MANAN FF: THE PROMISE

Chapter Seven

Manik and the landlord moved inside the yard of the latter only to see some children along with two young ladies. On seeing the two, the ladies picked up some mud and were about to throw it on them but they were stopped by a shout. "Stop what is all this? Is this the way you would behave young ladies? You're misbehaving with an elder person." Manik shouted at them which made the landlord smile. "See now this man will help me to oust you all out from here." The landlord said while attempting to clean his already stained clothes. "Who is he? my children won't go anywhere okay." One of the lady said with determination. "Aadrika he is my new tenant..his name is..." The landlord stopped. "Vibhu" Manik ended it.

Soon after he completed he felt something on his face. He put his hand on his face to wipe it and he found that he was hit with mud. He never feel insulted like this before, his anger started building up since everyone was looking at him with shocked face while the children were holding their laugh. He stared at the ladies with blood eyes. "Don't look at us like that, you deserve this because all that happened is due to your arrival only." The other lady beside Aadrika said and pouted in anger. Manik's gaze fell on her, she was young and short. She had big eyes filled with Kohl, a red button nose and chubby cheeks. His eyes traveled down to her plump lips which were pouting. Soon, he felt his anger fading away. "How dare you Nandini, no one will entertain such insolent behaviour from your side." The landlord shouted which brought Manik out of his daze. He mentally noted her beautiful name,Nandini.

"You are a greedy person,  you made us homeless...so, we will now live in your house." Nandini declared but this confused Manik more. "What is going on and how am I responsible? Manik asked. "It seems like the landlord did not tell you the whole truth." Aadrika commented and the landlord lowered his gaze. "I will tell you..we have been renting a house and have been paying the rent on time but when you looked for a house to rent, there were not any house free. So, he threw us out so that he can accommodate you since you were paying higher than we paid." Aadrika cleared his confusion. Realisation dawn into him, the landlord did injustice to the children out of greediness. "It is a shameless act that you have done, you did wrong and then have the audacity to call for help outside and badmouth about them. I now realised why no one came forward to help you." Manik roared in anger and the landlord remained silent because he was ashamed. "Since it is unfair to you all, I suggest we shall stay in the same house and share the rent. You can trust me, I will not cause any kind of trouble." Manik suggested and Aadrika looked at Nandini and then at the children. It was near dusk, with the sky growing dark in distance and it was not wise to let the children stay outside. They accepted his offer which brought a relief to Manik. The landlord ran to his house not giving the chance to be insulted and the children moved towards their house along with Aadrika, leaving Nandini and Manik alone.

"Don't you want to say anything to me?" Manik asked Nandini with the hope of getting an appreciation for his suggestion. "You were wrong." Nandini said looking at him with a cold expression on her face, crushing the hope that Manik was forming inside of himself. "Wh what?" Manik asked bewildered.  "You were too quick to judge. You listen to only one side of the story and you were receptive to conclude that the landlord was innocent and we were at fault. Whenever you have the chance to ask both parties their side of story, please do so. If you only listen to the  one who came to you then you would never know the whole story because they will always narrate it in a way that you would see them innocent and the other party guilty." Nandini explained and left him there alone. Her response amazed Manik, she was right..he should have consulted both parties. He would definitely introduce this system to the court after viewing with Maharaj.

Manik moved inside the hosue only to see the children playing around. He wondered who were they and were they the children of Nandini or Aadrika? He felt a pang in his chest while thinking that Nandini might be married. To clear his mind, he went to Aadrika who was cooking hastily. "Hey I apologize for whatever happened because of me." Manik tried to start a conversation. "It's okay since you  were not aware of the whole truth." Aadrika said with a smile and put something on stove. "Since we will be living under the same roof, can we be friends?" Manik asked and Aadrika happily accepted. With that they started talking freely to each other and even Manik was introduced to the children who called him 'Vibhu bhaiya' lovingly. "Are they your children or Nandini?" Manik asked while playing with the kids.

"arE you are again judging?" A voice from behind exclaimed and Manik turned to face her. "No see I am even asking?" Manik retorted. "hmmm" Nandini hummed and went near Aadrika. "They are orphans...some parents abandoned them because they were girls while some parents died. So Aadrika and I look after them." Nandini said. Manik felt proud of her...he was amazed by her. "I apologize for all the mess that was created because of my arrival would you please be kind enough to befriend me?" Manik asked. Nandini looked at him for a while. "Of course..my friendship will make you learn many things." Nandini boasted while everyone laughed.

With that Manan friendship started and Manik came to know that Aadrika was married and her husband was not in the village at that time. He even learned from Nandrika(Nandini and Aadrika) that orphans and widows were mistreated and he noted all these so that he could come up with a better solutions to these problems once he goes back to the palace. The more Manik came to know about Nandini, the more he was falling for her. She was a loving bubbly person who had her own way of dealing with world. She could be as fierce as a soldier but also as innocent as a baby. Manan's bond kept growing stronger with passing days and he got possesive of Nandini, he could not tolerate her befriending any other man and so, he used to wander all around her only.