Renaming Destiny : Apsara To Myla

The History

A day before the party...

Ashwin's POV

"And this was from our first ever newspaper interview. See, read the caption. 'The six lucky roommates who did the impossible possible'. That day, the whole country looked at us and wished they were us", my drunk father said. I looked at the dark sky and sighed in boredom as he repeated the same things he always said about his friends. "When I came to Bengaluru, my sons, I-", Adarsh Bhaiyya cut him off, "You were only 20 years old and had exactly 4368 rupees for the hostel fees. You met your five friends there and then you made your first food truck and the rest is history. We know, Pappa. We have been hearing the same story all our lives. Now, can we go sleep?", he stood up and left. Aniket Bhaiyya joined him too. My father was stunned for a moment but then continued to talk to me in his drunk state.

"You know, Ashwin, I was of your age when I came to this city. I had left my parents, my sister, my grandparents, the whole place I lived in and had stepped foot into this place with high hopes of getting a well paying job and help my father retire soon from his job in the railways. He always motivated me to do better and live a better life. Today, I am living that better life. But I don't have him around to see that. My three sons never saw any pain and I made sure of that. But once you step into the business world, that innocence and painlessness won't stay, Ashwin. Especially you need to become stronger emotionally".

He downed another glass of his favorite whiskey and said, "Avinash Simha, Harsh Ratandeep, Ranjan Adhiraj, Pushkar Kashyap, Charan Deep and Joshua Sebastian. I came from Madhya pradesh, Harsh was from Maharashtra, Ranjan's parents lived in Bihar, Pushkar had lived in coastal Karnataka all his life, Charan was from Goa and Joshua from Kerala. At first, it was tough for us to even speak properly because of the difference in our languages. But look at us now! The day we started our food truck, we had nothing. We met a common friend who had some connections and got us some capital for our little venture that we did not even know if it would work out or not", he poured some more and I looked at the cloudy sky. 

I had heard that story a million times. But I couldn't leave him alone. Especially when he was drunk. He said the same things he always said. The hardships they faced in the beginning, the language barrier, the new connections, the first radio interview and then the first newspaper article and how their business grew in the following years. I was very proud to be called his son because of that and I could never deny that. He said more about how each of his friends found the women they later married in their lives and then their children. I took his glass away and helped him walk to his room after a while and walked back to the balcony. 

I saw Sihi and Sneha playing badminton in the backyard. My father and his friends were so inseparable that they had decided to build their homes one beside the other and hence we all were neighbors. But the best part was that we all had a shared backyard where every weekend we had a dinner party together no matter how busy we were. 

Sihi and Sneha were Charan uncle's daughters. Aniket Bhaiyya was the eldest among us fourteen children of the six friends. Then it was Adarsh, then Megha who was Harsh uncle's daughter, then her twin brother, Mohan followed by me. Then it was Apsara but she was almost five years younger than me. Then came Prem, Pushkar uncle's eldest son and Alex, Joshua uncle's eldest son who were born on the same day, just hours apart. Preksha and Pranav were born to Pushkar uncle with an year's difference later. Varun came next. Sihi and Sneha were the youngest among us after Diana, Alex's little sister. We were all like one big family and I was grateful I had them.

I looked at Apsara's house and searched for her in her room's balcony. But she was nowhere. I was scared to know how she would react to knowing my stupid brother's impulsive decision to marry Akanksha. They had planned on announcing the engagement in the party the next day. They both did make a nice couple but he was not in love with her. He was only marrying her to get hold of our family company and it was very obvious to me and Aniket Bhaiyya. My parents, on the other hand, had no idea of this and were still under the belief that they were really in love. I sighed and palmed my face.

"You know, one small drink won't hurt sometimes", I heard Aniket Bhaiyya say behind me. I looked at him and smiled as he walked towards me with two glasses of the same whiskey my father had gotten drunk on. "Apsara slept early today because of her classes tomorrow", he said. I looked at him confused, "Her mother is downstairs, talking to Ma", he said answering my question. We were surrounded by peaceful silence with only the sisters' laughter as they continued their game in the lawn. "Do you really like her, Ashwin?", I looked at him and smiled, "Bhaiyya.... Leave it! It's not like she feels the same".

He laughed lightly, "You know, Ashwin, to this day, Ma thinks Apsara is in love with you and not Adarsh", I looked at him surprised. He nodded, "Even I think you both have something strong. So, if you really like her, don't miss the first opportunity to make her yours. But wait for some years because she is still a minor right now", we laughed. It was quiet for a while until he said, "Trust me when I say this, Ashwin, you will regret it later if you don't listen to your heart. You never know what life decides to do", he gulped down his drink and walked away with red eyes. I sighed feeling sorry for him. He had just lost his girlfriend, Janvi, to cancer just a few months ago. He still was broken after almost 7 months. Everyone knew about them. Janvi was an orphan who studied with Bhaiyya for almost 12 years of their lives. They even had plans of getting married. But fate had different plans. 

We had all decided to give him his space to recover from his loss. Many proposals for his wedding were flowing in but Ma kept pushing it all away to let him breath for a while. I did not know Janvi very well. But she definitely was a great woman. It was very tough for all of us to see her so exhausted and almost lifeless after each session of chemo. Bhaiyya fought until the very last moment to save her. The day we lost her was the worst for Bhaiyya and for us to see him look so hopeless and depressed, it was hell. He was moving to Paris to expand his business there and we hoped it would remove his mind from everything else. 

I sighed and downed the whole drink in one go and flinched at the burning in my throat. I wanted to make sure Adarsh did not break her heart. I wanted the party to get cancelled somehow. But I knew nothing I would do would help. All I could do was to stay with Apsara and make sure she was ok. My thoughts halted when I saw Adarsh walk to his balcony with his phone in one hand and the other in the front pocket of his pants. He was talking loud enough for me to know that he was talking to Akanksha. I walked back to my room and went to bed with worries about Apsara's reaction to the announcement in my mind.

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So, for your understanding, I will write this down in an order.

AVINASH SIMHA and ANURADHA BOSE SIMHA - ANIKET, ADARSH AND ASHWIN

HARSH RATNADEEP and RADHA RATANDEEP - MEGHA AND MOHAN

RANJAN ADHIRAJ and SWAPNA DEEP ADHIRAJ - APSARA AND VARUN

PUSHKAR KASHYAP and PRAMILA KASHYAP - PREM, PREKSHA AND PRANAV

CHARAN DEEP and HARINI DEEP - SIHI, SNEHA

JOSHUA SEBASTIAN and CLARA SEBASTIAN - ALEX AND DIANA

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