Yuhn Hota Toh Kya Hota- Rikara FF

Chapter 17: OmRuRiYa

Gauri was staring out of the window, watching the vast green fields pass by, as the train sped on its route. It had been three days since she'd escaped from Bareilly. Bareilly, she could no longer call that place home. Still, she was glad that she could do something for her people. Gaurav and her other friends had come yesterday, along with Gaurav's father, to visit Gauri. Her mother thanked the kids with joined hands, for saving her daughter. Those kids, they were Gauri's lifeline. Somehow, in the midst of all sorrow and worry, they managed to cheer her up. Kids. Innocence. The only power that can light a candle in the darkness of fear and hopelessness, because innocence had this quality of hope, of optimism. Gauri believed in keeping the child in her alive, because children still believed that good will win over evil, and that belief was everything. 

Gauri was thankful to the kids for another reason; they helped her solve the monetary issue. Gauri kept some twenty thousand for herself and divided the rest of the amount, of approximately thirty thousand, in forty different packets for the forty families who had lost their shops in the temple land takeover that day. 

Gauri wasn't being charitable. Those people also suffered for Kali's selfish motives, and Gauri wasn't greedy to keep all the money to herself. That would only prove Omkara right, that she was a thoughtless home-breaker, who destroyed someone else's life for money. She entrusted her faithful friends to distribute these to the people back in Bareilly. 

The kids also informed her that Kali tried to bail out his brothers but to no avail. Apparently, they were in prison for attacking the mighty city-dweller, Oberoi saahib, and his elder brother had put the miscreants in prison. The might of the Oberoi surname ensured that those two won't come out of prison for a long time. Gauri breathed a sigh of relief at this news. Not just for herself, but also for Omkara, that he was safe and did not come to harm for saving her life. She owed his brother for putting away Kali's brothers in prison. 

With a heavy heart, Gauri said goodbye to her friends yesterday. She knew this time it was going to be for a long. Gauri gave her mother some ten thousand rupees to care of herself, and bought a phone and tickets to Delhi and Mumbai with some of the leftover cash. Whatever money she saved, she kept it for her stay in Mumbai. Getting a permanent job in Mumbai, and a place to stay, was going to be difficult. Gauri would need that money until she finds both. 

This morning Gauri had boarded the train to Delhi. She ensured her mother that all would be fine in a few months time, and she would return soon. There was nothing else to be said, Maa and Richa clearly knew that Gauri couldn't stay with Richa for long. So, they just said their goodbyes with heavy hearts. Gauri reached Delhi at around mid-day, barely on time, and caught the connecting train leaving from Delhi to Mumbai. She had never been outside U.P. This was her first time and she was alone. She wished she could visit the famous historical sites of Delhi that she had heard about, but she was not a tourist, she was the persecuted.

Gauri had mixed feelings about Mumbai. On one hand, she didn't remember much of the city, it was from another life for her, on the hand, what she did remember, she didn't like. Gauri shivered suddenly as those childhood memories seemed to reach out from the recesses of her mind. No. She was not going to let the city get better of her. She, Gauri Kumari Ssarma, was a survivor, not Kali, not Mumbai, no one was going to imprison her. Gauri continued staring at the sights passing by her window. 

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Omkara was feeling the onset of a headache. He was staring at a boring file in front of him, surrounded by the pristine walls of his office, in the Oberoi group of industries. His mind kept wandering back to the slightly uncomfortable conversation he had with Shivaay a couple of days back.