Thank you all for your nice words!! :) Flippu: Its Bookmark # 8; Remember the renewed treaty!! :P Here is the torture for today!!;) *************************************** She looked at phone. It ranged. But somehow she didn’t want to pick it up. She picked up yet again! “Hello” She answered coyly. “Hello” Avinash spoke with a concern from another end. “Alright honey??” “Yeah” She replied. “I am going home early today! I will come and pick you up and we can have some nice dinner today! There is this new place open at downtown today!!” He proposed. “Can we skip that today? I have lots of work here! Maybe this weekend!” the words came out as if she had not spoken a lie! “Okay then, same old routine!! Haaye re mero life!! See you laters hai ta!” Avinash put down the phone with a sense of humor. She looked at phone. She remembered her innumerable chit chats on phone with Aakash. She remembered putting the phone on to the stereo with worst songs as she didn’t wanted to talk and all the time Aakash had waited till she was ready to talk again. She remembered the time they had laughed and cried together in the phone. They had a connection even on the phone and she wished to call but again stopped. She was divided within. The phone has ringed that day. “Smrittttttiiiiiii!! Tapain ko phone uthaunu ta!!” Her brother had informed her. “Hello!” “Yeah Smriti!!” The sadness was hovering over in his voice. “K bhayo?? Everything all right??” She could feel the silence before a storm. “My dad has been kidnapped!” She could feel the pain in the voice. Aakash’s dad used to work as a journalist. He was born to be the investigative journalist, “Believe only what you see, write only what you feel!!” being his motto. He would write critically to both: Be it the Maoist or be it the Royal Army. And he preferred to work in the fields rather than the cubicle which may blind his perspective. The battlegrounds of the further worsening country were his office; and He would travel right onto the spots to get first hand information. His articles got published in national and international journals; and he wrote critically about both without any fear. His life has been threatened many times all anonymously; nobody or at least he never took it seriously. He had once told Aakash, “Son, Never fear when you are truthful, Truth is so strong that it is never hidden! The truth finds its way out however hard you try to hide it!” And truth was what his father believed in. That month He had gone to Bhojpur to cover the news of the clash between Maoists and the police force. And he had gone to from there in a hope to get some interviews of local leaders. He went only never to come back. “All of sudden??” She asked. “It had been 10 days since he called, and He had said he will be back after 5 days! We were less worried because this had happened earlier also! But today we got call from his guide. He said He was taken away by some of masked people! They had not told their identity, they took him in gunpoint!” He told her everything on a blink of an eye. “Have you informed authority??” She asked. “Mom had re; she got news this morning, she was rushing to everywhere and most people are not much responsive. She has appointment with a minister tomorrow. Maybe something; But I don’t know!” “Everything will be alright Aakash, don’t worry!” She tried to console. “I don’t know Smriti, but I sense something really bad; really really bad. Blame me for my sixth sense, and I dread myself from thinking that but I can’t control my thoughts…..” He stopped and become silent. She could feel the tears and she had no words to tell him anything. “Come on Akash, you should be strong, who else will take care of your mom and sister if you act like this! Please Akash!!” She said something anyways. “I know!” He broke the silence. “Are you going with your mom??” She asked. “No I won’t! Mom said she will handle things! But I will go crazy here! I can’t think straight!” “Meet me at café tomorrow morning!! As soon as you wake up give me a call!!” At least she could be together with him diverting his thoughts form miseries, and it was all he needed. The life was showing its way; which changed their destinations. She was now CEO of her own company and it had been more than three years since she had heard that voice which she used to hear almost everyday for seven years. *************************************** To be continued...