NETRA
I felt captivated by watching the sunset from Rudhr's window, the whole sky had lit up with different shades of orange, yellow and red. As an artist, I would have loved to take up a brush and paint these streaks of sunset on an empty canvas. I've always enjoyed painting sky in different colour tones and all those paintings might now be hanging on the walls of my dad's study room. But here I am standing around these black walls that are almost crushing me.
"Do you like what you see?"
I knew he was behind me because his eyes were gazing at me with such intensity that it almost hurt the back of my neck. Being a women, most of us are blessed with the ability to see with what intention a man looks at you, its both a boon and a bane to our existence. Nevertheless, certain gazes cannot be left ignored due to the depth of emotion it holds; he certainly may not love me but he does have some other strong feelings towards me.
I turned around to face him and met those eyes again.
"You've changed. Now can you tell me why you wanted to see me?"
"Mm...before we talk about that, the Commander would like to meet you. So we'll now be going to the headquarters to meet him."
The Commander? his father? why does all the members of his family so desperately wants to see me? Seriously, I'm just another girl who joined DHARMA a week ago. I couldn't help but feel that something was fishy about this.
"Oh.....ok but I was never informed about it."
"Don't you trust me Netra?"
"Uh... I..."
He grabbed my wrist and walked me out of his chambers. We are now heading to the headquarters I guess and he still hasn't released his hold on my wrist. I could see the veins on the back of his hand going all way to his arms, damn! how many hours does this guy workout?
We walked through corridors and corridors and climbed up stairs until we reached the main entrance to the HQ. The guards took only one look at Rudhr's face to grant us the access to the HQ. I've only saw the picture of the Commander in newspapers and have never actually met this person, so I'm quite nervous, but Rudhr looks, well..... just like how he does most of the time, with no particular expression aside from a slight frown between his eyebrows.
I saw the portrait paintings of previous Commanders of the army lining the walls of the corridors inside the HQ. And we've finally reached the giant door to chamber of the Commander of Army. The screen on the door took our metrics to verify our identity and let us in. The first thing I noticed was the olive green silk carpet that was spread over the floor and the flags of our neighbouring countries, hung on the walls.
The Commander was sitting on a chair behind a mahogany table and looking at us almost expecting our arrival.
"Come in."
Woah! like father like son, and I must admit that they do resemble each other except that Rudhr's eyes are a light shade of brown. Rudhr hasn't sill released his grip from my wrist, I try to tug at it but he seems to have no intention of letting it go.
"Let her go, Son."
The Commander seems to have sensed my tension, thank god. Rudhr looked up and made eye contact with the Commander, then slowly released his grip from my wrist. The father-son eye contact remained intact for the next 10 seconds; goodness, is this why they brought me here? To watch their stupid battle of eye-contact? Woah! maybe I should even start giving live commentary.
"You must be Netra. How old are you draftee?" asked the Commander without breaking the eye contact with Rudhr.
"Yes, General. I'm 18."
"Mm. I called you to give you this, I think you might need it."
The Commander handed me over an old green leather journal with newspaper bits and brown envelops sticking out. I took it and wiped the dust off its cover, it certainly looks worn out. Why is he giving this to me?
"You may leave now.... But the Brigadier will stay."
I offered my respect and gratitude to the commander and left his chamber. There is something certainly uncanny about this father-son bond. Since I don't have to go back to my shooting lessons anymore, I sat by the stairs and opened the journal.
At one corner of the first page, there was a stamp that stated,
Cadet Namrata Nambiar, Cadet Year 2023, DHARMA
"Ma...."