Yuhn Hota Toh Kya Hota- Rikara FF

Chapter 39

Current address: XYZ, Satara, Maharashtra (mothers address) 

Father's profession: IPS officer (currently posted in Pune city)

Mother's profession: IAS officer (currently DM in Satara district) 

The file slipped out of Omkara's hand. Chulbul picked it up and tried to read it. Since Gauri had studied only up to fifth standard she had little difficulty reading the file, but she managed slowly. Chulbul saw the expression on Omkara's face once she finished reading the file. It was blank, though the eyes seemed shocked. 

The Father entered at that moment, and addressed Chulbul. "Dhananjay's mother is here. You can talk to her, to make sure. Once again, son, I'm sorry that your search came to nothing." the Father said sadly, blessing Chulbul's head. 

"Its okay Father, at least we know now, that we have to start looking elsewhere, so we can begin again, instead of hoping on this bet." said Chulbul. The Father nodded his head. Chulbul slightly pulled Omkara with him, outside the room, to meet the child's mother. Omkara was still in a daze

The woman who greeted them had a friendly disposition, and carried herself with grace and dignity. 

"Hello, I'm Dhananjay's mother, and you must be Mr. Oberoi" she said curtly

Chulbul pinched Omkara slightly to bring him out of his stupor. 

"Yes...hello, I'm Omkara Singh Oberoi, from Mumbai. Nice to meet you, ma'am." said Omkara, regaining his composure. "Shall we sit and chat?" asked Omkara, pulling out the wooden chair, in the small empty classroom, for Mrs. Mukherjee. 

"Thank you." she replied, as she sat down.

Omkara and Chulbul followed suit. "So Father probably told you why we came here looking for the child." said Omkara.

"Yes, I'm very sorry to hear about it. My husband is an IPS officer, he's posted at Pune, but he has plenty of friends in the Mumbai force. If you want, I can ask him to ask his friends to look into this matter." said Mrs. Mukherjee, with some concern.

"No actually, I already know someone from the Mumbai force well, ACP Ranveer Singh Randhawa." said Omkara, hoping to get a clue.

"Ranveer? Oh, I know him too. Actually, my husband does. He was my husband's junior and they became friends during Ranveer's training at Hyderabad. We were in contact with him, even after we went to Delhi for sometime, where we had our son, Dhananjay. The irony is that now, both my husband and I are posted in the same State as Ranveer, and we haven't met him in years now. How do you know him?" she asked. 

"Just a friend of  my sister's" replied Omkara.

"Well, I'm sorry you came all this way to search for the missing child. Dhananjay was born in Delhi. After some while my husband got posted here in Maharashtra, because he's from Maharashtra cadre. I also got done with my deputation and was posted here in the same state as well. Unfortunately, since we are both extremely busy in our professional lives, we had to admit Dhananjay in a boarding school. My husband himself, was educated in a boarding school in Darjeeling, so he's very keen on educating our son like that as well." said Mrs. Mukherjee, clearly trying to divert the topic, since she thought that Chulbul and Omkara would be upset by their futile search. 

"Thankoo for you help, madamji. Now I think we'll continue with our search elsewhere." said Chulbul, making a move to get up.

Mrs. Mukherjee nodded, shook hands with Omkara and left. 

"Now do you see? Your sister's fiancee just texted you the photo of his colleague's kid, thinking that you and your sister will never find out, or find out very late." said Chulbul.

Omkara still looked dazed. Very slowly he turned to leave the school, and Chulbul followed. 

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Soumya was happily slurping her favorite chocolate sundae, while Rudy was having his diet greek yogurt. They were sitting in a dessert parlour, near Soumya's apartments, enjoying their desserts after a hard day of revising. 

"You know Rudy, when I was a kid, my elder brother used to take me out for ice cream or cotton candy, whenever I would get tired after studying a lot, in breaks between exam preparation." said Soumya, thinking back to the memories of her childhood. 

Rudy listened with apt attention. It was after a long time that Soumya had mentioned her elder brother in front of him. He was curious to know more about Soumya's childhood, especially since she knew most of the stuff about him, as she stayed in the Oberoi mansion for months. 

"Tell me more about your school days Soumya." said Rudy eagerly

Soumya looked at him curiously, then began narrating her story from the beginning. How her father passed away when she was an infant, how brother brought her up as their mother was too busy earning a living for their family, how he took care of Soumya and taught her to deal with bullies, how elated she was when he got his first salary and bought her books with it as present, how they celebrated Raksha bandhan every year, and how he died due to an accident. At this point, Soumya choked back a sob, but she turned to see Rudy also shedding tears silently.

"Something went into my eye." said Rudra lamely. 

"Yeah, something went into my eyes too." said Soumya. 

Together they both sat in companionable silence for a long time. Rudy reflected that how he had been born so privileged, not just because he was born with a silver spoon, but because he had two brothers who shielded him, especially Shivaay bhaiyaa who spoilt him, and protected him from the unpleasantness of their parents marriage and the discord between the elders.

Honestly, Rudy had a much better life than Soumya, and here was Soumya helping others with her sensible advice as Love Angel and being friendly to everyone, even though life had been harsh to her. 

He held Soumya's hand softly to show that he would always be there for her, as a friend. Soumya nodded and smiled in acknowledgement of his support.