Winds Of Change - Paroma Bhattacharya(Dedicated to my paternal grandfather) (story read aloud TXT) 📗

it was Mount Carmel vs St.Andrews so the air was pretty tensed for Lona. They knew St.Andrews was a good team and would beat them if their girls did not perform spot on. Lona’s affections were dwindling between both teams for obvious reasons.
“ Its so good to be finally meeting you”, replied Shweta
“ You are everything we expected and more. Lona’s descriptions for once have been correct.”, added Shweta.
“ So you have finally found Nirvana here in Gorkhaland. We did see your demonstration at the Mall during the vacations” said swati
Lona nudged swati to shut her up for good but Neel quick to reply was for once dumbfounded.
“ So you girls were there. Lona its bad of you not to have mentioned that earlier”, he replied after some time. He turned towards swati with piercing eyes and replied , “ I have my beliefs as much as I think you do” and he made an about turn and walked away.
Lona ran after him casting a disgusting look at Swati first.
“ You shouldn’t have said whatever you said” Shweta told Swati and then added, “ Anyways lets get our seats now as the match is about to begin, You don’t want to miss it do you.
They had a rollicking time after that as did the crowd. The teams were going neck to neck and winning points by the skin of their teeth. Each point was cheered by their respective fans and soon it was the last point to be served by Mount Carmel. The crowd waited with baited breath as she served and won the point with emotions of jubilation and disappointment respectively erupting from the crowd.
Shweta and Swati were very happy and so was everyone in the bus back to their respective dorms but not Lona. She was trying to keep herself upbeat even after the fight with Neel and only shed a few tears after she fell flat on her bunk bed.
“ Congratulations Lona” shouted Pooja to her from beneath. “ Everyone is very proud of you for having organized and taken revenge of last year when we lost to them in the finals. It should be smooth sailing for us now in the finals having beaten the best” she said.
Lona pretended to have fallen asleep and did not reply. She quietly took her ipod and started playing Donna summers music instead and thought of home. She was awake the whole night and till the wee hours of the morning thinking of every moment she had spent with neel and eventually the dreadful fight.
After the matches were over and they had won the trophy she called home.
“ Ma I want to go home for a few days, I desperately need a break from the hue and cry of the school” she told her mother over the phone.
“ No dear not now. You need to concentrate on your studies and get good grades in your final exams. Next year is boards and you need to be very alert from now on. We will anyways visit you on your b’day which is next month and your matron has promised that we can take Swati and Shweta along too on the outing. So it will be a lot of fun for all of you. Look forward to that day and forget about coming home now. Anything else you want to talk about?”, she said.
“ No, thanks for being so concerned about me”, Lona said and hung up.
It was getting very depressing for Lona without Neel who was maintaining a distance from her . He met her for one last time and explained to her the reasons for his silence and why he had to part ways with her.
It was a Sunday afternoon in February and the mid morning sun was beating down on them. The weather was not at all uncomfortable though and both of them walked down to the Café Royale in Kurseung which was a mile away from Lona’s school.
Café Royale was a quiet open café joint skimmed by the young crowd at large. They took their seats opposite each other and placed their orders. Lona ordered for a café Latte and Neel the same.
“How is your exam preparations going?” Neel asked Lona
“ Quite good” replied Lona
“ I will be moving to kolkata next year and doing my BA honours from Ashutosh college” said Neel
“ Which subject will you be choosing” asked Lona
“ Most probably English” replied Neel.
“ I wont be meeting you anymore as we are too young and we have to script our careers and that is serious business as far as I am concerned. You already know that I come from a very political family with stereo typical view points. I will also in future join my father in his battle and it could get very dirty. I don’t think you will be able to stand the rigmaroles of a political life.” added Neel.
Lona’s eyes welled up with tears but her mothers face drifted in front of her and she knew the relationship had to be ended. She did not reply waiting for him to continue.
The waiter brought their drinks and Lona sipped her coffee slowly. The smell of coffee was enough to rejuvenate her senses but today she had gone numb.
“I think we should decide to go our different ways. You are a very intelligent girl and I am sure you will succeed in life with leaps and bounds. I wish you all the best in life.” Said Neel.
After that they talked of some mundane topics but Lona was in a daze and she quickly finished her Latte and then they parted.
Lona was in no mood to go back to her dorm instead she wanted to admire the flora which grew in abundance in the countryside. In fact Kurseung was also known as the “Land of White Orchids”. There was a small shop which sold rare species of orchids found in the hills. She decided to visit it to just pass the time and clear her head.
Mr. Sebastian was the owner of the shop and knew everyone in the hills very well. He was a gossip monger and already was privy to the fact that Neel and Lona had broken up.
He greeted Lona with a big smile and shook her hand.
“There is a new variety that we are growing especially imported from North America. It is called Calopogon Tuberosus similar in color to your favorite Vandas. I know you like color of Lilac in Vandas so I thought of mentioning this to you, said Mr. Sebastian to her while strolling in the shop pointing to the different varieties of orchids there.
“ Have you heard of Mr. Kanti Sarkar” added Mr. Sebastian.
Lona gave him a startled look. Neel had of course mentioned his father to her. Mr. Kanti Sarkar was a MLA from Tiljala district given a seat by the party CPI(M). The party that both her parents hated so much and blamed the debilitation of West Bengal to them. She was scared of her parents finding out aboiut her relationship with Neel even though it was over now.
She wanted to know the extent of his knowledge so she said “ Yes of course, he is the father of my friend Neel Sarkar. I know him through school activities.”
“ Yes Yes” he replied hiding a smile.
“ Do you know he has launched a campaign against Gurkhas here and he has banned all activities pertaining to their freedom movement.” Added Mr. Sebastian.
“His son has become a spy here pretending to help the gurkhas at first but divulging all their information to his father. Mr. Kanti sarkar has imprisoned many of the activists on false charges. They are a real corrupt family.” Said Mr. Sebastion

Lona excused herself quickly and fled from there. She knew that Mr. Sebastion was a Gurkha himself and was manipulative enough to give her the wrong information about the Sarkars’. But a nagging doubt had entered her mind about Neel and his intentions. She loved him immensely and thought of deleting the doubt till she had some sound proof about it. Anyway the relationship was over so what was the point of mulling over it.
Next week was her B’day and Mr. and Mrs Roy were planning for it in full swing. Mrs Roy was baking her favorite Black Forest cake and Mr. Roy was making his rounds to her favorite music shop and buying her some of the latest Cd’s of her rock stars. Dona had already couriered her gift and Mrs Roy had kept it safely in her closet. It felt like a soft toy from the wrapping but she wasn’t quite sure and Donna had given explicit instructions to her not to open it as it was for Lona’s eyes only.
The D-Day came and it promised to be a beautiful day in March with spring at its best.
Lona started her day with her dorm mates wishing her and a joint gift from shweta and swati. It was a small statue of Lord ganesh whom she revered more than ever. To her surprise she got a gift even from Pooja with whom she did only but fight. Pooja gave her the gift saying that she cherished moments spent with her “Bunk buddy”. The gift was a enid blyton which she liked reding so much. She thanked everune individually for making the day so special. Then three of them ie lona along with Swati and shweta visited the saraswati temple on campus. She offered her prayers and rang the bell. Shweta accompanied her while swati waited nearby saying she couldn’t take off her shoes as her feet would hurt. Typical of Swati thought lona .
The next was the most tedious thing that was waiting for her parents to come and then they would frisk off on a day out. They were all very excited at the prospect of spending their day with Lona’s parents as they enjoyed her parents’ company very much. Lona wanted to make amends with her mother as she knew she had spoken rudely to her the last time they talked and was looking forward to her father’s presents as they were always very interesting.
Mr. and Mrs. Roy turned up half an hour late as their fiat had gone kaput on their way. Mrs Roy was not in a very good mood for obvious reasons and Mr. Roy was looking sheepish but as the girls came running outside to take their thing Mrs Roys mood changed and she gave her beautiful smile to her daughter and hugged and kissed her. Lona touched both their feet and accepted their blessings. She was in a hurry to open her presents so she took them to the visitor’s room quickly. She was elated to receive the CD’s from her parents and hugged them both again. She quickly unwrapped Dona’s gift and was in fits to find that it was a Teddy bear. Dona still thought that she was four when she had cried a lot while window shopping and had demanded the teddy to her parents who had refused saying it was too expensive for a four year old. Dona had remembered that incident and bought her the teddy now when she was earning herself. After the presents were kept safely in her dorm she went to the principal to take permission to leave