Ujala (Raichand Siblings Saga-Book 2)

1- A Great Royal Mess

Sahas Academy, Kolkata

Anirudh entered the cabin only to find a tissue paper lying on his table with a small sorry and a smiley drawn messily over it. He rolled his eyes as he had quite an idea about who took the pain to sneakily enter his study, find a tissue paper, use his pen to write the message, leave it uncapped and then hurriedly hide behind the drapes before he entered his cabin.

Anirudh- "Front and centre, Rehem."

He heard the shuffling of feet and a whiny "dadaaaa!" from the back.

He turned around and glared sharply at the girl who had had the guts to glare at him while his back was turned.

Rehem looked down as Anirudh glared at her. The man had effectively scared her as her commander to not take liberties with him as her dada. When she has first met him, she was genuinely scared of him. The first week was a walk through hell. She could neither stop herself from flinching at his raised voice nor display any traces of fear.

However as time passed, she started seeing the side of him that others did. His words were brutal but his actions were better. She couldn't help but relive those days when he trained them with meagre resources in the slum of the city. Those has been hard days

Flashback 

Hours of tedious training, tons of tears and sweat and heaps of physical and emotional turmoil later, Meher looked down at her plate. Just plain rice with a side of salad,precisely onion.

She looked at the other four who had already sat down with their plates on the floor, a look of contention and relief on their face.

Anu noticed the hesitation in her eyes and couldn't stop herself from voicing out her opinion.

Anu- "Kya hua,your highness? Is the food not to your liking? Come on! Shed a few tears over this as well."

Meher hated herself when her eyes instantly teared up in compliance. For a moment, Anu's eyes softened but she maintained her facade of rigidity.

Kuki- "Come on Anu! She's new to all this. Aadat nahi hogi usse. Aa jao Rehem, humare saath baithke Khao."

Meher looked at them. Each of them had their own unique personality. Their own unique identity. Meanwhile, she was there, just existing trying her level best to fit in. But it got harder and harder as the carpet of difficulties rolled out infront of her.

Sandy whispered- "Khana khane ke liye toh mask utaregi na? Ki direct pet me dalegi?"

Kartik- "Ab tere lame jokes pe hasi nahi aati,Sandy. So just shut up and eat. In sab ka time nahi hai humare paas. 15 minute me training resume hogi!"

Their conversation was not lost to Meher. She took her leave and walked to their shared room with the plate. She locked the door and took off her mask. Tears rushed to her eyes as soon as she dropped down the mask from her face.

Everything seemed so rigorous. So odd. So out of place. She was not made for this. She was not fit enough for this. Two sets of pushups and she nearly had an asthma attack! Anirudh made her sit out. However, the looks she got from others was not lost upon her. Anirudh said something about increasing her stamina but she was too ashamed and embarassed to pay any heed to his words.

Her eyes fell on the plate. Her heart ached as the thoughts of the delicious meals that her bhaiya and bhabhi prepared for her, crossed her mind. The pain increased as all the tantrums she threw over the perfectly good food clouded her mind. The void in her heart increased tenfolds when all their sweet talks and lectures over coaxing her to eat replayed in her mind.