Happy Reading 😊
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The arguments automatically stopped as soon as they entered Gadchiroli. Nothing was changed, still the same roads were making Sai to feel strangely unfamiliar. She had always used those ways to walk to her home, to roam around her neighbourhood, to attend her school. And today the same roads were making her feel like an alien visitor.
After a drive of 200 kilometres Virat car stopped the car in front of Gadchiroli District Cooperative Bank.
"Let's go" Virat said, undoing his seat belt. She took some time to come out of the car while he waited patiently for her without saying anything.
She got mystically silent by looking at the things around her. She walked to the counter while he kept following her.
"Sai!!!!!" Lady at the other side of the counter recognised her. Sai acknowledged with a smile. She handed over her passbooks along with application for money transfer to the lady. Banks works can never be this seamless as expected the lady handed over two forms in return to her.
Sai looked at the details of the form. She walked to Virat who was sitting with his eyes stuck only on her. She sat next to him with forms in her lap. She took out pen to fill the first column 'Account holder's name'. It was still hard for her to add 'Late' before his father's name. Even deep breaths weren't working this time. The whole environment around her was making her nostalgically weak.
"Please fill this for me" she said in a heavy voice while passing the form to Virat. He looked at her while she kept looking at the front.
His hands too trembled while writing his late Guru's name. Sai noticed he was trying to keep his hands firm to tighten the grip of his fingers to hold the pen. He took more than twenty minutes to fill up all the details.
"You have to enclose photocopies of your passbook, id and Kamal Sir's death certificate" his words stumbled
"Here" she passed the whole bunch to him.
"I will complete the formalities you can sit here" He politely asked. She denied by nodding and walked to the counter.
After an hour they came out of the bank. Without saying anything she walked towards the road to her old home. It was several kilometres away from there. Virat understood her feelings so he stepped back from saying anything at the moment and quietly followed her.
They kept walking in silence. Where Sai was reminiscing memories associated with every places they were passing by. Every tree, house, shops had some sweet memories imprinted in her mind. While he was remembering the day Kamal Sir took him to take a round of the village. He smiled remembering how much Sai was anrgy at him when he requested Kamal Sir to put his retirement on hold.
Both of them had the same thought running in their mind. But Sai was first to speak. "I am missing him."
Virat didn't say anything for a few moments. Then he softly put his hand on her shoulder.
"So am I" said Virat. "We are here for good. You are living his dream. Let us cheer for that instead of being sad." A ray of hope passed across their faces, giving way to a euphoric smile in addition to a steely resolve that they were feeling the same emotions.
"Why Bappa does this to only good people?" Sai said
"I wish I had an answer to that question of yours. May be he wanted to make you much stronger than other people. Look at you. . You have become much stronger than before. You have become so self dependent." he camly replied
"You think so?" She asked
"You have any doubt? There is a saying when life gives you lemons make lemonade. You have actaully made it girl!" he said with a smile.
"That incident affected your life too" she softly asked
"Kamal Sir was my guru. Someone whom I have respected the most. It was big shock for me. He died in my arms" he confessed. Sai could feel his stumbling words. She could hear pain in his voice.
"I am sorry for blaming you" she overwhelmly said which made him to immediately look at her. There were moistness in their eyes. In that small eyelock their eyes communicated much more than the verbal words.
"Ae dekh kya laila majnu laute aaj (Hey look. . . Romeo and Juliet has returned to the town)" Someone made a snippet remark. It was familiar but the most unpleasant voice one could ever wish to hear. It didn't took a second to them recognise that fatal voice.
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I think you can guess whose voice it can be?
Next- The Second Stage
P.S Let us all wish together Ayesha Ma'am Speedy recovery. 🙏