Written by Nita_Reid
Winner: The WARRIORS OF INK Contest - SET 1 (Category: More than 4 years)

BLURB

What makes you question the path you choose to walk either you reach a dead-end or face an obstacle that is insurmountable.

For Avinash Singh, the obstacle came in the form of his best friend Karan's sister. The girl who held his attention from the first time he met her, she was also the one who showed him a glimpse of her world that left him questioning his world.

All it took is one wisp of a girl and her strong sense of belief that made him question everything he knew about himself. And takes him on a journey of self discovery where he finds out how blurred the lines were between right and wrong, for someone whose vision was clouded by his father's words and actions. 

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BLURRED LINES

Avinash Singh was driving his new bike and he should have been happy, because the gift from his father came as a surprise. Yet his mind was hung up on the familiar bruise he had seen in his sister.

Keerthi, his sister was two years older than him and got married when she turned 18, last night she came home and he had been happy to see his sister until he noticed the bruise.

He had seen the bruises  in his mother often, yet he had accepted that such events weren't under his control not when his mother continued to make excuses for his father and not when his father was always quick to anger.

The first time he interfered had been when he was ten and his father backhanded his mother, because she spilled tea on him.

"Don't hit mom. Please," he spoke up still quaking in fear, but his mother had been quick to shush him, told him it was her fault just like every other time. And so he gave up interfering because in the end adults never listened to kids.

He interfered again when he was sixteen and this time  his father hit his sister,  because she dared to ask his permission for attending college.

"A girl's place is at home," had been his father verdict, he tried to tell his dad that his friends from school has sisters who were in  college,  but his father's  answer had been that he knows what's best for his kids.

And it was the same reason his father gave him, when he made his sister marry someone against her will, his mother couldn't interfere anymore as she died the year before and his father beat the submission out of his sister, so the day before the wedding he marched into his sister's room to ask her if she wants to escape.

"I want to escape this hell, Avi. At least I will be away from our father," his sister told him that night as she hugged him and it was that scene that kept replaying in his mind today.

Because she got married to someone who hit her, just like their father and does it mean she was still in a hell, he wondered and it was also the reason he decided never to marry long time ago .

Avinash knew he won't follow in his father's footsteps, not when he decided to never marry and bring someone into his life only for them to suffer just like his sister and mother. If the world called him, misogamist. It  doesn't matter to him in the least.

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Roshini was nervous because it was the first day of college and she just had declined her brother offer to walk with her because her family tends to be over protective and she didn't want her brother to scare away her potential friends.

She was quiet lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the bike that was coming her way and it resulted in her getting thrown off at the collision.

As she slowly got up, a pair of hands steadied her, and she turned to look at her brother who was so concerned that he kept talking non stop until she shushed him with her fierce glance which she used as a weapon when her family crossed the line.

"I am fine Bhai" she answered back as she gave him one of her special hug she reserved just for him.

"I am sorry" a stranger's voice called out as she turned to see Avinash, her brother's best friend. She had a slight crush on him, so she was tongue-tied around him, even if she had only met him twice so far .

"You should have driven carefully, I would have broken all the bones in your body if she was hurt, and it wouldn't have made a difference that you are my friend" her brother lashed out at his friend.

"It was my fault bhai, I wasn't watching where I was going," she admitted quietly trying to convince her brother.

"How many times did I ask you to be careful? What if it had been a car instead." her brother's concerned words  hit the target as she hugged him again all the while promising him, she will be careful in the future.

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Avinash couldn't help himself as his gaze continued to fall back at Roshini even if his friend continued to glare at him. It has been three months since he met Roshini, and in such a short time frame she had given him a glimpse of her world that he longed to belong.

"How do you know when you met the right guy?", he asked earning  a grunt of disapproval from his friend, the three of them were seated together in the cafeteria for lunch while she was talking about her future husband.

"When he gets the approval of my father and brother, because if he got past them,  then that's enough for me", she answered back as if that was forgone conclusion.

In a way she was like a  puzzle,  he couldn't figure out, she was fiercely protected by karan that any person who gets close to her had to go past him but she was also independent that one word from her is enough to make his friend fall back in line.

Seeing Roshini complete trust in her brother made him think about his sister often, and made him wonder if he had done enough as a brother or just let himself sidelined because he didn't think it was in his power to make a difference.

It was also the reason he found himself confiding in Roshini the ugly secrets of his past one day, when  it had been just the two of them eating lunch.

"My family protects me not because they think I am weak, because they love me to pieces. But they will never take away my choices or how I want to live, because they want my happiness.

The independent streak and confidence come from the knowledge that I can do anything and everything I set my mind too, because that what you gain when people believed in you.

Your father was wrong to categorize us as weaker and it makes me furious to learn about how he treated your sister and mother. You asked me if there is anything you could do, the answer is yes and it's up to you to find how because that's something you need to do come up on your own" with the cryptic message she left him lost in his thoughts .

Avinash had believed until he met her that he had been right to deny marriage to himself, he believed all women finds marriage as a prison  and how he could save someone by not marrying them. He had let the lines of right and wrong get blurred because he had let his father words and actions influence him. 

While he decided to not follow in his father's  footsteps. He had only taken into mind his father's actions yet without his consciousness,  he had allowed his father to influence how he perceives his mother and his sister, as women who needs to be rescued from marriages until he met Roshini .

It always weighed heavily on him about how he couldn't rescue them,  but he never trusted them enough or supported them by his words and actions that they can do anything they set their minds too.

Not anymore,  he decided as he drove to his sister's house the very next day . His sister opened the door with anxiousness that it squeezed his heart. As he made his way into the house ,she kept talking non stop an action of her when she was nervous .

"Keerthi di, he has no right to hit you nor our father. Marriage shouldn't become a prison to you just like it had been for our mother. It is your life, and you can do anything and everything you want and I promise to stand by your side, not because you need my help,  but because I love you." he spoke up and saw his sister face lit up in a rare smile, it may not be enough but it gave him hope that it will be the stepping stone for a change in her life. 

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A Month later, his sister filed for divorce from her husband and it was that day he learnt not to let his father's shadow cast his life with darkness. As he learned to trust in himself, in hopes that he will be a good husband to someone in the future who will not fear him or his fists.

And  it took him another two more months to find the courage to ask Roshini out on a date, and seven  years later he asked her to marry him, after he got the permission from her father and her brother, and she said 'Yes' just like she promised .

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