A pen lingers through the document, finally resting on the area vacant for signature and as soon as it makes contact with the paper, on the first dot of ink, there's a knock on the door. "Come in" follows a raspy voice and then the peon steps in but hesitates -"Sir, It's Veena...". The pen which rolled to the edge of the mahogany table drops and the man gets up removing his specs. He steps into his car and looks out of the window and he is taken back by his memories, crowd cheering, chaos all over, cheering for Abhimanyu...
The referee in a striped black & white polo drops his hand and blows a whistle, in that split second a red glove punches the guy in blue. The jab was so strong that it shook all the sweat off the player in blue jersey like a strong breeze shook a tree just after rain. That was a straight away concussion and the player doesn't stand. The red shoes which were hopping with an aggressive footwork have now come to a halt, the calves rested, his jersey has turned maroon from red with all the sweat and he tries to scream something through his mouthguard. The referee finished his count and the referee lifts the red one's hand victorious. The crowd goes nuts and the announcers declare, Abhimanyu qualified for the semi-finals.
A lorry speeding on a wrong way almost collides with the car Abhimanyu and his dad is in and the car hits the trunk of a tree. Crowd gathers and they are taken to the hospital, though they escaped with minor injuries that needed a week's time to recover, Abhimanyu's hand starts shivering watching a action scene on TV and shuts it off. A huge crowd in white clothes come and visit his father, Ravindra Desai, the active MLA of their constituency. A huge crowd of non-party members have been gathered outside his home as well to see if he is doing alright.
Abhimanyu never liked they crowd that surrounded his father, Uncle Jamshed more importantly who keeps pestering him to marry his daughter who is in the same college as him. He had recently switched loyalties with the opposing party and Abhimanyu is sure that it won't be long for him to switch back parties again.
Abhimanyu walks back to his room and sees luggage being taken to the room next to his and follows the luggage to see a beautiful woman sleeping, wrapped in a blanket on the old unused cot without a mattress. He stands there and tries to match her face with his mind's directory and finds no match. He goes to the kitchen and asks his mom who she is and she laughs and says "I knew you wouldn't like all this, your dad is the right person to attend this query of yours." Abhimanyu walks into his father's room, his father is holding a female part worker's hand surrounded by other members and his entrance startles his father, Abhimanyu takes a step back and giggles and so do the party members in the room hiding their face from the blush red Ravindra Desai who asks everyone to leave the room as he wants to have a chat with his son and will attend all these important discussions tomorrow and asks to send in his son on their way out.
Abhimanyu walks in and on his way throws a smile at the lady whose hand his father was caressing but she walks away looking down embarrassed. As he takes his step in, Ravindra in a mildly patronizing tone says "What is troubling your rest time that you had to barge in when I was having a meeting with my party members?"
"One of your party members in resting in the room next to me. Care to explain that?" asks Abhimanyu with a smirk.
"Oh so you have already met Veena, your new bodyguard."
Abhimanyu's eyebrows scrunch. His smirk fades to make a 'O' with his lips.
"What? Her? A bodyguard. What do you take me for? I need a babysitter disguised as bodyguard? Dad I know you like support women empowerment and I just caught a glimpse of it as I entered the room accidently but isn't this going too far on that front?"
Ravindra gets up and rests his palm on Abhimanyu's shoulder, "Remember the time I was stuck in a hostage situation and the state wasn't ready to send ransom to an opposing party member's abduction that's when she came in a black biker jacket and helmet, breaking though the window and taking five men all above her height in minutes. She was scarier than those goons with handguns at that moment and that's when I decided she is a very useful tool."
"But I can take care of myself. I don't need some secret agent meddling with my normal life. Haven't you seen how I knock men down in the ring, do you still think I need protection after that?"
"How good is your boxing skills in front of a revolver's muzzle pointed at your forehead? Or a sniper laser aimed at you? You are a champ, I know the world knows, I am not sure if it is my rivals or yours who are after us but let her tail you around till your finals."
"If someone is guarding me they should at least be half as strong as I am."
Ravindra smiles smugly, "Oh she's on a different level"
"Can she beat me in the ring?"