Adhiyal Ishq

7. The First Meeting

"Bhabhi main apne normal kapdo mein nahi jaa sakta?"

"Rudra bhaiya ladki aapko dekhke pasand karegi to behtar hoga. Aapko dekhke dar jayegi? Not the thing we are looking forward to, you know?" Ishika said before leaving a nicely ironed white shirt and a pair of navy blue pants.

26th July 2024.

It was finally the day of the meeting. To get Rudra ready for the day, a lot of things were prepared well in advance, like making sure he didn't go on late-night city trips on his bike or drink a well full of alcohol just to get hungover on the day of the meeting. It was as if it was not just a meeting but a whole lot of thorough planning before a battle. And this was not an easy task at all.

Considering how rebellious and rule-breaker the younger Pratap is, Abhay was given the duty of confining Rudra for the upcoming days until the expected date. Our Abhay had just the plan.

With the help of Vyom, Ishika, and the kid Prataps, Abhay kept Rudra under house arrest, which was somewhat similar to a real one.

Vyom was tasked to ensure that Rudra was not found in clubs or any of those underground late-night bike events – basically, he was the inspector.

Oh, the troubles and punches he went through to get Rudra in control. Tracker, extra men, hiding his bike keys, double surveillance – all of this without extra pay. Vyom mumbled curses under his breath throughout the 'mission'. He felt as if he was being put through hell for accepting Rudra as his friend.

Moving to Ishika, she was in charge of making sure that every possible entrance or exit of Samridhi Bhawan was locked at sharp eight in the evening because no matter how good of surveillance be, Rudra the sneaky cat would have made it out of the house if not for the locks that Ishika instructed the guards to put on every door. Even on the ones which had no knob or handle on.

He tried escaping from the balcony and all but Ishika had seen it all and done it all. She went as far as twisting his ear to drag him back to his room and lock the door after dinner. She even took the liberty of snatching his electronic devices that could have kept him up all night. Ishika was experiencing the pain of raising a teenager while dealing with a 27-year-old.

She even prayed to gods amidst countless sighs to never let her kids grow if this is what the future holds for her.

But the Mini Prataps were the real hard workers and the core of the master plan. The two were permitted to make Rudra tired by hook or crook. Why you ask? Well, it's pretty simple. If the big lazy cat gets tired and sleepy at night the others won't have to put in efforts to look out for him. Therefore, the kids made sure to tire out Rudra so much so that he would be out as light as soon as he would hit the bed post-dinner.

Just to let you know the bribe was pretty sweet and cavity-inducing.

Despite all the restrictions the family was well aware of the blunder that can be created by the rebellious Pratap so, Rudra was strictly told not to wear his usual flamboyant biker outfit. He was also forbidden from riding his bike, his metal baby, to the girl's house.

He whined and begged for a whole week, convincing everyone that how his bike would be a cool and unusual thing but alas no one budged. Tej gave him a cold look, Sandhya gave him a motherly glare, Abhay was tired of his tantrums and Ishika shook her head in a no and smiled.

No means no.

Even after all the steps taken, the master plan executed, the mission 'Rudra Pratap' initiated and being forced to fix his routine so that he would not be late for the actual meeting, this guy somehow managed to wake up at 10 in the morning when the meeting was at 10:30.