KASHMAKASH
" Keh Bhi Na Paaye ... Reh Bhi Naa Paaye
Kyon Bewajah Hain ... Yeh Bebasi "
Slowly Gauri tried to get out of the hospital bed but quickly realized how futile it was when she gripped both her hands in her hair and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out. Sharp pain lanced through her head, the room felt shaky and suddenly blurred ... It took her a few minutes to regain her composure and think properly. What she tried doing a few hours ago was wrestling but she felt like her whole body had been beaten and every moment caused some muscle or bone to ache. She checked all the bandages on her hands, legs and stomach ... Her hands were paining immovable ... TV serial kind of images started flliping her brain of how her Jatadhari will help her change clothes, feed her and even do her hair!
Thinking about him she looked at the clock and the time said it has been more than half an hour that he had gone away from her for some tests ... His wrist watch and mobile phone kept on the table beside her beside her bed. She felt weird. What happened to him? Where is he? How is he? Wincing in pain she held the corner of the bed to get down and then out of the room to look for her husband. In the passage she checked every room and cabin to see many busy people but not Omkara ... Panic welled and dwelled inside her heart, he was not even able to walk properly ... What exactly has happened?
She enquired with the doctor who was supposed to attend to him and in turn got to know that even the doctor was trying to find him for more than twenty minutes now. When enquired at the reception ... Both of them realize that Mr. Balram had come to meet Omkara. Gauri closed her eyes in dread, it was painful to know about Balram meeting Om ... Agonizingly and fearfully painful. Tensed, both of them again searched for Omkara in every nook and corner of the hospital. Failing to find him ... They check the CCTV footage. Gauri could feel nothing more than hollow in her chest.
They rushed out of the hospital with the security guards when they saw Balram and his men dragging an unconscious Omkara on a stretcher and leaving the hospital premises from the emergency exit. There at a distance, Balram kept slapping and punching Omkara who lay still on the ground. The security guards caught hold of Balram and his men while the doctor was calling the police.
Gauri ran to fall beside Omkara ... Pleading him to wake up. She kept her head on his chest ... Then breathed relief that his heartbeat was doing fine. After some time he tried to open his eyes murmuring her name lifelessly. Blood was oozing out of the numerous wounds on his face, a small and relentless flow of burning crimson however he felt no pain. Looking at Gauri, the only thing he could recall is how Balram had threatened that he would ruin Gauri before injecting him something rusively.
He tried to get up from the ground and Gauri held him protectively against her chest ... Softly rubbing his shoulder continuously whispering a complicated kind of prayer to Shankarji, different from the one she recites every morning. Thank you ... Is what she started chanting now seeing the medical help arriving. He opened his eyes to look at her ... Siering fiery bursts pulsated around his wounds thinking about some other man taking his wife's name ... Intensified was his resolve to deal with him personally now... Jarring and brutal was Balram's laughter, with each of his word about an indesecnt proposal to Gauri ... The ruthless kind of pain in his heart amplified, bloody muscles quivered and consciousness ebbed.
Her arms ached feeling his loss of breathe against her body. Impossibly numb, she was exhausted. Icy as he felt choking her lungs making a noose around her neck. Bitterness cut through her bones and gripped her brain. Her heart constricted in its wake as if not sure if it should go on beating. She could feel her cheek getting wet with tears, she had had people who chained her up and bruised her everyday but this felt worse ... Those were scars on the body and what is now is a scar on the heart. Her iron-willed man has done whatever he wanted and even succeeded, enough she has put up with his stubborn behavior ... She fully supported his decision now, she will decide and he will have to obey ...
