Arohan - The Ascent

Distance

"Please take of the house Pandit ji," said, Urvashi, as she loaded her Samsonite travel case onto the waiting car.

"Don't worry, you just focus on yourself. Don't worry about anything here!" said Pandit ji, suggesting very ambivalently.

"Are you upset with me Pandit ji?" asked Urvashi, feeling the weight of guilt. Wasn't she used to running away from one life situation to the other?  Was she not doing the same this time too? Instead of facing up to reality...

"Only you know what is happening in your heart, Urvashi. And only you can decide how you want to deal with this. But you need to know this. Whatever you decide, doesn't just affect you. There is someone out there, who has moved mountains to earn your... And what happens to him, from hereon, is on you, whether you are willing to take responsibility or not. Whether you like it or not!" stated Pandit ji flatly and walked away.

Urvashi stood with her back to the car. "No!" she said out loud. She could not be held responsible for him. Her only commitment was to Tim. No one was was more impprtant than her relationship with Tim.

Many a times, we lie to ourselves. It's something we do, when we are too scared at our thoughts. When what we feel deeply disturbs us, we tend to lie to ourselves to rationalise how we are feeling. One could say urvashi was doing the same.Whatever the truth in her heart. She was not ready yet, to accpe the truth.

So naturally she found refuge in the land of her now dead partner.

Her Luftansa flight from Delhi to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to New York, took off as scheduled. Everythiung went of like clockwork. Except one call. She had not , in her wildest dreams expecting that call. And the call ensured that the rest of her journey, was filled with anxiety and anguish. Not just her journey, even her trip.

As Urvashi's car slowly moved from her home in Padrauna, Sonu, Minky & jai observed fromt he sidelines. Many toungues had been wagging in the village about Madam ji. Some people said, she was leaving forever, some said, she had someone she loved back in USA . Some said, she was fed up of her life here and wanted to go back.

No matter what people said, Jai knew, that if someone had the right to know about this, it was Vikram. Vikram had not looked back, since surrenddering himself to madam ji. If someone asked Vikram why he was alive, his numero uno reason for staying alive would be to earn back forgivens from his madam ji. And with that forgivens may be a touch of love. And no effort could be spared to earn this.

Jai was both scared and worried about how Vikram would take the news of her going away, perhaps never to return. Was his friend destined to a doomed fate? Jai could not help but think.

Nevertheless, he did place a call to Vikram's barracks in Delhi.

New Delhi IGI Airport:

Her flight was scheduled for 7:40 PM IST and she was due to reach New York by 12:20 pm IST the next day.She was flying Delta. Knowing how crowded IGI was, Urvashi had made it a point to come in 4 hours earlier. She had already done her web checkin and just needed to drop off her baggage which a 30kg travel case. In her hand she carried a big leather bag, with a book, her laptopn phone etc.

She had to wait for an hour at the airport for the airlin counters to open. In fact she was one of the first few people to drop her baggage off. She cleared the long wonding lines of the security counter with relative calm. She had a 3 hour wait  in fron of her and any time shave off that wait was good enough.

Since she had anearly dinner, urvashi was not particularly hungry. Just an house before the final check at the gate, she would get herself some coffee to get through the boredom, she thought. The premium economy and economy chaors were literally empty by the time she arrived post security. Well people would start to trickle in soon enough. So she found herslef a corner seat, near rhe gate and sat down with her bag next to her.