My Journey - A Left Right Left Story

XXXVIII

26th December, 2006.

Party venue mai ghus te hi Rajveer ki aankhein Naina ko dhund ne lagi. Aur usse dekhte hi.....

Shalini: Itna bhi mat ghooriye Capts. agar kissi ne dekh liye toh bohot maar padegi.

Shalini's whisper broke us out of our stupor. Ab main unhe kesse samjhaun ki bhale hi main aur Chauhan Shaab ek hi intention se Naina aur Akriti ko dekh rahe ho, par reasons alag the. Not that both of them didn't look stunning. Akriti in her dark blue gown and Naina in a red saree.   

Abhi iss liye pareshaan tha kyunki usse nahi pata tha ki Akriti uss ko wapas accept karegi ya nahi. Aur main iss liye kyunki something had happened in my absence. Naina's smile was a little bit more fixed, her eyes a little bit more darker, her posture a little bit more stiffer than it was when they had last met. Coupled with the fact that Parth, Aalekh, Ananya, and Rummy also stayed close by her just made him more worried. Parth and Ananya he understood, the three of them were the most involved with the company, after Vardhan. Plus Naina didn't approach or look at them even once 

Aalekh was always 2 steps behind Naina, guarding her back as if expecting an attack. Even he didn't approach to speak to them after the initial greeting and small talk was done. But Aalekh kept throwing looks at us throughout the event, that we couldn't understand. While Rummy was clearly clinging to them. 

As the night wore on, Vardhan had made a couple of announcements. The first was of Parth's engagement to Ankita Gowda. The acute relief that I felt at that had surprised me as well. While I had heard Aalekh rebuking the others when they suggested that Parth was proposing to Naina, but still..... 

The other announcement was of Naina stepping down from the CEO's position and instead becoming one of the silent partners. Ananya was instead going to take the CEO position, and was being trained to do the same by Naina and Parth. That had caused quite a shock to everyone present there. But I saw that that was not the cause for Naina to be so troubled, if anything she and Aalekh looked relieved. Coupled with the way all three turned to him to give small nods, told me that this was all Aalekh's doing. At least now Naina won't be dragged in three different directions.

 

29th December, 2006.

It has been 3 days since they have been here, living under Naina's roof. It was a shock to see that Naina lived in (was raised in) such a big place as this, while not as big as the palaces Abhi had housed them in their academy days, it was still huge. But then again I shouldn't have been so surprised, the Suryavanshi's were known to own many successful ventures. Dadaji himself ran in the same circles as them. 

A lot has happened though, Gunny has became a ghost, rarely to be seen. Shalini was often stuck with Naveen as a result of this. Despite his best efforts, Naveen was not Gunny, and his avoidance was starting to grate on all of them. Even if he claimed to be doing work from the headquarters.

Aaryan and Akriti had started to reconcile with Abhi. It had been humorous to see Abhi threatened by his own younger brother and mentee over his girlfriend. But Abhi had taken everything with good grace, happy that he had his brother and girlfriend back. They were slowly but surely mending their bond. The rest of the super six were absolutely taken by Naina's grandparents, as were they with them. It was nice to see Aalekh looking so self-assured with them. 

But the other elders were barely at home, Shakti sir was always busy at the headquarters, and seems to be dragging MGG with him as well. Vardhan and Parth were overlooking the transfer of office from Naina to Ananya and were also barely their with them. Naina and Rummy on the other hand were acting weird. Both had this tension thrumming under their skin, Rummy was either asking them about the training or vanishing for entire nights. 

All Aalekh could tell them was that MGG wanted Rummy to join the academy after college, something he was amendable to, but not to the level MGG wanted from him. Naina was stuck playing peace maker between them, but facing her own criticism from him she couldn't do much. Rummy also rarely spent the night at the house. At first they thought that he went to the Gaur house to sleep, but were proven wrong when Ali told them about seeing him return in his day old clothes early in the morning. With Naina either scolding him, coaxing him, or frantically checking him for injuries. Gunny just went on to become more absent after listening to that. His expression always clouded with a mix of emotions they couldn't understand.

With each passing day, Naina's smile seemed to be getting that much more tighter, her eyes darker, and her shoulders stiffer. Jaise ki woh koi bahaar utha toh rahi hai par sambhal nahi pa rahi ho. It had gotten to the point that everyone present in house could see it, and tried to ease her in their own ways, but nothing worked. 

Aur main Naina se kuch puchon toh bhi kesse? Naina ko avoid pehle main ne karna shuru kiya tha. Finally acknowledging my feelings to myself, I understood that I can't act on it, not now when I was her teacher and senior team member. Maybe not even after she graduated. But that didn't mean that he didn't love her or want to see her silently suffering from something. Par jab bhi main usse baat karne ki koshish karta hun, woh baat ghuma kar chali jaati hai. Every failed attempt just frustrated me more and more. Is this how she felt when I ignored?  

3rd January, 2007.

'New Year, New You', yeh slogan na jane kab se chal raha hai, par lagta hai iss baar Naina ne isse dil se laga liya hai. Iss nayi Naina mai cunning thodi zyada aur patience thodi kam ho chali hai. New Year's party ke baad se hi pata nahi konse angle pe kam kar rahi hai? Not a bad angle, but certainly an unexpected one.

It started with the Chauhan brothers and Akriti. She convinced the couple to come clean to their parents, set up a dinner with the said parents. And then sent Aaryan to play mediator for them. She then convinced the rest of the KMA gang, to go to the local fair in town. Had Aalekh go with her grandparents and father to talk about something, enlisting Ananya's help in ensuring he listens to them. And then, then he walked in on her somehow locking up the Gaurs and Gunny in one of the studies, while instructing someone to quietly open it after 2 hours. She looked surprised at seeing me, after all I had spent the entire day at the headquarters, trying to arrange everything for our return to KMA. 

Mujhe, bilkul samjah nahi aa raha hai ki Naina kya kar rahi hai aur kyun......