28 Chapter 28

Raj loved to collect movies and had arranged them in the most orderly way. Both Hindi and English movies were arranged chronologically and there were over five hundred CDs. When Sneha was younger she fought with her father to give her space in that cabinet for her favourite music CDs. For a long time Raj was able to dodge her demands but finally had to give in to her when she was fifteen. He could no longer argue with her teenage tantrums and so gave in to her wishes and the cabinet had a small space where Sneha's favourite music collection was kept.

When Sneha came into the room, her eyes automatically went to the shelf where her music CDs were kept. She started moving toward it when her father stopped her, "Please sit down Sneha, I have to talk to you."

Sneha had dreaded this moment and wanted to escape it at all costs. But this was something that was going to happen because she had to face her father's questions sometime or another. She decided to be as brief as possible and sat down without looking at him.

He certainly wasn't going to be brief as he started asking all his questions. "Is something wrong Sneha? Why have you come here without Rohan, is he treating you well?"

He took a breath and kept going. "You should have brought Rohan with you because this is the first time you've come since your marriage. What am I going to tell to Ramona and Sumit?" He paused for a moment and asked, "One thing is baffling me though Sneha, why have you decided to keep this visit a secret? Rohan must have called them by now," he was almost angry in the way he asked, but he wanted to know why.

"Papa, I have asked Rohan not to tell them about my visit for a day or two," she lied. And anyway, Rohan would never talk to his parents about this incident she thought. What would he say…Sneha left him or Stella was in his life again? "Don't worry papa, everything is okay." She didn't want to upset papa, the time was not yet ripe for that.

With Sneha's assurance, Raj breathed a sigh of relief. He had been so bothered he hadn't been able eat his food properly. Every time he wanted to talk to Sneha, she would make an excuse and escape the situation. His anger had been filling him up and when he finally had a chance to talk to Sneha, it had almost spilled over.

Sneha got up after having assuring her father and went to fetch her preferred music CD and thought to listen to it in her room. It was an instrumental with the artist playing love songs on the piano. Sneha loved piano and at one point in time tried had tried her hand to learn how to play it but couldn't do it no matter how hard she tried. She went to piano lessons when she was ten, but after a few months her parents had decided she didn't have the knack for it. She hadn't even learned more than one song in three months!

Sneha took the CD to her room and put it into the player. She kept the volume low so Ankur and papa were not disturbed. She just focused on the music and tried to meditate until Sheela called her for dinner.