My Journey - A Left Right Left Story

XXXI

8th January,2006.

Still in third pov :

Inki iss conversation mai baki 2 logo ki car aagayi thi, they shook hands and drove off. The moment their car was out of sight Naina had the biggest grins on her face and Parth just swept her up in a hug.

Suri ji : Lagta hai ki Naina puttar ki meeting acchi gayi hai. Dekho toh dono kitne kush lag rahe hai.

Huda : Yeh Naina humare saath hi kyun Phoolan Devi ban kar rehati hai ? Hug toh bhul jao introduction ke baad kabhi handshake ya fir hi-five bhi nahi diya hume. Aur usko itna kas ke hug kar rahi hai. 

Ali : Huda bhai.....

Hostess : Sorry for the wait Sir's Ma'am's your table is ready now.

They had just sat down when they saw Naina and Parth being led to a table near them.

Parth (jokingly) : Yeah, but you love me.

Naina (playing along) : Unfortunately, I do.

Needless to say that the rest of the night was spent by most of them trying to understand what was going on on that table.

Naveen ko iss change of events mai kaafi mazzaa aa raha tha, dinner super awkward hone se jo bach gaya. Sab ke saath guess karna ki Naina ke table par kya chaal raha tha was quite fun. But he was disturbed by Major Bhargav's silent smirking, scarred about B.C.'s trying to be subtle but still full on glaring and worried about Rajveer's very grim face. Gunny, Abhimanyu and even Aalekh signaled him to not worry about them, respectively. Which honestly just amplified his misgivings. Matlab Veeru ka toh fir bhi samajh aata hai, bichare ko pehli - pehli baar pyaar jo hua hai. Par baqi 2 ?? Aur uske upar se woh 3.

Rajveer on the other hand was very irritated (*cough*jealous*cough*) with everyone's running commentary about Naina's dinner. He can see how much fun she's having by himself, thank you very much !! 

They were in the middle of dinner when,

Shalini (squealing) : Oh my God ! Is he proposing to her ??

That caused a variety of reactions. Suri ji spilt his drink on himself and Lolita ma'am while Naveen and Huda chocked on theirs. Yudi almost gave himself a whiplash and Ali had to hold Pooja down while Aalekh covered her mouth to stop her from squealing. Abhimanyu was trying to free the fork from Rajveer's hand. Gunny just pinned B.C. with a look, seeming to dare him to react. Mogambo was the only one who seemed 

Yudi : Wh...Why is she nodding her head ?? 

Huda : Bhains ki pooch ! Yeh Phoolan haan bol rahi hai kya ??

Aalekh : Abe yeede dhang se dekh. Na toh Parth usse ring pahan raha hai aur nahi woh usse khud se pahan rahi hai. Parth sirf Naina ko ring dikha raha tha, dekh ussne wapas bhi kar di.

Everyone breathed a little easy after that and decided to proceed with dessert. Both tables were waiting for their checks when,

Lolita ma'am (protectively) : Ussne Naina ka haath kyun pakaraa hai ?

Abhimanyu (confused) : Woh sirf unki watch ko admire kar rahe hai.

Naveen : Nahi unki conversation bhi kaffi serious lag rahi hai.

And that caused everyone trying to figure out what's going on at Naina's table all over again and things got pretty heated up, which in turn distracted them from the object from their discussion.

Bhargav : Cadet Singh just left.

Well that was enough initiative for them to wrap up things quickly. By the time they got their cars from the valet Naina and Parth had already left. So they too made their way back. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts on the drive back.

The cadets, except Ali (he's still too shy), were thinking of ways to tease Naina about today. Naveen was trying to figure out why B.C. acted the way he did today. Gunny was thinking of ways of stopping B.C. from interfering in Naina's personal life, unless she is ready to welcome him back. Shalini was wondering about Gunny and B.C.'s weird interaction today. Suri ji was just happy that today's dinner went well, aur uske upar se unhe Lolita ji ke saath academy se bahar time spend karne ko mila.      

Major Bhargav really had fun today, the entertainment was so much better than his usual Tom & Jerry show. It was fun listening to everyone's speculate about what was going on at Cadet Singh's table while seeing what actually is going on. Despite the fact that he could only see that Parth's face. Who knew his childhood obsession of lip reading would come in handy. 

B.C. aapne dil aur dimaag ke beech mai fasse huye the. Woh jaante the ki Naina ke upar unka koi haak nahi hai. Unhone aapni marzi se ski life se dur gaye the and over the years he had made peace with that. He always thought that he had made the hasty but right choice all those years ago and prided in being practical. Fir bhi jab bhi Vardhan ya fir Shakti gave him an update (basically just photos and letters about her achievements) on Naina he felt like maybe that might not have been the completely right decisions. 

Par fir woh missions par jaane lage and with every mission he realised that he wasn't equipped to be a single father, let alone a single father who is in the army. Naina kabhi bhi unki first priority nahi hoti, par Vardhan ki woh already thi. Although he hadn't realised how much of her life he had missed out on till he had seen her at the academy. Par academy ke rozana bhag-daur mai bhul janna aasaan hai. Maybe it was too late to have these realisations.      

Rajveer was just plain miserable and pissed at himself, he had realised that he liked her ever since that disaster of Diwali party. Jab usse pata chala ki Naina ko goli lagi hai unke pairon taale se zameen khisak gayi thi, he was worried out of his mind. And then she came back to the academy directly after being discharged, even though he knows both Aryan and Akriti had both tried to strong arm her into going home. 

He never really told her or anyone really because it might have affected well everything. He just settled for being her friend. But today seeing Naina on a date type dinner with someone else, he wasn't so sure anymore.