Part 26

“Aakash, what is it? Don’t you want to get married?” asked Anjali scared about his answer, she wanted to see at least one brother get married properly.

Aakash just sat at the foot of his huge master bed with a little frown on his face and with his and his head bent and didn’t reply to her.

“Aakash please tell me what’s bothering you? You know you can tell me anything..” Anjali was getting more and more agitated with Aakash’s silence, she started praying in her heart.

When Aakash didn’t reply again she sat beside him and took his hand in hers and said “Aakash if you don’t tell me what’s going on in your mind, I will take it for granted that you don’t love me.” She said with a quivering tone, she was truly getting close to tears, “were both her brothers not going to get married!!”

Aakash looked up sharply at her and said “Di please… tell me what do you want to know?”

Anjali said “Don’t you want to get married?” she asked without beating around the bush.

Aakash looked away and thought “Come on Aakash now is your chance tell her now, don’t delay it and make your life a Bollywood movie…”. He took a deep breath and said “Di… mmm.. it’s not that I am not interested in getting married…it’s just….mmm…” he didn’t know how to put it in words.

Anjali frowned looking at his discomfort also noticed the slight blush that was slightly coloring her brother’s face and realization hit her face and she drew her breath in very audibly and with her heart almost bursting with joy she clarified her doubt saying “Aakash you love someone, you don’t want to marry anyone else but her.” She didn’t question she just needed his approval.

Aakash looked at her and smiled and nodded in the positive, that’s all Anjali almost jumped with joy and hugged him and said “Aakash you don’t know how happy you have made me today. Who is she Aakash? Do we know her?”

Aakash was also grinning like a happy teenager and nodded and “Yes, Di you know her and like her too.”

“Aakash quit talking in puzzles and tell me her name now..” she almost yelled

“Di … mmm.. it’s …. Payal… Garima aunty’s..” he paused as he saw that his Di was no longer listening to him had broken into fits of laughter… “Di.. what is it?” he asked not understanding her reaction.

Between her fits of giggles she clarified his doubt “ Now… I know why you yelled yesterday night, and also this morning…” after she explained it to him she broke into more giggles.

Aakash put a slightly annoyed expression on his face and said “Di please…” and turned away from her.

Anjali sobered up and said “Ok ok Aakash I am so happy, you two will make the perfect couple, wait till I tell Nani she will be thrilled..”

“No need to tell me anything” Came Nani’s voice from the entrance to Aakash’s room and both her grandchildren shot up, one because she was too happy and the other because he was too worried.

“Nani did you hear? Isn’t it wonderful?” said Anjali

“Mm mm… so this is what was going on… when were you planning on telling us Aakash bitua? Did Payal tell her parents yet?” Asked Nani making Aakash more nervous

“Wo..Woh…Na… Nani… I… haven’t told Payal yet…” he stammered

“Mm mm, so we don’t know if Payal bitiya likes you too.” Said Nani in a thoughtful voice but said “Anjali bitiya get everything ready for Shagun and we will go and ask for Payal bitiya’s hand tomorrow and if Payal bitiya too likes the alliance we will give her the shagun tomorrow itself and come back.” Said Nani and saw Anjali’s and Aakash’s face fill with pure unadulterated joy at her words.. she smiled back at Aakash caressed his cheek and said “ you chose well bitua, I am sure your married life will be wonderful, we will pray that Payal bitiya agrees tomorrow. OK, now I will go and talk to Manorama about this.”

Aakash stopped smiling at Nani’s words and started worrying and it showed on his face, as he realized the hurdles in his path to get what he wanted.

 Nani saw the change and said “Don’t worry bitua, I am sure your father will say yes and me and him together can convince your mom.”

“Aakash, any girl will be happy to have you as a life partner, I am sure Payalji won’t say no.” said Anjali.

Aakash smiled for them but his heart was no longer thudding with a peaceful rhythm, it was sounding more like the drums at Kali pooja. Anjali and Nani walked out of the room, Nani headed towards his parent’s room and he saw Di dialing someone on her cell….. probably Jijaji.

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He slammed his car door shut with such force that the whole SUV shook with the impact. Then the human tornado hit the AR headquarters with such force that people started praying for their safety. He was confused, his feelings were mixed up and he was very angry with no one in particular and everyone in general.

“What the Heck is wrong with his Nani!!” was all his brain could think of but didn’t go into why or how his Nani was wrong…”She was wrong… that’s it!!”

Aman knocked on the door practically shaking in his boots, he had seen ASR storm into the office in a worse mood than usual.

“YES” came the roar.

Aman stepped in and said “Sir… the private detective is here.”

ASR took a deep breath to get his thoughts under control, and said “Send him in Aman.”

As soon as the detective came in and had taken his seat after the introductions were complete by a stuttering Aman. ASR told him

“Here is what I want, I want you to find out all the details about Mr.Shyam Manohar Jha’s daily activities, I want to know about his clients and his undertakings and anything that he does from the moment he steps out of his house until he steps back in there. I will be gone for a while, I want all the information ready by the time I get back in 6 weeks. In case there is an emergency, Aman will know how to contact me.” He gave a pause and said with a low steely voice “This is highly confidential if anybody…… and I mean anybody other than the people in this room get to know about this….then you will wish that you had never been born…..”

The detective realized he was dismissed as soon as ASR went on to look through his smart phone and got up to leave and ASR got up and shook his hand and turned away from the people in the room to gaze out of the floor to ceiling glass wall in his office.

As Aman led the detective out the detective said “Sir, we are talking about the famous criminal lawyer, Mr.Shyam Manohar Jha, right?” he voiced his one and only doubt.

ASR nodded in the positive still looking away from the people in the room. The detective left a happy man he got a case that was worth working on, unlike the high profile clients who make them tail their wives or vice versa. Finding out about one of the brightest criminal minds would be worthy job.