My Journey - A Left Right Left Story

XXXIX

3rd January, 2007.

When Naina had invited them not only for the cooperate party but also to spend the rest of the holidays at her family home, I hadn't thought much of it. After that dinner though, he didn't want to focus on it. Kyunki hum sirf aapne cadets ke saath nahi par Naina ke family ke saath yeh din bitaane waale the. I couldn't wait to spend whatever time that I could get with Rummy. Par aisa kuch bhi nahi hua.

I wasn't trying to avoid anyone, especially not to the point where my very proper, very serious mentee had to fashion a tag line for me. And he also said it to my face in front of an audience. Gosh I was both amused and horrified at that. 

Par mere pass aur koi choice bhi toh nahi thi. Out of the team Bunty aur main he the jo Major Nair ke saath emotionally involved nahi the. We weren't trained by him, we didn't personally know him. Hum uske baare mai jo bhi jaante the wo sab Rajveer aur Abhumanyu ke stories se jaante the. Toh it was decided ki uski saari interrogation hum dono karenge. Col. Shakti and the higher ups wanted to get anything and everything out of him,no matter the methods used. 

Trials mai usse traitor label kar diya hai, par iss baat ko abhi public nahi kiya gaya hai. As of now, Major Prabhat Nair, has been posted for a mission in Jamun, and can not contact anyone due to the delicate nature of the mission. Ab bas kissi bhi tarah se hume usse sab kuch ugalwana tha. Aur main yeh baat kissi aur ko bol bhi nahi sakta tha.

Hence, the unintentional avoidance and ridiculous timings he kept. But the odd timings had helped me to learn some things about my estranged family as well. I learned that while their father did love his children (both born and pseudo), he had no idea on how to show it. I learned that while Rummy had plans to join the army, his prep didn't impress MGG. And no matter how much Naina advocates he won't believe otherwise. That Naina was the one who played a more major role in Rummy's upbringing, and subsequently stuck playing the peace maker between them.

Which was also one of the reasons for Naina's recent stress. That and Rummy's insistent street racing, and something that was worrying both of them. However, I was not expecting her to lock all of us in one room. Not with the evidence that she left behind.

If anyone asked, I wouldn't be able to recall the shouting match that took place. But, after the shouting match........

7th January, 2007.

The time had come to welcome a new batch of cadets. Being a Sunday, the second year cadets had taken volunteered to help the new batch settle in. Making the interview process smoother. A throughly vetted psychiatrist was contacted to perform the evaluations along with Shalini tomorrow, while the rest ran some revision classes and drills to brush up on first year syllabus and give the freshies a glimpse of what laid ahead for them.

Hopefully, this year would be spent in peace.