| The Curious Case of Mr. Bajaj |
"Mr. Basu had slapped you and you think he was right in doing what he did?"
"Is that why you have brought me here, Mr. Bajaj. I suppose this was going to be our break."
"This is a break and that's why, I am asking you this. Believe me, there is no sarcasm. I genuinely want to understand how you think about this."
She sighed, recalling the incident. Not a pleasant thing to do but it wasn't going to disappear from her memory either. "I had provoked him." She confessed, that it was she to be blamed.
"You had?" He was amused and she could hear it in his voice.
"I had."
"I had provoked him."
"I had told him that I married you for money."
"I had confessed to him that I was with him for money."
"And he believed you?" He popped the question almost instantly.
"I made him believe me," she uttered, pressing her palms on the bench where they were seated.
There was a silence for a couple of moments until he spoke. "Ah, you cannot make people believe if and what they don't want to, Mrs. Bajaj."
Her head turned to him once his words fell in her ears.
"I am sure, Mr. Basu have known you for too long to buy these ridiculous excuses. One needs to spend just a couple of days with you to understand you. You are that transparent as a person and yet, Mr. Basu who claims and who you claim, to be deeply and madly in love with you, even considering this possibility is quite bizarre."
She couldn't conceal the extent to which she was left taken aback. Anurag, the man she loved, the man who she thought loved her, the man with whom she had shared some of the best moments of life, the man who had seen how vulnerable she had become when he was in the jail, the man who had seen it all - her tears, her sufferings, her pain - when he was in the custody - did not have the kind of a firm trust that Mr. Bajaj - the man who barely knew her, the man whose presence seemed a prison to her, the man who had taken away everything from her that her life revolved around - did. She wasn't expecting it and perhaps, it was why, she was at loss of words for a while and he didn't make it uncomfortable either.
He sat in the silence, staring at the kids playing in the park, visibly content with the sight at the front.
Her gaze was still stuck on him. How could he say it as casually as he did! She wondered but what really got her thinking was, the reason - the reason he had made another deal with her and brought her to the park under the name of a break, stating he was grateful for the things she had been doing for Cookie.
"Prerna. Life me kisi ko itna haq nahi dena chahiye ke wo aapko physically hurt kar sake under the name of an impulsive action taken and justified stating it was out of love."
"Aapko kabse meri itni fiqr hone lagi?"
"Since the time I realized that Mr. Basu would have gifted you only pain and adorned you with unending names that you do not deserve - so I took you away from him - for I do not allow any harm on my people. Not anymore."
Her lips parted, and she gave him an unblinking stare as his words sank in her system.
What was he talking about?
Pain?
Unending names?
He took her away from Anurag for reasons apart from Cookie?
My people? He counted her in his people? Since when? And more importantly, why? She sat, mirroring a statue and he swiftly moved away, allowing her the much needed alone time to absorb it all and she began contemplating the curious case of Mr. Bajaj.
• • •
comment:
p_commentcount