Omkara's head was bursting. He felt an insane urge to laugh and to hit someone's head at the same time. How could this have happened?
When Annika bhabhi called him in the early hours of morning, and told him to rush home, he thought some disaster had befallen the family. Did someone fall ill, or meet with an accident? As it happened, someone did.
When he reached the house, he saw everyone gathered in the Oberoi mansion hall.
"What has happened bro?" Omkara asked Rudra. He shook his head, as puzzled as Om looked. Then Annika bhabhi rushed to meet them all, along with Khanna. Shivaay was conspicuously missing from the scene and Annika explained why.
Briefly without missing the details, she explained that Shivaay met with an accident last week when he went to Delhi for some business work. When he returned, everyone felt there something wrong with him. Annika felt this too, so she took Khanna's help and investigated the matter, to find out that Shivaay had been kidnapped and was being held hostage. His place was taken instead by a duplicate by the name of Mahi.
Pinky screamed at this, and it took combined efforts of Jahnvi and Kalyani Dadi to calm her down. Annika explained after Pinky calmed down, that Shivaay was safe now, but for some reason he insisted that they carry on this farce, with that Mahi, and not let him know that the family knew that real Shivaay was safe. Shivaay said he would meet them all in a short while, in the meantime he has organized a Holi party at the house to distract Mahi, so that the family can recoup and decide what to do. Before either Om or Rudra could say something, or thank Annika bhabhi for rescuing their brother, Khanna told them at Mahi was at the doors. They all quickly decided to pretend like asked.
Everything went according to plan, and the moment Mahi fell unconscious with bhaang, the family tricked him, and met Shivaay. Om asked him why was he not handing over Mahi to the police? According to Shivaay, the plan to kidnap him had been so meticulously laid, that one man could not have done it alone. Shivaay wanted to figure out who was helping Mahi, and how were they managing it. He wanted to catch all the culprits red-handed. Om disagreed with Shivaay internally, but he never said anything against Shivaay's grand schemes. The almost fake wedding with Tia just a month back was vivid in his mind. So, the family decided to carry on the charade.
Om was sitting in the hall right now, holding his head. All he wanted to do right now, was go and beat up that Mahi, for kidnapping and imitating his brother. He couldn't believe that the family was being tricked for almost a week, by this imposter. Though all of them felt something was wrong, even Om who didn't even stay in the same mansion anymore, it was Annika bhabhi who took the initiative to figure out what's going on. Annika bhabhi said that she had some intuition that Shivaay was not fine.
The sofa depressed a bit, as Rudy sat down next to Om. "What are thinking O? That we Shivaay's brothers could not rescue Shivaay bhaiyaa, instead it was Annika bhabhi who rescued him?" said Rudra
Omkara nodded his head.
"Marriage is a weird thing, I guess. They say in movies and all, two souls become one and all that. I suppose now Annika bhabhi has become Shivaay bhaiyaa's protector, just like he protected her from that bullet and took it on himself." said Rudra thoughtfully.
"Looks like my absence has turned you into the philosopher of this house." said Om, with a hint of a smile.
"Come back home, Om. I hate the fact that our brotherly bond seems to have diluted so much. You never told me why you got delayed in Bareilly, Shivaay bhaiyaa got kidnapped and I didn't realize. I hate to not know things about my brothers." Rudra sulked. Om did not want to talk about Bareilly. So, he tried to change the topic.
"Rudra, if I come back, Chhoti Maa will be upset. Moreover, today, she finally, and wholeheartedly accepted Annika bhabhi as the daughter-in-law of this family and Shivaay's wife. Think of it in a positive way, Annika bhabhi rescuing Shivaay brought her closer to Chhoti Maa. I don't want to spoil their newfound relation, by dampening Chhoti Maa's mood." explained Om.
"Yes. I know." sighed Rudra. "I just feel all of this is so unnecessary. Its just because you joined business, which you hate, that Chhoti Maa has become insecure."
Omkara didn't reply to this, what all could he reply to this? It was true after all.
"The most strange, unbelievable things happen to our family, doesn't it O?" asked Rudra, with some weird feeling of wonder.
"Shut up, Rudra!" said Omkara, but not sternly. Of course, Rudra was right, the most fantastic things, and not in a good sense, happened to and in their dysfunctional family.
Both brothers were a little tired after playing mock Holi in the morning. Additionally, all the pretense with Mahi, made Omkara feel more exhausted as he hated lying, even to frauds like Mahi.
Fraud reminded Om, that he had to talk to Shivaay about Ranveer and that accident. But that would have to wait, first they had to decide what was the next course of action for this Mahi. Omkara decided that he will tell Shivaay about Ranveer tomorrow. Maybe Shivaay would also fill him in as to why he agreed to Priyanka's marriage with the guy.
"Are you both done catching up?" Jahnvi joked as she joined her sons, and sat down on the other sofa.
"How are you Mom? Is work going well?" asked Omkara
"Everything is fine, beta." said Jahnvi. The three of them chatted for a while. Then Omkara got up to leave.
"Om beta, we were all so caught up in the events of today, that I forgot, can you do me a favor? I wanted to take a few presents to the Maatarani temple for Holi, can you drop them on the way back to your Nani's house?" asked Jahnvi
"This is the same temple where you met that girl, isn't it Mom?" asked Om.
"Yes Om. I'm forever grateful to that girl and this temple, will you do me this favor?" Jahnvi said
"Sure Mom, anything." said Omkara. He hugged Rudy, and left to do his mother's errand.
"Rudra" said Jahnvi turning to him, after Om had left. "Have you seen Soumya since morning? She came in the morning to the party to play Holi with us, but since then she has disappeared into thin air, do you think she left on her own or something? We were so busy with this whole Shivaay and Mahi fiasco, that I didn't notice when she left?"
"No Mom, she hasn't left. I'm wondering too where she is, don't worry, I'll look for her." said Rudra.
Jahnvi nodded and left. Although the family was preoccupied with this whole duplicate business, Rudra had kept his eye open for Soumya; he had seen her entering but before he could greet her, she went in some other direction, and Rudy was caught up in the plan devised by Shivaay's bhaiyaa. Rudra was getting worried now. Where was Soumya?
Unknown to him, Soumya had followed her own instincts, when she saw Kamini talking on the phone suspiciously to someone. She overheard enough to make out what happened, that Kamini aunty and Ranveer were involved with some man, who was impersonating Shivaay, but before she could alert the others, Kamini hit her on the head and dragged her to the basement of the Oberoi mansion, to tie her up there. Kamini did not know what to do with Soumya, so she just held her hostage for the time being in the basement.
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Omkara stopped his car near the temple. He told the two Oberoi mansion staff members who had come with him to unload the gifts from the car. They did as asked and carried the gifts inside the temple.
There was a vigorous play of colors happening in the temple compound. Colors were flying everywhere. The temple was decorated like with bright flowers. The Radha Krishna idols were dressed tastefully in blue and yellow colors. The priest met Omkara inside the temple, and accepted the gifts of clothes, fruits and sweets for the temple. He thanked Jahnvi ji profusely and gave Omkara prasad from the temple to take it back for his family. Omkara thanked him, and once outside the temple he handed over the box to the staff members and told them to take it back to the mansion, as he would be returning back to his maternal grandparents house.
As he turned to go, through a haze of colors, he saw her. Like an apparition, she smiled. Not at him, but at some other people who were playing with colors.
Did Omkara have bhaang by mistake at the mansion? No, Omkara was particularly careful since his drug relapse last year, not to have anything intoxicating. Then why was he seeing her here? In Mumbai? Shouldn't she be in back in Bareilly? No, she couldn't actually be in Bareilly, but she should be some where around that city. Was his mind playing tricks on him? How is this possible? Did she come to Mumbai? Only one way to find out, Omkara walked towards her.
But at that moment, she started running, not from him, but from some young kids who wanted to smear color on her face. She squealed with joy, and seemed to be unaware of his presence standing far away. She and those kids were immersed in their game. There was pure, unadulterated innocence and delight on their faces. The kids covered her face with color, and splashed colored water on her clothes with their pichkaaris (a kind of large water syringe made of plastic or steel). They were lost in their game and Omkara was lost in observing them, through the translucent curtain of vibrant colors flying in the atmosphere. Suddenly, he came back to himself, as the girl disappeared amongst the crowd. No, he had to ask her what she was doing in Mumbai.
He walked towards the direction he last saw the girl, but it looked like she had disappeared among the crowd. Omkara tried searching for a while, but gave up. It was impossible to find her in this gathering of people, all with their faces hidden under color.
As he left in his car, Omkara thought again. Was she really there at the temple, or had it all been his imagination? Maybe he had imagined her after all. Maybe it wasn't her but someone who looked like her.
Her. Gauri.