A bend in the road - Vol 1

37. Saviour

Geet hugged her figure as she walked quietly in the now deserted road.

Maan had left for an early morning flight and she was getting ready for work when she had stopped and looked at the blue mark that's peeping out of her top. She had adjusted the veil of her dress in an attempt to cover it even though she felt a tiny smile grace her lips.

When she had gone to breakfast with Dadi, she had been extra careful and on her edge wondering somehow Dadi will sense it and she was scared and nervous of the same.

Dadi however was blissfully ignorant of whatever was going on between her grandson and his secretary, and although the secretary looked like a deer caught in headlights, she let it pass.

"Geet" she called out when Geet was about to leave for office.

"Ji Dadi?" She asked her heart in mouth.

"I need to speak something to you, can you sit down child?"

"Ji" she said meekly taking her seat.

"I talked to Maan last night"

Oh my God.

"And he told me about what happened in Hoshiyarpur"

Geet had stopped breathing and she was sure she would faint if it went on for another minute.

"Geet" Savitri Devi sighed. "I know Maan and I believe in his judgement. What happened with your land is unfortunate, and I understand your reasons of not accepting the cheque. But Maan wants you to accept it. I want you to accept it. For your own future."

Geet was as relieved as confused.

"My land?"

"Yes, he told me your land was sold to him by third party and without your consent and you wouldn't accept the money because you say he paid the sellers already"

Geet felt a sigh of relief and a sigh of defeat escape her. "Dadi, if it weren't me, would Maan had offered me to pay again?"

Dadi had observed the slip of Sir from the addressal and only bit her smile.

"If it weren't Maan and someone else who bought that land, would you let them go without a fight?"

Geet had no answer to that. She hadn't let Maan go without a fight when she was still in Hoshiyarpur.

"But--"

"Geet, he knows how to get his money back from whomsoever tried to cheat you. But he doesn't want an innocent to suffer. If you consider me your well-wisher, you wouldn't deny me" she said pushing the cheque to her.

The Khuranas just won't give up, do they? Geet thought.

"What am I going to do with this money?" Geet asked worried. "It's huge"

"Let's start at basics" Dadi said with an indulgent smile.

"What do you want to study?"

"Study?"

"You wanted to pursue your education, you told so yourself when you were talking to me about house hunting"

She did. At that time it looked like a distant dream, but now when it's this close to becoming a reality, she just looked too surprised to believe it.

"I can study again?" She asked in wonder.

Savitri Devi, the woman who had juggled a broken family and business in absolute perfection, who had run an NGO to take care of education of young girls, who had seen enough defeats in both her and many women's lives she had taken under her wing, felt incredibly sad looking at the young girl before her, wondering what could possibly happen to have crushed her dreams at such young age.

"You can and the best part is you can study whatever you want to. How lucky is that?"

Something in Geet shifted and the older woman had seen the girl's eyes fill up.

"But I'm not going to go easy on you. I'm going to be your guardian and if you won't do well in studies, I'll be called to your college" she said trying to maintain a strict demeanor and that's all it took for Geet to break down and have her arms wrapped around Dadi as she let the tears escape her lips.

Dadi passed a loving hand through the girl's hair.

"Decide what you want to pursue Geet. Any help, I'm here okay?"

Geet nodded still not wanting to part from the embrace.

That day after she had made enough research, she had gone to the university on her way back home to get a brochure and she had been very taken with the whole idea of being a student, being carefree like her fellow mates in the college, being one of the crowd, she had lost track of the time and while coming back it has become a little late.

The metro station was a little away from the University and the place looked a little evacuated at that time.

She had felt a strange sensation of being followed and clutched her bag closer. She inconspicuously turned her face to check and sure enough there was someone who was following her.

She broke into a run and felt the man now follow her. There was nobody around and she hoped against hope to at least reach the main road or find someone, anyone.

She felt the man extend his hand that swished through her dupatta. Fear reared its ugly head even as she ran faster.

A hand gripped her from behind, roughly pulling her. She lost her balance and fell down, and held her bag to her chest in a mind to protect herself.

The man has a knife in his hand that he fisted tight.

"Give your purse" he said even as he inched closer.

Geet felt her heartbeat grow faster as sweat trickled down her forehead.

"Fast" he snapped.

She swallowed and opened the zipper of her bag when they both heard a sound.

There's a loud sound of someone munching on something.

"You know" a voice said now "If I were you, I wouldn't do that" he said to nobody in particular.

He was tall, very tall with over 6 feet. And he had an apple in his hand, which he was munching.

The hooligan was quick to turn towards him, holding the knife up to him.

"But if I were you, I'd have held the knife differently. Wait let me show you" said the man very indifferent.

And in a fluid moment, he held the blade of the knife and twisted it in the opposite direction, effectively making the hooligan powerless in one fluid move.

"You should hone your skills man" he had said now, and as the thief was about to attack, he had blocked the punch once and then again, and it wasn't long before Geet and the hooligan, both realized he was trained.

With a fluid move, he hit the man with a solid kick. The grace with which he had had the man to ground, told her enough that whatever he had been trained in, he was good at it.

"Told you, you should hone your skills sweetheart" he had said to the man on the ground, twisting the man's hand behind him and with an ease, twisting it harder until something snapped and Geet heard a loud crack followed by the man's blood curdling scream.

Geet had got up by then disturbed and scared by the sight and had run away, and did not stop until she reached the metro station. Once she got into the train and had gotten a seat, once she had seen people around her and had known she was safe, she had closed her eyes with her palms, letting the realization sink in that she was safe.

And that she was saved.