Ummeed (Raichand Siblings Saga-Book 1)

3-Meher

Arjun wanted to catch the earliest flight to Dehradun and get his sister back to where she belonged. Though Vansh had calmed down after his short outburst but Rishi looked quite shaken. He had been very close to their mother. Perhaps the fact that she had been alive and expecting when they had all been mourning for her had badly taken a toll on him.
When last evening, he told the duo about his plan to go to Dehradun, they strongly insisted to take them with him. At first, he was against the idea but one look at their conviction filled eyes and he knew it a lost battle. And that is how he found himself in the flight with an overenthusiastic teen and a gloomy creature.

Arjun closed his eyes expecting sleep to take over but well who was he trying to fool. He could not sleep a wink before making sure that a certain little girl was peacefully sleeping in their house in her own room. He felt Vansh coming and sitting next to him. Arjun glared at the him. What did the boy think he was doing aimlessly moving inside the flight when it was in motion!

"Vansh! Why are you aimlessly roaming in the flight.  Do you think this is your school corridor where can roam without a care in—" but he was cut off in the middle of his rebuke.

"Uff ho, Bhaiya. Kuch nahi hota. These air-hostesses also move around the flight. Moreover, I wasn't roaming. I just wanted to come and sit with you!" he said rolling his eyes. His brother was just annoying in his overprotective stance.

Arjun just held onto a thin string of anger. He really didn't want to scold his idiot brother in the middle of a light. He counted from 1 to 10. And just like that, his anger was replaced with stress. Perhaps everything that happened in the past few hours was taking a toll on him. He held his already aching head and closed his eyes.

"You know what Bhaiya, Bhaiyu is getting really old and boring. Since past 15 minutes, I have been talking non-stop and he didn't even glance at me."
He said crossly and then moved onto the next topic without acknowledging his anger over it," I am so excited to meet her, Bhaiya. Can you believe it! We have a sister. Her name is so beautiful 'Meher'. I just can't wait to meet her.

Admist his headache, Arjun managed to give Vansh a genuine smile.

Somewhere, the guilt of not knowing about her existence and constant efforts to bring her to where she belonged was overweighing his excitement towards her just existing.

"Bhaiya!" Vansh said abruptly with a worried look on his face.

Arjun's protective instincts kicked in. He put an arm around him and stated scanning him for any external damage. " Kya hua, Vanu? Tu thik h na?"

Vansh palmed his face. " Ha bhaiya. Mai toh ye bata raha tha ki hamne Meher ke liye koi gift nahi kharida. Ham use greet kaise karenge?" Vansh said concernedly.

Arjun gave him a light whack on his head, "Idiot. You really need to sleep. Your brain is not functioning well."

"Haww, you are calling me an idiot when you are being one. Who goes to meet a girl without thinking of gi—" he trailed off as he realised what he just said.

Arjun glared at him. He gave him a nervous smile and said with a cute face, " You know Bhaiya, girls love affection and attention and gifts are a perfect show of both. So we must really get her a gift.

" Don't you know a bit too much about girls, beta?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Vansh internally cursed himself. " No bhaiya, just General knowledge. By the way, I am feeling sleepy. So Good Night!" he said and immediately closed his eyes.

Arjun just shook his head at his little bean. He really was the light  of their lives.

At sharp 08:00, the flight la des in Dehradun.  All the three brothers braced themselves for the start of a new phase in their life.
______________________________________

Hope Orphanage, Dehradun

The entire orphanage was built in 2 acres of land. Though the entire building was made in a whole of 0.75 acre, it was surrounded by nearly 1 acre of green bushes and shrubs. Bright flowers covered the better part of the place.

All the children were gathered in the front yard making preparations for the special day. Today was their birthday.  All of them. Each and every child was excited or maybe they just pretended to be happy and excited. All of them were concealing the pain of not knowing their actual birthdays behind their happy faces. Though the thought of delicious cake was enough to make all of them momentarily forget about their pain.