her oiled hair were tied in 2 long pigtails and her school shirt was ironed properly. Neat and Clean, Inspector.

      "Radhika Aggarwal", she said with a loud and clean voice . Her voice , Her voice was as chimes in the wind or like a sweet lullaby that i used to hear from Ammi at nights.

      According to a theory of Entrainment in Physics , hearing to certain sounds or voices makes the heart beat faster and for me , the voice was of her. I compared her voice to the rain which was hitting the ground outside and i found that both of them were melodic like a song , a song which soothes your mind and heart. I hadn't heard such a voice before , which would last days in someone's ears. It was like the sound from her vocal cords were pampering my ear drums. If love can happen at such a young age , then it was definitely Love. But it was not Love at First sight as I still hadn't seen her face . It was Love at First Voice. I was all lost in her voice that was on a loop in my mind until a thundering in the sky made me back to my senses and the rain cascaded down like a waterfall...

A/N:
Hey! So there's the update. I know the starting chapters are really very short. But this is just because we have certain things planned out. The chapters will soon grow... And yeah, Radhika.... ;)
#Sam&Satyadeep