A sequel to Code: Love. Can be read as a standalone as I will give a gist of it in the prologue
Dr. Monami Mahajan a name and face not so unfamiliar to Special Agent Karan Shergill but with a personality quite unfamiliar. A face and name which has a...
“The auditorium is set sir” Raj, an agent informs me. I give him a slight nod and make way to the auditorium with all types of emotions flowing inside me, I can feel bile rising upto my throat.
I enter the auditorium only to realise how much it has changed. The change in seat colours, wall designs, the new excerpts from the constitution and a wall instead of the door from where she entered late, deliberately to grab my attention.. I shake my head because the every thought of her is associated with bitter memories which I want to forget.. forget so bad.. but they keep haunting me back. All I need to do is shut that door which leads her memories to my mind and replace it with a wall like the door which led her into the academy has been replaced but I am not able to do it.. As I am about to enter deeper into this swamp Siddharth pulls me out “I see you are here hope you have seen all the preparations and like it.”
“Definitely, you sure are great” I reply faking a smile or maybe it was real.. a thankyou smile for being brought to the reality, something less bitter.
“Between I brought someone to meet you” he announces and I notice a girl entering into the auditorium, a similar face... She was my student whose name I was struggling to recall. Sanjana it immediately clicks my mind. She was my top cadet who made her mark despite facing many discriminatory comments from her batchmates.
“Special Agent Sanjana Singh reporting on duty sir” she salutes.
“Sanjana, I am really proud to find one of my trained cadet standing here besides me, mere kandhe se kandha milakar”
“Sir abhi toh bahut lamba safar tay karna hai aapke saath kandha milane ke liye aapke kadmon par chlakar yahaan pahunche hain aur aage bhi inhi par chalna hai.” I smile in return, a genuine one after long time, a trainer proud of his cadets’ achieving heights of success and yet remembering me, made me proud. Maybe I was not that bad of a trainer, I might have made mistake once but I was… Stop Karan, it is her again.
“Since you already know about the academy would you like to go and check the registration arrangements.” Siddharth directs his question to Sanjana who nods in response. They leave me to be alone, again something I have been in the past 2 years not that my family and friends want me to be but I pushed them all away fearing betrayal again.
Why was it so easy for her to break my trust, why did it break my trust from all the ones near me and why is it so difficult for me to rebuild it. Why is breaking a thing much easier than rebuilding it.
The person who pushed me away from my family and friends, from a normal lifestyle still clogs my brain and I can do nothing about it. After introducing me, Siddharth and Sanjana, Batra Sir moves on to take introduction from the cadets. This year only 50 cadets have been selected and their backgrounds were thoroughly scrutinised though the complete information about the case was kept confidential, the rumours still went around and most people held me responsible for the entire chaos which is true also because I was not smart on my part.
“Abhishek Lamba, I am lawyer by profession” words fall on my ears and I realise that I had missed almost all the introduction due to zoning out because of her.
The next cadet stands up and my face turns pale, the memories of betrayal returns.. I feel suffocated in the well- conditioned auditorium.. I try to stand there taking big gulps of saliva but I am not able to manage and rush out of the auditorium. I don’t know what new agents must be thinking about me I will not say I don’t care about them I do I have a taint which I need to remove but the air around me was getting heavier every second and I couldn’t breathe. I am sure Batra Sir must have handled the situation.
***
After about an hour of being locked in room fighting my memories and trying to stop tears from falling, I manage to open the bedroom door and find Faizi standing on it. “Hum bas abhi knock hi karne waale the ki tumhe humare hone ka ehsaas pehle se ho gaya.” He stars to blabber before I could speak anything defending himself while I know he must have rushed here as soon as he got the news and would have been standing on the door waiting for me to open it up. “Faizi mereko woh ladki …”
“Karan uska naam bhi Monami hai..” I gulp down a huge lump of air as Faizi speaks this.. the tears which had stopped just a while back start returning to my eyes..
“Maine uske saare documents advance mein mangwa liye hai..” Faizi continues.. “Dr. Monami Mahajan, born in Mumbai and graduation from Kolkata Medical College and specialisation from Mumbai Mental Health Institute, worked in Sport’s Injury Hospital in which the main trustee was her father now that position is taken by some relative of hers. Her parents passed away 5 years earlier in a car accident hence she has no legal guardian. In emergency contacts she usne kisi Smita Rao ka number diya hai aur relation mein aunt likha hai.” I sigh after hearing such a long and detailed description.
“Yeh sab kar liya hai toh I am sure Smita Rao ke baare mein information aur Monami ke parents ke baare mein bhi information nikal li hogi”
“Of course.. so Monami’s dad was a doctor and trustee of the hospital I just told you.. Monami’s mother was Dr. Riddha Mahajan, the one who treated…”
“Me” I cut him in between remembering the injury she treated..
“Yes, he nods and Dr. Smita Rao is also an army doctor and batchmate of Monami’s mother..”
“Why does she have such a perfectly clean background.. and such a big association with people who can be called or are patriotic”
“May be it was this background of hers which made them choose her..” Them I know who he is talking about… again choking at the memory… Faizi realises it and hands me a glass of water.
“I think she will be of great help” he winks at me and before I could ask anything Batra Sir enters the room.
“I apologize for creating such a ruckus sir.. I tried to control but everything happened so fast that..”
“It is ok Karan being a person aware about the whole situation I understood but others.. I have told them you received an emergency message from some other special trainer and due to some security reasons, this fact should not be mentioned again otherwise it would be punishable.” Batra Sir cuts me in between.
“Thankyou Sir” I curl the corners of my lips..
***
The entire day passes and no one else comes in my room to enquire about anything and I am grateful for that. Batra Sir’s vague explanation with an underlying threat worked I supposed. The same moment there is a knock on my door and one of the agents probably newly hired enters the room. He hands me the schedule for tomorrow, takes a bow and leaves.
Physical training starts at 6 am tomorrow followed by breakfast, strategy classes, lunch, rest, evening training, dinner at 7 pm and lights out by 10 pm.
I take out my bottle of sleeping pills, take one tablet with water and retire to bed.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
