In the night Puja and Aakash told us about the other moments they cher­ished. Early in the morn­ing Rohit and I went down­stairs and to our amaze­ment the whole build­ing was there and Puja’s father was shout­ing at Aakash’s father. My father was try­ing to sort things out. After a while they left. Then Pop, Rohit and myself went to my place.

“Raj do you know any­thing about this.” Pop ask­ing me. I nod­ded my head. He was not con­vinced with the nod and asked me again.

“Well Pop, we only helped Aakash and Puja to run away. They love each other so much and their par­ents would not oblige. So we had made a plan.” I told Pop the whole Plan.

He was furi­ous with us but promised he wouldn’t say any­thing. But warned us that the sit­u­a­tion should not get out of con­trol. The door bell rang. I opened the door, it was Puja’s father he was very sad. I called out dad. Dad led him to the draw­ing room where we all sat.

“I don’t know what to do know, Mal­ho­tra sahab.” Said Puja’s father to my dad.

“Tell me what hap­pened exactly.” My father asked look­ing concerned.

“My daugh­ter Puja has run away from home with that boy Aakash. in her let­ter she has writ­ten that they are get­ting mar­ried. Now what shall I do.”

“Don’t worry she will come back.” My pop said try­ing to con­sole him. He then gave us a stare.

“All I wanted was that she lead a happy life. What has she done.”

“I know but you should also think in the present con­text. Today the world is chang­ing it is not our time when we used to get mar­ried with­out know­ing the per­son we are going to marry. Today’s gen­er­a­tion believes in find­ing their own life part­ners mak­ing their own choices. No mat­ter whether they make wrong choices they believe in themselves.”

“Yes I know. But before tak­ing such a step they should at least think twice after all we are their par­ents.” Puja’s father said in tears.

“Uncle let me tell you some­thing. I think they are very sen­si­ble and wont take a step in haste. You are their par­ents you should also think what will keep your daugh­ter happy. If today you get her mar­ried to a per­son she doesn’t like then do you think she would be able to lead a happy life. Even you will not be able to sleep at night know­ing your daugh­ter is not happy.” Rohit.

“Son you are young you don’t under­stand these things. What will the soci­ety say.”

“Well sir, I don’t care about the soci­ety. Nobody comes to help you in your bad times, nor does this soci­ety come to praise you for your work it is just oppor­tunis­tic. One day they are with you when you are doing well and the very next day against you when you are going down. I believe we should live for our­selves not for the soci­ety.” Rohit.

“You are right son. But now that Puja has left what can I do.” Uncle still cry­ing bit­terly. Then he looked towards the roof.” Oh god, please send Puja back I will do what­ever you say.”

Rohit and I left the place and went over to Rohit’s house. To our amaze­ment Aakash’s dad was sit­ting and talk­ing to Rohit’s father. We went in qui­etly and sat there.

“Rohit son, good you came now you only tell me did I ever did any­thing that would hurt my child. No na.” Aakash’s father said. Rohit nod­ded his head in agree­ment. ”then why did he leave home. You only tell.”

“I have no idea uncle.” Rohit pre­tend­ing not to know anything.

“Son, I have given Aakash every­thing what he wanted but still.” He paused for a while.” Son if you were in Aakash’s shoes would you have done such a thing.”

“No uncle. I will never go against my par­ents wishes. I don’t know why today’s gen­er­a­tion are not able to under­stand their par­ents love for them.” Rohit said in favour of uncle. I pinched Rohit.

“Raj you tell would you have done this to your par­ents.” Aakash’s father asked me.

“Who me?” I was taken by sur­prise by the Ques­tion. “oh no, no uncle, never.” This time Rohit pinched me.

“aren’t the two of them such nice boys, you are very lucky Kapoor sahab.” Aakash’s father told Rohit’s dad.

“Yes.” Kapoor uncle.

Then the door bell rang. Rohit opened the door. It was Puja’s dad, he had come with my dad.

“Khanna sahab, what has your son done.” Puja’s father look­ing towards Aakash’s father.

“Aagar­wal sahab I am also wor­ried. But it is not only my son’s fault but also your daughter’s fault.” They both started the argument.

“But what shall we do now.” Puja’s father started weep­ing, Aakash’s father con­soled him. Rohit and I left the place.

We went over to the flat where every­body was. Every­body was still sleeping.

“Wake up guys, the time has come to exe­cute the final stage of our plan.” I said.

“What hap­pened. I was hav­ing such a nice sleep.” Karan.

“Get up we have to go. Aakash lets go, your father is at Rohit’s place. Where’s Puja.” I said.

“She is in the room with other girls?” Sahil.

“Call her quickly we got to go.” Rohit. All the girls rushed out.

“Come on hurry up we have to go.” Deepak. We left for Rohit’s place.

“You all wait out­side and don’t make noise.” Rohit. Rohit and I went inside. Aakash’s Father and Puja’s father were still sitting.

“Khanna sahab, I can say only one thing if my Daugh­ter comes back to me I will let her marry your son?” Puja’s father still crying.

“I will also allow Aakash to marry your daugh­ter. But I hope they just return.” Khanna uncle.

“Uncle do you promise to do so.” I asked anxiously.

“Yes. I will. But what is the use, she has run away from home and will never come­back. Its all my fault.” Puja’s dad.

“Me too. I just want Aakash to be back .“ Aakash’s dad.

“Well uncle. I have some news for you. I know where Puja and Aakash are right now. Now promise me you will not say any­thing to them and will not put any obstruc­tion in their mar­riage.” Rohit.

“We promise.” Puja’s dad.

“Puja and Aakash you can come in now.” Rohit said. Puja and Aakash walked in slowly.

“Dad I am sorry I did not want to hurt you.” Puja said hug­ging her father.

“Me too dad.” Aakash to his father.

“Puja why did you do this. I promise you will get mar­ried to Aakash only.” Puja’s dad.

“Oh dad you are the great­est.” Puja.

“But I want a promise from you both too.” Aakash’s dad.

“Uncle you said you won’t put any restric­tions.” I said.

“The promise I want is. The two of you will first con­cen­trate on your career and then when you both have set­tled well in life you can get mar­ried.” Puja’s father.

“We promise uncle.” Aakash look­ing very happy. We too were very happy for them. So finally the prob­lem was solved thanks to some bril­liant plan­ning by Rohit and Nisha. After three days of excite­ment I needed a break. I called up Diya and told her the whole story. She said she would be com­ing in the evening to meet everybody.

I had a nice sleep. In the evening I went to the ter­race. Slowly every­body joined in. Dhruv also came. Diya also came. We were dis­cussing how event­ful the last few days have been that the talk of the town cou­ple arrived. Aakash and Puja came together. This time with per­mis­sion and with­out hid­ing from someone.

“Hello every­body. I would like to say some­thing.” Aakash.

“Go ahead. Take the cen­tre stage.” Karan.

“Well thank you Bugs. Today I would like to thank each and every­one of you for your help on behalf of Puja and myself. I would espe­cially like to thank Rohit and Nisha with­out them this plan would not have been pos­si­ble.” Aakash said shak­ing Rohit’s hand and then hug­ging him.

“Oye thank you shank you won’t do, you would have to give us all a treat. So what do you all say you all want a treat.” Deepak.

“Yeah treat, we want a treat.” Karan. Slowly every­body joined in. Aakash too finally agreed. Then we all went to the fast food cen­tre just out­side our complex.

“Rohit your idea was absolutely bril­liant. Every­thing hap­pened just accord­ing to plan.” Dhruv.

“Yeah Nisha you too were great.” Muskan.

“Did the two of you plan it together.” Sahil.

“Oye are you two also hid­ing some­thing from us. are you two also going around.” Manav.

“What Rub­bish. Maybe we were think­ing of the same thing together.” Rohit.

“Well a great plan.” Khushi.

We had our small treat and left the place. Oh no, how bor­ing, from tomor­row the same old bor­ing routine.