A week passed. He called Archna on Saturday but her phone was switched off. He tried many times to call her but her phone remained switched off all day. He felt something was wrong.
Sunday was a holiday for him. He used to run with hands of the clock from Monday to Saturday.
He started to read the newspaper at 9:00 am on that Sunday but he couldn’t read much as he was restless and tense about Archana. He missed Archana and was concerned about her, unable to focus on anything else.
He wondered! Is it the effect of love? Really, it was.
Her phone is switched off. What happened? Did her father scold her? Was her phone forfeited? Is she not able to come online? His mind began to question possibilities.
There was no possibility of being her father disagreeing he thought. A boy who isn’t handicapped is ready to accept a handicapped girl, the father should have no quarrels with that. He logged onto his laptop, Archana had sent him a mail but was currently offline.
Shyam,
I have discussed our relationship with the father and he rejected even the idea of it. I love you very much, I will spend my life keeping you in memory. Marry any girl that pleases you. We can’t be together. This is my last mail
Yours and only yours forever
Archana
He was heartbroken, he hadn’t felt such sadness since the incident with Kajal. He wrote in reply to her mail only four words -I can’t live without you.
He spent the whole day with a heavy heart. He got a text from Archana in the evening – come online.
Shyam went online. Half his sadness melted away receiving her text.
Archana # Papa rejected my wish. He did so first time in the life. I was wrong in what I believed about papa. I told him that a Gujarati Pandit boy loved me and I to him. Please look at his photo. Papa slapped me without looking at laptop and went out of the room. I cried the whole day. I sent you mail but I am confused reading your reply. What should I do? I can neither forget nor get you.
Archana typed so much at one time.
Shyam # let me say something...
Archana # Tell me.
Shyam # God has set us in contact with each other. Love never means to only live together. Perhaps your dad may agree in the future. We have no hurry for marriage. We will chat with net, phone or text and keep ourselves happy.
According to Shyam, love is not to get and marry a beloved one, He loved her to be her companion, not necessarily a husband.
Archana # You are absolutely right but if we continue to chat and talk, the love and bond between us will be so severe and deep that we can’t forget each other.
Archana was afraid the more they chat and be in contact, the harder it will be for them to forget each other when the relationship would break.
Shyam # is it possible now to forget each other?
Shyam realized they can’t forget each other even after discontinuation of the relationship as an unbreakable bond.
Archana # I can never forget you.
Shyam # Then why do you worry? We fell in love unknowingly. We have no option but suffer even in the outcome of separation.
Shyam wanted to convince Archana that to fall in love is not in one’s hand. It is meaningless to think about the outcome after falling in love.
Archana # We can never marry against the will of my father.
The fear about her father was above the all fear of the world for Archana.
Shyam # The will of God is superior to your father’s.
Love and God are the same he thought. Either he had confidence in his love or he was underestimating Archana’s dad.
Whatever it was they both were unaware of what the future had stored for them. If they knew there was a more dangerous villain than Archana’s father awaiting them, they would never dare to continue the relationship.
Shyam # God has brought us in contact and brought us together. I have full faith in God.
Archana # but how?
Shyam # We can flee and marry.
Archana # Impossible.
Shyam # if we love each other truly and have faith in each other, nothing is impossible. Don’t you have trust in me?
Archana # I love you truly and I trust you but you don’t know my dad.
Shyam # What can he do?
Archana # I am from Haryana not from Gujarat. The girl who flees from home is burnt alive in Haryana.
Shyam # We flee and live in Gujarat.
Archana # My dad will find us not only from Gujarat but from any corner of the world. It is better we never try to flee. I rather have you far away but still alive in this world. I won’t let you die.
Shyam # Are you ready or not to flee?
Shyam wanted to know the final decision of Archana.
Archana # Never. I never l want to be the reason for your death.
Archana could never make herself free from the fear of her dad.
Shyam became angry and went offline.
*
Dany Kosariya sped on the deserted streets of Goa, it was 2:00 AM most of the population had already gone to bed for the night, perhaps exhausted from the drugs and partying. This was evidenced by the sparsely lit hotel windows and the absence of any pedestrians.
“I will kill him tonight! He must not live another day!” he muttered to himself.
The enemy that Dany was keen to rid himself, was alone on the beach just as he and Dany had agreed.
There he stood, observing the ocean the movement, and the way the light of the full moon danced shimmering upon it. He observed another thing upon the ocean, a Yacht, the lights could be seen but nothing else it must have been about 4Kms away. What couldn’t be seen, was inside the Yacht there was a party for the Arab buyers of the girls he kidnapped to be sold into prostitution, this was the latest ‘fresh stock demo’
Dany exited his R5 and began his way to the meeting. The man stood unaware that Dany had arrived he looked at the yacht and thought of the 300 girls on board, and the 30 million USD in profit he would make. He almost smiled but stopped. He could never hold a smile for longer than a moment, there was a reason for that which he told no other person.
He had grown up in Goa, his father was a labourer and hard drinker, and he worked on a fishing boat. The youngster had no respect for his father Piter… One day his father was invited to the house of the boat owner for a party, he had been so drunk that he had even forgotten his name. Unfortunately, he hadn’t forgotten his way back home. When he arrived to see his wife Sophy and child not at the dinner table and no food he flew into a rage, he shouted and grabbed mother pulling her off the sofa, He could remember Sophy shouting pleas for Piter to stop, “run away she shouted at the boy GO!”. Drunk as the father was he could not listen to reason, every night they waited for father to bring home a fish for dinner and then only would mother prepare, father had forgotten. In his fit of drunken rage he pulled out the knife he kept in his boot and stabbed it into mother’s chest, the scream he heard would become a part of him. Peter burst into laughter at what he had done and continued. Sobbing and weeping uncontrollably, helplessly he stood in a corner. His father’s attention turned to him “Laugh” he ordered!! The boy stunned with didn’t know what to do; he tried to laugh but couldn’t Piter Grabbed him by the hair and forced him down to the spot where his mother’s corpse lay still warm and bleeding. ”Laugh” commanded Piter. Looking down at his mother the boy was overcome with a plethora of emotions all fleeting swiftly by until one turned static. Rage the boy pulled out the knife from his mother’s chest and quickly turned and thrust it into the belly of Piter, Piter still laughed until he fell to the floor and bled out, then only did Victor fulfil Piter’s wish… he laughed heartily.
The morning headlines would read ‘13-year-old boy wanted for double murder’, ever since it had been difficult for Victor to smile or laugh, he would always see the face of Sophy his mother which would stop him.
Victor stood playing with the drops of drizzle as they made their reach to land, he would only laugh now if he were to kill someone. Dany approached Victor, as Victor laughed and turned to Dany he also checked the time on his wristwatch. Dany was 10 meters away from him with a German revolver pointed at his foe. Then a gunshot.
There lay Dany dead bleeding through his skull where the bullet had pierced.
Victor looking at his wristwatch was a signal to the femme fatale dressed in a short skirt, holding a sniper rifle to her focus, rested atop the Yacht.
“Job done” Christy smiled at her companion Rozy and toasted with beer.
***
To be continue...
