ArHi FF! We, the people [Completed] - Page 12

Originally posted by: dazzling_glory

Nice part

Its good that neither arnav nor khushi are hust very badly.

Akash is a perfect politician...not to be trusted

continue soon

Thanks...they were never meant to be hurt...

Originally posted by: tabbyj

Wow loved it!

Akash and his thoughts were quiet scary though!

But atleast he has kept the two together!

Rathor can not lose arnav at any cost can he!

And dhananjay, well he is a hopeless person!

Khushi on the other hand is in of shit, bcoz no matter wat she did help a rapist who does not have an ounce of guilt! lets see how these two survive against akash!

Thanks! Akash's thoughts aren't as scary as Arnav's ones, now are they? Both have their own personal agendas when it comes to an ideal way a country should operate and both the arguments have their own set of pros and cons.

:-)

Originally posted by: -afsha-

Akash looks lik mad to me

Love Arnav n Khushi's relation

Lets c whats ahead

Please add me to ur PM list

Nah, Akash isn't mad. Just has a different or more nobler perception about things that needs execution...

Originally posted by: Nici0306

thanks for the pm, khushi's responses are so spot on..

I thought emergency was declared during a short term of sanjay gandhi reign but I might be wrong.

Loved the update.. it seems Akash has hidden motives then what he just stated.

Love the intensity of the chapter.

Sanjay Gandhi never held an official position or won an election. He was Indira Gandhi's adviser of sorts and held immense power due to the fact that he was seen as Indira's successor.

Emergency was declared after much complicated process of election fraud, national unrest etc. It was the darkest 21 months in Indian political history.

Thanks!

Originally posted by: A...

Brilliant Writing once again... I really appreciate tht Akash for a change in this story has a backbone and views of his own. And his view r worth reading.His background seemed troubled but in all this i'm happy tht Arnav n Khushi r in the same place.

:-) Akash is another character who is anti thesis but complementary to Arnav. Am not sure if I can deliver it but it's something I want to give it a shot! Thanks..

Chapter 10:

"It's a very impressive set up you have here," Arnav commented as the three of them strolled inside a vast compound which operated like an enclosed township.

"We are fully independent here. We grow our own food, purify water from river and have solar panels to get enough electricity." Akash replied with pride in his voice.

"Isn't a similar set up of having solar panels over a canal already done somewhere?" Khushi asked furrowing her eyebrows as she looked at a stretch of solar panels installed over a canal that ran through the compound.

"It's done in Gujarat over one of the Narmada canal. It's an elaborate plan to sustain growing need of electricity for people living around the area. I am surprised that you have managed to implement something along similar lines in a short period of time especially seeing how the Gujarat government had contracted it to a US firm little over a year ago," Arnav said.

"You seem surprised," Akash noted.

"Frankly, I am impressed." Arnav said not hiding it from his voice. Akash was taken aback at the brazen honesty and wondered if he mind games had already begun.

"There are schools at the center of this compound and a clinic few yards over." Akash said leading the way towards school.

"How do you handle medical emergencies?" Khushi asked.

"Unless the condition is critical or demands a surgery, the cases are all handled in this hospital. The staff is not huge but we manage."

"How many families live here?" Khushi asked again feeling uncomfortable at the setting. Everything was controlled – too controlled in her view.

"There are about six hundred families who have been living here for more than a decade. This compound has a hundred percent literacy and employment rate." Akash replied. "Here we are. This is the school where kids and some adults come every day to learn. The school premises also act as a common place for the community to come together for any celebration – big or small." He said.

They circled the building and sat under the shade of big banyan tree. They could hear the kids yelling answers together and the faint sound of the teacher.

"How did you end up here?" Khushi asked again. Arnav turned and looked at the two of them who were staring at one another. He could see that she had touched a nerve as Akash's knuckles had gone white as his fingers dug to the palm painfully.

"I was raised here." He said shortly. Khushi simply nodded and didn't prod further. "Let's go inside," he said and led them towards the main house. Arnav didn't understand what Akash was trying to do with them but he was clear that they had no way of escape. They had no idea about the compound's layout though they had just gotten a brief tour. He fathomed they were far off from civilization as there was absolutely no sound of impending traffic.

The thought being a prisoner with freedom of doing whatever he wanted to inside a vast compound threw him off. He followed Akash wordlessly into the main house.

****

"I noticed something," Khushi said furrowing her eyebrows snapping her head up from the book she was reading. Akash looked up from the game of chess he was playing with Arnav. Khushi was used to listening to news for most part of her waking moment. Akash didn't own a television but she knew that there was internet in the house. There was no sign of newspaper around the house which rendered the experience weirder. To pass the time, she had pulled out a book on Lenin and had read for most part of the hour as the men played chess.

"I didn't see a temple or a church or a mosque in this compound," she said, her voice laced with surprise. Arnav looked at her in surprise and turned to look at Akash awaiting an explanation. Akash sighed softly.

"There is no room for religion in this compound," he said quietly looking at the board. "There is no concept of celebrating festivals or observing religion oriented rituals."

"Are you atheists?" Khushi blurted.

"We believe in God but not in religion. It's something like following an ideology and not an idol per se or a metaphorical idol. We aren't being secular by definition but it's a way of life." Akash replied.

"And people have accepted it without a protest? Aren't you afraid that people of this compound would one day react to lack of religion after…watching news or reading newspaper or hearing about it from their relatives?" Khushi asked.

Akash didn't respond for a whole minute. He moved his rook and muttered a soft 'check'. "Why don't you tell her Arnav?" He said finally looking up from the board. Arnav's face was grim.

"It's a media blackout here. People here don't know what is happening in the outside world. They are blissfully unaware of the inflation or the threat to national security or latest Bollywood movie or even cricket for that matter. This is an isolated demography Khushi. People here are prisoners." Arnav's hands shook reflecting the anger he felt.

"Prisoners?" Akash asked bewildered. "How is life of a family of four earning not more than hundred rupees a day better than a family here? What good the knowledge of the scams people like you have designed and executed for past four centuries done any good? Don't pretend to be a humanitarian Arnav especially after what's going on in the country now as we speak," Akash hissed in anger.

Arnav felt his throat constricted.

"By tomorrow evening, country would be poorer by several thousand crore and the poor coal miners whose names you have pimped out for your own personal gain remain in the same pathetical state as they were yesterday. Life of a common man doesn't change in this country; only a political party changes." The chess piece in his hand broke into two as Akash clenched it too tightly.

"And that gives you a right to dictate people what is good for them?" Arnav fired back.

"It is my duty to educate the people of right and wrong. I teach them that corruption is wrong. I teach them about self-respect and tolerance for ideas different from their own. I teach them how to defend themselves in the hands of an adversary. I teach them about both God and science. I teach them about history – real history and not the one from government issued textbooks. I teach them about different perceptions of seeing the same incident. I teach them to be a better citizen" Akash breathed deeply. "After doing what you have done for past six years in politics, you don't have the right to ask me what my intentions and motives are Arnav."

Arnav swallowed at the accusation which wasn't far off the mark.

"There are two hundred families from a small village of coal miners who were driven to the brink of poverty and had surrendered to the thought of committing suicide. It's a miracle that I found them on time. They are the same people you promised to look after three years ago in exchange for their vote. They voted, your party won that constituency but even after three years nothing has changed." Akash chuckled without humor.

Khushi saw that Arnav had withdrawn into a shell and was staring at Akash blankly.

"So please Arnav, stop preaching me about how bad my execution methodology is while your moral dilution has cost thirty five farmers to commit suicide." Akash said bitterly and stood up disturbing the chess board. Arnav didn't react. He turned to walk away but Arnav's voice stopped.

"You are corrupting the people here of the thought process they are entitled to develop on their own. You teach about God but you can't rob them of the choice to embrace what they believe in. You teach them perception yet they are bound inside a compound never able to perceive the real world that lies outside its borders. The perfection that you are trying to achieve in this compound has one fundamental flaw," Arnav said. Akash fully turned around and looked at Arnav then.

"You have robbed them off their humanity." Arnav's voice was barely above whisper.

Akash let out a strangled cry of grief, agony and simmering anger when the weight of his accusation hit him in stomach. Khushi brushed a tear off her eye while Arnav supported his temple with his palms.

They were right. They were wrong. And all of them had failed their people in their own way.

Superb part...love your style of writing

I just love this story. Tragedy of our country is so perfectly caught. I love the characters of Arnav n Khushi. Beautiful writing style.

how can he do that! akash in his attempts to save is jusst being a sadist might have done bad but what he just said made more sense than akash pointing out about those men who died and those he sheltered!

Thanks for the pm...