Aanya was reading the article for the tenth time but still found something missing. She couldn't pinpoint the source of her discontentment and was mulling over it when suddenly a human hurricane came hurtling towards her in the form of her younger brother Aryan.
"Di I have had enough of this girl Nikita. She is totally crazy and just because I am her friend and desk-mate, our teacher thinks that I am a part of every scatter-brained scheme she hatches and even thinks that I help her in her mischief too. Our class teacher asked me to give this to you " thus saying he handed her the note.
Dear guardian,
Please meet me at school tomorrow at 10 o'clock.
Mrs. Lal
"So what did you two do this time?" she asked her younger brother.
"We didn't do anything wrong we were just helping a girl from another section who was being bullied by her classmates." He answered defensively.
"First go to your room, take a shower and come back down to have lunch. We will discuss this later." Aanya rubbed her tired eyes and watched her brother go upstairs to his room.
She and Aryan had only each other to rely on after their parents died in a car crash four years ago. She had to take on the role of a guardian at the tender age of eighteen. When all her school friends were enjoying their college life she was busy raising her brother and juggling home chores and a job. Financially they had no problems but emotionally they had only each other to lean on. She had no social life, a few friends, nil experience with men, and no time to be carefree whatsoever.
She still shuddered as she remembered those days after her parents' cremation when she had to take on the role of a fully grown adult, cope with her loss, and console a ten year old brother, who wanted his mother's embrace and his father's reassurance that everything was fine. In addition to this she had to shoulder all the other responsibilities like claiming life insurance and arranging a terehwi ceremony that is arranged thirteen days after the cremation day. Her so called relatives had tried to help them but she had often heard her parents discussing their never ending demand for money so she decided to rely on no one. They only wanted a chance to get their greedy paws on her parents' hard earned money.
Many relatives had tried to marry her off to other distant relatives over the years but she never agreed. She wanted to raise her brother herself and knew that a husband would never treat her brother as a part of his family. When the whole world treated women as an equal of men, this small town of Dehradun in the state of Uttarakhand in northwest of India was formed of a community of people who still had an outdated way of thinking. Unmarried girls and married women were allowed to earn money but were never independent. Women were still the lesser of the two genders. People still lived in joint families and a daughter-in-law was still given no say in the matters of the family. The main source of income in a family was always a man's salary, he was the head of the family and his family's needs took priority over his wife's family. Love marriages were still frowned upon. Aanya did not want her brother to be neglected or to be looked down upon by anyone because of her.
Nowadays she was a famous freelance writer and could work from her home thus giving her the time to raise a teenager.
This was the second time in a month that she had been asked to meet the class teacher of her brother. She knew her brother was mature for his age and seldom acted out of character but she wanted him to have a childhood to remember, to get in mischief, to have a carefree attitude, to have more friends, to do everything any normal teenager would do. She knew he lacked male guardianship and never wanted to be a burden to her. He was a good student; she had no problems regarding his studies. He was the captain of his school's cricket team and monitor of his class as well as prefect for his school-house.
"Di what are we having for lunch today?" Aryan asked her coming down the stairs and putting an end to her thoughts. With athletic lean body and a height of six foot, he looked rather handsome. His face was a combination of the best features from both of their parents. His lashes thick, long and black. His straight nose and his pointed chin showed a determined nature. His full red lips were the envy of many girls his age. In spite of these feminine features his face was wholly masculine with thick eyebrows, sharp cheekbones, a broad forehead and a head full of thick, black, silky, unruly hair. Aanya had often seen girls staring at him whenever they went anywhere together.
"Curry and rice, your favorite" she replied, smiling up at him.
"On what article are you working today?" he asked while getting seated beside her on a chair.
"It's an article on the growing rate of love marriages and its impact on our society" she answered, handing him a plate of steaming hot food.
"The food is delicious di, just the way I like it" he said while savoring his food.
They finished eating and left to finish their own respective work. Aryan went up to his room to study and Aanya went to her home-office. She had started working just after graduating from college, at the age of nineteen. She had been working at a newspaper office thus didn't have any time to spend with her brother so she decided to start working from home as a freelance columnist. It was a rough start but with her determination she was thriving in no time.
They lived at a place named Raipur. It was a place rural enough to give off a sense of peace but at the same time urban enough to reach every facility just in time. They lived at a distance of five minutes by foot from the bus-stop. The neighborhood was mostly quiet, the neighbors friendly if a bit nosy. Their house was a double storied bungalow made with a sense of homeliness about it. A huge iron gate protected the front from any stray animals. A small lawn covered with lush green grass had a wide array of colorful flowers on pots along the walls on all sides. The porch was wide. A carved wooden door opened in the center of a huge sitting room with floor to ceiling windows covered with white net curtains on an entire wall. Simple yet classy sofa, a divan, a carved wooden center table with a glass surface and a few accessories like paintings and family photographs gave a feeling of simplicity as well as quiet elegance. It led to dining room attached to a modular kitchen on one side and an attached bathroom on the other. A huge staircase beside the main door lead to the second floor where all the four bedrooms were situated.
She reached the first room which had been renovated as an office for her use. She sat down on her comfortable chair and resumed her work. She had to finish her article and mail it to the editor before the deadline. Her life was monotonous with the same chores and activities filling up her days. Her life lacked adventure and she thought that was what she wanted, a simple monotonous, easy life. All that was about to change.........
