Shaurya and Anokhi separately get ready for their day out, and Shaurya's burdened expression contrasts sharply with Anokhi's excitement. He finds Ronny's toy train in his wardrobe, and it reminds him of little Anokhi.
Finally on the Snowflake Train, Shaurya writes busily in a notebook while Anokhi enthuses over the scenery. She fakes seeing a deer to snatch his notebook from him, and reads off a list of questions : hobbies, favorite colors, favorite things. He defensively reminds her that she told him that if they took a trip together, he could get to know her more. She laughs at his strictly regimented schedule, and pounces on one of his items... which finds them playing the Zero game.
His slow reactions crack her up, and she gleefully delivers wrist-smacks as punishment. When he declares it all invalid, his callback to Ronny makes her grin even more. They scramble off at their stop.
Inside the train hang postcards they've written commemorating the happy moment. Anokhi thanks him for keeping his promise, and Shaurya's characteristically says, "Remember : 26th February, 2015."
Skipping ahead, Anokhi tells Shaurya her newly remembered memory. She was playing with a train set with another kid, and they promised to take a faraway train trip when they grew up. She tells him that Pawan would say the kid was him, but she knows it wasn't.
Grandma gets the report that Shaurya's uncle is urgently seeking a child. Her aide adds that her longtime boardroom supporters had a secret conference with Uncle, and points out that firing Shaurya has left her at a disadvantage for the upcoming shareholders meeting. The suggestion that she might want to recall him makes her grim.
On his way out, the aide catches Shaurya's mom listening at the door.
Mom dines with Uncle, who guesses the reason she summoned him is to take care of Shaurya. Since she's only after capitalizing Shaurya's interests, it doesn't matter whether it comes from Grandma's side or his. Mom wants him to fork over the management for the group's department store and car subsidiaries to Shaurya, which is more than Uncle has in mind. He wants to know what's in it for him.
Shaurya giggles at Anokhi's kimbap-fail, and she swears they didn't look like that in the morning, ha. As they slurp noodles, she confesses her two failings : she can't cook (unlike her mom), and she sucks at arithmetic (like Dad). He asks her how she takes after her brother, and she quips that they have a tendency to use their fists before their words. Also, neither can refuse other people's requests, and they share a fear of basements. The last almost makes his smile slip.
An interlude takes us back to his conversation with Pawan the day before, when he told him he had read "The Child in the Basement." He fills Pawan in on how the story continued: The girl and the boy promised to meet every night at 10 o'clock, in the basement where the girl was locked up. Pawan asks why the girl had to be hidden away. Shaurya hasn't found that out yet, but he begins to tell the story of what happened there 21 years ago.
In the present, Pawan packs up and drives somewhere while Shaurya's story continues in voiceover. Keeping their promise to meet was hard, he says, because if the boy was found out or did something wrong, his father punished the girl instead.
Anokhi and Shaurya madly pedal a railrider along a country track, cheering each other on, while Shaurya's narration continues :
Shaurya: "The boy who could not protect that girl took his memories of despair, pain, and powerlessness and sealed them up. And then he carved up his own self into pieces. But the sealed memories went wrong. He mistook the terrible abuse the girl suffered as his own memories, because he had wanted to suffer that abuse instead of the girl. Because he'd earnestly hoped that he'd be the one to feel the pain that the girl suffered."
Pawan reassures Shaurya that he isn't to blame : He didn't stand idly by, and was a victim himself. Pretending not to see anything is always easiest - if just one of those bystanders had done something, then the victim's soul wouldn't have been ravaged, Pawan says.
Shaurya asks him to write that novel on Sabherwal. This time, Shaurya will provide the material - his only condition is that Pawan make it a bestseller.
Back in the present, Anokhi reminisces with Shaurya about fighting with her brother during a family holiday when they were kids. She tells Shaurya that she learned some martial arts techniques from Pawan, and laughingly notes that it's been pretty useful in life - like when she needs rein in Nicky. The mention makes him shudder, and she pokes fun at him.
In answer to his question, Anokhi tells him her name means "bright treasure," as in clever and unique. Shaurya tells her it suits her, and promises to remember it for a long time.
Gah why does everything sound like goodbye?
They walk together along the railroad, and when she sees the sea, Anokhi runs ahead into the waves. Shaurya hangs back.
"Anokhi bhalla..." he starts.
She stops him - she knows what he's going to say. His lost memories have come back, haven't they? And she's in them. She thinks they must be bad memories that would be upsetting for her to remember, and that's why he's planning to say goodbye now. She faces out to sea, eyes full.
Shaurya thanks her for all she's done. He tells her that his grandmother and mother know about his illness, and he no longer needs her services. Therefore, their contract is over as of today. Her back still to him, she keeps her tone bright and tells him he should leave first, if he has the confidence to show her his back. He goes.
Pawan arrives as Shaurya leaves, and drops a blanket over Anokhi's crouched figure. She takes it off, and he pulls out his usual bluster and takes her away to get warm.
Over a hot meal, she wonders if the two of them planned this whole thing together. He admits they did, the day before at the hospital. Shaurya was going to break up with her, but couldn't bear to leave her by herself. She hasn't got much to say to that, and just tucks into her soup like it doesn't matter. Pawan's concerned and begs her to react, to curse him or Shaurya ("that jerk").
She tells him that Shaurya wants to keep her from remembering the bad memories of her past. Pawan agrees with that line of reasoning, and says that she's been fine all this time without those awful memories. Her life is good. She has her family, and they have each other - can't they go on as before? Seeing her hold it in, he tells her to just let it out and cry, and she finally lets herself.
Shaurya's not doing much better at home. Chief Makkhan finds him stretched out on his couch, arm over eyes. Shaurya tells him Anokhi's last words, and how he turned away so coolly. Chief Makkhan asks if he's been drinking. He has, but he's not drunk, Shaurya replies. He wishes he were crazy-drunk right now, so that Ronny or Arjun would come out and take a year of his time away. But those guys are never around when you need them, he laugh-cries.
Chief Makkhan, bless him, puts him to bed. He tells Shaurya that the pain of heartbreaks is not to be scoffed at. It sounds like he knows all about it, Shaurya observes. The chief just tells him that crying could help. It's not the same as losing your country - but Shaurya cuts in that he does feel like he unfairly lost his country : "The country I long for all the time, even though I left."
Over breakfast at the Bhalla house, Pawan mutters to Anokhi that she should tone it down if she doesn't want her heartbreak to be obvious. Mom and Dad both pick up on her forced cheerfulness and wonder what's up. They bicker about the cause - could it be that she's not eating properly? Or maybe she eats too much and that's why she gets treated badly, Mom says. Dad is so upset by the idea of her eating habits being criticized that he tells Anokhi to quit right away.
Right on cue, her luggage from Shaurya's house arrives back. They're shocked that that she was fired, but Anokhi points out that Dad told her to quit, and takes credit for obeying him so promptly. She shrugs off Pawan's help and leaves to unpack on her own, while Dad still thinks she lost the job because of her eating, lol.
Alone, Anokhi sighs over her bunny pajamas, wishing she had given them to Nicky. She's interrupted by a call - it's Grandma Seeta.
Shaurya and Dr.Singh talk, and Shaurya tells him how he's sharing Ronny's memories and also slowly recovering his lost childhood ones. Dr.Singh muses that only integration is left now, before he goes back to the U.S. Shaurya doesn't plan to return yet, though - he still has to uncover why that child had to be hidden and why she was abused, he says. Only then can he begin to make amends. Dr.Singh, who doesn't yet know that child was Anokhi, tells Shaurya he should continue receiving her private help.
Anokhi is shown into Grandma's study and the housekeeper makes a secret call to Chief Makkhan to let him know. He takes the call while meeting with Sridevi's former driver, trying to track down the employees from the day of the fire.
Chief Makkhan updates Shaurya on the investigation. As an afterthought, he adds that Anokhi was summoned by Grandma - news that sends Shaurya racing to his car.
Grandma is displeased to find out Anokhi is no longer Shaurya's secret doctor, and dismisses her. But Anokhi pauses to say one more thing, as his former doctor : He can't heal from his illness alone, and he badly needs his family's care. If his grandmother helped him find out his past, it could help his treatment.
Anokhi bhalla, if only you knew.
Grandma warns Anokhi that she is overstepping. True to form, she only has scorn for Shaurya and asks what help there is for someone who's stuck on the past. Does Anokhi want her to apologize?
Anokhi replies with a quote from Swiss theologian Karl Barth : "While no one can go back and create a new beginning, everyone can start anew and create a new ending." Grandma does not like being schooled, and orders her out.
As Anokhi leaves, Grandma mutters that she's impertinent, dislodging an old memory of those same words. She freezes. When she catches sight of the photos of Shaurya's dad, her breath catches and the room darkens around her. Grandma watches her like a hawk as the housekeeper helps her outside.
Before Anokhi can exit the house, she's gripped by another flashback. Little Anokhi plays violin, accompanying the boy on the piano. He gets it wrong, and Evil Dad approaches Anokhi with a cane, sneering that she's just like her mother. He drags her away, while a sobbing Shaurya begs to take the punishment instead of her.
Anokhi stumbles from one memory to another : She's locked in the basement, rattling at the handle.
Then, she backs into a corner as Dad approaches with his arm raised.
The boy's appeals for her to be spared are constant, and little Anokhi pleads for mercy.
Finally out of the house and in the present, Anokhi recalls Shaurya's mission to find the child in his basement. She suddenly wonders if that child was her. The pieces come together in her mind, like Shaurya's apology for being late being an exact echo of the boy of her memories.
Which means...that boy in her memories is Shaurya? She remembers Shaurya telling her to stop searching out her lost memories for his sake. As the full implication hits her, she collapses to her knees.
Just arrived, Shaurya sees her and comes reaching. But she's lost in the pain of her memories, and reflexively curls into a ball, crying. He reaches for her - and stops himself, allowing the housekeeper to bundle her inside.
Shaurya bursts into Grandma's study, demanding to know what she said to Anokhi. Grandma says she wanted to consult with his doctor, and Shaurya asks what more she can possibly want to find out about him. Characteristically, she ignores him and instead tells him join the company. She wants him in the construction subsidiary, and tells him to prepare for a shareholder meeting.
Shaurya declines (yeah! Stick it to her!). She's taken aback by his refusal, and he repeats what he told her before, that he has things to do. He won't return to the company. With that, he exits.
A dead-eyed Anokhi meets with Pawan. Staring out the window, she asks him to interpret her "nightmare." She describes the boy playing on the piano who made a mistake, and how a man imprisoned her in the basement because of it. Every night at 10 o'clock, she waited for the boy to come and play with her. Was that boy Pawan - or was it Shaurya?
Anokhi finds her mom, and can't help crying as soon as she sees her. She tells Mom that she's curious now about her birth parents, and what kind of people they were.
Chief Makkhan has some new documents for Shaurya's investigation. He gives him a copy of the family register, and Sridevi's immigration records. The latter show her entering the country with Grandma and a 6-year-old girl in June 1993, but he points out that all official trace of that girl vanished thereafter. But Shaurya is confused by the family register. His dad returned to Sabherwal with Shaurya in order to enter him into the registry so he could enter school. But why is his name already registered here months before anyone knew of his existence?
Oh man, I have a weird hunch.
Anokhi's mom gives her an envelope containing some of her birth mother's effects. Anokhi doesn't have the courage to look at it right away and instead asks her mom to tell her more about Sridevi. She was capable and kind, Mom says, like Anokhi. But marrying into a rich, messed-up family changed her.
Mom explains that Sridevi had loved someone else, but was pressured into her marriage. She was so competent that her father-in-law (i.e., Shaurya's grandfather) preferred her to his own son. In the end, her husband fell out badly with his father and left, finally giving her the divorce she begged for.
Sridevi confided to Mom then that she'd found her man, and she was going to the U.S. to be with him. Mom surmises that that man was Anokhi's biological dad. But he was dying, and Sridevi returned to India with Anokhi.
Mom stops there, and promises to tell her the rest slowly. Anokhi apologizes to her, and tearfully tells her it's not because she doesn't love her. It's just that the memories keep rising up and torturing her. Mom, also crying, reassures her that she understands.
Shaurya is studying the register again, when his head rings with the pain that usually signifies a switch. Memories of both Anokhis, child and adult, overlap in his mind. The pain intensifies and he screams.
Anokhi opens the envelope her mom left, and recognizes the burnt photo - but this is the original, including little Anokhi with her arms around her mother. She spills the rest of the contents out and finds the locket.
Shaurya bolts awake, a giant teddy bear lying beside him. He slowly approaches the foot of his bed - to meet a vision of little Anokhi. She holds her hands out for the bear, and he smiles that broken little smile as he hands it over. She says she'll tell him her name now, since she couldn't last time. He already knows it, he says - it's Anokhi bhalla. She shakes her head. He's surprised. What is it then?
Anokhi opens the locket to her mother's picture. In her memory, she hears a woman call, "Shaurya-ah!" She wonders why she's calling Shaurya's name, when another memory rises.
Little Anokhi plays on a swing and a woman calls Shaurya. She replies, "Mommy!" and goes racing to her.
Her mother chides her for playing dangerously, "If Shaurya gets hurt, do you know how upset mommy will be?" Anokhi promises to be more careful, and Mommy wraps her in a cuddle, so proud of her super-smart daughter, Shaurya.
Oh man.
Shell-shocked in the present, Anokhi thinks, "My name is..."
Little Anokhi confides to Shaurya.
"My name is... SHAURYA . SABHERWaL."
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