June’ 2002, Monday – 19:00 Hrs,
Midtown, Manhattan Borough (NY City), NY.
Aryan requested his mama to wake him up but she didn’t I knew she would do this as I might lose sleep. Aryan thought waking up. It was 19:00 Hrs and by the time Dayanand had arrived and was resting in his bedchamber.
“Hey Nemo” Aryan said in an extreme excitement as happy as a sand boy.
“O Aryan, my King, how are you young man, I missed you so much” Dayanand responded in a low voice.
Every single time when Dayanand meets him, he had a modus operandi of receiving him. With a grin like a Cheshire cat, kissing his forehead, taking him into his arms, ruffling his hair and then talked his heart out. This time it was a jolt for Aryan as Dayanand lay down while receiving him. Rekha’s incomplete look in the morning and Dayanand’s conduct triggered him a thought of his grands father’s illness. Up in the air, he opted to broach the subject with his mother and talk more about it to learn on what’s wrong with Dayanand.
“I am good and look at me, perfect” Aryan said with a sham smile as he had a hunch over the lurgy. “How are you Nemo? You seem to be busy all the day?” he asked.
“I am fine Aryan, absolutely fine,” he voiced out words sporadically in a low voice, occluding few of them.
“Nemo, why do you hold all the charges on to your head at this stage of your life? Don’t you wanna give it to dad? He is lying all day swigging”
“Hahaha! My King, back then when I married, I lost my wife giving birth to your father, since then, your father didn’t know what a mother’s love is and how would it be. I was asked to marry for the second time but I rejected all the proposals as I married your grandmother after loving and giving my whole heart to her. I never thought or wanted to share my love with any other women. My wife knew that she would die the next moment when she gives birth to your father, she always wanted to bring him to this world by giving her life to him. After your father came out of her, I took his life to be my wife’s. I never wanted my wife’s life to get into trouble, I never wanted my wife’s life to get strained with arduous tasks, be it physical or mental. I brought him up giving him everything he asked and I never wanted to anchor his life by ceasing his freedom because it only embarrassed me”
“That is the mistake you did Nemo, not caring for your son. You thought you were caring, but he took it to lenience and now you see him, don’t you? I am sorry, I pity my father but I dislike him for not keeping up to a be a real son”
“It’s all over Aryan, it’s an already a grown tree. Talking anything about it, howbeit will never get it right, it will only be a subject to kill time”
“I reckon the same. You take rest, I will see you tomorrow,” Aryan replied and left the room switching off the lights; shutting the door”
“So what has happened to Nemo, you may not want to lie” Aryan questioned his mom at the dining table.
“Please serve the soup to the junior” Rekha insisted the lackey. She replied “nothing to worry Aryan, he is doing fine. Just some problems with the lungs and the heart”
“Is it Critical?” he asked her sipping the corn soup.
“Not so serious. Nemo assured me,” Rekha reverted with a smile “Ironically, still and all he takes care of your father. So don’t worry son, he can take good care of himself. He is a strong man, ‘THE NEMO’, you know it”
“I am glad to hear the positive line of notion” he said.
After fifteen minutes of eating at the dining, he heard a familiar voice saying “how are you, my dear? When did you arrive?”
“Hi dad, I am okay! I have come in the morning while you are away” he replied reluctantly.
“Yeah Junior, I had to go out with Nemo, he had a doctor consultation today,” Vivek said, “Just the curd, I am half full already” while the lackey proceeded to serve the food.
“Why isn’t your stomach hollow dad? You had anything before coming for dinner?” he tried insinuating the tipple disposition of Vivek.
“No son, little stomach upset. I’ve come to spend time while eating with my son” he said, “It’s been a long enough,” grinning from ear to ear looking at him.
In fits and starts he despised him for who he was and fitfully, at the other times he endeared again for who he was. It was bizarre as such for Aryan, the fusion of two extremities in emotions: despise and the love. He was never concerned about the ambivalence in his feelings. He had the perspicuity for why he had an aversion or a tenderness. Aryan thought, unlike him most of his mates, they categorically divided people into good and bad based on subjective feelings. He explained himself that if they liked an individual then anything was right in regards to that person but if they abominated then everything else was wrong in regards to that loathed person. In fact he believed that he never found a mate who liked the right and shunned the wrong in a person. I am the only person maybe, who accepts the right and leave the wrongs Aryan dabbed on his confidence.
They were finished with the dinner by the time it was 22:30. “Dad, let’s go and mama you wanna join this time?” Aryan triggered an uninvited question. After dinner, the three had a routine of walking in the garth. They called it “a family time”.
Power and Pelf 