S̳h̳a̳k̳h̳i̳-̳l̳a̳c̳i̳o̳u̳s̳

EPISODE 8: "A Lucky Day"

As Shaurya is suddenly confronted with the brother he's been searching for, he looks down at Yash's outstretched hand with hesitation. He narrates that he thought he'd run and hug his brother when they finally reunited, that the tears he'd held back all this time would flow like a river. But things look bad for Yash, and Shaurya can't shake what he already knows about the container fire, and the fact that he came here to meet the plant manager's possible accomplice.
Shaurya (voiceover): "I had the terrible feeling that Yash might've made a choice that shouldn't be made. I was afraid."
So he answers, "My name is Shaurya." What Shaurya doesn't know is that Yash turned the plant manager's phone on just before arriving in the busy square, which brings Anmol and a team of detectives out looking for their murder suspect. Shaurya catches them arriving out of the corner of his eye, and hurriedly drags Yash into a café. But of course Anmol happens to see Shaurya's face in the crowd and calls to see where he is, only to have Shaurya lie that he's at the station. D'oh. Yash tries to give Shaurya the money back for the bumper, insisting that his coworker accepted it without his permission since he never intended to collect. Shaurya in turn offers a new envelope of more money, and the brothers sit there pushing their envelopes back and forth at each other until Yash finally says they'll just take one each and call it even. Shaurya worries about him getting into trouble at work for the truck not being fixed, but Yash says it belongs to him-he's been delivering water for ten years now, and owns the truck outright. Yash asks about his job, and Shaurya says he used to drive a taxi... but can't bring himself to admit that he's a reporter now. He lies that he's unemployed. So Yash jumps up to buy the coffee then, and when Shaurya protests, Yash asks how old he is and pulls rank: "I'm the Elder Brother, so I buy." Oof, the way Shaurya looks up at him with stars in his eyes as he says, "Yes, Elder brother." He even copies Yash's order and I just want them to hug so badly, it's making me crazy. They walk out together, and suddenly Yash throws his arm around Shaurya and looks at their reflection in his truck window: "Do we look alike?" Shaurya is shocked that he might recognize him, but Yash says that his coworker said they looked alike, but he doesn't really see it. Shaurya: "Yes, we do. We look a lot alike." Yash tells him that he's a good person for leaving his number after hitting his bumper, and when they shake hands to say goodbye, Shaurya holds on a little longer, like he can't bear to let go. "Yash... can I call you that?" Yash wonders when they'd see each other again, but agrees to let him and takes off. Shaurya quickly gets in a cab and follows him home, and narrates that there were a million questions he wanted to ask Yash when they finally met-whether he'd lived well, was ever sick, had gotten married. But now, only terrifying questions are swimming through his head, like why he's on the list of calls last made by the man who falsely accused their father and is now missing. He wonders if it could be coincidence or something more, and walks up to ring Yash's doorbell. But he pulls back as he thinks that the possibility that it isn't is too frightening and cruel to handle.Shaurya's team leader Alok is pacing in the halls, his fuse already burnt to a crisp at the fact that Shaurya ran off without permission and isn't even answering his calls. Editor Johar asks which of his newbies is making him crazy-Sasaeng or Cockfight? Ha. Editor Johar says it's his fault for not being hard enough on them
(really, you're telling the scary team leader he's not scary enough?)
and Alok declares that Cockfight's going down. Shaurya comes back to the station and simply apologizes for being late, and Alok starts lighting into him. But Shaurya calmly interrupts to say that he has a question, and Editor Johar jumps in to say that this is a time for him to be punished, not ask questions. Shaurya ignores that and asks anyway what he's supposed to do if he finds a suspect before the police do, and suddenly both Alok and Editor Johar change their tune entirely, and Editor Johar says they'd be able to get footage of the arrest as it happens, practically drooling at the thought. They congratulate him and ask who the suspect is... and Shaurya says he didn't find anyone. Phew. Alok and Editor Johar stand there agape as Shaurya says he followed every lead like Alok taught him and will continue to do so, and walks away. They look at each other and wonder if Cockfight just toyed with them, and Director Lokesh walks by and says that's exactly what happened, heh. He looks over at Shaurya, a little impressed. Over at Jagruk Nation, Ahir follows his team leader Lalit all the way to the men's room to beg not to be put on a different team, and over in the women's restroom, Anokhi overhears Lalit and Preetam arguing about whether Mom is helpingAnokhi out behind everyone's backs. Mom happens to be there too, and Anokhi follows her out to ask that she defend her, or at least give her credit where credit is due. The boys listen in, as Mom coldly tells her to call her by her title at work, and says that Anokhi doesn't deserve the same treatment as other reporters who got here on their own merits. The other guys have to stop Ahir from running over to interrupt them, and they watch Anokhi's face fall as Mom tells her that nothing's changed-she still thinks thatAnokhi isn't fit to be a reporter. Shaan contemplates a post-it with Yash's name and number on it, then calls Shaurya over and tells him he found his brother. Shaurya grabs him in a bear-hug and thanks him profusely, and when Shaan pries him off in embarrassment, Shaurya just clings to him even harder, and wraps a leg around him. They look like they might be making babies in the middle of the office. But it turns out to be Shaan's imagination, and he decides that would be far too mortifying. So he calls Shagun over instead, and tells her to give the post-it to Shaurya. He watches from his desk in anticipation, but then Shaurya takes it and simply gives him a silent solemn nod of acknowledgment. Shaan is even more flustered at the lack of overflowing gratitude and mutters, "That's...it?!" Hahahaha. He wants his cuddles!He follows Shaurya out to the elevators and points out that he used all of his contacts to get him that number, and swears he's not fishing for credit or anything, but he put a lot of effort into it thinking Shaurya wanted to find his brother. Shaurya says soberly that he's a little hesitant about calling now, because he's scared that this person might not be the Yash he knew. "Thirteen years is a long time." Shaan watches him go feeling more confused than ever. Anokhi walks out of work still frustrated over Mom's coldness, and yells at her growling stomach for adding to her troubles. Of course she happens to be standing right outside the restaurant where Shaurya is eating, and she runs off, embarrassed. He calls to tell her to eat, promising not to say anything. She comes in and finds that he's already ordered for her, and they swap egg parts like always. She asks why he's eating alone when he could call his girlfriend, and he finally tells her the truth about GPS. She takes this in with a quiet, "Ah." The meal breaks the ice between them, and on their way home Anokhi tells him about Mom and admits that Shaurya was right about her creating a Mom fantasy in her head. She says that it's extra disappointing because she spent so many years building up those expectations, and he says he gets what that feels like now. She wonders how he'd know, but he just says that he gets it-you wish you could go back to before you reunited, because then at least the fantasy made you happy, whereas now the more you get to know the real person, the more it pains you. Anokhi smiles and says that's exactly how she feels. She wonders if they'll be able to go back to the way things were-comfortably chatting as uncle and niece, like this. Shaurya stops in his tracks at that and says, "I can't do that now." Whoa.
Shaurya: "I'm sorry, but I can't do that. Can you?" Anokhi turns around and says that she can... and hiccups.
Eeeeee! She tries to run away, but he follows her into the crosswalk and spins her around to face him, and then leans in for a kiss. She throws a hand over her lips, so Shaurya just kisses her gently on her hand instead. There are no words spoken between them, but he watches her as she lowers her hand and looks up at him with different eyes. He smiles and pulls her in for a real kiss-or kisses, as the case may be-sweet and soft and tingly, as the snow comes down around them. Proper swoon. The heavy snowfall becomes news fodder by the next day, and both stations send reporters out to catch footage of people having accidents on the icy roads. It seems callous to set up cameras just to catch people slip and fall, but I guess this is what reporters do. Anokhi gets her first assignment to be on camera, and dances in excitement as the other reporters at the police precinct look on jealously. She high-fives Ahir so hard that he yowls in pain, and she skips off to call Dad for clothes so that she's presentable on camera. Meanwhile, Shaurya chases Anmol down to ask for updates, and Anmol asks if he happened to be out in that busy shopping square last night, because he thinks he saw him there. Shaurya sticks to his story and says he must've been mistaken, and Anmol lets it go, but we see that he even followed Shaurya and saw him walk away with another man. He wonders now why Shaurya would have reason to lie. Uh-oh. Shaurya is even more worried when he finds out that the reason Anmol showed up there is because the plant manager's cell phone turned on in that square. Shaurya shakes the gnawing suspicion out of his head: "It can't be. It can't be." Anokhi runs up to declare her big happy news, and pouts that Shaurya's congratulations aren't congratulatory enough. So he swoops her up in a hug, and then she's freaking out that people will see. He just holds on and says he'll congratulate her, if she'll tell him it'll all be okay. She wonders what's going on with him, but he won't say, so she pats him on the back and tells him everything will be okay. Shaurya jokes that he's jealous she's the first of the rookies to be on camera, and asks if she's going to wash herself, since she looks terrible right now. Ha. She doesn't argue and says she's on her way to wash up, which she has to do in the police bathroom sink. Only, the water gets shut off after she's worked shampoo into her hair, and she looks around in desperation for water... and her eyes land on the toilet.