268 Great haste makes great waste (Part 1)

Himprayag

Had Shaurya known the woman's identity or even had the slightest inkling to her nature, he would have never behaved in the manner that he did and call attention upon himself in such a manner.

He was in no illusions about the reason for the princess's behaviour. If he had been submissive and passive, she wouldn't have given him a second look. But now he was like a shiny toy which was out of her reach and she was behaving petulantly just because she wanted to own him.

What an idiot!

He had his misgivings about Himprayag's fate with her at the helm of affairs here. But that was none of his business. His Mriga may be younger and not as capable, but she was way more mature and not as petty as Princess Ahilya. Thinking about his sunshine, his lips curved into a silly smile automatically.

That was his last coherent thought before something hard hit his head from behind and darkness consumed him. Unlike in the case of Rudradev, he hadn't been able to hear any footsteps till it was too late.

Gurukul, Chandragarh

Prithvi was frowning as he received an update about Ramanujam still being missing. It was beginning to look like that the enemy had been made aware or was vigilant enough to move Ramanujam elsewhere before he was rescued. On the other hand, he did imagine the scenario where his mentee cum friend's body was being dumped into the sea piece by piece.

If that did turn out to be the case, he vowed to himself that once the QIT was over, he would personally go and wreak havoc in the Eastern zilla and make sure that each and every person involved in Ramanujam's death meets the same fate.

He was waiting for his people to send him a message from the Western zilla as well, with updates on the interrogation of his 'lover'. Sitting amidst these black thoughts, he was interrupted by Saraswati who came to inform him that Abhirath was seeking a meeting with him alongwith another student.

At his nod, she allowed the two of them to enter and shut the door before going to her own desk.

This was the first time that she was seeing Abhirath with a girl apart from Mriga. The two of them who just went inside, looked a little awkward around each other. Her sixth sense was tingling, telling her that there was some gossip to be found between the two. But she didn't let any of these thoughts show on her face and serenely sorted out the correspondence which was waiting for her.

"Sigh! I wish Ramanujam was here to help me speculate about this. How slow is he to have taken so long on his assignment! Should I also go and rub it in his face as he came to show off in Southern zilla to me?" she muttered under her breath.

"Pranam* Guruji. My name is Vaishali. I am one of the contestants taking part in the QIT this year," she folded her hands and extended her greetings to the professor in front of her.

Yesterday, she had met Abhirath by chance in the evening and they ended up talking about the need to catch the girls behind the ganging up incident before it is too late and the issue becomes irrelevant. Abhirath had suggested to her that she should inform the head of the event's organiser about the whole incident. She, in turn, had requested him to come along to present the case better and that's how they found themselves in front of Prithvi right now.

Prithvi was silent and listened to what the girl had to say. He remembered the complaint by Abhirath had crossed his desk few days ago about the attempt by few girls to use underhand methods which could lead to disqualification, if proven. But in that report, he hadn't mentioned any names.

"So you are saying that the girl, Vindhya is the one at the centre of this whole thing?" Prithvi asked them, with his thick eyelashes covering his eyes.

It gave the impression to others that he was almost snoozing. But Prithvi used this simple trick enough number of times to conceal the expression in his eyes. It helped him keep his thoughts hidden effectively from those opposite him.

Vaishali nodded eagerly but Abhirath was slow to react. He believed that Vindhya was the biggest competitor for everyone in this competition. If an accusation like this came out without concrete proof, it may look like that they were trying to target her deliberately.

All this while, he had been trying to look for some sort of eye witness or testimony which could prove that Vindhya was involved in the process. But till now, he had nothing in his hands. Had it not been for Vaishali's insistence, he would have let the matter go for now and concentrate solely on the next round on behalf of Mriga.

Since he didn't want the girl to keep approaching him for this again and again, he had brought her to Prithvi. But looking at his teacher's face, he was regretting it now. It seemed that he had been impulsive in his conduct and Prithvi's next words confirmed it.

"Do you have any proof to back your claims?" he asked gravely.

Both Abhirath and Vaishali shook their heads in negative.

Prithvi stared at them through narrow slits of his eyes and said in a calm voice, "What if I tell you that Vindhya has already lodged a written complaint with my office claiming exactly the same incident? The only difference is that she caught the girl who was the mastermind behind this and brought proof in terms of testimony of many girls regarding the same. The girl has already been questioned and she admitted to her doing so. She has been disqualified from the QIT. This was not revealed publicly because the Gurukul didn't want the girl's reputation to be completely destroyed by this. So the matter has been dealt with. If there is nothing else, you both are excused."

*Pranam - Greetings