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His father didn’t let him finish. “How did you get this watch? Did you meet Dhanush?”
Rana was thrown off yet again by the mention of the name that was considered never to be said out loud, especially after the fallout they had. Followed by the accident, his father’s relationship with his best friend had fallen apart completely. “I got it from…”
His mother’s voice made his voice trail off. “Are you guys done talking? Let’s eat. I’m hungry.”
Rana was somewhat thankful for the interruption and hoped to get some thought into how he would tell them about Namrata. He was not ready to share anything yet, and being bombarded by the situation was not what he had expected. “Let’s go, Dad. We can talk later.”
“Radha, come here. Look at this.” Unfortunately, his father was not ready to let go of the topic. Rana saw the puzzled look on his mother’s face as she walked over to where they stood.
“What’s all the fuss about?” His mom joined them and noticed the emotion on her husband’s face. “Samraat, are you okay?”
His father’s face lit up with a glorious smile. “Our son is wearing a watch I gifted my best friend when I was at Simha.”
Rana saw his mother’s eyes widened, and he braced himself for her anger. Everything she had to go through was because of the individual whose watch he was wearing. “I don’t believe this.”
“Ma, I can explain. I wasn’t—” Yet again, he lost his voice as his mother hugged him, a sob escaping her.
She pulled back, wiped away her tears, and looked at her husband. “This is, in fact, one surprise after another.”
His father nodded. “That’s right. But I can’t get your Veeru to tell me how he got the watch.”
“Are you sure it’s the same watch?” His mother asked as if in disbelief.
“Yes.” His father was ecstatic. “Look, it even has the scratch Dhanu got on it during a bike race.” His father pointed to the dial.
His mother looked at Rana. “Did you buy it? How did you get it?”
At that point, Rana knew there was no avoiding the conversation. “I wasn’t ready to talk about—”
“Just tell us already.” His mother was impatient.
“Calm down, you two. I have this watch because my girlfriend gifted it to me. It belongs to her father.” Rana kept his eyes on his parents, somewhat concerned about their reaction. Maybe he should have said he bought it at a vintage store, but they would totally call out his lie. He wasn’t into fudging information when it came to his parents, but a thought passed through him for that particular situation.
“What?” His mother seemed stumped for a second then she looked at her husband and let out a squeal. “You have a girlfriend, and it is Dhanu’s daughter, Namrata?”
It was Rana’s turn to be surprised. His mother looked happy, and she even knew her name. “How do you—”
His mother hugged him. “This is madness.” She turned to look at her husband. “Now you know how to get a hold of your friend.”
Rana looked at his parents, confused. “Wait. I thought… hang on, I’m confused. Didn’t Dad and his friend have a fallout?”
His father nodded. “Those were difficult days. Vaishu’s death and the fallout we had… before we could reconcile, I had the accident and when they moved to London, we lost touch.”
His mother hugged Rana’s arm. “Your dad has been trying to get in touch with his friend for years, but we have not gotten any response.”
“Why would you be trying to reach out when everything happened because of him?” Rana was not angry, but his parents’ reaction continued to perplex him.
His mother was shocked. “Who told you that?”
“I… I thought Dad had the accident because of—”
His mother interrupted him. “Just because your father was on his way back from a meeting with the Varmas, that didn’t go well? Who told you that?”
Rana shook his head, unable to recollect who told him about the situation with his father’s friend. “I don’t know how, but I could never forget your friend’s name. That’s how I knew Namrata was his daughter.”
“This is crazy.” His mother shook her head. “If you thought we didn’t have a good relationship with the Varma's, how did you and Namrata end up together?”
The million-dollar question!
