Pratap was in his room thinking about whether he should text her or not. It had been two days since they talked; tomorrow is school again, and he wanted to apologise for shouting at her. She was right about his parents; never had anyone talked to him about them before. He knew she was trying to help. He opened her chatbox on WhatsApp and typed, "I'm sorry. "
Within seconds, a reply came, "Why?"
" Because I shouted."
" I know you didn't mean anything."
" Then why were you sad?"
The moment she saw this message, he regretted sending it. They never talked of their feelings to each other, but now he has officially let her know how well he understands her.
" Nobody shouts at me like that." Came a well-thought-out reply.
He smiled. This girl can't even lie properly. Her words played in his mind Your Parents... They still love each other...
He remembered the last day in school, when they were discussing whether Phool and Vishal were in love, and he had asked Roshni, " What is true love to you?" She thought a little and answered, " One day you will find someone who will love you and know you more than you know yourself. You will feel the same about her, and you won't be able to imagine life without her; that would be true love." The way she explained was simple yet beautifully mesmerised him. He wanted to tell her It's you I feel for... A pain held him back! Tears came at the thought of losing her over his insecurities in relationships.
Dadi came knocking. His chain of thought was broken.
" Beta, I want to..." She saw him wipe away a tear and sit up.
" What's wrong?" She asked, worriedly.
"Nothing." Pratap shook his head.
" Your mother... " Dadi cleared her throat as she sat down.
" What about her?" Pratap frowned. "Is she fine?"
" I think you should talk to her; she is worried about you." Dadi smiled faintly.
" About me?? Why?" Pratap sat up and looked perplexed. Dadi shook her head.
" Ask her yourself."
A little scared, Jaivanta entered the room. Dadi left them alone.
" What's wrong, Pratap? You seem upset for the last two days."
" Nothing Maasa..." Pratap looked away as his jaws tightened. Roshni's words played in his mind.
" Did you fight with Rohan? " His mother asked, a little concerned.
" No, we didn't talk." He shook his head. "He is busy preparing for the entrance exams to go abroad."
" Vishal? Or that girl Phool?" His mother asked, trying to ruffle his messy hair as he resisted.
" No. You know they are together now." He tried to give a smile and change the topic.
" Roshni, is it??" His smile faded as his mother sighed.
" Maasa, I am fine. I fought with no one. Seriously, you can ask her." He shrugged.
" Then tell me something straight, do you like her?" Jaivanta saw her son's eyes sparkle.
" I don't know..." He wished she wouldn't ask that. He felt uneasy with the conversation.
" Pratap...." Jaivanta was not one to leave without a reply.
" Yes.... ??"
" Tell me, do you like her?" She asked again, this time holding her son's cold hands in hers.
" Yes...I .... Umm..." Pratap was shocked at his own confession as his mother smiled.
" Then what is stopping you?" Pratap had no answer. Jaivanta's fears were coming true.
" Is it my failed marriage?" Her voice choked.
Pratap looked into his mother's eyes for the first time in all these years. She was in tears. " I love your father, Beta. I don't know what went wrong." She sobbed. He hugged her. She hugged him back. She told him something very important then, something he totally forgot.
" As I have told you before, in your family, it is a tradition to get engaged when you are eighteen. Only two months are left, and your father will start looking for a fiancée soon. He asked me if I liked someone already, I told him I would ask you... So you'd better act fast if you want to... I can talk to Hansa if you want..."
" No, let me talk to Roshni first." He said determinedly.
" As you wish." Jaivanta smiled, but she knew her son too well. He was brave enough to face anything but his own feelings.
The next day in school, he arrived late and saw she was not there. Phool informed him that she was not well. Pratap was worried. Knowing her, she must have cried all weekend over what he had said. He felt restless all day, so much so that he wanted to tell her and listen to her.
Phool saw his restlessness and told him, " Why don't you go over to her place and sort things out?"
He decided to make things right. After school, he arrived at her place. Hansa welcomed him quite casually and informed him that Roshni was upstairs resting. Then she got busy with a call, as he walked up the stairs. " He's here!" She giggled, " I have told Ram, and he is more than happy."
" Udai is happy too that he has found himself a girl." Came the familiar voice on the phone.
"Let's plan to meet soon"
" Yes, we have to, Hansa, so much work and so little time!"
Roshni sat on her windowsill, lost in her thoughts. Her skirt and hair blew in the wind carelessly. What she felt about him was love; she knew it, she thought he knew it, but would they ever talk of it? Or things will go unsaid forever. Yes, they were just 17 years old, they had all the time in the world, but will it be too late? What if he doesn't want all this love stuff? He came to the room, and his footsteps made her sit up.
" You?" She asked in a low voice, her eyes wide in surprise. He gathered his courage to walk up to her and feel her forehead. " Where's your fever? You don't have any." His voice was plain.
" Yes, I had medicines this morning."
" You could have come to school."
" Why? What did I miss?" She tried to smile a little.
" I missed you." Her heart skipped a beat as she looked into his eyes. He meant every word.
" Pratap .... I ...."
" Let me talk first... Whatever I said about Love that day...." He paused to think how he should put it.
" Jaivanta Mausi came today." Now he was in shock. " Maasa? Why?" He dreaded what she might have told Roshni.
" She came to talk to me about you."
" What about me?" Damn it, Maasa, I was going to...
" Why did you shout? What scares you the most..." She looked away. " I didn't know you told her what we talked about." She turned away and sighed.
" I didn't say anything; she assumed I fought with you." He defended himself.
" I know. She told me what else you told her. " His heart skipped a beat.
"Roshni... I...." He continued uneasily, " I don't know what to say... I have never... before you... "
He couldn't put it right. She turned back towards him.
" You know what your maasa gave me?" There was a child-like enthusiasm in her question.
He stopped. " What?"
She held out her hand. Her wrists, he noticed, had his mother's favourite bangles, carved with gold and diamonds.
"This!"
He remembered when his father had bought that for his mother on their anniversary, back when they used to fight less. She had kept it away, saying, " I will give this to the girl I will choose for my son."
He held her outstretched hand. " I assume she told you the story behind this, too?" He smiled.
" Yes," Roshni ignored his glances," I told you they still love each other, you just need to find out where the misunderstandings lie."
" Maybe we can find it together, and you can help me solve this problem."
" Maybe we can, but we have another problem," Roshni replied, their hands still in each other's, they shared an eye lock.
" What?" He asked in surprise.
"Mr Pratap Singh, you still have not told me what brought you here, apart from my fever..." Her tone was teasing.
" And apart from the fact that I missed you all day?" He pulled her by the hand, closer.
" Yes..." She looked at him with a smile.
" Well," He acted like he was thinking, " I forgot what I was going to say..." He got an inch closer.
" Okay, when you remember you come back! Bye!" Roshni let go of his hands and turned around to leave the room. He held her back by the wrist.
" You told me one day, someday, someone will love me more than I love myself..."
" Yes..." Roshni waited as her heartbeat increased.
" Am glad I found someone like you." He blurted out in a choked voice. " And I promise I will be nothing like my father."
She turned around, eyes filled with happy tears. " I know I am a bit like him, I can't tell what I feel, and I get angry easily, but I am not him, I won't hurt you..."
She stopped his speech with her hand, " I know that!" He smiled at her and held both her hands again, " I know we only know each other for two months, but..."
" Sometimes that is like an eternity!" She completed his thought. He hugged her in joy. She hugged him back.
" By the way," He released her from the embrace ", You know it's my family tradition..."
" To get engaged at eighteen... I know, I heard."
" I will get you a ring, diamond or platinum or both?"
" Just you... " Roshni smiled. " And no matter how hard you try, I am not getting married soon!"
" Five years?'
" Ten!"
" No Five!"
" No, Ten!"
" Okay, stop!"
" You stop!"
They burst out laughing, they knew five years or ten, it didn't matter, they were one from the heart. They had discovered adulthood with each other, and they turned to mature adults from the children they had been, because of these feelings.
" There is still a lot to do, first, find out your dad's problem!" Roshni suggested Pratap nodded,
" Mission Parents!"
He was about to leave when he turned back towards her...
" What happened?"
" I love you, Roshni Punwar. I really do," he said without a fumble, then hurried out as if he would miss a train!
Before she could react, he was gone. She ran to the balcony to watch him go as his car drove away. She looked at the Bangles and smiled, they were a promise of her happy future...
She sat down and created a WhatsApp group with Pratap, Vishal, Phool, Rohan and herself and named it " Mission Parents." They had to act soon, at least before the engagement due in two months.
