A Lot More Than Love

By Aditya Pandey

Everything I have, I owe it to you guys. Let’s never break our friendship!
Raj, Gorakh and Kairav are childhood friends, ready to step into college to chase their dreams. Their lives take a dramatic turn when Kairav’s mother is kidnapped. That sets into motion events that alter the course of their lives, puncturing their aspirations.
Even when love comes knocking, it throws them in a storm of varied emotions.
Will their friendship survive in this turmoil?
Based on real-life events, A Lot More than Love is a heartwarming tale of three strong boys who take control of their destiny and stay undeterred in chasing their goals. Set in the city of dreams, Mumbai, it captures the power of unwavering loyalty and the beauty of friendship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Srishti Publishers
• Release date: Jun 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9789390441266

Book preview

ADITYA PANDEY

Srishti Publishers & Distributors

A unit of AJR Publishing LLP

212A, Peacock Lane

Shahpur Jat, New Delhi – 110 049

[e-mail]

First published by

Srishti Publishers & Distributors in 2022 Copyright © Aditya Pandey, 2022

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This is a work of fiction. The characters, places, organisations and events described in this book are either a work of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to people, living or dead, places, events, communities or organisations is purely coincidental.

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publishers.

Printed and bound in India

Dedicated to the lively spirit of differently-abled people.

Acknowledgment

Well, here we are. Reading a dream come true. Thank you for grabbing a copy of this.

Starting the list with the first reader and the firm supporter of the author in making – Smita. Remembering our efforts of poorly editing the first draft will always make me l augh. I really appreciate you for encouraging me and for being there, always.

Coming to the motivation behind the book, my brother Amit Pandey. You deserve the best in life. Thank you very much for all your guidance. Special credits to my brother’s friends for being the inspiration behind one of the main characters. You guys are legends!

I am grateful to my parents for always motivating me in this journey. It would have been impossible without your presence.

Special thanks to Dr R.H. Yadav for supporting me and my family in every aspect of our life.

My friends from B.E. – Rohan, Jayashree, Vaijayanti, Shraddha, Ashish, Pratik, Vinivesh, Ankita and others for bearing with me and my silly jokes. Yash, Karan, Abhishek, Huzefa for being the first buddies.

Many thanks to faculties and students at Somaiya and all my colleagues.

No thanks to Mithilesh, my useless childhood buddy, who is subconsciously part of every aspect of my life. I won’t thank you!

Special mention of those relatives who found all my creative ideas meaningless and a waste of time. Sometimes I worked harder just to prove them wrong.

Thanks a lot to lord Hanuman for making this possible for me.

I am very grateful to my dear editors, Stuti and Vini for refining my story. Special credits to my publisher Arup, and everyone at Srishti for helping me to bring out this book in its best form.

Prologue

In Gorakh’s voice

Ever thought of dying? Escaping from all your responsibilities and pain to become free from your burdens? I have felt it too!

Lying near the railway tracks, these thoughts roamed in my mind. I felt like crawling towards some running train and ending my suffering.

A few moments ago, I saw my life split into pieces when the train passed over my legs. Covered in my own blood, I was crying in pain and wanted to end it. But then, I thought about my mother. I knew she loved me a lot. My father would not want me to do this.

Then, I thought about Raj and Kairav. They would be devastated if something happened to me. I owed my life to them as well. So, I decided not to do it.

But I had already ruined Kairav’s life and maybe, I deserved this. Perhaps now Kairav wouldn’t care about me anymore. I knew that from now on, my life would be a nightmare. But even before this accident, my life wasn’t really worth living.

I cannot recall even one incident when I made my parents proud. I shouldn’t have chased Robert till here. Now I feel we should have listened to Panditji’s prediction. He had warned the three of us – me, Raj and Kairav that bad things were going to happen. But, we ignored him.

I know you are wondering how the hell did I end up here! Let me start from the beginning, when things were pretty simple and I was just a regular boy, having a good time in life.

1

Results Out

Being tensed for the examination results is nothing new. It is indeed difficult to face the truth that you could not fulfil the expectations of your parents by scoring high marks.

Today was that fateful day in my life – my result day. Raj somehow became more irritating during such stressful situations. He kept messaging me till 3:00 a.m. and I kept comforting him, though I was more worried than he was. He had been a topper since my school days and I barely managed to pass. My friends called me Mr Perfectionist for securing average marks – mostly between 35% to 40%. It changed in tenth standard when I got 55%. Our twelfth standard results were going to be announced; the so-called results that were going to decide our future.

My dad promised me that if I got more than 80%, he would buy me the latest mobile phone. It would have been a perfect gift.

I woke up at 7:00 a.m., too early for me on a holiday. Just then, my phone rang. It was my best friend Raj.

‘Hello Gorakh, are you ready bhai? Remember we have to go to Siddhivinayak temple?’

‘Yes, just wearing my shirt! I will see you in five minutes,’ I lied, leaving my bed.

‘Ok bhai, anyways I am ready. See you in five minutes,’ he said and disconnected the call.

Raj was a sincere student who excelled in academics. In fact, he had topped the tenth standard exams. We were in the same school, but got different streams of study due to the difference between our percentages. Our fields changed; he chose science and commerce chose me.

My father had told me that it was simple to score 55% in tenth, also commonly called SSC. I could do it if I worked hard and focused on my studies. So, I studied earnestly with the topper. I cleared all my doubts and memorized everything.

But when I saw the question paper, I went completely blank. So, I did not have a lot of hope from my result. After all, I was just an average boy.

v

Raj called for the twenty-seventh time, as my five minutes ticked to twenty. ‘When will you learn the importance of time? Idiot! I have been calling you for the last fifteen minutes,’ shouted Raj, glaring at me. Being called an idiot was nothing new to me since my dad always called me that.

Looking at my smile, he said, ‘Now hurry up! Let’s go. I know you will never change.’ I followed his order like an obedient student.

‘Kairav is also coming. He is bringing his car,’ said Raj walking towards the Raheja compound.

‘But yesterday he told us he won’t be coming. He was going on and on about how praying won’t change the outcome of our result. Then why this sudden change of plan?’

‘He called me in the morning and said that it would be fun to watch us beg in the temple. He doesn’t want to miss that,’ chuckled Raj.

‘Jerk! Sometimes he is overconfident.’

‘Naah bhai, I don’t think so. I am happy that he wasn’t there in our school, otherwise I would have been a second ranker all those years,’ said Raj, waving his hand at Kairav.

Kairav’s life was so perfect that anybody would have been jealous of him. He belonged to a well-off Punjabi family. He needed no deal with god as he had everything sorted in his life. Raj wanted to be rich and smart like him and I just wanted to be smart. He lived in the Raheja compound, which was a few blocks away from our low-budget Ganganath chawl. We hugged him and sat in his SUV.

‘You know what you wrote in the exam paper. Praying won’t change anything, guys.’ Kairav said and started driving. Kairav always said that he believed in god, but also believes that god won’t be able to change anything for us. The fate of our life lies in our actions and thoughts, he often said.

‘Not everyone is blessed with a brain like yours,’ I taunted. ‘Some people do believe in magic and good deeds of their previous lives.’ Kairav laughed but Raj ignored both of us. He was very stressed out about the results.

v

‘Bappa, we are humans and we do commit mistakes, but please forgive us for that. Today is our result day. Bappa please, give us at least 90% marks and we promise to come and pray every Tuesday for one year.’

‘Also, for the first five Tuesdays, we will come barefoot,’ I added.

We were standing in front of lord Ganesha’s idol to strike our deal. I secretly prayed only for 75%. Though Bappa didn’t even give a signal through a falling flower as shown in old Bollywood movies, but in our hearts, we believed that our prayers were heard.

After we were done with our prayers, Raj said, ‘Deal final! Now let’s go.’ Kairav was waiting for us outside after completing the mukh darshan.

‘Which one of you promised that he would come barefoot if you get good marks?’ joked Kairav. Raj pointed towards me and they laughed.

‘Jai ho Satvendra Babaji ki!’ said someone loudly and grabbed our attention. A man was lying on the ground with his forehead touching Babaji’s feet. He stood up after a few seconds, touched Babaji’s feet again, and left with a big smile on his face.

‘Looks like Babaji is very knowledgeable. Did you guys notice how happy that man was? Should we also ask Babaji about our future? Maybe he will tell us some magical mantras that will solve all our problems,’ I said.

‘He won’t tell us for free, Gorakh,’ said Raj.

‘Are you guys serious? You know how these babas are. They say general things that apply to everyone and yet, people think that baba knows everything,’ said Kairav dragging both of us to his car.

‘Jai ho Satvendra Babaji ki,’ I shouted and Babaji looked towards us. He saw his potential customers going away and almost ran towards us.

‘Wait bachcha! Where are you taking them? They look curious about their life. They have questions. Let me answer them,’ said Babaji to Kairav.

‘You can ask your questions as well and if you aren’t satisfied, don’t pay me,’ he went on.

‘Not interested, Baba,’ said Kairav immediately. ‘It’s all stupid.’

‘Please Kairav. It would be fun for you to watch us do stupid things,’ I said.

‘That’s true,’ he smirked. We walked towards Babaji’s little shop beside a flower seller’s outlet. Many chappals, shoes and sandals were lying near it. The flower seller kept an eye on the footwear of the devotees for attracting more customers. People used to come back after darshan, pay money for the flowers and take their footwear. A small trust-based system.

‘Who wants to go first?’ asked Babaji and Raj put Kairav’s right hand in front of him.

‘Tell me your birth date, time and place. I will make your kundli and match it with the palm reading,’ said Babaji, taking out his mobile phone from the pocket. He entered Kairav’s details in some android application. He read something in it and then looked at Kairav’s palm. He used some kind of kundli- making app, I guess. He looked quite tense. After a few minutes, he said something that we should have taken more seriously and followed.

‘Beta, you are very hardworking and will be very successful in your life.’

‘I knew you would say something like this only. Typical response!’ said Kairav, taking his palm back.

‘I am not done yet,’ said Babaji. ‘Your kundli says that the people who you consider as your friends will be the reason

for your doom. To live a happy life, you must stay away from them.’

‘Whatever Baba,’ laughed Kairav. We laughed with him. ‘You are talking nonsense. They both are my childhood

friends. They have relentlessly supported me during my toughest times.’

‘I am not joking bachha. I am warning you. It’s your wish whether you believe it or not,’ said Babaji and signalled Raj to show his palm. He entered his details in the app and got more tensed.

‘Beta, you tell me your date of birth as well,’ said Babaji to me as he checked my palm. He did his readings and looked towards us.

‘I know you people won’t trust me, but your readings are similar to that of Kairav. You people can achieve big things in life, only if you stay away from each other. All three of you are unlucky for each other. You will lose everything and encounter near-death experiences if you remain together.’

‘You are a liar. What’s next? We will have to do some puja to avoid these problems? That puja will involve lots of money? We have heard about such scams before, Baba,’ shouted Kairav.

‘Give him his money. Let us leave, guys,’ I said. I was terrified because I believed in astrology. I didn’t show my fear to them.

‘Why should we give him money? I was telling you guys that it is a bad idea. They are all scammers. The more you pay them, the more they will go on with their scams,’ said Kairav.

‘Why are they even allowed to sit outside temples? I am not giving him a single penny.’

‘Calm down Kairav. Let’s go,’ said Raj.

‘I don’t need your money, bachcha. You will need it if you don’t take my advice. All of you will suffer. I have never seen

such a negative impact of someone on another person’s life. Believe me and stay away from each other,’ Babaji shouted, but we ignored him.

While coming back from the temple, a strange tension