A New Beginning

ShivOmRu didn't know how to put their feelings in words. Rudy was worse of them all.

Rudy had known kaka as his only parent ever since he started understanding the world around him. Kaka had been his dad, his friend, his teacher, his... everything.

Rudy had cried himself to sleep 3 times throughout the train journey. He didn't even get a good sleep due to all the nightmares he saw.

Om, on the other hand, was trying his best to be strong for Rudy but had tears flowing down his eyes. He still remembered it like yesterday when kaka had brought ShivOmRu to his house from that dirty orphanage.

Om took his time in quietly sobbing once Rudy fell asleep. He cried himself to sleep as well but with Shivaay on his side, he knew that everything will get better through time.

Shivaay didn't let a tear slip down his eyes after leaving the house. He needed to be strong for his younger brothers. He held his brothers close to him as they cried their eyes out in his chest.

"Mein sab thik kar dunga, OmRu, I promise." ("I'll fix everything, OmRu, I promise.") He whispered. He saw that OmRu had fell asleep on him. He kissed their foreheads and covered them both with a blanket.

Shivaay shifted his brothers in a comfortable position and sat on the opposite seat of the train compartment which was empty.

He pulled out the two envolopes which kaka had handed him, from the pocket.

A tear slipped down his eye but he managed to keep all the other tears inside.

He opened the first envolope, there was just a bundle of cash inside it as he had already taken out the tickets.

He put it neatly beside him and reached for the other envolope. The envolope held two folded papers, one of the paper looked worn out and old while the other looked too white and new.

Shivaay decided to go for the old worn out paper first.

It was the letter which kaka had received years ago from the Oberoi's. Shivaay re-read it a few times and finally came to the conclusion that his family hadn't abandoned them on purpose but they had their own serious and dangerous reasons for it.

He now realised what kaka meant by their lives are in danger and he also now understood why kaka had told him to hide his relation with the Oberoi Industries from the world.

Shivaay reached for the other folded paper and unfolded it. "Pyaare Shivaay baba..." ("Dear Shivaay Baba...") Shivaay read it in hushed voice so that he doesn't wake his brothers up.

"...Nahi, baba nahi." ("...No, not baba.") Shivaay smiled at the line. Kaka was writing what he was speaking.

"Pyaare Shiv, Happy Birthday ! Haan, Haan mujhe pata hai ki birthday pe mein khud bhi yeh bol sakta tha lekin mujhe letter likhna jyada accha idea laga. Aj mere chote se Shiv pure 16 saal ke ho gaye hai. Kitne jaldi din beet-te hai na ? Aisa lagta hai kal ki hi baat hai jab aap OmRu ke sath mere ghar mein aaye the. Kitne chote the aap tab lekin fir bhi bahot bahadur aur hoshiyar, apne bhaiyon ke liye kuch bhi karne ki himmat rakhne wale." ("Dear Shiv, Happy Birthday! Yeah, yeah I know I could've wished you face to face but I like the idea of communicating through letters. Today my lil Shiv has grown up to be 16 years old. Ah, how fast time passes! It feels like yesterday when you and OmRu had come to stay with me. You were so little but still courageous and smart, always ready to do everything for your brothers.") Shivaay could actually hear the fond chuckle kaka had let out after writing this small paragraph.

"Khair, mere pass apke liye ek letter hai jo kai saal pehle mujhe mila tha. Meine apko uss letter ke bare mein nahi bataya kyu ki tab aap bahot chote the aur yeh sab baate bata ke mein apse apka bachpan nahi chin-na chahta tha..." ("Anyway, I have a letter for you which I had received several years ago. I didn't tell you about it cause you were just a kid then and I didn't wish to snatch your childhood away from you by telling you about it...")

Shivaay knew kaka had sighed after that.

"Anyways, Happy Birthday once again Shiv. Meri ishwar se kamna hai ki aap bahot tarakki kare aur uchaiyan chuhe...Bhagwan kare ki aap humesha khush aur sukhi rahe." ("Anyways, Happy Birthday once again Shiv. May God bless you with success...May God bless you with happiness and prosperity.")

Shivaay couldn't hold in the tears anymore.

Why God was so unfair with them ?!

Kaka was such a nice man, such a kind and good natured person...but what he gets in return of his goodness ? Death.

Shivaay was angry, so angry with God for claiming Kaka's life.

He sighed and wiped his tears. He replaced all the letters in the envolope and secured those in his bag.

He glanced at OmRu, they were still asleep. Shivaay closed his eyes to get some sleep himself but all the incidents were not letting him do that.

Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw kaka's pale face when he had stumbled inside the house. Shivaay sighed and decided to give up on sleep.

This whole situation somehow reminded him of the time when Janvi had left them in the middle of the forest near the orphanage.

Shivaay was in-charge of OmRu at that time and right now as well. He was the one who needed to raise his precious little brothers all by himself and he didn't know how he was going to do it.

Of course, he was ready to die for them but raising kids was no joke and he knew it. He had to be their dad, mom, brother, friend, teacher, everything !

Shivaay shook his head to shake his thoughts aside. He needed a plan. They were going to Mumbai but they didn't know where they were going to stay and they had limited amount of money.

Shivaay had already counted the cash in the envolope and it was nearly 31,000 cash while Shivaay had 1500 in his wallet so total he had 32,500.

After 22 hours, ShivOmRu finally reached Mumbai. It was night time when they reached there.

"Chalo utho Om, Ru utho. Hum pohonch gaye hai Mumbai. Utho chalo." ("Get up Om, Ru wake up. We arrived in Mumbai. C'mon get up.") Shivaay gently shook them both.

OmRu woke looking tired.

Shivaay collected the 3 bags they had brought with them and held Om and Ru on his either sides.

"Mera haath ghus ke pakadna, verna goom jaoge, okay ?" ("Hold my hand tight or else you'll get lost.") Shivaay explained.

OmRu nodded and tightened their grip on Shivaay's hand.

Getting out of train that too on Mumbai station was another level of exercise. People pushed and pulled their ways in and out of the train like the train is going to vanish in thin air if they don't hurry up.

A lot of people tried to separate ShivOmRu in the crowd but Shivaay didn't let go off his brother's hands. Someone had even clawed Shivaay's hand but still he didn't budge.

At last, ShivOmRu came out of the station and all of them sighed in relief. For once it seemed like bad luck had lost their tail cause all of them were together and gratefully nothing from their luggage was stolen.

"Ab kya bhai ?" ("What now, brother ?") Om asked.

Shivaay looked at Om and gave a small smile. "Mujhe toh bhook lagi aur tumhe ?" ("I'm hungry, what about you?")

"Mujhe bhi." ("Me too.") Came a small voice of Rudy.

"Chalo fir, chal ke kuch khate hai." ("Let's go and have something then.") Shivaay smiled.

Shivaay found a decent hotel nearby and ordered some food. OmRu slowly digged into the food while Shivaay was too busy in thinking about a place to stay in for the night.

Shivaay took out his almost dead phone and quickly searched for nearby good hotel rooms which will be in his budget.

For the luck which was on his side, Shivaay found a good hotel near by which was in his budget.

ShivOmRu left for the hotel and Shivaay rented out a room for 24 hours.

The room was really nice. It had a TV set, Air conditioner and a balcony as well.

Shivaay sighed and fell on the bed in order to get some sleep after making sure OmRu were comfortable.

*

Next morning, Shivaay decided to find a place to take on rent. They all couldn't live in a hotel forever ! It was impossible cause he didn't had that much money on him.

"Bhai, aap jao mein Ru ka dhyan rakh lunga." ("Brother , you can go, I'll take care of Rudy.") Om volunteered when Shivaay hesitated to leave them both alone in the hotel.

"Pr Om.." ("But Om..") Shivaay started but was cut off by Om.

"...Mein hu na bhai, I'll manage. Aap jao." ("...Trust me, I'll manage. Go.") Om assured.

Shivaay sighed. He didn't have any other option. Taking OmRu with him will only mean making them suffer so he decided to follow Om's advice.

"Thik hai, lekin agar kuchh bhi hua ya fir darr laga toh tum mujhe jaldi se call karoge samjhe ? Aur bhook lage toh room service se kuch khane ke liye mangwa lena aur kisi ajnabi ko andar mat lena." ("Alright, but if anything happens or if you get scared you'll call me right away, understand? Call room service if you're hungry and don't let strangers in.") Shivaay asked seriously.

"Don't worry bhai." Om gave a small smile. His eyes were still sad but at least he was trying to cope with this all.

Shivaay smiled and ruffled Om's hair before kissing his forehead. He went Rudy then and hugged him and kissed his forehead too. He left after that.

After 10 hours of non-stop searching Shivaay finally found a room in his budget.

"Kitni door hai aur ?" ("How far is it?") Shivaay asked the broker who was taking him to show the 1 RK.

"Bas 2 minute mein pohonch jayenge hum." ("Just 2 minutes away.") The broker smiled showing off his red, paan covered lips and teeth.

"Disgusting." Shivaay whispered as he cringed at his smile.

"Kuch kaha apne ?" ("Did you say something?") The broker asked.

"N..nahi, bahot garmi hai na ?" ("N..no, it's very hot, isn't it?") Shivaay stuttered.

"Bhaisahab, yeh Mumbai hai, yaha har season sirf garmi hi hoti hai." ("Sir, this is Mumbai, it's scorching hot in every season.") The broker chuckled. "Yeh lo hum pohonch gaye." ("We're here.")

Shivaay looked ahead of them and read the board. 'Ekta Chawl'.

"Chawl ?!" Shivaay asked with surprise. "Aap chawl ke 1RK ki baat kar rahe the ?" ("You were talking about a room in a chawl?")

"Aur nahi toh kya ? Apke budget mein toh chawl ka ghar bhi nahi aata lekin apki kismat acchi hai jo iss ghar ke malik itne saste mein ghar de rahe hai." ("Yes. Your budget is not enough for even a room in a chawl, you should thank your lucky stars that the owner of this flat is giving you the flat at such a cheap price.") The broker muttered.

Shivaay's dignity and royalness didn't allow him to rent a room in chawl but with the amount of money he was holding he couldn't even afford a nest let alone a room in chawl.

"Thik hai." ("O..okay.") He said hesitantly. "Chaliye dikhaiye ghar." ("Show me the place.")

The broker led him to a wooden door which was littered with a lot of stickers. He opened the door and led Shivaay in.

Shivaay immediately started coughing his guts off due to the allergy he had with dust.

"Arey aaram se." ("Be careful.") The broker extended a bottle of water to Shivaay which he gratefully accepted.

Shivaay looked around the room once he wrapped his handkerchief around his nose.

It was an average size room with an iron cot in a corner, a tv placed on a worn out table. As he walked further into the room and slided the curtain he saw a small kitchen, where there was only a granite kitchen counter and a few cockroaches running here and there.

In the far corner was little washroom and there was also a small attic above the kichen which had enough space to make it a bedroom of a 3 year old.

"Yeh saaman aap log use kar sakte hai. Yeh tv chalta hai aur fan bhi." ("Use can use all these things. This tv and fan both work fine.") Broker said.

Shivaay looked up and realised there was a fan as well.

"Paani yaha din mein 2 baar aata hai toh apko uss hisab se paani bharna hoga. Waise aap kitne log rahenge yaha pe ?" ("Water is only available twice a day so you need to store it as per your requirement. By the way, how many people would be staying here with you?") Broker asked.

"Ji mein aur mere 2 chote bhai." ("Me and my two younger brothers.") Shivaay answered while opening the window present on the wall behind the kitchen counter.

"Kitne chote hai apke bhai ?" ("How old are your brothers?")

"Ek 13 saal ka hai aur dusra 9 saal ka." ("One is 13 years old and the other is 9.") Shivaay replied.

"Accha toh aap tino hi yaha rahenge ? Aapke maa baap..." ("So only you three are going to be staying here? What about your parents...") Broker trailed suspiciously.

"Kitna rent aur kitna deposit bola apne iss ghar ka ?" ("What did you say about the rent and deposit of this place?") Shivaay changed the topic swiftly.

"3000 rent aur 8000 deposit." Broker replied with a grin, already forgetting about his earlier question and subsequently calculating the commission he'll be receiving if Shivaay rents this house.

"Thik hai, hum aj hi shift karenge. Deposit aur rent mein apko shift hone ke baad de dunga." ("Ok, we'll shift here today itself. I'll pay you the rent and the deposit once we shift here.") Shivaay nodded once.

"Ji bahot sundar, aap apna saman leke aa jayiye, mein kal paise lene aa jaunga." ("Beautiful! Bring in your luggage today. I'll come to collect my money tomorrow.") Broker smiled.

They both walked out of the room and broker locked the door again. He pulled out the key and handed it to Shivaay.

"Yeh rahi apke ghar ki chavi." ("Here's the key to your new home.")

--------------

Hey bubblies,
It's a new beginning...

I know I had said I needed time to pick myself up but I posted on time cause if I delay in writing the chapters then I'm most likely to loose interest in the story and never write further so I thought it's better to keep writing...

This was I guess a normal chapter and I hope I didn't bore you all.

Let's see what masla Shivaay gets in his dish of life ! (Cringy sentence I know, but Shivaay loves cooking 😂🙈)

On this crazily awkward note, I'll take your leave.

Till the next update,
Have a safe and great life 😇