Prerna – The Inspiration – Episode 4

By Aditi Thakur | April 23, 2018

Prerna – The Inspiration – Episode 3

It was now more than ten days that her father was in that critical condition. There was no response from him; good or bad. The only thing Prerna could do now was to come to Pune permanently, without any delay. She went to Sawanpur after making sure that her aunt and other relatives were there to look after her dad.

Leaving behind everything was not easy. Her students cried when she left, she did too. But she loved her father more than anything in this world. He meant everything to him. She consoled herself saying that she can continue with similar work in the city as well. As for the simple life, she will have to work on that aspect a little later. That thought was enough to keep her going.

Prerna immediately got a job as a teacher in a good school. She and her aunt, who had shifted to her place with her daughter, took turns to take care of her father. Soon her father started to recover and within a span on a month was discharged from the hospital. He was still fragile and needed care. Seeing her father home gave some relief to Prerna.

The beginning of summer brought new life for Prerna as she joined an orphanage and started teaching the children there on weekends. She had decided that she would teach them in the summer vacation too.

Occasionally she started attending some charity events with other contributors of the orphanage. During one such event, she found herself in the middle of a complete chaos. The event was kind of a motorbike race coupled with entertainment; she couldn’t understand how that was related to charity but went anyway. There were many rich people attending the event and apparently were going to donate money to different charities. She and her team were allotted a place near the trustees, along with others who had come there with a similar intention in mind.

Suddenly the atmosphere changed and became more chaotic. Everybody started clapping and even whistling. Prerna thought that the race had begun but the people around her were not looking at the race tracks but somewhere else. She stood up and tried to see what the ruckus was about. Almost on her toes, she saw a handsome, young man waving at everyone and greeting everyone by flashing his pearly whites at them.

“That’s Abhiram Saxena.” Prerna’s friend whispered in her ear. However, it did not ring a bell to Prerna.
“He is super rich.” Continued the friend; still Prerna was clueless as to why everyone was going crazy for him.
“He is an unimaginable, yet fantastic, combination of a socialite and a social worker.”
“And he is the most eligible bachelor in town!” winked her friend.

The entire evening went well and they were asked to stay back for dinner. Abhiram Saxena was surrounded by many people, majority were women. It seemed to Prerna that he actually liked all the attention that he was getting. It also reminded her of her college days when girls used to go crazy over some hero of a film or some cricketer who would be visiting the city.

Days went by and Prerna was now settled in the big city. The matchmaking soirees had taken a backseat and that was a big relief for her; though there would be occasional conversations between her dad and her aunt. Summer vacations had started and Prerna was spending more time doing her charity work. Teaching and going to different events and meeting people for donations had become usual. She bumped into Abhiram Saxena at many such events and they now knew each other quite well. He visited her orphanage once and interacted with the kids for some time. He also donated huge amount of money to cover arts and entertainment for the children.

“I have an idea,” he said while coming out of the office, “why don’t we organize a drama festival here?”
“How do you mean?” asked Prerna.
“I mean, why not call some theatre personalities here to teach the children about acting and stage management and have few dramas at the end of the vacations?”
“That’s a good idea; but I’m afraid we don’t know any such people who would want to do this” said another committee member.
“Oh leave that to me. You just give me permission to do it!”
“You’ve got that already.” smiled the member.
“You’ll help me out, right?” he asked Prerna.
“Oh.. yes, but I hardly know anything about all this.” She said nervously.
“Just be around!” he winked and went away.

And just like that the place converted into a lively theater overnight. Despite herself, Prerna enjoyed the entire thing and even Abhiram’s company.