Ehsaas-Scene VI

How much time changed there was a time when Anjali lived in the mansion next to this mansion with being Daddy’s little girl and loved pampered by her step-brothers. Actually her father, Mr. Amar Banerjee married twice, once to Shashi Devi, who died in an accident from whom he had 2 twin sons, Swasit and Pranjal Banerjee and 8 years after the death of Shashi Devi, he married to her mother, Kajol Singhvi, who took divorce after 2 years of their marriage. From the second wedlock Anjali was born and Mr. Banerjee won the custody of the girl. Kajol died only after sometime so Anjali saw her only in some snaps which she possessed of her. Though she was 10 years younger to Swasit and Pranjal and she was their step-sister but they loved her from their whole heart she had always being a little princess for them.

Nihaal’s dad, Mr. Arjun Singh Rathod was family friend of her dad and business partner. And wife, Mrs. Sugandha took care of Swasit, Pranjal and Anjali with Nihaal who was 5 years elder than Anjali. When Anjali was 10. The biggest shock to their family came as while travelling in a flight Arjun and Sugandha had an accident and Sugandha died on spot after that Arjun closed himself in a nutshell and quitted from active participation from business and started  neglecting  the needs of Nihaal, Amar tried a lot to make him forget his pain but all in vain as Arjun could not forget the incident and the loss of his love, so at last Amar bought Nihaal to their house as he had a lot experience of single parenting and he didn’t wanted Nihaal’s childhood to suffer because of the tragic incident which had his no fault. That time, Nihaal was 15 years old but he behaved like a much matured person. He didn’t disturbed Arjun at all and tried to find his happiness in the family of Amar. Since that time, Anjali and Nihaal shared a special bond.  

After one year Arjun also died ailing to yearlong depression and that ended all relations of Nihaal in the world, so Amar was made his legal guardian although the death was Arjun was expected but it broke Amar from inside, he then lived only for his family in which now only Swasit, Pranjal, Nihaal and Anjali and the main reason for his living was his little angel Anjali as he felt that all boys will be able to handle themselves but it was her little girl who will need him. He has a responsibility towards her as everyday in his dreams he use to see Kajol asking him about their daughter and he saw Sugandha questioning him that how he could leave his duties in such a crucial moment. But time moved on its speed with wings flying on and it was 10 years ago when after clearing his BBA that Nihaal pleaded to Amar to return back to his parental mansion as in that way he could feel his parents at any cost he was going to India as he got selected for IIM, Ahmadabad so Amar can’t refuse and Nihaal shifted to his parental mansion though it turned more of a haunted house due to no care given to it and from that day most of the time Anjali was seeing in that mansion trying to rebuild it. She also shifted into Paris where she did her B.A. in Architecture.

 When she use to return from Venice she use to spend her time with Nihaal in his mansion and it was under her guidance the mansion was duly renovated from a haunted house to princess palace and she also bifurcated it into 3 wings one of Nihaal, one for his wife and one guest wing. She used all her skills to make it. That mansion was Anjali’s dream project which after completing actually looked like one of state of art houses and she got a critical acclamation from his family and the best magazines. She though spent so much time in Nihaal’s mansion but she always was surrounded by so many people as her two brothers, Swasit and Pranjal married to beautiful girls, Sandra and Pollomi respectively. And had sweet kids, so whenever she returned there were houseful of people surrounding her and she never in her lifetime in that moment had thought that one day she would spending her life alone.

Thoughts after wandering some time came to that year when she was 21 years old and all her life changed.

Ehsaas-Scene V

It took Anjali 18 hours to reach New York airport. As there has being a connecting flight via Rome. It was the longest time ever she travelled but she was more content than other times when she has travelled with friends who made her feel more sick as they had long talks about their boyfriends and she had little to tell about Nihaal. She was very happy as after many days she was going back to her home. After arriving in the airport she realized that she hadn’t informed anybody about her return, she took a luxury cab and told him to take her towards countryside. They were going to the property of On Location and at last after travelling more than 1 hour. She arrived in front of a twin mansion. She paid the cab driver and took out a weird remote and pressed a key and the gate of the right-handed mansion opened. Just when she was entering a large chunk of guards came to see who’s there, bowed before her, carried her luggage to the mini battery car and drove her to the mansion. After arriving in the mansion and attended by the valets, James and Jeeves, she went to her wing and was fondly watching the enlarged photo in front of her mantel with had her and Nihaal in it. They both were dressed very causally and she was looking very glowing in the picture. She just loved this photo as this was the first photo of them after his proposal.

She prepared a surprise candlelight dinner for him and waited from him to arrive. She had made every item from her own hands even after the point that if Nihaal came to know about her cooking he will fire every servant because he did not liked the point of Anjali stressing her in household works. She prepared a lavish dinner having a starter of French onion soup and charcoal grilled vegetables, a main course of Italian dishes such as Caesar salad, ravioli pasta , Margherita pizza and crocche with English champagne and ending with her signature dish which was also his favorite sweet dish having a dark-chocolate walnut brownie sizzled with custard milk and cookies and cream ice-cream. After that she got ready for the night wearing a beautiful harem like dress. She started waiting for Nihaal who yet didn’t arrived home. She was bit shocked because generally he arrives home by 6 to 7pm. But it was 9pm, she consoled herself with the fact that he had being on holiday since many days so its probability that he would have being completing the work as according to him Anjali is not there. She asked the valets that whether he has being coming late in her absence also to which it was replied that he did came late but never was so late. She instructed them to inform her as soon as he comes till then she is resting in her room and wants no disturbance from anybody. She changed into sleep dress and lied in the bed after being travelling for 20 hours and whole day decorating the mansion and his wing, cooking has drained all the energy from her body. But the sleep was not accompanying her so at last she took out the box which had a very beautiful hand-made scrapbook titled “I and Nihaal”.The scrapbook had some beautiful moments of them caputered and some comments written by Anjali on that matters. The 1^st photo only made her weep as it was the photo her wedding with her husband and the date which was written in that was 5^th October, the next week. She had her wedding anniversary next week and here she was sitting alone without anyone waiting for her love to come whom she married 5 years ago. What change time had brought in the suitations.              

Ehsaas-Scene IV

How can she forget that day it was a day when she just sat a coffee house and ordered her favorite to do, a cold coffee, sugar-free, no cream and a low chocolate fantasy pastry sizzled. Just then she saw an order pass which made somehow uneasy as the order was a hot mocha with chocolate, 2 tsp sugar, no water, full cream and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream as how can she forget its her favorite to do of Nicks in coffee house and he had a strange tendency of having everyday evening coffee in coffee houses and not in home. So let her nervousness out she took out poem collection’s book and was going through “Tithonus” by Alfred Tennyson. She got so lost in emotional poem of two lover’s pain that she didn’t notice someone nearing her. Just then she heard her favorite song “I just want to see you” from the movie P.S. I Love You. When she removed the book she saw Nicks bending on his knees to propose to her. People all over the café staring them so she angrily left the place, from the corner of eye she saw him paying bills of them and following her in a great pace and she tried to speeden up but with no use, he held her from arms and dragged towards him and said “Any, I am sorry for neglecting you. Don’t leave me. After 2 months of hide and seek I finally found you. See, I also kept your words by not sending any of my staff. You complete me. Please, Please do come back to me. Now I understand my mistake. Now you  also show your kindness and forgive me”

She said “Nicks, you kept me away from your life, your mission, your business and now when I am trying to build my own life. You are trying to interfere. You always kept an upper hand in all the matters. Now I am free and take my decisions and that’s final and if please excuse me I have to go somewhere. Bye.”

The next week was a big week she was busy with preparations of her company’s first rock concert with Vasundhara Bakshi and she was personally handling every single matter. She arranged the whole thing in an island hotel near Mumbai. She was looking very ravishing in a off-shoulder black flowing dress and with diamond studded delicate neckpiece and long designer earrings. She saw Nihaal in the 1^st row, she thought that day when she was leaving he must have got the hint from her call that came just that moment. She didn’t do anything but there was something other stored in the box of Nihaal. Just when after the show when she was leaving a beautiful white flower bouquet arrived with a stunning beautiful book-sized gift box. In the box she found a very beautiful photo of their's,where she was wearing a yellow backless top and green checked mini skirt and he was wearing white t-shirt with a light blue jeans and a diamond broach  and there was a letter which said:-

“Any, my love

                        Or I Lost The Right To Call You That. I Know I Never Gave You Time. Please Forgive Me If Possible. The Fact Is That You Are So Beautiful That I Feared That If People Come To Know About You. They Will Woo You And I Will Lose You But Now I Realized That I Have Already Lost You. I Am Going To America Tomorrow But Then Also Try If You Could Forgive Me For That. There’s A Party Next Week In Our Mansion.If You Still Have Feelings For Me, Please Do Come For That. I Will Be Waiting.

Apologizing To You
                                                                                                              Only Yours

                                                                                             Nicks or I Should Say Nihaal”

Anjali was so touched by letter that she had already decided that she will go there and why should not she go as it’s the country of her birth and love.    

Ehsaas-Scene III

Vardaan thoughts lost of 3-4 years ago, just after some days after his graduation from MBA university, he was when living a life of careless being as he had his father’s business all settled to take over and his parents was in no hurry to make him join it just then in these days only he had just met a beautiful girl who was then temporarily working in a rock band “Dhun". She was memorizing beautiful and yet she was a foreigner and was more like a free bird. Vardaan fell over head over heels for the girl. Soon the girl and he were into a serious relationship and then live-in relationship. All through all these phrases he came to know that, her name was Dhara, she left her home in love of music and became a hippie in this process at the age of 15 years and since for these last 10 years she just somehow managed to live here and there. She was brought to India by ISKCON under Hare Rama Hare Krishna Missionary who helped her leave smoking, drinking and drug addiction and she had some Indian roots as her father was an Indian and mother was Portuguese settled in America but they didn’t supported idea so she ran away from her house to fulfill her dream and had worked many odd jobs to make it possible for a living. In the meanwhile Vardaan also came to know that her bills were handled by some big industrialist in America due to his daughters wish as they were childhood mates and the daughter didn’t wanted Dhara to suffer so there was a fixed amount of money which was transferred to her account every month and surprising it was $ 50,000 per month which in Indian currency made appox. Rs. 25,00,000. From this money only she did all her expenses. He was very happy as from being from a well to do family and he was not after cash but that loads of money also added to his likes for her. The story between them was moving like a fairy tale but then it’s also true that every love story has its part of shortcomings and this also started when after 2½ years after their relationship his parents came to know about his live-in relationship which made Vardaan introduce her to his patents for marriage and they refused her due to the following reasons

 She was a foreigner so had very little knowledge about the culture and traditions of the nation so they would never be happy as she will feel outcaste in every situations due to her negligence. Plus she had no fixed background as she is a mix-blood of an Indian and Portuguese. So her lineage is blotched and the most important factor is that she has no permanent residence and she has a strong past of smoking, drinking and drug addiction and for all that some friend’s father of her has being paying proving the point of her financial instability and that allowances which could be stopped any day. So such a girl is not fit to be associated with such reputed family. Vardaan somehow convinced his father but he had to bent down before the admanant nature of his mother and as matter of fact he also felt all these points and most importantly the point of her financial inability made him also worry. So he broke the news of their break up when Dhara asked that when they will get married as now his parents also came to know about their relation, saying that “You know Dhara, I consider you as a great friend but I never considered you something just than more of a friend, room-mate and a sweet person and I could never think of marrying you and I want to marry a rich girl who has a lots of cash to support his business and now you should not make fuss that why did you lived with me and stuffs because it was after a mutual consent and I am nowhere liable for all these. Dhara withdrew quietly from flat and his life. He heard some news of her to be going through “Emotional Breakdown” and she was admitted into a rehab centre. That was last of what he heard about her.

Vardaan broke down before Anjali asking forgiveness of his deed and he asked about Dhara and was readily happy to accept her to which Anjali told that Dhara met someone in rehab centre who was also admitted there and is now happy with him. Soon they are getting married and his name is Evan Paxton, the legendary rock-star who was there after a break-up. Dhara has also starting a new career as Vasundhra Bakshi. So it would better for him leave her alone to her matters. Vardaan was stunned by news and he left the place quietly. After his leaving and she met Dhara for congratulating for success of the previous night, when she was just sitting in a coffee house her mind started roaming to the memories of some other such day and she quietly took out a letter.  

Ehsaas-Scene II

Vardaan had been ringing the bell. It took a long time to open the door, Anjali was tired as she returned really late to home yesterday night as it was a big day  for the company of Anjali , its 1st rock concert and that too such a hit , she returned yesterday around 3 at night. She was mumbling to herself that who the hell was there in such early morning at 6 but she somehow opened the door and seeing Vardaan she plasters a smile. She says "Hi, will you make me a coffee till then I will be just back". Vardaan looked over her as she turned she looked so beautiful, pretty and sweet that she can't betray anyone and that's the reason he believed that there something more than what he saw  in the snaps. Determined on this fact he entered the kitchen and was making the coffee.

10 mins later,

As he was keeping the coffee on the table, his hand unintentionally hit a box kept on the kitchen table, inside it was a photo album he decided to have a look. He was surprised to see the photos of Anjali in Rome, Paris and all around the world. Then followed some photos in which she and Nihaal were there, in most of the photos they were in informals but from photos one could easily guess that they shared a strong and serious relationship but these photos didn't disturbed him as much as the following few pages they contained some photos of Anjali growing up years and contained mostly of her close friends and family and in that one face made him feel nervous. Just when his anxiety was on the top level, Anjali entered. She now looked more clear and sweet. Seeing her all barriers of Vardaan broke and he screamed "Anjali! What are these? They show me a different life you lead before meeting me and you never even bothered me to tell that. You never told me that you have visited approx all the world and that too in such a lavish manner that you know some of the world figures of today's generation. You even didn't informed me that you were romantically involved with a guy for more than 4 years and even you had a close association with my X girl-friend. You owe me an explanation about what's all these happening. Tell me! Answer me! I am eager to know your reply. After seeing all these I even doubt whether I know you or not. Anjali pls explain me the situation as its making me more confused." Vardaan would have expected breaking down of Anjali, then her crying bitterly and making him aware of her past and situations plus asking for apology from him but rather he received something like this which made him weak. As Anjali stated confidently and coolly:-

"By the way you owe an apology as it was not me who robbed your privacy it was you who actually violated my privacy by looking into the box. The box contained some of my cherished moments and I will not appreciate that part of looking in that. For your information I am M.A. in Architecture and I did it from Rome and B.A. from Paris so had so many photos over there and we got assignments all over the world so those are my photos working in the world. Leading to knowing your X girl-friend is that I knew her before you met her and even from her childhood , she is actually my best friend and actually I am the 'Anjali Banerjee' who paid all her bills for last 10 years. I came here only for her and for last of your questions you saw me with and screaming me for having relationship is the only person of my life of my life. The person whom I love and I do not feel the need to tell a friend about all these and my relationship status. It's actually my personal life."

All these statments left Vardaan baffled and after many moments he just managed to say "You should have told me. I considered our relationship more than just friends. I loved you"

Anjali only smiled and said that "Try to remember Vardaan you also once said somnething to a girl for using her for more than 3 years. Now destiny tried to repay you making me the medium." Vardaan thoughts wandered to 3 years ago..........................................................

Ehsaas - Scene I

 Vardaan felt his whole world crumbing before his eyes as the person whom he just started to believe his best friend pulled all his land from his feets. It all happened so quickly that it gave him no time to recover. Just few days back only he met Nihaal, or we should say the great legendary Nihaal Singh Rathod , the co-owner of On Location Group, the largest trading group in the world. Today only when Vardaan went to pick Nihaal from the hotel as he was leaving back today to New York. He saw a photo frame which had some some snaps lying in the luggage of Nihaal. The photos were of Nihaal and a lady who looked like Anjali, his current girl friend. When Vardaan asked about the snaps, Nihaal only smiled shyly and said that "Vardaan, my buddy these are the snaps of mine and my lady love in last 5-6 years. Some days ago due to some problems she left me and now I came to India, to Mumbai only to search her and to convince her that she should return to me as some disputes should not break the beautiful relationship we have shared." This all left Vardaan shocked and speechless. He decide that he would not let the beautiful relationship between him and Anjali destroy due to some past reasons but he was disturbed that Anjali did not tell him about her past. Unaware of the turbulence going in the mind of Vardaan, Nihaal said in the airport "Bye, my friend, I will always remember you as my close friend and who helped me a lot in this new city. Wish me luck that I accomplish my mission for which I came here and hope your love story also success. All the Best." Vardaan firmly decided that he would go back and question and investigate the matter with Anjali, thinking this only he turned his car towards Anjali's building.