GUSTAKHIYAN

Chapter 2

A LITTLE OVER A YEAR LATER

Aparajita sighed at the chaos in front of her.

"Apu...are you sure you took everything you needed?", her father asked her the millionth time.

"Yes Baba, I am more than sure. Can we leave now? Otherwise we'll never reach the airport on time", Aparajita said in a calm tone, though all she wanted to do was yell, but she couldn't, because then she'll need to hear a long lecture from her mother about how one should remain calm and patient.

"And he's your baba! Don't forget that. You have to be mindful of your tone while talking to him. He does everything you say, sometimes even sacrificing a lot. You have to keep that in mind. Especially since you are a psychologist now, you should be calm and collected", She could almost hear her mother scolding her.

Who's the one to speak! Her mother is the most short-tempered person she'd ever seen. Her mother's mood changed so quickly that it was nearly impossible sometimes to know what made her angry now. Yes, her mother loved her father...but... It was not like she was disrespecting her or her father, but sometimes people did lose their shit, and she was a human too. Why couldn't they understand the fact and let it go?

Aparajita shook her head to get rid of those thoughts for now. She was starting a new life at a new place with a job she'd always dreamt of, she didn't need to worry about these things now.

"Are you sure about this Dr. Sengupta?", her colleague, Dr. Vipul Rawat asked her when she told her about the appointment letter she got from "Care & Cure Hospital and Medical College" as a psychologist and a professor.

"Yes, Dr. Rawat. I am too sure about this. I've been waiting for this since I completed my Phd. I want to teach. And Care & Cure is a renowned hospital as well as medical college in India", She had replied beaming at him.

Was she completely sure about this? Maybe, maybe not. But she couldn't lose such a huge opportunity.

When Aparajita told her parents and cousin sister about the job offer she expected them to be ecstatic as well as sad as she'd have to move to Jaipur but what she didn't expect was their excitement to go there. Initially she'd thought they were talking about visiting her, but it was after she knew that Aarohi got hired by the company she'd been interning at and they transferred her to the Jaipur branch at her request she realized that her whole family was moving to Jaipur along with her.

It was almost 2 months since her father retired, so he wasn't really obliged to anything. Being a workaholic, her father wasn't really the kind to enjoy his retirement. And as a result, it would often cause a mess whenever she was at home. She was close to her father but sometimes they fought each other like siblings. And when she asked her mother about her dance classes, she brushed it off saying she'd conduct the classes online from now on, which would give her more number of students.

It would be wrong to say that Aparajita didn't want to live with her parents but she was worried about them moving to a new place again, after years of finally settling from her father's transferring job. In true sense, Aprajita and her sister, especially the former, had been pampered children of their parents, that didn't mean getting everything they wanted, the moment they asked for it. She still considered herself to be depended on her parents, not financially but emotionally.

In a way she was glad that her parents were coming along because otherwise she'd have been worried sick for them, especially since Aarohi was finally getting a permanent job.

***

"Dr. Sengupta, we are really glad to have you. Our institute really needed a great personality like you", the dean of the college greeted Aparajita.