Calming The Storm🌌 (#wattys2019)√

9. When two storms rose united to combat another✔

Dedicated to: HARINIGANESH8, my friend who has endlessly and tirelessly provided support and encouragement

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Sampurnaa's pov:

It was Monday: a new day, a new week, and a new objective.
I did not have to be woken up today. I woke up on my own accord because I knew I had an unfinished job.
Ma-Baba, Dada-Boudi were back at home. Ma and Boudi had been pretty much affected emotionally by the incident I had narrated them about.
Dada and Baba were still angry with me for going somewhere unsafe without informing them first but hidden somewhere behind that anger and concern, there was a tiny glint of pride they tried to hide. The pride that I was brave.
We had a silent breakfast and left for our respective workplaces.

I reported to the office at precisely 8.30 am.

Senior, Peter, Abhijit, Rina and Diti were present there.
They asked me about Sridha and I told them everything. The two girls seemed pretty disturbed while the men were silent.

Soon we began discussing more what else we found. The other reporters on the team had compiled detailed reports before going on the field.

At Dharavi, there were several households with drunk men and women who worked hard. The men would squander all the money their wives earned and there was imminent domestic violence too.

At Kurla, some women were married and had 5 kids at the age of 20. They were equally unhappy.

The two colleges which had been selected for monitoring showed the involvement of some students in smuggling drugs inside the campus and then selling them to other students.

The other side of the red light area had seemed to be pretty normal and as of now, we had enough information to know that we had selected the right places for our report and that we must continue for the citizens' benefit.

At around 3 pm, I was sent for field reporting at Bandra Bandstand. I had to stand amongst the sea of Shah Rukh and Salman fans battling the constant heavy downpour just to catch a glimpse of them waving at their fans on camera.

At around 5, when I had wrapped up the live telecast, I sought permission from my senior and left directly from Bandstand.
I had to go to Linking Road to find the man who could help Sridha, the lawyer whose name I had zeroed on; Indrayan Chakraborty.
...

Indrayan's pov:

I was back from a weekend in Goa. The entire time I was there with three couples, they had tried to convince me to return with a wife of my own the next time I visited Goa. Ma had in fact plotted with aunty (Adrija's mother-in-law) and had shortlisted several candidates for my wife's position. They had both got around 25 photographs each and this time even Baba and Adri were supporting them. Abhi did not help at all and even Uncle stopped supporting me. According to the 6 of them, at the age of 29, it was already too late to get married. Ma said that if I marry now, then I could easily adjust with my wife and then have kids by the time I am 32.
Sigh!
They honestly want me to lead a simple life with any 'sundor' (beautiful) and 'bhaalo'(good) Bengali girl they find.
I was back in my office and there were neither many appointments nor many case files for reading. I would easily be done by 5.30 pm today.
....

At 5.30, I had just shut the last file and had been arranging things on my desk when I heard a slight commotion. Someone was arguing and it seemed to be at the reception.
Bracing myself for some nonsense, I walked out tall and confident, bringing on the facade of an intimidating and unfeeling criminal lawyer.
At the reception, a comical sight met my eyes.