The Campaign Part 2

‘Good morning’ Trisha wished her parents; they were sitting in the veranda having their tea. Trisha inhaled the freshness of air, it seemed so nice and pure, far away from the busy and chaotic cities. Trisha wanted to talk to her father about the elections, that matter really bothered her but she also required the correct timing, because no way her father was going to agree of what she had thought of.

Later she decided to discover the people of Kibla, who had been living as local labourers and small scale farmers. Trisha’s family owned the maximum number of land in Kibla, thus they became the supreme authority of the village and every person in the village had great respect for the Rao family. Ajit Rao, Trisha’s father was viewed as a humble man, who took care of his people, one of the main reasons for him being considered by the Raj Mandal party. Trisha’s grandfather, Prakash Rao was a political leader from the Raj Mandal party; the party people thought that the son would want to continue his father’s legacy, but that never happened. The current candidate wasn’t strong enough to win the elections; the party needed a desperate replacement.

While Trisha was roaming around the village, she again came across that handsome guy who she now knew was none other than her childhood friend, Abhay Rathore. Trisha and Abhay became friends because Trisha’s mother had been on good terms with Abhay’s grandmother. She was surprised to see him change so much, that short cuddly fat boy had turned into a very handsome and good looking man.  Abhay was teaching the children Maths  (Just like the way Trisha last saw him).

‘Chotu!’ she called out loud. And she caught Abhay’s attention. He looked at her and tried hard to recognize her, Trisha started to make a peculiar face and then he remembered

‘Trishala?’ he said. He dismissed his class and went up to Trisha; nobody had called her by that name since ages.

‘Trishala Rao, is it actually you?’ he asked again

‘Abhay Singh Rathore! Yes this is Trishala Rao and I prefer Trisha by the way’ she replied and corrected him for called Trishala.

Twelve years had passed since they last met.

‘Wow, you have changed so much! I thought I will see you sometime but whenever I came here, you were either at the hostel or wait I think you had gone to England right?’ Abhay recollected

‘Have I changed? You have changed three sixty degree, I mean look at you! And yes after hostel I moved to England for studies, I hadn’t been in India for a long time, where had you been?’

‘Ah, I just came here to see Dadi (Grandmother) and I have been here for more than a month now’

‘Oh! Mummy told me about your grandmother’s health and wow one month! How did you take so much of holidays from your office?’

‘Ah, that’s another story…’

‘Tell me, I am all ears but before that tell me about your college and stuff, we have twelve years to catch up!’

He laughed and said

‘Yeah, twelve years! After school, I did my B-tech from IIT Kanpur and my MBA from IIM Bangalore Since then life has been busy, and last month I quit my job!’

‘IIT and IIM! Wow, man you are brilliant but you quit job for your Dadi or some other reasons?’

‘Both, I had to be here for Dadi anyhow and the job that I did started to bore me, I wanted to do something else…’ he said

 ‘Like teaching Maths to these kids?’ Trisha asked

‘Yes why not? It gives me happiness you know, and now I think of changing the society and creating something for their benifit. Anyways, how have you been? Are you here for long?’

 ‘Just like you even I quit and I am here forever now! This place is my life’ Trisha said in a confident tone

They sat together and talked for long. They talked about life in Kibla then and now, Trisha told him about the years she had spent away from home in England, she asked him about his life in college and he sounded like a complete nerd. Later, Trisha invited him over a dinner at her place.

‘It will really nice if you would come, my parents will be really pleased’

‘I met your mother and I guess your father wasn’t around, but sure I will come’

And he came, Trisha’s mother prepared the dinner, she was happy that Trisha invited him over. But Trisha had something else going in her mind, Trisha’s father informed her that the party was becoming very restless about the situation, they wanted a candidate immediately. Trisha thought about what Abhay had said on changing the society; she thought that he would be the perfect candidate. She hadn’t told her father about this but she was sure that he wouldn’t disagree, he always liked him.

‘So Abhay, what do you think about politics?’ Trisha asked seizing the moment.

‘Politics? Never really thought about it’

‘No I mean you said you want to bring about change in the society, isn’t this the best platform to it’

Abhay started to chuckle, Trisha found it very disrespectful. She was trying to talk something serious but he surely didn’t take it seriously.

‘Abhay what is there to laugh? I thought you were serious about what you said to me’

‘I am serious about bringing change but for that I don’t need to enter politics Trisha. And I don’t think elections bring any change’

‘They do Abhay! People work hard, my grandfather was in politics, he served the people’ Trisha defended

‘Trisha times have changed and political system are nothing but corrupt, how would you understand, you weren’t even here’

Trisha wanted to say something in defence but her father shut her up. He said it was useless to talk on a topic that had nothing to do with them. Trisha understood that Abhay wasn’t interested for contesting in the elections; she had to come up with a backup. Later when Abhay left after dinner, Trisha and her father sat in the veranda

‘You see Trisha, good people don’t want to stand in the elections, they consider it useless’ her father sighed

‘Do you consider it useless papa?’ Trisha asked

 ‘Look, we will find a way. We will not lose our land or Kibla’

‘That is what you say, and you were the one who said that the opposition will do anything’

‘I know I said that but we will come up with a solution, we will find someone who will win elections from this place’

Trisha thought about it, analysed it. She wanted to do right thing and decided upon…

‘Papa, they want someone from this family. How about me contesting in elections’