SS - Switched - Completed on 16th April - Page 40

Chapter 14

Madhu held her baby close to her in the protectiveness of her arms and kissed his forehead. Her eyes filled with tears as she continued to gaze at the miracle who lay sleeping, not a care in the world, as his Daddy bunkered up next to his Mommy holding them tightly, so as to never lose them again.

It had been two days since the birth of Mirakel Kundra (Miracle in Swedish). Both parents jointly decided on the name, because truly Mirakel was the miracle in their lives. He was the thread that still joined them together even after it looked like all ties were severed. And today evening they would take him to his home, a home where hatred, anger, distrust, bitterness no longer resided. It was a home filled with love and respect, a home which both his parents worked together building.

Madhu looked up at Rishab cooing at his son and she was washed over with pride, joy and love. The past seemed so far away that the memories seem faded, almost non-existent.

"Hey there my little man..." Rishab spoke to his son, who was holding on to his finger tightly. Madhu chuckled as Rishab even after two days of being around him, looked at his son with awe at how small he was. He kissed each finger one by one counting them. "No one is ever going to believe this boy, but I carried you for 6 of those 9 months and don't you forget that. So if Mommy ever throws one of those emotional blackmailing dialogues, you know the one, - I carried you for 9 months in my womb, you can just go right ahead and tell her – Mom, 3 not 9.. 3."

Madhu pinched him on his side. "Ouuuhhh..." Rishab rubbed the area Madhu pinched. "Oh did it hurt? Good..." She said sticking her tongue out at him. They continued gazing at their baby boy.

Suddenly Madhu started laughing. Rishab raised his eyebrow up in question. "I was just remembering the day when you could no longer see your feet. You actually cried all day long, grumbling about this and that, driving me insane."

"It wasn't me!! It was the hormones.." Rishab pled not guilty to Madhu's charges.

"Let me see what did you say... 'Madhu... do I look fat?' and just because I decided not to choke to death on a piece of bread, I had a vase thrown at me."

Rishab screwed up his face. "Ohhh memory does not serve you well. The way I remember it is that you had to first chow down on your entire sandwich and then look me all over and then have the gall to ask me – As compared to an elephant?... I'm sorry for the poor vase who had to break to drill some sense in you... When a girl asks – Do I look fat?... you should answer immediately without wasting another second – No dear, infact I think you have lost some weight. Are you keeping well?... Now that would have been an appropriate way to handle delicate matters such as that."

Madhu ruffled Rishab's hair. "I don't know if it was the hormones, or the fact that we exchanged bodies or maybe the countless number of hours you spent watching Oprah, but it did get you in touch with your feminine side." Madhu winked at Rishab.

"The same way it got you in touch with your masculine side..." Rishab grinned flexing his biceps.

"Lifting weights everyday did help in lifting and dumping the greatest unwanted weights of our lives."

"No complaints in that department," Rishab agreed wholeheartedly, "You can borrow my muscles anytime if it means throwing/thrashing the Bhatia Bunch. Will gladly be at your service. Too bad though, Maa let them crawl back in the first place."

"Yeah they are like lizards. You cut them tails off they grow back again. Anyway Maa has been burnt once. I think she will keep caution close from now." Madhu reassured Rishab once again. Ever since the cops came back with proof that it was indeed the Bhatias who had tried to extort Rishab and tried to cause him harm with a hired gun, Madhu who was then in Rishab's body didn't spend another moment in thought and threw out the Bhatias, all three of them. Slowly, their other laid traps and activities came to light not only in front of them but also Maa. But over the months watching their conditions go from bad to worse to something even more terrible than worse, and hearing their pleas of forgiveness, Maa decided to give them another chance, which she thought was a big mistake. Madhu resisted the decision, but Rishab didn't. When she pulled him up on it, he just had the one sentence to say, "He who has not committed a sin, shall cast the first stone." Madhu had rolled her eyes then, "So very Biblical of you. Did you have to involve religion in this too?" Rishab went on to say, "But I will stand by whatever decision you make." Madhu was left dumbfounded at his supportiveness.

The cell phone vibrated and Rishab picked up. "Sasumaa, charan sparsh," He smirked, "Yes Sasumaa, we will see you at home this evening."

"You know I think your mother loves me more than she does you. That is why she keeps calling me and not you." Rishab teased Madhu.

Madhu rolled her eyes at him. "I have worked hard trying to get her to change her mind about you and see all the good in you, while I was in that body. So don't go ruin things now that your back."

"Yes darling, whatever you say darling." Rishab joked.

"Now that is more like it... keep the yeses coming and you will get...," Madhu reached up and pulled him closer and kissed Rishab deeply and hungrily, "there is a lot more of where that came from." Madhu said as grabbed Rishab's head with her free hand and pulled him in for another kiss. Rishab chuckled. "Yes, yes, yes darling.."

*******

Rishab was busy packing up all of Madhu and baby's stuff in the room while Madhu watched him go about the room checking drawers, all the while deep in thought.

"Rishab...", she called out to him. Rishab saw her sombre expression and came to her immediately. She rested her head on his chest, while he moved his hand through her hair, waiting for her to say what she had in mind without interruption.

"I don't know how and why we landed in each others bodies that day or how we came back to our own bodies the night Mirakel was born, but am I wrong in saying that I am glad that the whole body exchange did happen?" Madhu looked up at Rishab, questioningly.

Rishab smiled down at her. At that moment, Madhu looked like a four year old asking her father why the sky was blue or why the fish didn't have legs. "I don't know the answer to the hows and whys of what happened. But what I do know is that I have nothing but thanks for whoever or whatever did this to us. It gave us a chance to find each other once again and for that I will be eternally grateful... But if it is a whoever then that whoever is definitely a woman, because only a woman would have taken pleasure in seeing me endure the joy of child labour before she changed us back." Madhu chuckled. "Oh yes it was definitely...joyful."

*******

"Madhu I don't believe I am saying this especially after the 13 hours long labour I went through, but would you mind having another baby with me?" Before Madhu could even answer that question Rishab continued, "It doesn't have to be right away. You can take all the time you need to think. But I was hoping you see a possibility of it happening one day."

Madhu smiled. "You just want me to be the one screaming in pain in the delivery room, don't you?"

"Nope. I just want to be the one screaming even louder when you dig your nails into my flesh as you do the breathe and push routine, you know the one we learnt at lamaze class. By the way I don't know if the birthing movie they showed us was scarier or the actual birthing process I went through was scarier. Nonetheless, no horror movie by Alfred Hitchcock or Tobe Hooper can ever live upto that standard of scariness ever again."

"And the next time it will be you who will be the bumbling fool and I will be the one having Brax...Brax... uh false pregnancy pains." Madhu answered his question in a round about way and waited to see if he would actually get it.

"Braxton Hicks Contractions that's what it is called." Rishab replied.

Madhu rolled her eyes at him and pinched him again. "Stop correcting me and actually focus on the big picture." Rishab's eyes grew big as realisation hit him in the face or rather pinched him in the arm.

"Wooohooo!!!" he shouted and hugged Madhu. "You are going to either wake or crush Mirakel..." Madhu hissed.

"Oops!! Sorry!!" Rishab gave her puppy dog eyes and she laughed. "How am I going to handle two children now... one of which refuses to grow up."

"Oh yeah?? Who was the one running around helter skelter not knowing what to do when I had one of those so called false pregnancy pains. You managed to pack up a night bag with all the utilities, change into your clothes and even drive to the hospital. But you managed to forget the most important thing at home. ME. Thank God for Maa who called you up and asked you to come home or else you would have already reached the maternity ward with an empty wheel chair."

Madhu screwed up her face. "Well let me see how well you handle the situation next time around. Knowing you, you will just open up a maternity ward right next to our bedroom and kidnap the doctor and keep him hostage until my delivery."

"Actually that does not seem like a bad idea. I might just do that." Rishab answered back pretending to take her comment under thought.

"Rishab..." Madhu hissed.

But before she could say anything more Bittuji interrupted. "Chief...Bhabhiji, we have reached home." That is when Rishab and Madhu realised that their entire interaction was witnessed by both Bittuji and the driver, sitting in the front seats, and seemed to be highly amused by their interlude but did not dare say anything about it, lest they disappear mysteriously from the face of the earth, never to be heard of again.

*******

Rishab watched Madhu feeding their baby and looked with awe as Mirakel suckled at her breast. He looked to the skies and sent up another thank you for his family. There was once a time when he would not admit his mistakes and ask for forgiveness but things have changed for the better. It was then easier to teach a lion to dance salsa than to get him to thank any one. But now he would not tire out from sending up thanks every now and then because he realised as he watched his wife and child how truly blessed he was.

Madhu caught Rishab looking at them, a look which could only be interpreted as unconditional love and decided that it was time. "Rishab..." she signalled for him to join her and their son on the bed. As he seated himself beside her, she took his hand and looked deep into his eyes and said, "Rishab... today I can truly say that I have forgotten." Rishab looked away still holding onto the guilt. Madhu turned his face towards her repeating the words again. "Rishab look at me... I have forgotten Rishab." She repeated it yet again. "I have forgotten" Rishab was still mute. "I will keep repeating it till you are able to accept it and believe that it is truly what I feel." She tried once again, "Rishab I have forgotten. I have forgotten. I have forgotten." As she kept repeating it, Rishab tightened his hold on her hand and finally let loose and cried in front of her. Madhu held him as he cried his guilt away. She let him cry because he needed it. He needed to let go of the guilt that haunted him.

*******

Today they saw each other as equals. No one better than the other. They still had the usual squabbles and difference of opinions but they handled it better. But most of all their hearts were filled with so much love and respect for each other and their family, that even if anyone, don't want to name names but really can't resist so will say Deepali and the likes of her, tried to create misunderstandings, they always failed miserably. They say that once you lose something, you realise how precious it was to you in the first place. They not only lost each other but worked hard towards finding each other yet again and now that they have each other and know how valuable the other truly is to them, the same mistakes will never be repeated.