ᴄʜᴏɪᴄᴇꜱ | Republished ✓

5. A friend

A true friend is someone who thinks you are a good egg even though he knows you are slightly cracked.

Karna's POV:

'The walk home was pretty uneventful, compared to the morning,' I mused, thinking about the girl in the forest.

Well, her acceptance surely shocked me, specifically when she did not mention my caste. I looked up when I reached my house, which was near the outskirts of the town and close to the holy river Ganga. After taking off my shoes, I walked inside, expecting to find my mother in the kitchen.

"Pranipat, Mata," I said with a small smile.

Radha Mata turned around from where she was sitting, cutting vegetables.

"Kalyan Ho, putra," she answered with a smile. I hummed, a thoughtful frown appearing on my face. Radha Ma raised an eyebrow at me, sensing that I seemed to be lost in my thoughts.

"Putra?" she questioned.

"Ji Mata?" I asked.

"You seem lost, putra. Is something the matter?" she asked.

"Not really, I just met a girl..." I trailed off, still deep in thought.

"A girl?" Radha Mata's eyebrows rose.

"Aren't you a bit too young to think about a girl, putra?" teased Adhiratha Pitashree, who had just entered the kitchen.

I blushed and stammered, "That's...n-not... what I meant..."

Radha Ma and Adiratha Pitashree chuckled at my discomfort. I smiled at them, happy for their amusement, even though it was at my expense.

"What is it that you were saying about a girl?" questioned Adiratha Pitashree.

"I met her in the forest. She was lost, and I helped her find her way home. Her mother even thanked me, and the weird thing is that the girl does not care much about the prejudice surrounding the caste system. Her mother seems weird too. She told me to tell you a name 'Aaratrika' and suggested taking the forest route. I did as she suggested, but the name...I have no idea what it means, though," I said to my parents.

Radha Ma seemed to gasp, and Pitashree seemed serious. He immediately asked, "Did you meet anyone on the way?"

"No. Why?" I asked, curious.

Ma seemed to sigh in relief and mumbled, "Bhagwan Vishnu ki kripa hai." (The Lord Vishnu has mercy.)

Pitashree looked relieved. He spoke seriously, "Putra, the woman you met, her name is Aaratrika. She is a friend of your mother and me. She was born to a Brahmin family and married into a strict Kshatriya family. Though she has liberal ideals, her family does not hold such ideals. The girl you helped must have been her daughter. Though I have no idea how she recognized you...."

Radha Ma interrupted, "She has always been good with intuition. I am not shocked she can recognize our son, even after meeting him after so many years."

"Oh..." was the only sound I could utter.

What does one say to that revelation? I had no idea about any friends of my parents, having never met them. It seems this day is full of surprises.

Author's POV:

A month has passed.

Since then, neither Advika nor Karna managed to meet each other. Advika, however, was discreetly searching for him, while Karna had almost forgotten about her. Both of their days passed without any changes.