The 'Un' Attached String

Chapter - 1

[ TORONTO, CANADA]

A girl was standing in front of her school's gate waiting for her car to pick her up. She was just asking the watchman of the school about the time after every 5 minutes but to her utter dismay no car stopped in front of the school gate and no one came to pick her up. At last she got bored and climbed on a basement outside the school gate. She sat down, joined her legs in a cross and rested both her elbows on her thighs and supported her face on both her palms and pouted sadly and said,"I know mamma again forgot to pick me up. Kya pata bhul hi gayi ya jaanbujhkar nehi aayi. Hamesha mujhe promise karti hai that we will have lunch together par kabhi apna promise nehi nibhaati hai. Hamesha koi na koi meeting ya phir official lunch ya phir kuch aur, kuch na kuch chalta hi rehta hai unka. Mere liye to waqt hi nehi hai unke paas." She was getting more and more impatient and even more angry but just then something came upon her mind and a smile formed on her face and she said,"Though I have never seen him, bas unki baate hi suni hai but I know mere daddy aise bilkul nehi honge. Vo to bohot zyaada achche honge." At that moment, a car stopped in front of the gate and the girl quickly came down of the basement and ran hurriedly towards it. The driver opened the door and an elderly lady came out of the car. On seeing the lady, the girl made a sad face and gave a sigh of disappointment and asked,"Mamma phir se bhul gayi na naani aur isiliye unhone aapko bheja hai? Now don't tell me ke unko achaanak se koi bohot important kaam aa gaya hai." The girl again pouted sadly and seeing that the lady hugged her and said,"Aww mera bachcha!! Ab main aur kya kahu? Mamma to sach mein hi bohot busy hai. Par koi nehi mamma nehi hai to kya hua, naani hai na. Aaj hum dono ek saath lunch karenge aur vo bhi tere favourate restaurant mein." The girl, though was sad but with a smile hugged her grandmother and said,"You know naani you are my bestest friend kyuki ek aap hi ho, jiske saath mein daddy ke baare mein baat kar sakti hu aur aapko gussa bhi nehi aata. Varna ghar mein to unke naam par hi curfew lagi hui hai." The girl sat inside the car beside the lady and the driver drove off. While on the way, the girl asked,"Ek baat to bolo naani, kya daddy bhi aise hi the...I mean promise karke bhul jaane waale? Ya kaam ka bahaana karne waale?" The woman nodded her head and replied,"Nehi oye!! Hum punjabiya apne waade kabhi nehi bhulte hai. Tera baap jab bhi teri ma ko koi promise karta tha na, to har haal mein usko nibhaata tha." The girl asked,"Par naani, Dracula aur mamma dono bhi to Punjabi hi hai na. To vo log aise kharoos type kyu hai?" The woman made a face and replied,"Naam se hi bas Punjabi hai, varna punjabiyo ki ek bhi khaasiyat inme nehi hai aur teri ma bilkul apne baap pe gayi hai." The girl curiously asked,"Really???To phir main kispar gayi?" The woman smiled and then kissed on her forehed and replied,"Oye puttar tu to hai na dono par gayi hai. Ziddi apni ma jaisi aur caring apne baap ki tarah." The girl was very happy to hear that she got the nicest quality of her father and hoped desperately to meet her father one day.

The girl described above was Bulbul Sehgal, 8 years old daughter of Captain Bela Sareen and Captain Maahir Sehgal. Bela was the daughter of Ranjit Sareen, ex Indian Air Force Officer and the owner of QUEENS AIRLINES. The company was established in Delhi where Maahir was a senior pilot and Bela was a rookie pilot who started off her career in her own airlines company. They fell in love, got married much to her father's chargin since Maahir was his employee and then separated due to some reasons. Bela became very quiet and went to depression after her marriage failed and so Ranjit shifted his whole business to Canada so that Bela could stay away from her old memories. Before leaving India, she came to know about her pregnancy but due to their separation, didn't inform Maahir about that as she thought that he didn't deserve to know about the child. Everyday, whenever Bela used to be alone outside everyone's eyes, she spent time with Maahir's photo and reminiscing about their sweet memory. Ranjit could not see the pain of Bela and he tried to get her and Maahir divorced so that she could move on in her life but despite of hating him with all her heart, Bela never found the courage to divorce him and separate his name from hers. Though Bela didn't like talking about Maahir, in front of everyone, but Bulbul, she loved her father just because of her grandmother, as she was the one who never hid anything from her about Maahir, despite of Ranjit's warning, which she obviously overlooked. Though Bela loved Bulbul with her life, but her hatred for Maahir, surpassed that love and so in order to forget him, Bela always remained busy in her work, giving less time to Bulbul. She even used to fly commercial flights as the senior pilot for short vacation in order to separate herself away from her stress and sorrow especially to grab some me time away from everyone and so Bela's mother Madhu Sareen, took care of Bulbul and she never let Bulbul forget her father along with missing her mother. She used to tell Bulbul about Maahir everyday which was not liked by Bela and Ranjit. Although, Bela could not prevent Madhu from talking about Maahir to Bulbul, but she made Madhu swear on her name that she would never ever show Maahir's photo to Bulbul since on seeing his face, Bulbul would anytime know the whereabouts of her father in the era of the internet and social media. Ranjit even tried to change Bulbul's surname during her birth but Madhu didn't let it happen. Bulbul is an exteremely arrogant child when it comes to making anyone surrender to her demands and she could use any means to achieve her goal without caring about the consequences. Though she misses her mother very much and also knows that her mother loves her, but somewhere she got used to her overlooking nature and in her heart never expects anything from her in return except the whereabouts of her father. Getting to know the whereabouts of her father was the only thing that Bulbul never succeeded in achieving. Her one and only dream was to meet her father thinking that she might get the love from him which she never got from Bela and to unite both her parents as she knew no matter how much Bela hated Maahir in front of everyone, but she still loved him with all her heart.