CHAPTER 25 - Mother of Mine
Adarsh was in his office, going through his files carelessly and glancing frequently at his watch. Anyone could see him and tell that he was waiting for something. Soon his trusted assistant Suraj entered with an envelope.
"Today you took a lot of time. I got scared thinking you were caught"Adarsh said , taking the envelope
"What are you saying Sir, I was just getting some samosas packed. My wife is having cravings for these "Suraj said with a wide grin and showed him the packet.
"
Oh , but you should be careful , too much oily food is not good. You may go now"
"
What would Swadheenta crave for when she gets pregnant ? Only aampapad ?"Adarsh said to himself and chuckled as he took out the CD and loaded into his laptop.
The record of Suhasini's phone started playing
"Hello Suhasiniji, Dr. Nair speaking. When do you think we will get the samples ?"
Suhasini -
"The hearing is in 10 days . Maybe a day or two after that. But remember , you will not bow down to any pressure."Dr. Nair - "
If you say so, but are you sure you don't want the fake DNA reports like you did in your daughter in law Simmi's time ?"Adarsh did not have the patience to listen anymore. Fake reports ? His mother actually asked the doctor to prepare fake DNA reports of Simmi's child. How could she do this ?
This was enough. He would have to talk to his mother. He was about to hurry out of the office when his eyes fell on the gift on the top of his cupboard. It was kept as it is since the day Swadheenta had handed it over to him. He had totally forgotten to open it. He took it down and then carried it to his car. Then he drove towards home in full speed.
Suhasini was in her study, cleaning a gramophone which was a family heirloom. She then carefully put a record in it to see if it was working.
A very old hindi song from the black and white era started playing,
"Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam
tum rahe na tum , hum rahe na hum.."Just then Adarsh entered. Suhasini smiled seeing him
"
This belonged to my grandfather. Your Nanaji had instructed me to always keep it with great care. See, it still works"Her eyes then fell on the box in Adarsh's hands , she asked him
"You didn't like it ?"
"I don't want it"Saying this he kept it on the table with a bang
"Careful Adarsh, the glass might break"Suhasini cautioned
"
You are always so careful with the material things of this house, but what about the humans of flesh and blood living here ?"Adarsh asked sarcastically
Suhasini frowned,
"
What are you trying to say ? Please come directly to the point"
Adarsh first went and put off the gramophone. Then he looked straight into his mother's eyes and said
"
Why did you ask for the fake DNA reports of Simmi's child ? You wanted to keep a child away from its mother. Why? I can understand that you never liked her but I cannot believe that you could stoop so low to get back at her. That too when she is still trying to get over Abhay's death"Adarsh was seething with anger.
"Stop it Adarsh. I did not do this to get back at her. How can you say this about your own mother?"Suhasini retorted, trying hard not to let her voice choke
"
So you admit that you did this . Then what else could be the reason? Ahuja uncle ? But whatever it is, it cannot justify what you did. How could you leave Abhay's child to its fate?"Adarsh questioned
"I was not going to leave Abhay's child to its fate. If the results had indeed been negative, I would have moved heaven and earth to find its whereabouts . Believe me, all I wanted was not to lose Amana."Suhasini tried to explain herself
"But you did not have the right to decide that. It was Simmi's child. Only she had the right to decide what to do with her child. You tried to deceive her into doing something that you wanted. Why do you want to control everyone's life ? Now you are doing the same with Reena and her child"Adarsh said accusingly
Suhasini did not reply. She silently went and sat down on the chair. She was feeling too weak all of a sudden.
Adarsh meanwhile continued,
"And yes, don't even get me started on Allan Broad. You were in cahoots with a terrorist ? One who was responsible for taking away our Chhotu from us"Adarsh hit her where it hurt the most. A painful lump seemed to push out from within her. She swallowed it with great difficulty and said,
"Sometimes life puts you through difficult choices, you have to choose between your loved ones and your ideals. Whichever path you take, you stand to be the loser. As for why I helped Allan Broad, I had to choose between your Dad's career and my conscience. May be I was selfish, may be I was weak. I chose the former, only to realise later the grievous consequences of my actions...""But you did not seem to have taken any lessons from there. Not only that , you manipulated Haider mamu to campaign for Dad. And last but not the least you have used Swadheenta as a pawn in this game of yours. If you had an iota of guilt for what you have done, you would not have repeated your manipulative ways"Adarsh said, acidic sarcasm dripping out of his tongue
"
Is that all ?"Suhasini asked calmly. Then she continued after a pause,
"
You are right, I manipulated Haider Sahab, but he is a sensible and intelligent person. He should have denied if he felt that he was going to do something wrong. As for using Swadheenta, you both agreed to my proposal when I asked your help in saving your Dad. If you remember , I even asked you to back out of it when she went missing in Kasauli. I just show people a path , it is upon them to walk on it. If you call it manipulation, so be it. This is the way I work . When your time comes, do it your way. And I have no intention of taking away Reena's child from her. I started this game, and I will ensure that no innocent is harmed because of my ploys. If you cannot have faith on me, please have a bit of patience""
Yes, we agreed because you said you would bring my father back, but I did not know that I would lose my mother in the bargain. I am sorry Mom. I can no more trust you with anything".Adarsh said , the hurt and disenchantment palpable in his voice. Saying this , he walked towards the door.
As he was about to leave, Suhasini called out,
"Are you going to disclose everything before Simmi ?"Adarsh turned around,
"Don't worry Mom, it is your truth to tell. I won't do it, but I will carry this burden of lies as long as I live. I will never be able to look Simmi and Ahuja uncle in the eye. We took his help in the Bawejas case and deceived him at our convenience."
"You didn't even so much as glance upon it, did you ?"Suhasini said looking at the unopened gift
"No, what were you thinking ? you would bribe me with a gift and everything will become normal between us?"He then went and put on the gramophone before storming out of the room
The gramophone was now playing the second song on the extended play record,
"Dekhi zamane ki yaari ,
bichhde sabhi, bichhde sabhi
bichhde sabhi bari bari..."Suhasini didn't know if it was the effect of the song, but she could no more hold back the deluge of tears which flooded down her cheeks. She wiped them at first but they were too stubborn to accept defeat. They came again with renewed vigour. She knew this was bound to happen some day. Adarsh had to know their real face. Infact she had wanted it to happen. She was tired of the hide and seek with her own children. She had thought she was prepared to take the blows that her son would shower upon her once the truth would come to light. Then why these tears ? Why couldn't she take it stoically ? Why was she crumbling from inside ?
Finally she got up, locked the door from inside, went to the washroom and put on the tap. And then the mighty Suhasini Sinha fell on her knees and broke down into heartwrenching, uncontrollable sobs.
Edited by Idiotboxer - 8 years ago
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