Arnav Singh Raizada was a man starved of love. He belonged to that species of men who felt deeply - be it love or hatred. He had been very attached to his mother. She had been the first most important woman in his life. He had learned to love selflessly from her. She had always thought him and Anjali Di to look at the good in everything.
Even when he had been annoyed at her so-called-God for giving him that diabetes, she had shown him the brighter side. She had told him, 'You are already so sweet Chotte that you don't need to eat anything sweet.'
'But Maa what's the use of being so sweet if I can't eat all those chocolates and sweets that Di eats ?', pouted a 7-year-old Chotte.
'Who said you can't? I'll make them especially for you with my own hands.'
And in this way a sad Arnav was pacified.
He still remembered vividly that deep void in his heart when he had realized that his sister would go away to her sasural after marriage. Being the silent and brooding kind of kid, he had never really had any friends. His sister had then given up on her playtime with her friends to play with him. She had been a second mother to him. And now she would leave him and go.
He had seen his mother cry several times, thinking no one saw her. He had cornered her during one such time and promised her that although Di was leaving them, he would stay with her always. And Di would keep visiting them too. He also remembered the promise he had extracted from her.
'Maa, promise me you'll never leave me? Ever. With Di already leaving us, you are all that I have, Promise me, Maa?'
'I promise you Chotte. I'll never leave you.'
If only he knew then that the proverb 'Promises are meant to be broken' was indeed true.
She had broken her promise. He had been with Anjali in her room, spending the last few minutes before her wedding, trying to ease her nervousness, when he saw his mother running away in the corridor towards her room. She was crying bitterly.
He ran after her only to see his father running behind her already. He heard their fight where Maa accused him of cheating on her, sobbing all the while. He also heard his father trying to make her understand that it was all a misunderstanding. It was then he heard it.
A gunshot.
Followed by an anguished cry of 'Ratna'.
Another gunshot.
And with these two gunshots, his whole world collapsed. He became an orphan, losing his parents in the blink of an eye. But in all this, he knew his father was not wrong. He loved Maa too much to cheat on her.
The events that followed this tragedy led to the transformation of Arnav to Arnav Singh Raizada. He had lost his parents - and most importantly his mother. His sweet Chachaji, who always bought sweets and toys for him and Anjali, had thrown then out. What's more, he went on to confess that he was the mastermind behind this plan - to kill his parents and own all the Malik wealth. It was while sitting on the footpath, after being thrown out from Sheesh Mahal, along with his Di that he had realized they had no money to eat or contact anyone.
