My brother's best friend

Chapter 1

It was evening. Clouds surrounded the sky and people predicted rain. People were returning from their work and the city of Ahmedabad was quiet.

The people were still unaware about the storm brewing inside the City Hospital. Jai Prakash Maheshwari sat on a chair and was waiting since two hours. His daughter Vishakha sat anxiously on adjacent chair and was weeping profusely. He tried his best to console her, but all in vain.

Suddenly the doctor arrived " Sorry, we could not save him" and bent his head. Vishakha started sobbing and cursed the driver that caused the accident. Her husband was dead! She couldn't believe it. What would she tell Sameer? What will happen to her? What will she do now?

Jai Prakash hugged his daughter and consoled her. He muttered words of encouragement in her ear and advised her to stay strong for Sameer. Soon, he went to organise the last rites and made phone calls to relatives

Vishakha slipped into depression from that day and hardly looked after her 3 year old. She remained absorbed in her own grief and hardly paid attention to the little soul, who lost his father. The only solace of the tiny boy was his Nanu, who stayed strong for his widowed daughter and her son.

He convinced Vishakha to remarry after he learned about a Delhi based businessman Vivek Somani. His wife had passed away and he had a little son of Sameer's age. Jai Prakash thought that it was best for the mother-son duo since Vishakha could have a new family and Sameer could get a father's love.

However things did not happen as planned. Vivek and his mother refused to have Sameer. They wanted a mother's love for Rohan, but did not want Sameer in their house. Hardly two months had passed since the wedding, and they had shown their true colours. Vishakha showed little resistance to all this and accepted her fate. How can she question her in laws? What if her husband gets angry? What if she gets ruined once again?

In all this, she however did not think about five year old Sameer, who lost his mother to the Somanis. She focused on her new family and tried her best to please her husband and his mother

At first Sameer felt sad and cried. He did not want to be left behind. How can he live without his mother? But soon, anger took over his sadness and hate took over his anger.

Even during Vishakha's short and infrequent visits, Sameer refused to meet her. He did not wanted to be attached to her. He behaved rudely with his mother and her husband. Vishakha never understood him and Vivek seemed to add fuel to the fire by terming him as disrespectful and unworthy. Vishakha as a result ,cut her visits even shorter and became busy with her new family.

Only Nanu understood the poor boy's pain. He knew that Sameer craved for affections and refused to ship him off to some hostel, even after Vishakha's repeated advices.

Sameer soon transformed into a rebel. He cut himself off from his so called mother and Nanu became his lifeline. However, only other source of affection for him was his cousin Munna.

Munna was his distant cousin and Sameer was very close to him. Munna was a street smart and cheerful boy, and was extremely loyal. He even had an equally foolish best friend Pandit and two of them were his childhood companions.

Munna and Pandit visited almost regularly and when they could now visit, Sameer went to their house. The three of them were inseperable and their love for each other binded them together. However, a thing that the three of them loved from the core of their heart was Cricket. Little did they know that the sport was going to introduce them to the fourth part of their gang, Arjun.

Arjun Aggarwal was the only son of Rakesh Aggarwal. His father was a librarian at Pragati Vidya ka Mandir, a hindi medium school, under the trusteeship of Jai prakash Maheshwari.

Arjun lost his mother when he was just two. She died giving birth to his younger sister. He hardly remembered her and spent his childhood in his Taiji's home. She was a vulgar woman, with a tendency to find faults in everyone. Everyday, his father was subjected to humiliation and Arjun was reminded that he did not belong here and Taiji was doing them the biggest favour by giving them shelter.

His father did not pay much attention to his happiness, but he did focus on his studies and believed that one day Arjun will definitely make him proud. Arjun had developed a love for cricket since his early childhood and he did have the talent to persue it as a profession. He wanted to play further, but his father and Taiji's daily banter did not boost his confidence much. He was aware for his father's expectations and knew that Rakesh wanted to earn back his respect, which was lost due to his job of a librarian in his life.

His Tauji stayed aloof to all this daily banter and did not do much to stop this. His Chacha Chachi did support him, but they were relatively busy in looking after his three sisters. He felt extremely alone in his crowded house. He looked for ways to step out and stay away .

On one such fateful evening , he met three boys, who changed his life forever. He was walking leisurely in park when a ball hit him on head. He winced in pain turned to look at the person who had injured him.

A boy of his age was standing there. He was holding a brand new bat and a silly grin adored his face. He was wearing a red t shirt, similar to the one that Taiji had termed too expensive in the nearby shop two days back. Two other boys came running towards the boy .
."Sorry, Maine shot Maarte waqt dekha nahi, zyada chott to nahi lagi na"

Arjun replied " Nahi Lekin shot accha tha. Yeh to Wahi Naya wal bat hai na. Maine iski ad newspaper par Dekhi thi"

"Ha yeh Wahi hai. Tum bhi cricket khelte ho kya?"

"Ha bilkul , waise Mera Naam Arjun hai."

" Hi aur main Sameer hoon." He then pointed towards one of the boy standing behind him and said " Yeh Munna aur peeche wala Pandit. Tum bhi hamare saath khelo na"

Arjun immediately accepted and the four of them enjoyed the evening very much. From that day, Arjun joined their gang and gang of three became gang of four. They were inseperable. The cured each other's boredom, but most of all, they cured each other's loneliness. Sameer and Arjun were extremely similar. Both of them felt so left out in their house , that they spent more time with each other.

Arjun knew that Sameer felt lonely, but never understood his grief. Sameer was so rich after all. How can rich be unhappy? They have money, the greatest happiness in the world. Sameer avoided sharing his sadness with his friends, because it would make him look weak to them. He soon became familiar with Arjun's family and daily banter at his house. He tried his best to cheer him up ,and Munna pandit did lighten the mood with their stupid jokes. Soon Sameer joined their school and they could spend even more time now The four of them completed each other.

As for the family, Nanu was happy with Sameer's happiness and liked his new friends. Soon, the three of Sameer's friends became his grandsons too.
Rakesh on the other hand was pleased that his son had contacts with school trustee and boasted about it. Taiji was extremely nice to Sameer whenever he visited, for the sake of her husband's career as a lawyer and the benefit he could get from Sameer's nanu. She however, remained indifferent to Munna Pandit, not that they minded much.