Mehabooba

Prologue

The road was buzzing with people. The heat of the sun wasn't helping at all in the hot summer day.

Neel peacefully sat in his car driven by his driver with his windows rolled down.

The AC of his car was broken and he was already angry about it when suddenly the car stopped.

Neel: "What the hell why did you stop?! Move!"

Driver: "but sir..."

Neel looked forward and saw police barriers blocking the road. On the other side of the barrier were people dancing under the spring of water flowing off from the tank beside.

Neel's eye fell on a particular girl. She was in the centre, wearing a long flowy dress what went down her knee. She was drenched in water. Her wet hair bounced along with her. She closed her eyes and danced to the song playing in background with others surrounding her. The water fell on her like rain drops.

Neel couldn't take his eyes off her.

Hari Kaka, Neel's left hand man, looked back from the front passanger seat towards him.

Hari Kaka: "You want me to go look at it?"

Neel nodded his head, his gaze still fixed on the girl.

Hari Kaka went out of the car to look into what was happening.

After around 15 minutes he came back and the road was clear.

The slamming close of the car door brought back Neel's attention.

Neel: "what happened?"

Hari Kaka: "it was the prime minister's daughter. She donated water to the people here and was just dancing along with the people here like fools and blocking the road."

Neel: "and?"

Hari Kaka: "and what? I said your name and everyone cleared the road immediately. I mean how couldn't they, after all the prime minister's party is totally funded by you."

Neel: "and?"

Hari Kaka: "what and and? Have you gone mad?"

Neel: "the girl. Give me every details about her. Every single thing."

~

???: "Adya look here!"

Adya turned towards her friend Anjalee who clicked a pic of her.

Anjalee: "oh my you look so beautiful here!"

Adya: "really? Let me see!"

Adya look at the pic and appreciated Anjalee's photography skills when a middle aged man came towards her.

Man: "what's happening here? Why you're blocking the road like this?"

Adya: "it's just people enjoying and I bet there are other roads too which you can go through and avoid this one."

Man: "do you know who is in that car? The car that you blocked by this havoc?"

Adya: "who? Is it the president?"

The man scoffed.

Man: "Neel, Neel Rathore is in there."

People around her gasped and immediately moved from the road. Few men moved the road barriers.

Adya was stunned. Her friend Anjalee pulled her aside.

The shiny black Mercedes Benz drove by as her eyes landed on the man inside.

Even though she saw him for a single glance, her heart ached to see him more.

After going back home she went on Google and searched, Neel Rathore. But she found nothing about him. As if he didn't exist.

She was very confused.

When her mother, Anamika Arora, returned home, she sat down with her to clear her doubts.

Adya: "Maa, who's Neel Rathore?"

Anamika stopped looking through her papers and looked at her daughter.

Anamika: "Neel Rathore, he is like a shadow over everyone. Some people are scared of death of him, some people respect him, some disgust him, some want be him, some even kill to become like him and some treat him like God. He is like that invisible wind that can turn into a hurricane when disturbed."

Adya: "but why are people scared of him?"

Anamika: "Power. Everyone wants power, people kill for it, die for it, but is always scared from the one who has it. He has it. Power to control the whole world."

Adya: "then why do people treat him like a god?"

Anamika: "because he is a god to them. He is a god to millions of people. But you don't have to know about all these things beta. Go sleep. It's alredy way too late for you to be awake."

Adya didn't say anything more. Just wished her mother a good night and went to her bedroom.

She sat on her chair and looked at the blank canvas in front of her.

She picked up her palate and put red colour in it. She started painting the whole canvas red.

It was as if her hands were moving on her own.

Soon the canvas was fully red. Then with the black colour she started drawing.

After a night full of strokes she ended up with her most favourite creation of her whole life.

The picture of Neel Rathore.

With that one single glance of him, she was already head over heels for him. And after listening to her mother, she wanted to see him more, get to know him more, get to know everything about him.

And she knew very well, in this process she was going to loose a lot, get hurt a lot.

But, everything is fair in love and war isn't it?