Hey Dad! Meet My Mom

by Sharma, Sandeep

  About the Author

  Sandeep Sharma (21), a dreamer from Agra, the city of love and the Taj Mahal, is currently in his final year pursuing B. Tech (Civil Engineering) from JSS Academy of Technical Education, Noida. He is very passionate about writing and has been writing short stories for a personal blog since 5 years. He has also co-founded ‘The Author’s Blog’ which is a kind of a platform which tries to bridge the gap between authors and readers. He is an avid reader and loves to review books on his blog. He has been previously associated with many anthologies as a contributing author.

  He can be contacted at:

  E-mail: sandeeplochansharma@yahoo.in

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/sandeeplochansharma

  Blog: www.theauthorsblogg.wordpress.com

  It is said that books are a person’s best friend, so Leepi Agrawal started spending her time with this special friend who then led her to write stories and poems at an early age. The Times of India gave wing to her writing by publishing her works in their esteemed newspaper. Leepi is an “Ahmadavadi Chokri” filled with zest and always strives to mark her work with perfection. She is a final year student and a gold medallist for her academic excellence in Masters of Computer Applications at Indus University, Ahmedabad. She has won the TechFest in April 2014 at college and state level. As writing is her passion, she loves to roam in the “gallis of Ahmedabad” so that she can explore more about her birthplace through writings. Apart from the previous successes of her short-stories, now even one of her poems has been acclaimed on an international platform. She is quite obsessed with writing, wires and machines and subsequently her obsession has turned into her passion and profession.

  She can be contacted at:-

  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/leepi.agrawal

  Published by:-

  Gargi Publishers

  Opposite Head Post Office

  Bijnor

  E-mail: gargipublishers@gmail.com

  ISBN: 9788192960982

  Copyright © Sandeep Sharma

  First published by Gargi Publishers in 2015

  All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  All rights reserved by the Author. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Author and Publisher.

  ebook created by Psiknowlogix

  Cover Design by Jimmyeric Films & Media

  Dedication

  This is for all those dreamers on whom the

  world laughs. Here’s giving them another reason

  to work harder.

  Acknowledgements

  PROLOGUE

  Chapter-1

  Chapter-2

  Chapter-3

  Chapter-4

  Chapter-5

  Chapter-6

  Chapter-7

  Chapter-8

  Chapter-9

  Chapter-10

  Chapter-11

  Chapter-12

  Chapter-13

  Chapter-14

  Chapter-15

  Chapter-16

  Chapter-17

  Chapter-18

  Chapter-19

  Chapter-20

  Chapter-21

  Chapter-22

  EPILOGUE

  Acknowledgements

  ‘Hey Dad! Meet My Mom!’ was a fascinating journey for us. We had no idea what we were heading towards and what the outcome would be, but now after we have completed the book, it does soothe our inner souls that we finally did it. We would like to grab this opportunity and try to convey our thanks to people who saw the dream of HDM3 with us.

  Firstly I want to thank my sister, Deepshikha Sharma, who was the first one to see a potential writer living inside me. I will always be grateful to God for giving me such a sweet elder sister and on the other hand, I’ll always fight with Him for having taken her away from me. Next, I would like to thank my parents who support me and try to help me in every possible way to achieve the only dream I have for my life.

  Now I would like to thank Kavita Sharma (Pinky), my sister, for being the first reader of the first draft and conversing with me for very long about the climax; thank you sis, for being the top admirer of my writing. Another important person I’d like to thank is my buddy, Shubham Kumar (Danger DX); you are the one who always keeps me on my toes at working hard. Keep on doing that buddy!

  Another very important person to be thanked is Payal Srivastava. She has written beautiful poetry for HDM3 and has provided soul to our novel. Thank you for your sweet and kind effort. I would also like to thank Ashi Mittal and Shiv Kumar Sharma (Mamaji) for pulling the script out of its rough draft.

  Now I wish to mention some names of people who mentored me through the journey of my writing; Mallika Nawal (Author of ‘I am a woman & I am on Sale’), Vishwas Mudagal (Author of ‘Losing My Religion’) and Shomprakash Sinha Roy (Author of ‘Life served hot’). Thank you for always being there to help.

  And last but not the least, Pulkit Gupta, my publisher. He, through his team of Gargi Publishers, is the one who helped by turning a mediocre manuscript into a masterpiece. I would like to thank Gargi Sarkhel Bagchi who worked pretty hard on editing to make it free from errors and also Jimmy Eric for providing a fabulous cover.

  In the end, I want to thank all my friends who kept on helping me in numerous direct or indirect ways and helped me grow as a dreamer and also work hard to achieve the dreams.

  Sandeep Sharma

  Acknowledgement is a space to thank those people who are actually an important part of your life and dreams. When we dreamt of HDM3, they were the ones who made this dream come true with open eyes.

  So, firstly it’s my parents Shri Satyanarayan Agrawal and Smt Jayshree Agrawal who understood my passion along with my profession; closely followed by Mihir Agrawal -- the man behind my success. Secondly, I would like to thank the mentors of my passion and profession. Shri Ivan Reubens (Director of Reubs Higher Secondary School), who was actually the one who inspired me to write. Also Lt. Fr. Shri Kulandai Raj (Ex-Director of Xaviers Institute of Computer Applications). Though today he is not present to read this gratitude, I will be always thankful to him, because it’s all due to him that I am pursuing my education in the field of computers. Shri Tejas Suthar, a true mentor who has always helped me since I was in SSC. He was the one who created the base for building strong pillars in the world of IT.

  Next in line is my university, The Indus University. It’s the only place from where the journey of getting published begins.

  Last but not the least; I am thankful to Ashish Sharma who guided me on tactics of how to deal with people with calm and composure.

  Leepi Agrawal

  PROLOGUE

  “Do you know what the best thing about you is?” I asked her while lying on her lap. We were naked, exhausted and very happy.

  “What?” Roshni said. Her wildness was slowly transforming into cuteness. She was a lady of various colors.

  “It’s the language of your body. It speaks to me and asks to explore every part of it again and again and again.” I ran my finger from her neck to navel and transformed her into a tigress once again.

  Suddenly everything faded like it had never existed and at that very moment I understood that I was dreaming. A white color filled the space around me. Everything was bright, very bright but still bearable for the eyes.

  I knew that at any moment, Rishi would pop up from somewhere in front of my eyes. I waited, I called out his name; but he didn’t appear. Then suddenly, I felt like I was falling; I was falling as thoug
h from high in the sky. The feeling was so real that I couldn’t stop myself from screaming. I could see the hard concrete floor waiting to hurt me the very moment I would hit it. I knew it was all a dream but still, that feeling took my breath away for a moment.

  I was about to hit........ 5... 4.... 3.... I closed my eyes in fear. Waited for the ‘crash’-moment but nothing happened. I opened my eyes and saw Rishi standing in front of me; pale and expressionless. I wanted to ask him many things but words weren’t coming out of my mouth. It was as if someone had taken control of my mind and ordered it to shut down. The next urge which grew within me was to look around; to look at the place around me. It wasn’t my will to look but it was like someone was ordering me and controlling my actions.

  I looked around, it all looked familiar. I had seen this place before, in another dream. Yes, it was a railway station in Ahmedabad. But what was here? Why was this place so important, that it kept coming in my dreams again and again? Rishi really wanted to show me something here.

  Chapter 1

  How can the world be kind and unjust at the same time?

  It can compel you to exist and kill like a bewildered mime,

  My soul prods me to investigate my conceded past,

  But my body is tired of wandering and wants peace at last.

  “Are you gay, Puneet beta?”

  No son belonging to this part of the country could expect his mother to ask him this question. After hearing this, I experienced for the very first time what real embarrassment meant!

  My mother, Mrs. Bina Shrivastava, could be termed as a perfect housewife of modern India. Once a stunning beauty (though rarely admitted by my father), she had now stepped into her late forties and with this age, came many life partners like diabetes, obesity, cholesterol, etc. Her life was divided into four different areas: her late husband Mr. Rajeev Shrivastava’s remembrance, her son (that was obviously me), her television series and most importantly -- the colony gossip. She was like a local news reporter for us.

  Now getting back to the subject! The question really struck me a great deal and there were two matters which were passing in my head. First, that this conversation had reached its highest level and this degree was truly awkward, but if I came out of it, there was a fairly good chance that my opinion about marriage could win and the other one was ‘How the hell does she even know about gays?’

  She wanted answers, but she was afraid to hear and I was embarrassed to say anything. Either one of us had to break the barrier. Finally, I took the step. “No Mom! I am absolutely fine.”

  “Then why don’t you want to marry? You earn well, you are comfortably settled and most importantly, you are 29 now.” She blurted out everything she had in her head.

  Well, this was not the first time I was having this conversation with my mother but still, even now, I found myself totally stuck.

  “Mom, as I have told you several times earlier, I am not against marriage. I am just against “arranged marriage”. I am just 29, let me build my career, let me achieve my goals.” Then I realized that she was not interested in hearing about my vocation. This was a really strange thing, till the day, you didn’t get a job, everyone forced you to focus on your career and when you finally bagged a job, those people tried to divert your thoughts from the very same thing. ‘Getting employed is different from achieving career goals’, who was going to tell them that?

  I saw my mom’s eyes, she was on the verge of bursting into tears, an emotional drama was about to begin. Instantly I seized her shoulders and said, “I will marry mom, I am just waiting for a perfect daughter-in-law for you. The day my search is over, I’ll let you know. But grant me a little more time.” She embraced me and I held her close.

  I was sitting and working in my cubicle for over 3 hours now. I hadn’t even taken a pee break! There was still a lot of work to be done, but my body was denying going ahead anymore without taking a break. I closed the file and stretched my neck. The whole branch was looking like a fish market.

  I was working in an SBI bank as a Branch Manager and for the whole day I had nothing to do except sitting in my glass-walled cabin and staring at either the file lying in front of me or the working of the branch, watching different customers and at times dealing with them as well.

  Today the crowd was twice the normal because bank holidays were to start from tomorrow for three consecutive days.

  The crowd was slowly getting impatient as the time for closing was approaching. I stole a glance at the wall clock; it was already 4:10 pm. I better start working again. Instantly I changed my focus from the outside to the inside of my cabin. But wait! There was something out there that needed to be watched. I felt a sudden, strong attraction and decided to give it a look.

  She was standing at the entrance gate, looking perfect in her white denim and red top. A piece of cloth was covering her face, just the eyes were visible. I felt something unusual; that was a strong impulse of watching her. I desired her to remove that veil from her face and let me see the face of the owner of such beautiful and attractive eyes.

  She looked a bit worried, maybe because of the large crowd out there. She kept moving around here and there for quite a long time and then approached an old guy; asked him something and finally joined a queue.

  I kept on staring at that girl and while doing so, many customers noticed me gawking at her. ‘How cheap is this manager?’ is what most of them must’ve been wondering, as I could make out from their facial expressions. But nothing made me quit. One after another she kept on advancing in the queue. Several times I planned to come out and sit at the counter where the girl was standing, but dropped the idea each time, continuing to stare at her without blinking. That was the moment in my life when I forgot everything but that girl.

  Finally, she could get her work done and was about to leave. I stood up from the chair, wanting to follow her. This was the first time in my life that I was getting so impatient for a girl. I reached the door of my cabin, opened it but finally gave up. I was almost frozen. I saw her removing the cloth and freeing her hair tucked inside it. Her back towards me, I saw each of her long hair strands dancing upon getting freed. They were appearing like small kids jumping on the air filled Mickey Mouse house. That was the moment when everything around me disappeared and instantly my heart called out to her and requested her to turn back; turn back for once and let her face brighten my life. But she didn’t listen. She moved out; but left a strange smile on my face.

  Finally, she could get her work done and was about to leave. I stood up from the chair, wanting to follow her. This was the first time in my life that I was getting so impatient for a girl. I reached the door of my cabin, opened it but finally gave up. I was almost frozen. I saw her removing the cloth and freeing her hair tucked inside it. Her back towards me, I saw each of her long hair strands dancing upon getting freed. They were appearing like small kids jumping on the air filled Mickey Mouse house. That was the moment when everything around me disappeared and instantly my heart called out to her and requested her to turn back; turn back for once and let her face brighten my life. But she didn’t listen. She moved out; but left a strange smile on my face.

  I exhaled and remained glued till I saw him. He was looking in my eyes and was smiling while licking his lollipop. He was looking familiar, but I couldn’t recognize him. He was a kid of about 10 years of age. There was a constant smile on his face, a smile of mischief. He had caught me in the whole act. He was lifting one of his eyebrows continuously as if asking me, ‘Huh! What was that, you dirty fellow?’ I felt embarrassed, so I rushed back to my chair. I acted as if I was busy, but the whole episode was still revolving in my head. It was sheer stupidity.

  I attempted to get a sneak peek outside the cabin to look at the kid once more. He was not there. I felt relieved.

  I could see children playing in a field. I smiled at them but they didn’t respond. They started running away from me. I chased them. I saw them entering the graveyard. I followed them. T
hey disappeared like smoke in open air. That day was a bit foggy. I could see someone sitting over a grave. I could see the blurred image of someone. A girl? Maybe. I don t know why but I went closer to her. I wanted to see her. The fog started to clear and so did her image. I was standing just behind her. I leaned a bit forward to see her face. Blood drained out from my face when I found that she had no face. I screamed. I turned back and wanted to rush back to where I had come from. But before I could turn back, she grabbed my hand. I looked at her again, at her faceless face. But this time she had her face back, she was that girl, that same girl.

  “Please save me, Puneet. ” She pleaded and then screamed........

  Chapter 2

  Just once I want to clasp her.

  Just once I want her to appear.

  Just once I want her name whispered.

  Oh! You angel, I want you to conquer.

  Sitting alone on the last corner seat, next to the glass window, which, from the outside read ‘Maya Cafe Coffee Day’, continuously stirring my freshly prepared (or you can say freshly ordered) coffee, was my favorite time pass. After a hectic day at the bank, I was in true need of this coffee.

  Maya, the owner of this coffee shop was my sole female-friend. I could have just stated that she was my girlfriend, but then things would strike a little odd because of her age. She was about my mother’s age, but nobody would dare call her ‘Aunty’. She always said that she was as fresh as her coffee. She was the only one who knew me more than I knew myself. I had been a regular customer of her coffee for over 5 years and it was not only because of the coffee but also because she had been my partner in loneliness. She was the only one who always understood my dilemma. She too was unmarried and said that she enjoyed her “single” status a lot. According to her, marrying without love was like pouring sugar in the cup of coffee for a customer suffering from diabetes. Well frankly, I never understood her choice of examples and reasoning, but yes, I could see the main motive and grasp the moral of the story.