Chakravyuh...

She was her daddy’s little princess. She would have to only think of something and her dad would get it for her. As with all of dad’s little princesses , she wanted to get married to a prince charming who would sweep her off her feet…
And sweep her off her feet he did. She was a person who always believed that she would go in for a love marriage , but Abhi was first introduced to her through a faded portrait with the marriage broker.But even then she became captivated by that tall , dark and handsome stranger.
The horoscopes were compared , their families met and before she could blink her eyes her destiny was tied with Abhi’s and their lives became one.
What started out as an arranged marriage slowly developed into a beautiful union of two hearts.. Days passed and months flew by. Before she could even realize it , she had been married to Abhi for three years. She could not help but remember how she used to tease her married friends about not having time for her. But then it was no wonder that her friends didn’t have time for her if their husbands were even one tenth of Abhi…
Abhi had become her love , life , buddy  and everything else in these three years. They were inseparable and Abhi even took her with him wherever he was working . She was not for the nomadic life but soon came to prefer the constant change of location to Abhi’s absence..
Life went on..They were living in dehradun then. They had been married for seven years now and were expecting an addition to their family. She wanted a girl but Abhi wanted a boy who would grow up and take up the profession that all the menfolk from his family had followed… Every day brought forth  elation and new discoveries with them and life was beautiful. In fact she believed that she was the luckiest woman in the earth.
Those were idyllic days . They would wake up in the morning and spend the entire day preparing themselves for the arrival of their little one. One fine day when they were yet again debating between blue and pink for painting the room for the little one , Abhi’s pager beeped. He read through the message urgently and as if he couldn’t believe it reread it again . His brows furrowed for a long minute and when she was about to voice her concern , the sunny smile that he was so famous for came back . He jocularly said that she could have her way and paint the little one’s room pink . He had got some urgent work and had to rush North. He would be gone only for two days and would be back before she could even notice that he was gone. He also asked her not to have the baby until he came back. She smiled as the due date was a fortnight away. He packed his bag pretty quickly , gave her a tight hug and walked away towards his duty.
It had been three days after Abhi had left and there had been no contact from his end. She was worried. The baby was giving her a tough time and it was the first time in seven years that she was feeling this worried. Abhi did not usually contact her when was away on assignments but this one time she was feeling uneasy. Its the pregnancy hormones she thought.She went to the kitchen and boiled a glass of milk. She had just finished the glass and was about to go back to bed when the phone rang.
Tringg… Tringgg….
Hello….
Hello Am i speaking with Mrs. Ranawat
Yes this is Uttara speaking
Ma’am this is Captain Sanjay speaking. I am so sorry to break the news to you in this manner but Major Abhimanyu Ranawat was killed in action early today morning..Ma’am i know you are shocked but please be strong . Abhi was ambushed and surrounded by enemies when he was in the thick of the action He managed to eliminate eight of the militants but unfortunately could not come out alive..
The ground gave away beneath her feet. She couldn’t breathe. She felt as if she was stuck in a dark abyss with no way out.. She just wanted time to rewind go back to that last moment with Abhi..
The voice over the phone beckoned her,
Ma’am are you there..
Yes I am.. This is a joke isn’t it. Abhi asked to play a prank and scare the wits out of me right… Common Fess up.. If you remember Brigadier Ranawat is Abhi’s father and he would have been the first to give me such a news. Come now Captain you can tell Abhi that his prank worked and I was scared. I know he’s standing next to you. Please ask him to come on the line..
The voice over the other end broke..
Ma’am How I wish that was the case … Abhi sir was my mentor ma’am and I saw him fall down to the enemy bullets right in front of my eyes..
She screamed .. No you are lying … I know you are lying I want to talk to my father-in-law. Enough of these pranks. Please give the phone to Abhi or atleast my father-in-law.
The voice at the other end shred her heart to bits..
Ma’am Arjun sir does not know. He was not here when the action happened . He is fighting with his command at Dras. We have sent a message to his regiment at Dras and we hope he would be here for Abhi Sir’s last rites
Ma’am dheeraj rakhiye… if not for you then for junior… Main aapse milne aa raha hoon ma’am . I will be escorting Abhi sir for one last time from Kargil to Dehradun.
The phone dropped from her hands and she started shivering. What could she do . How would she go on with life. Her Abhi was not here. She had been cross with him last week  and  had asked him to get out of her sight but he was gone now .. gone permanently.
She was numb . She did not cry when she say Abhi’s corpse. She did not cry when her father-in-law broke down at the death of his favorite son. She did not cry at the hospital when she gave birth to the little boy Abhi had wanted.
She swept her grief aside to bring her son up the way Abhi had wanted , the way Abhi would have brought him up had he lived.
Years had passed … her son grew up into the mould of his father. He was the center of attention wherever he went… and she was the happiest person after her father-in-law when Parikshit decided to join the armed forces…
A shout for Maa made her stop reminiscing about those years spent with Abhi and the days after his death. She turned back and waited for her son to walk up to her. Captain Parikshit Ranawat she thought , son of celebrated param vir charka Major Abhimanyu Ranawat and grandson of Brigadier Arjun ranawat. The boy had a reputation he had to live up to and he had kept up his father’s and grandfather’s reputation .
he walked up to her and said ” Maa ! Chalein…” and as she accepted his arm and started walking towards their car she saw him turn back and wink at Colonel Sanjay’s daughter. Somehow she knew he was going to approach her soon and egg her on to approach Sanjay for his marriage with Akshaya. She smiled to herself and waited while her son keyed in the ignition and opened the door for her.
She was about to close the door , when she heard Abhi’s voice in her ear : ” Thanks Uttara.. Thanks for bringing him up the way I wanted. Thanks for being strong for him … I am so proud of him.. and eternally grateful to you for moulding him into what he is .. Thanks darling and I love you “.. She closed the door and mouthed slowly ” Love you too Abhi .. love you too”
PS : The thought for this story came when I read the Mahabharata and was wondering about the dynamics of Uttara’s relationship with Abhimanyu.. What I have presented here is what I perceived of their connection and what could have happened after Abhimanyu was killed in the Chakravyuh. I have set in the late 90’s as I am too bad with writing historical stuff :)