Eklavya

Chapter XLIII

He had never really talked about anything that happened after his parents' death. Whenever they've talked Eklavya did mention his parents but the topic regarding his parents' death was never broached.

It wasn't as if she didn't want to know. But she could never find it in herself to dare to see him crestfallen. Whatever she knew about Eklavya and his family was from the third person's point of view but with him she had never dared breached that topic.

"My Maa and Papa... they were the best parents. I still remember how Papa used to play football with me and Rudra whereas Maa would cheer upon us brothers. As we had a chain of hotels in the northern belt, they used to be extremely busy, especially Papa. But they never failed to attend even a single P.T.M of ours." Eklavya said and he could suddenly feel a dull ache in his chest.

"Papa made sure to take us out on vacations every summer. We had a farmhouse in Darjeeling, it was my favourite place. But Rudra loved the one we had in Rajgir so it was always a tussle between us."

"That's so different from the Rudra I know. I've never seen him contradict your words so I'm sorry but it's hard for me to digest that he was a brat." Anamika exclaimed appalled.

"Not your fault. Everything's changed now. Rudra's too changed," he said with a somber expression on his face then gloomily added, "Sometimes I feel I've failed to keep him safe. I feel as I've in some way let him down."

Anamika cupped his face in the small of her hands, "That's not true though." She stated looking deep into his dark eyes. "I'm sure Rudra feels the same way. Understand Eklavya, alone you'd be crushed under the weight of all these responsibilities let him shoulder some of your burden too."

She tried to make him see reason. She knew Eklavya was the type who silently bears it all and never utter a single word. But he was no robot. He was a human too. And human have feelings. They feel pain, they hurt, they bleed.

She wanted him out of the dark fortress he'd created for himself and learn to depend, to trust and to love.

Eklavya heaved a sigh as he reeled into her touch and all of a sudden, he felt tired. Too tired. Closing his eyes he asked in a worn-out voice, "Can I put my head on your lap?"

The unconcealed pain and vulnerability in his eyes had her heart quell painfully in her chest. Blinking back the moisture she nodded her head and gesturing to come close said softly,

"Come here,"

And he gladly did.

~*~*~*~*~

Watching into the oblivion, Nalini looked deeply lost into the memories of the past. Time never truly stops. It continues introducing changes to life. Filling it with all shades of colours.

Human never truly cares while he basks in the warmth of those colourful shades but when things change, he truly can't help but long desperately for it. The past feels like a dream and the present like an endless nightmare.

But Nalini had had enough. She now finally grasped that her longing for the old times to return was nothing but a wishful thinking. Now she wanted her present to flourish in the future. She wanted to return to the times when this ancestral palace used to be a home and not just a house but with her grandsons now.

She was brought back from her waist-deep thoughts by Malti, who softly called her name and pushed the cell phone in her hand, "It's your younger grandson," she said.

Instantly Nalini's face lightened up as her eyes glimmered with unbound glee. Excitedly putting the cell phone on her ear, she said, "How are you, my child?"

Rudra beamed from the other side and bellowed, "Namaste! I'm fine my dear Grandma. But I've been hearing from Malti di that you're back to your old ways."