Chapter 46

The small town of Omkareshwar was here, where the Bundela brothers were driving their respective vehicles and passing every beautiful landscape they could see along their way. The serene mountains, meandering rivers and cascades of greenery enhancing the charms of the city located on the banks of the river Narmada.

Considered to be one of the best pilgrimage centres in India, the town is named after Lord Shiva and is the hotspot of numerous temples dedicated to His name. Thousands of ardent followers from across the globe and the country make it to the religious town every year for offerings and holidaying with their families. 

In less than three hours drive, Vihaan and Dheeraj's cars had reached Omkareshwar on the next Saturday afternoon. Vihaan, Sanchi, Shaurya and Virendra travelled by Vihaan's car whereas the rest of them arrived in Dheeraj's car. Parking the cars in the not-so-dusty parking lot, the family members moved out of their seats slothfully.

Standing before them was a double-storeyed concrete house with an open porch in the front yard. The landholding was huge with a wider green expansion covering the entire farmhouse. The old relic of a miniature house was speaking volumes about early days and the broken wooden furniture in the attic narrating the number of years it was left alone.

The grasses were seeming to have been recently pruned because of the fresh odour of the pesticides and the arranged heaps of fallen leaves. There were a few palm trees bordering the garden inside the fence and a medium-sized oak tree was standing in the middle of the front yard.

As both the families sat gossiping around the circular teak table placed in the center of the portico of the old farmhouse, Hemant said to Virendra, "You own such a beautiful farmhouse but Vidya was telling us that you all had last visited this place almost thirty years ago. Can anyone really stay away from this mind soothing place at all?"

Virendra sipped on the scented tea as he responded, "Vidya is somewhat right. This farmhouse was shut for so many years until I ordered the caretaker to clear it out a couple of days ago. My native bungalow is at a short distance from this place and the famous Bundelas at Omkareshwar own three farmhouses altogether. This one particularly belongs to my name because of the enchanting view of the Narmada river beside it. My father knows how much I love seashores."

"Is your father alive? I mean you used present tense in your sentence," Hemant said, sipping on his own lemonade. 

"He is and might be struggling in his late eighties." Virendra swallowed hard. "I think I should go and take some rest."

Virendra turned to go when Vihaan's emerging figure caught his eyes. Vihaan had changed into his casual attire and was making his way towards the worn-out garden next to the front yard.

"Vihaan, come here at once." Virendra called out to him.

Vihaan obeyed, taking a couple of steps towards his father. "Yes dad."

"You know things have not been easy with any of us for so many days. I don't deserve to even apologize to you but I want to confess that I should have trusted you once." Virendra folded his palms before Vihaan.

Vihaan immediately grasped Virendra's palms, frowned his forehead and wrapped his arm around his father's shoulders. "No dad, you haven't done anything to apologize for. You were the witness that I had shot my brother and you reacted like any normal father would. But when it came to your duty, you even supported Sanchi on her mission. You supported because you trusted me."

"But Vihaan, your mom..." Virendra gulped a little. "She is even scared to come near you. She is dying out of so many guilts and she knows she can never earn your forgiveness, at least not in this life."

"Dad!" Vihaan released his palms. "How can you utter such a thing for the 'Dia' you love? By the way, I'm not angered or anything, with nobody in the family supporting me. She can stay calm and concentrate on her own treatment."

"This is not the right answer, Vihaan. She wants to apologize to you."

"I think I already cleared it. I have no grudge, complaint or anger against anyone. Nobody did anything wrong, dad. I would have reacted in the same way if I were you all," Vihaan muttered and quickly paved his way outside, towards the garden.

***** 

As Vihaan stood next to the old oak tree in the middle of the garden, certain familiar voices caught his impulsive attention. Without thinking twice, he strode towards the source of the noise and found two known figures giggling together.

Both Sanchi and Shaurya were standing in the middle of the backyard, each holding a catapult slingshot. There were a few wood apples fallen among the dead leaves lying on the barren floor below. He heard Shaurya whistle, "This time I will win, Vay."

"Like I used to win eve-ry year, I will be win-ning again, Shay. I have alre-ady collect-ed three wood apples," Sanchi screamed on the top of her voice.

Shaurya pulled the strings of his slingshot, closed one of his eyes and concentrated on his next shot. "That was so many years ago, kitten. You are going to lose this time, you see."

"We will see it, Tom-ten!" Sanchi spoke in a challenging tone.

As the pebble from his sling darted towards it's aim, Shaurya added one more wood apple to his name, thus making it to a total four. "One more down. You know what the punishment for the loser is and I am confident that you are going to perform it today."

Vihaan was standing right behind them with a small smile playing on his lips. Sanchi and Shaurya reliving their childhood pained him in his heart. He was spending a dark and lonely life while Sanchi was all the time trying to make her life lively and cheerful.

The sudden feeling to change was beginning to occur to him. The advent of Sanchi in his cop-like arrogant life was turning out to be different, rising a haphazard turmoil inside his heart. For once he could imagine his own figure pulling at the slingshot and competing against Sanchi himself. He could see himself taking a little spare time to spend with Sanchi and living a jolly life after years of murkiness.

The small smile on Vihaan's lips burst into a bigger arched one when Sanchi shot down a wood apple using her own slingshot. "She is really skilled at using it. I still remember how she had saved my life on the very day we first met. She has always been my life saviour!"

Four and four, the counts were equal for both Sanchi and Shaurya, when the latter stepped ahead to take his lead again. As Shaurya hit his fifth target successfully, Vihaan snorted his nose in annoyance, walking slowly across the garden to align himself at the side of Sanchi.

Sanchi pulled the stringed trigger of the catapult slingshot but missed her target the moment her eyes fell on a slow-paced Vihaan on the right. The direction of her arms changed along with her eyeballs and the pebble landed on Vihaan's stomach, causing him to jerk away.

Shaurya jumped in joy when he perceived Sanchi missing her target. "There you are. I told you I would win." When his eyes fell on a wincing Vihaan, he frowned his forehead at first but then burst out laughing soon. "It seems like you didn't miss the target at all!"

Sanchi rolled her eyes when she realized that she had lost the challenge, but the ecstatic feeling of the pebble hitting Vihaan amused her. Breaking into a loud laughter, she muttered, "My tar-get spoil-er is right here. Vih-aan will be facing the punish-ment on my behalf."

Narrowing his eyes, Vihaan took shorter strides towards her. Snatching her catapult slingshot from her, he sneered, "Instead of helping me out of the pain, you want me to face the punishment on your behalf?"

"The cops are ro-ck hard I've heard, isn't it offi-cer Vihaan Singh Bun-dela? Is it hurt-ing too much, let me see?" Sanchi said sadly, suppressing a laughter.

Vihaan held the catapult slingshot a little higher than it already was. "Yes it's paining to someone for losing a win-win challenge."

Shaurya interrupted with a light chuckle this time. "I am still waiting for the final resolution."

"The reso-lution is fixed, Shay. Vih-aan will be perform-ing it." Sanchi answered before turning to Vihaan again. "So Mr. Arro-gance, are you ready to take up my cha-llenge? You sho-uld also feel the burn of losing a cha-llenge yourself."

Vihaan laughed, shaking his head lightly. "I have not learnt to lose but still if you plead so, I am ready for yet an another victory. I will take up your challenge. What am I supposed to do? Pluck a few more wood apples on your behalf using this instrument, am I right? I'll do it right away."

Sanchi crossed her arms across her chest, looking him straight in the eye. "I wish you could be rig-ht but... The real cha-llenge is that you will have to crack open all the wood app-les, sque-eze out the sweet yell-ow liquids from them and pre-pare as many number of glass-es of syrup as you can."

Vihaan's mouth spread wide open while Shaurya realized that it wouldn't take time for Vihaan to lash out at Sanchi. Taking quicker steps towards the house, he shouted on the top of his voice, "Whatever it is, Vay or whoever prepares it, you will have to complete the punishment. We'll be waiting to taste the drinks very soon."

Vihaan's eyes traced Shaurya's disappearance into the house before turning to Sanchi again. With a little click of his tongue, he uttered in a deeper voice, "I am not doing anything on your behalf. You are the one who lost and you will prepare it yourself."

Sanchi deepened her glare at Vihaan, taking a powerful stand to meet him eye to eye. "I will ma-ke you to do it."

Vihaan raised his eyebrows, percolating Sanchi's death glare inside him. "I shouldn't have allowed you to wear those heels even for the holidaying. You seem to come almost in level with my height and pick your fighting shoes to annoy me."

Sanchi rested her hands on the hip and groaned, "I wore heels beca-use I love them. This was parti-cularly gifted by Shay on the Raksha Ban-dhan day and I want-ed to wear it for so long. I found the chan-ce this time and I don't want you to spoil it. If you wil-fully agree to obey my orders to pre-pare the juice, I will step down from fight-ing you!"

Vihaan took a couple of minutes to reassure himself. The expression on Sanchi's face wasn't like other normal days when they fought and he was trying hard to figure out the truth behind her scary image. Taking a close bend towards her face, he raised an eyebrow. "Why do I feel you are scared of preparing the syrup yourself?"

"I have never pre-pared this juice beca-use it was every time either Shay or Vidya los-ing the game. Tho-ugh I know the recipe but it's very diffi-cult to break this fruit," Sanchi confessed genuinely and Vihaan laughed out aloud.

Taking her palms in his strong grip, he murmured amusingly, "So you were scared to tell me this! You need my help to break the wood apples for you, I suppose?" As Sanchi nodded, he continued, "I will bear your punishment on your behalf but I need something in return for this."

Vihaan's playful eyes and wriggling eyebrows caught Sanchi off guard as she uttered feebly, "Wh-at do you want?"

"I don't know but maybe I might need help for help from you in the future," Vihaan said in a deep voice and shifted to help Sanchi in the preparation of the sweet syrup. With Vihaan's usage of words, Sanchi felt both confused and uneasy at the same time. 

***** 

"We didn't know Sanchi could prepare such a wondrous syrup out of the wood apples," Virendra muttered, sipping on the juice distributed by Sanchi after dinner.

Taking a quick glance at Vihaan's deadpanning face, Sanchi confessed in a low voice, "Vih-aan helped me in prep-aring it."

Vihaan raised an eyebrow, unsatisfied with her truthfulness and bent his face to come in close proximity with her ear. "Why do you have to be the 'Goddess of Truth' each time?"

"Why do you ha-ve to be the 'God of Arro-gance' each time?" Sanchi mumbled, snorting her nose lightly.

Before Vihaan could retort his responses back at her, Virendra teased, "Sanchi, I think you are really in a holidaying mood even before dozing off to sleep. Are you kidding me?Vihaan helping women with kitchen works don't go hand in hand easily!"

Shaurya smiled at the wrinkling faces of the two of them and intervened, "Uncle, a little correction there. Vihaan didn't help any woman but his own wife. People can do anything when they are truly in love."

When Virendra burst out laughing, the color to Vihaan's face faded while Sanchi pinched Shaurya in the arm. Jerking away, Shaurya rested his hand on Vihaan's shoulder. "I am sorry Vihaan that I didn't trust you in Dheeraj's case. You went to Agra to solve my case but instead, you fell prey to someone's wrong intentions."

Vihaan wrapped his arm around Shaurya's shoulder, squeezing him into a light hug. "I still have to solve the case for you. Though we had managed to shut down the factory but the real person behind it hasn't been caught."

"Think of it later, Vihaan. Don't spoil the holidaying mood worrying about cases," Virendra said emptying his glass of juice. "We should get back to sleep for tonight."

As everyone began departing to their respective rooms, Durga remained the silent and distant witness to everything. "Vihaan has changed so much after getting married to Sanchi. He even helped her in preparing the syrup and this change in him seems so promising. I see the day isn't far enough when he will be actually forgiving me."

When Durga saw Sanchi and Vihaan smiling at each other before leaving for their room in the farmhouse, Durga's eyes blinked in amazement. "He has finally found someone like Sanchi in his life. Wasn't it one of his conditions that he had put forward almost three years ago?"

***** 

Every couple in both the families was assigned it's own room in the farmhouse, with only Shaurya living alone in a single room. There were so many rooms stringed together around the whole house, with a long balcony running from one end to the other. Sanchi and Vihaan's room was situated in the north-eastern corner of the little bungalow, adjacent to the back yard of the landholding.

The rooms which were once the glory of the Bundelas were now worn out and dilapidated, the cement and the bricks falling out of place. Though the walls, the furniture and the entire construction were cleaned to a greater extent, the touch of old foundation was yet lingering around the corners.

Sanchi and Vihaan's room contained very few furniture; only a wooden bed, a broken nightstand, a rack and a small cupboard lying in a corner. The latch on the teak door wasn't functioning properly and the floorboards creaked as they both walked into their room. The ceiling was lined with wooden beams and the only window in the room opened to the back yard which gave a clear view of the greenery around them.

Vihaan stood gaping on the floor as Sanchi dropped herself on the bed. The loud creaking noise of the bed-like furniture caused her to jump in annoyance while Vihaan began laughing at her.

"This is very annoy-ing. There ain't eno-ugh lights aro-und this place and the win-dow panes are broken too. The dark-ness outside is haunt-ing me and now this noisy bed. How can a per-son sleep under such a condi-tion!" Sanchi hollered, grasping the dusty bedsheets.

Vihaan took a quick step backwards, screaming in irritation. "Stop dusting the blankets around. Are you trying to tell me that you are scared when you are in the room with someone so audacious like me?"

Rolling her eyes to his side and getting properly seated on the bed, Sanchi muttered in a teasing voice, "I can still sleep on the bed some-how but what is the vali-ant one going to do? The-re isn't any sofa out here."

As Sanchi responded with a slight wink, Vihaan nodded his head with a big smile. "I know there isn't any sofa. I was here only to escort you to the room. I am highly courageous and I can quite easily sleep on the swing near the porch."

The reaction of Sanchi's eyes changed from confusion to panic, trying to understand what Vihaan had just uttered. "You aren't go-ing to sleep out-side, are you?"

"I am," Vihaan confirmed genuinely while the frown on Sanchi's forehead deepened. Sending a quick wave of his palm at her, he moved near the door. "Sleep well, hickory."

Sanchi's palpitation increased with the wind gushing in through the broken window panes and the swaying of the tall trees outside tensed her nerves. In less than a couple of seconds, Sanchi sprang to her feet, binding Vihaan into her weak arms. "You are go-ing to sleep rig-ht in..in here. Don't lea-ve me alo-ne."

Sanchi was stammering more than her normal assent, trembling furiously against Vihaan's chest. Wrapping his protective arms around her, he murmured against the crown of her head, "Stop shuddering now. I'm not going anywhere, is that alright?"

Sanchi gulped the little lump of saliva forming in her throat before nodding her head. "You can sle-ep on the bed but ple-ase don't just leave me alo-ne. Your ro-om at Indore isn't such scary as this."

"Are you sure you want me to lie down on the same bed as you? You were conservative with this a few weeks ago," Vihaan uttered in his teasing tone again, causing Sanchi to bit her lower lip.

"I think I have over-come that think-ing of mine regard-ing you. The imm-ense trust I possess on you is incom-parable, Vihaan. I can share the bed with you with no uncom-fortable thoughts jam-ming my brain this time." As Sanchi replied, an unexpected throbbing in his heart grasped his unknown emotions for her.

With no answer to his own uncomfortable developments, he took her arms into his strong grip. Leading the way carefully, Vihaan helped her to sit on the bed. "You shouldn't be scared now and go to sleep."

As Sanchi quietly lied down on the bed, Vihaan sat beside her. She wouldn't close her eyes to sleep as her mind was wandering at the surroundings in the dark. Narrowing his eyes at her and catching hold of her palm, he said again, "Do you now want me to lull you to sleep?"

"I am try-ing to sleep. Stop tea-sing me," Sanchi commented, irked by Vihaan's teases but impressed by his care for her. It was so sudden that she felt his fingers raking along her silky hair. With the tender affection coming from Vihaan at the right time, Sanchi had finally managed to doze herself to sleep for the night.

***** 

The peaceful sleep in his favorite dark surroundings and with Sanchi beside him on the bed, Vihaan awoke early the next morning. As soon as his eyes fell on Sanchi's sleepy figure, he managed to pass an adorable and wide smile to himself. Tangled hair, smooth cheeks and a light smile across her sealed lips, his eyes refused to leave the sight of her gleaming face.

The beam of sun rays peeking through the broken window pane illuminated Sanchi's serene face. Vihaan stood in front of the window, guiding the path of the sun rays to an another direction. As his own opaque figure was casting a shadow against her pretty face, he was loving to play