Chapter 6: The
Accidental Meeting
While
she was crossing the road to the main entrance of the airport, a black color
Mercedes car came to a screeching halt in front of her. The suddenness of the
event and the loud screech of the tires caused Geet to instantly freeze in the
middle of the road. Dropping all her luggage, she stood with her eyes closed
and her hands on her ears fearing the minute she opens it she may find herself
in heaven. The suddenness of the assault left her speechless but she came back
to her senses when she heard people gathering around her. Realizing she was
actually alive and thanking her Muruga for keeping her alive, she looked around
to see who had dared to drive so harshly near the pick up and drop off area.
Anger slowly boiled in her insides and she banged the bonnet of the black car
shouting at the driver for his irresponsible and rash driver. "You loosu
(mental) fellow, ullu de patte, chandala (b******)," she screamed mixing all
the bad words from both the languages she knew, "can you not see where you are
driving," she said walking towards the windows furiously. Seeing no response
from the car, she was taken aback. A large crowd had gathered around her, curious
to know what happened, but seeing no get out of the car, it made her look like
a local indecent woman screaming on top of her lungs trying to extract money by
falling in front of a nice and expensive car. It was humiliating to be standing
in the midst of a whispering and murmuring crowd. Not wanting to gain more
attention she quietly tapped the tinted window, asking the person inside to get
out so that she could reprimand them of their irrational driving. She moved
away from the door expecting the driver to get out of the car, but she was
surprised when the passenger window of the car slowly opened to reveal young man.
From what she could see, his face was clear-cut as though God had taken exact
measurements while sculpting his face and had chopped off at perfect angles. He
was dressed to look professional in his dark blue shirt, matching tie, and a
black vest. His shades had hid his cold and stern expression. Opening the
window, a slight wind brushed his face yet his hair stood exactly in its place,
fearing adverse consequences if moved otherwise. With a sleek motion he removed
his aviator shades and Geet could see his cold gaze piercing her ready to
shatter her to thousand pieces as though as was made of thin glass. Unable to
confront his bitter gaze she quickly looked away for an instant to regain her
posture and confront him for his obnoxious and nonchalant response to what
seemed quite serious issue to her. She cleared her throat fearing in place of
words only puffs of air would come and spoke controlling her anger, "Hello
mister, aap dekhke nahi drive kar sakte hain kya? How can you be so careless to
let your driver over speed in a passenger pick up area? You were lucky nothing
happened to me but what if some aged person was trying to cross, I am sure your
car would have run over her," she said her voice increasing with every word she
uttered.
Before
she could continue accusing him, he motioned her to stop with a quick wave of
his hand. "Dekhiye, aap galti se cross ki without looking my car was coming and
now you accuse my driver of bad driving," he said annoyed by her attention
gaining screams. "You were the one who was at fault so stop making this
tamasha, take your bags away from the front of the car, and clear out, I have
flight to catch," he finished arrogantly.
She
was taken aback by his arrogant stand and stood with her mouth agape staring at
this haughty man who was least bothered with her anger. He had first of all,
refused to apologize and top of that alleged her of coming in front of his car.
Can a person be so conceited as to refuse to even own up to his mistakes. Too
bad if he was a rich and spoiled brat, he needed to know that she, Geetanjali
Handa, the daughter of two of the leading criminal lawyers, was no where near
to give up her fight. With her hands on her hips and inhaling a sharp breath
she said, "Look here mister? Eh! Jo bhi ho, I don't care, you are not moving
from this place until you apologize to me. You don't even utter a sorry, on top
of that you claim that I was the one at fault and that you have to catch a
flight! Even I have to catch a flight, its not like you are the only one who in
a hurry. So please don't waste my time and energy and quickly apologize so that
I shall leave this issue here, warna," she warned with her clenched teeth and
her hands pointing to him threateningly.
Was
she out of her mind he thought, she had no clue with whom she was talking to. Maan
Singh Khurana, the man who caused people in his close proximity to shake in
fear. Nobody had dared to even look directly in his eye, and this silly woman
was accusing him. People fled to far corners to avoid his mere presence and
here she was looking like a kid in class, threatening to tell the teacher that
he pinched her. Maan chuckled slightly at his imagination of her in school
uniform and complaining to teacher that some boy had touched her. It would look
quite funny and silly he reasoned. His imagination was quickly cut short when
Geet waved her hands in front of his face to gain his attention. He snapped out
of his thoughts and regained his stern posture, scolding himself to be carried
away.
"Look
mister, either you can apologize and leave quickly or stay here all night, the
choice is yours," she said folding her hands on her chest. Guessing that she
would not budge from her place and just create more ruckuses, he excused
himself to get out of the car. Seeing that she was getting her way, she gave a
triumphant smile and moved to give him some room to get out of the car. I mean,
she didn't expect him to get out and apologize, a small sorry from the car
would have been fine, but if he insisted he get out, who was she to stop him. Maan
got out of the car as if he was truly sorry for the incident and walked towards
her. He quickly took a diversion,
cut through her and walked towards the front of the car. She was surprised that
he walked past her curiously peered to see what he was going to do. He took her
luggage, motioned the people to move, and threw it down before Geet to get a
grasp of what was happening. He returned to where she was standing with a
confident smirk in his face. Who was she kidding; he was Maan Singh Khurana,
and him apologizing, ha! Never. The word sorry never existed in his dictionary.
His actions were never even questioned by his Daadima and here she was
expecting an apology for his action. Maan Singh Khurana was always right and if
he said she was the one at fault for jumping in front of his car, then it that
was final, no further doubts about that. So she just needs to clear off because
he had a flight to catch, as he had to attend an important client meeting this
evening. And the only way to get this annoying girl out of his way was to clear
her things.
Geet
was taken aback by his unprecedented behavior, and before she could completely
fathom what he was upto, she saw her bags being thrown away. She quickly rushed
to pick up her luggage when she caught a glance of him disappear into the
crowd. The people moved to give way when his car finally zoomed passed through.
Ugh! Enna dhairiyam iruntha (how dare he) he throw away her luggage and walk
away, her mind screamed. "Oi! Arrogant, idiot, naaye (dog)!" she screamed pointing
to the direction the car zoomed, causing the dust from the ground to rise. There
was no point screaming now, the crowd started to clear and she was left
standing in the middle of the road screaming on top of her lungs. She blinked
away tears of shame, anger, and defeat and looking and sky, "Muruga! Help me
Muruga, from all these jellyfish people!" she pleaded. Having no other option
but to carry one she gathered her luggage, and quickly paced towards the
airport entrance, as she was clearly late to check in. Gasping for air, she
rushed to the check in counter, just in time before she closed the counter. She
collected her boarding pass, thanked the person in the counter, and headed
towards to security. After clearing the security, she headed to her flight to
be greeted by a friendly airhostess who helped her find her first class seat.
It was a window seat and that was enough to cheer her up. Since she was young
she had always insisted to sit near the window. She loved to look out of the
window to see things rush past her, always wanting to catch the fleeting scene
that zoomed passed her. And today it would definitely soothe her nerves after the
blood-boiling incident that had taken place a few minutes ago. She placed her
little bag on the compartment above and settled down comfortably in her seat. She
exhaled a deep sigh and looked out of the window, wanting to permanently erase the
memory of the incident. She particularly wanted to erase the memory of that
obnoxious man praying that she never meet him again in his life. She inhaled
and exhaled to calm her nerves oblivious that the man she loathed was sitting
on the other end of the first class seating area, sipping some cold water. She
was unaware of the fact this meeting was just a beginning. And he would come
back in her life, soon, in fact very soon, and become an inseparable part of
her life.
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