To Love Again !!!

Chapter - 59

Amrit sat in the car with Abhay. They had been here for a while now. Silent. Abhay had wanted her to talk to him and she had finally decided to do so. To achieve that Abhay had brought her to this quiet place. There was nobody around for miles as they watched the evening sun go down over the tall line of trees. They were somewhere just outside Ambala. Abhay had taken the first small dirt road off the highway. The fields had been ploughed and ready to be seeded. Or maybe they were already seeded who knew. But it was peaceful with only the chirping of the birds returning after a good day's work. Amrit didn't know where to start and so they sat there, quiet.

"I had never thought it would become this difficult to talk about things," she said quietly.

Abhay looked at her she was gazing out at the setting sun. Was she even seeing something or was she lost in her whirlwind emotions?

"When you keep things inside for so long they tend to choke you when finally the time comes to let them out," he replied.

"I guess," she said and took in a deep breath, "I don't know where to begin. Over the years so many things have happened," she said the shook her head to clear it, "being the oldest child in the family had its rewards and I enjoyed them too. I was very little and don't remember much but I do remember when things started to change. Simrit's birth didn't affect me, with a joint family others took over when ma wasn't around. And it didn't matter either. I was way too young to understand anything anyway. But as and how I grew I realized situation wasn't the same anymore. It wasn't as if I wasn't loved by my parents but Simrit was loved more. Slowly she became the apple of everyone's eyes. She was a pretty girl and all in the family adored her. Was I jealous? I don't know. But she always wanted what I had, I guess all the younger siblings do that, Preeti, Kuldeep, Kulraj but Simrit was different," Amrit said and paused then went ahead, "initially since it was just me and her she would want everything I had but later she would want everything others had too. She was never satisfied with her things. I was the older one so I always had to give in but then I noticed others had to do the same. She would throw tantrums if things didn't go her way and with my mother's constant support she won every time. Slowly I came to expect it of her and I started ignoring her acts. Beeji did try to interfere as best she could but Darji, my grandfather, he was a very strict person. And a lot of times he disapproved of beeji's interference," she said and smiled sadly, "when he died the responsibility fell on her shoulders, keeping this family together making sure everything went fine that for years she couldn't see what was becoming of us. And by the time she realized we had all grown up, it was probably too late for anyone to do anything. Simrit had grown up to be beautiful but extremely spoilt and self-absorbed not to mention devious," she said and then took a long breath again.

She was quiet for some time thinking about all those years of growing up.

"Didn't your father interfere?" Abhay asked quietly wondering what he had been doing all this time. Was he supportive of Simrit's actions too? Or was he the silent spectator?

"Papa has never taken much interest in how things work at home," Amrit replied as she looked at her fingers, "he was there when needed but that was it. You have seen how he is anyway not very talkative, he keeps to himself, in his belief home and kids are women's responsibility as he took care of everything else," she said, "besides Simrit knew how to influence things to her advantage," she said.

"What about your uncle and aunt?" Abhay asked again trying to understand how none of the family members saw what was going on or how one of the children was shaping up.

"They had their priorities," Amrit replied, "when chachi got married I was two and a half and Simrit had just been born. She was getting used to our house, beeji's brand of dominance," she said and smiled at that, "but even she adored Simrit till she didn't have Kulraj," she said, "you see Simrit was an adorable child and she was beautiful even then," Amrit said as if that was any reasoning as to why she was pampered beyond limits.