"Seriously Mom, do you really have to bring me here just to meet your friend's daughter who seems to jump on me any moment when we are alone." I was trying to stay calm and talk with my mother as peacefully as I can but the anger which was burning inside me because of the lie which my mother told me.
Somehow it was getting out of my hands and I was unable to understand how I was supposed to control it.
"But son, I want you to…" I put either of my hands on the balcony's railing and looked ahead to see the afternoon brightness in front of me. I tried to calm myself down but it was getting hard for me.
"Mom…." I said in a bit of a high pitched voice and there were no longer her words which were ringing in my ears and I realized what I had done. I took a deep breath and looked at her. "Mom…." This time my tone was softer than the previous one. I put my hand around her forearms and I could see that she was shocked over my tone.
"I am sorry." She said out of nowhere and that directly hit my heart. "I-I shouldn't have done that without your consent." I sighed when I heard her following statement. I wanted to scold myself badly for making my mother feel this way. She and my elder sister are the only one who I am close with and making either of them sad is not less than a sin. I took a deep breath.
"Mom… I am sorry. I shouldn't talk to you like that." She shook her head.
"This is my fault. Though I know that you are going through a crisis at the company and getting stressed because of that and yet I brought you here to match with my friend's daughter." I caressed her forearm.
"Mom, don't worry about that. I know that you want me to find a girl for me who can take care of me and could stay with me and will love me wholeheartedly but right now I don't want to find anyone but want to take the company where it is supposed to be and after that I will think of settling down and at that time you can arrange me with anyone and I won't say a word."
"Why are you still at your father's challenge?" She asked and, in her voice, I could hear worriedness, disgust as well as sadness. She was sad that I was taking the challenge seriously which my father had thrown at me angrily.
"Because I want to break his pride."
"But do you know that in this process you are becoming just like him? I don't want you to become like him, a heartless person who only knows how to run a business and wants someone like him to run his business. Please, please leave that and be the same Raman you used to be. My bright Raman who was just like the sun." She placed her palm against my cheek and her eyes which were all with hope and tears were looking at me as if they were saying that they accept the warmth which is in front of me but remembering why I am actually doing all this just makes me reluctant to indulge in that warmness.
I took a step back and her whole facial expression was blank when I stepped back.
"I don't think that I can return to that same Raman which you used to know." Her hand went down and she looked at me with gloomy eyes which were having thousands of words lying within them and every word was begging me to hear her but it is not possible for me at all, at least for now.
"I got it, I got it." She started to go back. "If you won't be stepping back in that then don't think that I will step back either. I will try to bring you back anyhow. I won't allow my kids to follow that heartless man's path." After saying that she went away from there and I looked at her fading figure. I took a deep breath before I turned back and looked at the scenery before me and my eyes went on a little lady.
I wasn't able to see her face at first but somehow, I was feeling that she was familiar. Though she was a completer stranger but for some reason I wanted to know who she was and as if that wish traveled to God and I could see her face which was very familiar and I remembered that I had see her two weeks ago in the restaurant where I had waited for Tanvir for more than half an hour. She was clicking pictures and for some reason it was quite a view for me to see her clicking pictures.
She was quite far away, which is why I couldn't see many of her expressions but I can say that she is beautiful and the way she looks at the pictures after clicking is creating an image of how she would react to them. Either a smile which will explain all or a sour face which will show her disappointment.
After a while I realized what I was actually doing and went back inside and left that place with my mother after a while and that girl was looking quite disappointed but I was relieved that I didn't leave a room for a chance with her because another reason is that I know what kind of girl she is. She might be wearing suit and salwar because of her mother's wish but deep down she likes to wear short clothes which are enough to show much of her skin in the club and if you know why I know that so it is just coincidence but I had bumped into her one or two time near the clubs and she had tried to hit on me as well.
We left the place and I looked at my mother through the mirror and she was looking outside and looking all depressed but I know that she is also building up a strength to do what she is wishing for. Though my mother and father might be different from each other, what is common between them is the ambition to achieve what they want and maybe that is what Tanvir was also talking about that day.