A Heartful Love

There was a mini stampede before the Moonlight stall. The customers were running in panic due to the sudden blast. The electronic exhibition was arranged by the town municipal council on the outskirts of Raghavpur town. A young advocate, Pankaja, was negotiating with a smartphone, when the stall was blasted. The young customer helped her to reach a safer place. Pankaja was terribly afraid by the sudden development. She expressed thanks to him. Both introduced themselves. He introduced himself as Aniket working as an excise inspector. She fell in love with him and  walked into a nearby Samrat Vaibhav restaurant for lunch. Warm welcome was given to them. Pankaja was happy to see the beautifully decorated menu. Another attraction was all the waitresses were dressed in the light blue sarees with the brand name of the hotel and the emblem. Yet another attraction was the melodious old film song playing.

The hotel maintained cleanliness. Pankaja noticed something amazing in every food item in the menu. The tussle starts between them for the sake of an amusement on who should  choose the food items first.  Except for one customer, the other customers were enjoying their food.

 The waitress asked,

" Do you have any questions about the menu?"

"Wait just two minutes," said Pankaja smiling. 

The day's special was Shreekhand and puri. She  told Aniket to select the best among all the dishes. She was losing patience for the unnecessary delay and insisted him to place the order immediately. 

"Aniket, enough is enough. Stop childish play. I am afraid you will continue this childish play even after our marriage."

He just laughed. 

Pankaja ordered sumptuous and mouth watering items including the day's special. Both had a grand lunch. Waitress gave a computerized bill of rupees 1151/- Aniket felt uncomfortable as he had just rupees five hundred and the debit card was outdated. Pankaja had lost the purse during the blast. The hotel manager suspected them and lodged a complaint with the police. Aniket and Pankaja had to cut a very sorry figure. 

At the same time an unknown person cleared their bill and left without introducing himself. Both were surprised and unable to know who he was?

When they came out, they had to face another surprise. Police arrested Aniket, an imposter posing  himself as an excise inspector. He was an unemployed frustrated youth who did not get the job. On earlier occasions, he got little success and escaped from the police.

The inspector of police Manjunath arrived to nab Aniket, whose real name was Nishant. The bill was cleared by Manjunath as he wanted to save Pankaja, a known friend. She realized her foolishness and was very much impressed by Manjunath.  She shook his hand firmly as a token of love. Manjunath was clever and understood her intention. He reciprocated positively. Pankaja learnt a lesson not to believe in an unknown person, even though he saved her life.  

It was a heartful love of Pankaja and Manjunath.