The first page...

“Baap kya karta hai aapka?”, the balding professor thundered.
And, suddenly everything went blank.
It was 2003, and a nubile 16 year old Rakshita was having a hard time deciding what stream she wanted to study after her secondary school. Her application to an International School of debatable repute had been accepted, but her family wanted her to stay in India. They had just shown her an advertisement for admission to arguably the country’s best school. Rakshita wondered, was it the case that her parents wanted a trophy for the showcase in their house? A daughter who had been accepted at the Delhi Public School, RK Puram, noted widely as the toughest school to get into in India. But she quickly settled for the fact that no parent ever wants anything for their child unless they feel it is for her own good.
Rakshita had been a model student throughout her life. She had spent her early years at a boarding school, where she was at the top of the academic heap throughout. She had even spent a couple of years studying abroad, when her father had been pursuing advanced education. Financial difficulties had soon forced the family to leave Edinburg, and come back to India, where her Father could bank on a steady income from his job as a history professor, complemented by tuition earnings. But the main earner in her family was her Mother, a doctor. To Rakshita and Nileish, her brother two years older to her, their mother was the alpha male of the family. Dr Meenal Mahajan was a distinguished gynecologist, her two storied nursing home being the cornerstone of the family’s existence. Dr Asok Mahajan, on the other hand was the quintessential historian type. Thick glasses often hid the permanent look of deep thought on his face. He was a frail, troubled man, often wondering aloud as to what the numerous Indus Valley Scriptures he was studying meant.
Nileish was the brat of the family. He was a darling of Meenal, who had made it clear on more than one occasion that he was her favorite child. However, Rakshita did not mind this one bit. Her brother loved her to no ends, and she adored him. Nileish often shielded Rakshita from scoldings from their mother, which were rather too common, given that she was an outstanding student to say the least. Nileish was an average student, and hence was doing “what he was expected to”, Rakshita, instead was expected to perform excellently every time, such was the philosophy of their mother.
Asok, on the other hand, was a subdued man. Partly, because of the overwhelming presence of Meenal, and partly, because he himself had faced a similar situation as a child, of over-expecting parents. He often took Rakshita for long walks on the banks of the nearby lake, and told her how the smaller things in life were important too, and being the best student did not always translate into a great life. He usually gave his example to illustrate the point, which used to baffle Rakshita to no ends. She wondered, Asok was every bit the doting father, and to her, this was sufficient enough to make his life the best in the world. Little did she realize that it was the overbearing, overachieving Meenal which make Asok constantly feel inadequate and overwhelmed.