Good People: Must Read Novel

Kelly and Shaan took stock of situation around them. They could see total devastation all around them- dead bodies, collapsed and damaged buildings, structural damages, floating cars and other vehicles. The electricity and communication systems were totally out of order. The environment around them wore a dismally grim picture.

They also heard about a dam getting burst. Trains, airplanes and roads were almost dysfunctional.

News was floating around that a nuclear power plant was seriously affected. It resulted in several explosions. Heavy radioactive substance got released in profusion forcing evacuation of some 200,000 people living in the vicinity of the plant.

While they were exchanging these concerns some frantic activity was taking place on top of a small building some distance away from Kelly and Shaan.

A girl at the rooftop of a small building was waving a piece of cloth. She was also shouting something that was inaudible. All around her was water, right up to the top of the building almost.

Kelly was looking through a binocular to trace the trapped people who were in need of an immediate rescue. In her sight came this girl on the rooftop attracting the attention of someone who could rescue her.

She was at a quarter of mile’s distance.

She directed Shaan’s attention to this girl. Shaan took the binocular from Kelly and focused it at the girl. He saw the girl was waving a handkerchief in his direction. It looked like she had seen the two rescuers and was requesting for help.

“We must save her,” Shaan spoke in a tone that suggested that he was quite at a loss to speak out coherently.

He muttered in inaudible syllables and made some ambiguous gestures. Yet Kelly read him correctly. She understood that he wanted them to reach that building without wasting any single minute.

So Kelly already started rowing their boat towards the girl’s direction. Shaan joined her and soon started the engine. Within a few minutes they reached the building.

With the help of the gadgets they carried, Shaan soon reached the top of the building. Kelly remained in the boat.

Then Kelly saw Shaan approaching the girl and as he neared her, she saw Shaan into a wild embrace of the girl the next moment. They remained in an embrace for a good period of time. Soon the girl was kissing Shaan all over his face. She was crying and tears rolled down her cheeks in profusion.

It was quite a scene.

“The girl is getting hysterical, I suppose. No, I am not jealous,” Kelly assured herself.

Next five minutes remained mystery filled for Kelly. Presently they were in the boat and Shaan was making the girl sit down.

He introduced the girl to Kelly, “Kelly, guess who she is? Can you ever imagine she is Medhavi?”

Kelly did not know how to react. She was contemplating in her head, “Why of all the people Medhavi has to make an appearance right now when I am so full of love for Shaan? I wish I had not spotted her through my binocular.”

Without waiting for Kelly’s reply Shaan asked Medhavi, “Medhavi, what the hell you were doing here? How come you got caught in the tsunami?”

Medhavi was very weak. She spoke with great efforts, “Work brought me to Japan.”

Kelly found that Medhavi’s voice was hardly audible; she looked so frail and weak. She seemed to have no energy to speak out any more.

Then suddenly Kelly felt outrageous at her own sinister thoughts about Medhavi. She reminded herself of the aims and objectives of ‘Humanity Forum’ and started the procedure that was supposed to be administered on the rescued victim. The procedure aimed at pulling out the rescued subject from the trauma and to provide the life saving medical aid immediately.

Kelly also provided the first aid, bandaged the wounds and asked Medhavi to gulp down two spoonful of brandy. Then she provided her some food.

Shaan steered the boat and brought Medhavi to a camp where he handed her over to a team of doctors and nurses.

He consoled Medhavi, “You are now in safe hands. We will see you soon. Be a good girl. Obey your doctors.”

Shaan and Kelly got busy with saving some more lives till finally they felt that they could not continue to work any longer. They turned back towards their camp. It was already late evening.

As Shaan was entering the camp, a gentleman who was also approaching the camp stopped him.

He asked, “Is this the rescue camp of ‘Humanity Forum’ of America?”

Shaan answered, “Yes it is. What do you want?”

“I wanted to meet a person named Shaan. I understand he works here.”

“I am Shaan,” Shaan shook hands with the stranger.

The stranger shook hands with Shaan, “By the way my name is Samskara.” Then he continued, “I never thought it would be so easy locating you. I came here with a request to save my wife. I tried to contact her from US but all the communication systems are out of order. Then I thought of flying to this place.”

“How do you know my name?” Shaan enquired.

“My wife knows you. She had mentioned to me about your association with ‘Humanity Forum’ and from the TV announcements I learnt that your team is already here. I urge upon you to rescue my wife; she must have been stranded in this area because her apartment is located in this Sendai area.”

“Is Medhavi your wife’s name?”

“Yes. Will your team rescue her soon?”

Shaan looked at Kelly with a smile. She was listening to their conversation but preferred to keep quiet.

Shaan introduced her to Samskara and said, “Kelly has already saved your wife’s life. She was the first to locate her on top of a marooned building through her binoculars. Had she missed her, we could have lost that particular chance of saving Medhavi.”

“Thank you very much Kelly. I am very grateful to you. Where is Medhavi? Can I go see her? Hope she is fine?”

“Yes, yes. You can meet her now. We will take you to her. But since she is in a trauma, it will be preferable not to speak with her now. Most probably you may find her already asleep. She was very tired when we rescued her.”

When they went inside the camp where all the patients were being given medical attention by the doctors and nurses, Samskara saw Medhavi already asleep on one of the beds.” He kept looking at her with some satisfaction and then turned to Shaan and Kelly, “I have no words to thank you two.”

Kelly spoke, “No need to thank us. It was our duty to do so.” Shaan nodded.

“I think I will check-in a nearby hotel and visit you guys tomorrow morning. I can then meet Medhavi as well.”

“Yes that will be advisable,” Shaan said.

(Get your copy of the novel "Good People" as an eBook from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009BHH37G only for $ 0.99. You may also like to get its Printed Book from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Good-People-Dream-Boundary-World/dp/1479333085/ref=sr_1_8_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380916602&sr=1-8&keywords=shyam+bhatawdekar%27s+books)

Novels and Stories

Novel "Good People" http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/
Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/
Stories Children Will Love http://stories-children.blogspot.com/

Friday, October 25, 2013

Good People: Chapter 10: Romantic Scenarios

All the Chapters

Chapter 1: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-path-breaking-novel-and.html

Chapter 2: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-classic-novel-and-classic.html

Chapter 3: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-romance-with-difference.html

Chapter 4: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-unique-story.html

Chapter 5: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-contemporary-romance.html

Chapter 6: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-story-of-subtleties-of-life.html

Chapter 7: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-interestig-reading.html

Chapter 8: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-global-perspective.html

Chapter 9: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-contemporary.html

Chapter 10: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-romantic-scenarios.html

Chapter 11: http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-professionally-right.html

Chapter 12: http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-expanding-thinking-horizons.html

Chapter 13: http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-people-modern-romance.html

Chapter 14: http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/11/good-people-serious-reflections.html

Chapter 15: http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/11/good-people-story-of-human-paradigms.html

Chapter 16: http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/11/good-people-dilemma-and-solutions.html

Chapter 17: http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/11/good-people-romance-and-tough-decisions.html

Chapter 18: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/11/good-people-tale-of-disaster-and-anxiety.html

Chapter 19: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/12/good-people-prejudices-and-conflicts.html

Chapter 20: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/12/good-people-anxiety-and-love-story.html

Chapter 21: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/12/good-people-love-triangle-jealousy-and.html

Chapter 22: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2013/12/good-people-interesting-climax.html

Chapter23: http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2014/01/good-people-love-story.html

Chapter 24: https://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/2014/01/good-people-finally-love-knows-no-bounds.html

Chapter 10

Mumbai’s international airport can become nightmarishly disorganized and chaotic in the nights due to sudden influx of unimaginably large numbers of people. The reason for this is that most of the important international flights depart at night at all kinds of odd and indecent hours.

Shaan’s flight was to take off at 11.30 PM. Considering the other odd hours at which flights take off from Mumbai, 11.30 PM was reasonably decent time.

Giving allowance for the time lost in maneuvering the ocean of humanity at Mumbai airport and with the menace of multiple security checks and other manmade bureaucracy, one needs to reach Mumbai airport three hours before the flight departure time. Shaan reached Mumbai airport at 8.30 PM.

The long line at the entrance to the airport at Mumbai can easily discourage any mortal to cancel his plans.

Like many others Shaan was courageous too. He joined the line. And so, after combating all the procedures of the airport when he settled down in the airplane boarding area, his eyes fell on a familiar looking female figure.

He thought to himself, “Am I imagining? Or is that female really Medhavi?”

While he was contemplating all this, the female in question turned and her full face was visible to Shaan. She also met eyes with Shaan’s but quickly turned away her gaze.

“She is pretending again. Pretention seems to be in her blood. She is pretending as if she did not see me. She is trying to dodge me very cleverly,” Shaan thought.

On the other hand Medhavi was taken aback by this unexpected appearance of Shaan. If any person she wanted to meet least was Shaan. She decided on the spur of the moment, “I must not allow Shaan to see me or meet me any more.” And she moved away from there so that she was out of his sight.

Shaan visited some bookstores on the airport before boarding was announced.

He then tried to look out for Medhavi but could not locate her. He had no problem meeting her at the airport and speaking with her.

On the other hand Medhavi was avoiding him. She sat at a place in the boarding area from where she could observe Shaan’s movements but Shaan could not have seen her.

As the boarding was announced all the passengers formed a line and started moving towards the airplane. Shaan stood almost towards the tail end of the line. He entered the airplane and reached his seat. Then after shoving his hand baggage in the overhead lockers, he settled down in the seat allotted to him.

A lady was sitting next to him occupying the window seat. She was busy adjusting herself and did not notice her co-passenger. Same way Shaan had not noticed her till then. And almost simultaneously they turned their faces to each other and both were taken aback.

Shaan exclaimed, “Hi”.

“Hi,” Medhavi replied a bit sheepishly. She knew that she was avoiding Shaan all along and Shaan had understood it.

Therefore to save her face she said, “You are a very funny person. You had declared your love to me and met my parents. Then you were supposed to meet them again to know their mind on the matter. My parents were expecting you but you never turned up nor you had the decency to inform us your intentions. I wish I had not met you like this here. I never again wanted to meet a cheat like you.” Offence is always a good strategy of defense.

Medhavi’s words poured anger towards Shaan. She did it deliberately. She was a first rate actor.

And she was genuinely angry too. Her parents had already decided to declare their denial to give Medhavi’s hand to Shaan in marriage. Medhavi had seconded their decision without any resistance whatsoever. In fact that was Medhavi’s own idea right from beginning. So she very much wanted Shaan to go to their house and meet her parents where her parents would outright refuse Shaan’s proposal of marrying her.

She wanted to see Shaan’s defeat. She wanted him to lose her this way by facing severe humiliation. That would have settled the score. But since Shaan did not visit them any more, she had not been able to achieve her intentions. She had a very strong reason to be frustrated and angry with Shaan.

Medhavi started getting up from her seat. She collected her purse and requested Shaan to make way for her to get out. She said, “I will sit elsewhere. I do not wish to spoil my first journey to USA by sitting near a deceiver. Please let me get out.”

Shaan remained unaffected by her tantrums. He said, “Medhavi, if you do not like my company then I will go sit somewhere else. You need not have to do that. But do tell me about your meeting with Anji before I go from here. I know that you had met Anji immediately after I left your home that day after meeting your parents.”

“I never met Anji that day or later. What rot you are talking about?”

“Please don’t tell a lie this blatantly. Let me now tell you that I was there on the rocks near the lake when you shared with Anji your victory over me. That was the reason I did not meet you and your parents. Hope you understand me now. Bye.”

Medhavi cursed herself for being so reckless that day. She should have been careful enough to make sure that no one was around them when she leaked her secret to Anji. She felt very horrible now thinking that Shaan must be thinking her to be stupid. She was anguished that her smartness did not work with Shaan. Shaan scored over her again.

She was almost in tears because of her yet another defeat.

Before Medhavi could utter anything, Shaan went towards a vacant seat far away from the present one. Medhavi and Shaan did not meet each other or spoke with each other till they reached Los Angeles.

At LA airport commonly known as LAX, once again by sheer accident they took their position side by side along the baggage carousel to claim their baggage. They were not aware that they stood so close to each other. Both were concentrating on the conveyor.

Medhavi’s bag arrived earlier. It was quite a huge bag and she could not manage to get it off the carousel. When Shaan saw that the lady positioned next to him was not in a position to pick up her bag, he picked it up and handed it over to her. Then he saw that the lady was none other than Medhavi. They were destined to meet once again.

Instead of thanking Shaan Medhavi exploded, “You need not show off your chivalry. I won’t be impressed now, nor was I ever impressed earlier. I could have managed.”

In the mean time Shaan’s bag arrived. But he waited. He knew that Medhavi was waiting for her second bag since she had not walked away after securing her first bag.

He stood near the carousel.

As her second bag arrived, Medhavi almost tumbled down in the process of retrieving the bag from the carousel. Shaan picked up the bag with one hand and with the other he somehow managed to save Medhavi from falling on the carousel. A serious accident was avoided. Yet she could not escape some bruises.

Shaan took her to one side and made her sit on a bench nearby. She was in a kind of slight trauma. Her leg was hurt pretty badly and the blood started oozing out.

Shaan tied his handkerchief around her wound. He gave her some water to drink. He asked her to lie down on the bench. She was in a bit of daze and she followed all the instructions of Shaan quite obediently.

Shaan then collected his own bag and the bags of Medhavi on two trolleys and brought them near the bench where Medhavi was resting.

Soon Medhavi started feeling better. She said, “I am thankful to you. I better get going now.”

“It is not advisable to travel alone in this condition. I will escort you up to your destination. Can you tell me where?”

Medhavi was in no position to fight with him.

She replied to Shaan, “University of California. I will do my MS there. I am going to stay with Anji. She also took admission for MS at the same university. She came here a few days ago and fixed up an apartment with the help of her relatives in LA. I will share the apartment with her.”

“Let us go then. I will drop you there and then be back at the airport to catch the flight to San Jose. Luckily the layover time is sufficient for me to drop you and return in time for the next flight.”

“No, don’t bother. I have the exact directions from Anji to reach the apartment near the university. I can manage.”

“How can you manage on your own? You are still limping. I can see that you cannot even walk properly. I insist that I come with you.”

“OK. I think that suits me. OK.” Her leg started paining now.

Then they got into a cab. Medhavi gave the address to the cab driver. After a few minutes of silence Medhavi took the initiative. She was curious.

“Came on business?” She asked.

“How do you know?”

“I kept track. I know that you started your own company ‘Soft Act’. Am I right? So I guessed it might be in connection with that.”

“Yes. It’s ‘Soft Act’. I have a meeting with a prospective client in San Jose tomorrow. Hope it works.”

Then there was a lull for a very long period. Both of them just did not know what more to converse. The previous incidents became a barrier.

As they neared the university, Shaan ultimately spoke, “Medhavi, I do not know if we will meet in life again. So before we part each other, let me tell you that my love for you was absolutely genuine. And after hearing what you told Anji that day I can understand your compulsions. I know that getting into an inter-religion marriage is not easy and so, it is not everyone’s cup of tea. My status was still more complicated- an orphan tagged as Hindu, a child adopted by a Muslim father and a Christian mother, finally a religion less adult. So don’t worry, I have nothing against you.”

As Medhavi was getting out of the taxi, Shaan came out and shook hands with Medhavi saying, “I wish you all the best for your future.”

Before waiting to hear Medhavi’s reply, he got into the taxi and headed back towards LAX.

Medhavi was a bit perplexed at the unbelievably decent behavior of Shaan despite being treated so badly by her. She talked to herself, “It would have been perfectly OK if he had been rough with me. If I was in his position I would have done it.”

As she started walking towards the apartment, she retraced all of what happened from the time she collided with Shaan in the corridor of the college till the present moment and then concluded by saying, “Shaan is weird.”

She realized that Shaan’s handkerchief was still tied around her leg. She untied it. She wanted to throw it away as she did not want to have anything of Shaan’s with her- neither his handkerchief nor his memory.

But for some reason unknown to her, she kept it in her purse before she knocked the apartment’s door.

Anji came out and hugged her, “Welcome to America dear Medhavi. Tell me everything of your long journey.”

Medhavi shared every detail except any mention of Shaan.