The Accidental Wife NOTE PLEASE READ -154 - Page 14

@Cucking_Frazy: Thanks!

@meenji22: Will try my best! :)

@aaliya14: Thanks! Keep reading J

@noiseygirl: Yes, Madhu is some girl! Will do :)

@v.p.joshi: Thanks! Yes, and it's mutual.

@.Shree.: Thanks! They can't do without each other. Keep reading :)

@Ni33: Fabulous! I don't mind your long comments at all"they actually help me because they keep from thinking that I'm not penning some junk. LOL I must say that you and I seem to share some of the same channels"because a lot of what you say is right though not all of it. I hope I continue to keep you intrigued and your comments flowing ;)

@zubeada: Thanks! Coming up!

@RockchickFaiza: Hugs! Missed you so much! Thank you for liking this story and do keep following!

@shweta: Thanks. Yes she is an orphan but there's more to her than that. Will reveal in the future updates.

@SHINYSHREYA: Thanks! :)

@Jyoraj: Thanks! More about Madhu and her story in next.

@chinnamsahithi: Thanks!

@-deepali17-: Thanks dear! Catch up soon! Summer is almost over.

@GOODLUCKANGEL: Thankyou. Me too!

@momi78: Thanks! Yes she is, but there's more to her story"coming up!

@--puja--: Hello! Nyc to see you here! And thanks! I'm publishing Sweet Dreams on my blog under the title An Incurable Insanity' -it's a novel now. You can follow it there.

Next update coming up!

8: NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE

It was a miserable Madhu who rode away into the darkness. Fortunate were those who had chosen to quit the streets and go home for this girl was on a rampage---she was fighting a losing battle with herself.

"Yes, I know, I'm being a regular bitch!" She iterated aloud as her Scooty swerved dangerously toward the edge of the road. She recovered in the nick of time. Had she not a few hundred famished sewer rats would have had the pleasure of a surprise feast.

"I'm being a callous, insensitive, unyielding, merciless, pig-headed, vile bitch! A black spot on humankind!" She blistered, "or why didn't my heart melt at the sight of his dejected face? Why didn't I shed tears of blood? Maybe that's going a little too far... Still! "

She breezed through a red light, "But there was no other way. It had to be done. The undeniable thread of connection that had begun to take shape had to be snapped, however harsh it may seem."

But least was I prepared for the effect it would have on me, she mused driving straight into a muddy puddle, effectively bringing the vehicle to a spluttering halt.

"Where the hell am I?" She muttered as an eerie silence enveloped her.

The street was deserted. Well not really--if one took into account the numerous nondescript mounds of flesh splattering the sidewalk; those of innumerable homeless humans and their beasts who took their chances against the elements every day.

One of whom stirred and appeared to find her interesting, which propelled her into instant action. Miserable wretches!

The engine finally coughed then engaged with a steady purr. She pushed ahead and soon her desperate eyes lighted on a familiar landmark--- Nirula's. Home wasn't far.

She fell to brooding again, her mind still a quagmire of activity. The turn of events had left her completely rattled. She hadn't presumed that Rishabh (being the MCP he was) would come pleading to her door, especially after becoming victim of such a humiliating farce. Nor had she expected him to be so beguilingly naive in worldly matters. Deepika was simply the pits as far as she was concerned.

Yet she hadn't stayed. The only reason she had come today was to buy him some time. A relationship like theirs was bound to fail. He had chosen Deepika, not Madhu. She had been just a stand-in as he'd said. A part that could have been played equally well by any other girl. There was nothing special or unique about her.

Moisture adrift down her cheeks was disposed of with a swift rub from the back of a hand. He'll be fine. He has a loving family and they'll find him a bride who suits him perfectly. With that notion Madhu resolutely made her way back to her lonesome abode.

But to dispatch him from her mind wasn't an easy task.

Pausing outside her apartment, she stared at the spot where she'd discovered him earlier that day, trying to put on a desperate act of nonchalance. She couldn't prevent a smile. He'd reminded her of a puppy who'd lost his master-- brown eyes forlorn yet full of hope.

"Stop perseverating Madhu!" She chided herself, "Rishabh isn't a puppy, nor are you his savior! He's a grown man highly capable of taking care of himself!" But am I?

Refusing to pursue the thought, she threw open the door. It was pitch black inside but she didn't turn on the lights, instead chose to find her way about in the dark--an exercise she often indulged in when returning late. An attempt to hone her instincts, to sharpen her brain... a vital skill for any woman, especially one who'd chosen to spend her life alone. Alone? What a depressing thought!

Head drooping like a wilted flower, she sunk down on the hand woven durrie on the side of the bed; a rare impetuous fling with luxury. But the bright splash of color failed to lift her spirits. The solitude of the apartment which in the past had afforded welcome solace from the hue and cry of her daily routine, now just seemed to aggravate her sense of isolation and despair. What did the future hold? Would she ever find someone she'd want to share her life with? Or would she perish alone? Would she ever find love and have a family of her own? None of the omens appeared to portend such a likelihood.

This is terrible! I'm being made to pay dearly for my one impulsive error for which I've no one to blame other than myself. And I'm calling the poor guy naive?! She tossed over in bed, in a valiant attempt to find a comfortable position, having climbed in fully dressed.

But this won't do! You need to get a grip, find your focus, get back to your life where there's no place for men or family! You are a single woman and thus will you remain."Yes!" She concluded, closing her eyes with a determined nod. But sleep had receded way too far from reach.

Family isn't really a bad idea, particularly one like Rishabh's. Even his mother, who resembled a consummate bully at the outset, seems to harbor a soft side. It'll be fun to parry wits with her for sure, Madhu smiled.

And then..., the very image she had been struggling so hard to fend; that of the teasing gleam in his eyes that'd made her heart skip several beats before springing into a mad dash. What did they mean to communicate? An intimate secret?

"No! Stop it Madhu! You can't go on like this! You just can't." She sprang up groaning, body drenched in a river of sticky sweat. Despite a muggy night, she was cocooned in claustrophobic folds of cotton sheet---a flimsy defense against the hordes of voracious airborne parasites, who despite a dedicated and indefatigable application of much touted repellents that she routinely squandered half her paltry income on, appeared to find her flesh particularly irresistible.

"Now who am I trying to fool?" She laughed wryly before getting out of bed and padding to the bathroom to douse her face with liberal amounts of cold water.

~

~

Oftentimes, the restless psyche is driven to find comfort in a favorite distraction and so was Madhu.

But the consolation was tepid at best, as she soon found out while slowly flicking through the slides of the most recent project she had done on the street children of Delhi that she had submitted to Landscape a few weeks ago. She was yet to hear from them. It was the most ambitious and difficult venture she'd undertaken, and dangerous too. Investigative journalism for a lone woman is not child's play, especially when she's trying to ferret out the merciless exploiters of innocence who operate in underground networks as convoluted and ruthless as any drug cartel. Fortunately she'd had the sense to reign in her enthusiasm in time or would have paid a dear price.

"It'd have been a different matter altogether if I was working with some kind of back up, I'd have dragged each and everyone of those sniveling bas***ds to court and put them behind bars forever! No! Those cowards don't deserve the dignity of a trial, they should be lynched in public, each and everyone!" She declared with vehemence enough to upset her still full cup of cocoa all over her laptop keyboard.

With a wretched scream, she scrambled to salvage the precious device, when her eyes fell on the desktop calendar.

A chilling dread settled into her bones. It was that time of the year again.

She'd been trying to ignore it like she did every time, hoping if she did so long enough, it'd just recede and drop out of sight. But no, it was back...all the pain and hurt she'd worked so hard to erase...back in stark Technicolor and uncanny precision.

Her gaze shifted to her reflection in the picture frame that hung over her bed. She cursed the day she was born.

----xxx---

It was monsoon in the desert---a time to rejoice and celebrate for the local population parched of good tidings however transient they may be.

It was a time when evanescent showers brought temporary relief from the 100 plus degrees of scorching heat. When Lord Shiva danced tandav in the sky and peacocks strutted proud and arrogant on the ground.

It was a time of hope---when the desiccated wells glistened with more than a hint of moisture so the ever suffering village women could shave a mile or two off their daily treks for water.

And... it was also a time to rejoice twice over when almost 23 years ago to this day, the Rathod household had welcomed their first and only girl child.

But the celebrations didn't last long.

Madhu had almost started to believe in the stories she'd concocted. They did vary from time to time albeit very slightly. Her most favored one was what she had narrated today---that she didn't have a family for the ones she did have, considered her an obligation and she believed it to be true. Because family were those whom you sought when in times of need, who stood behind you like a solid pillar and protected you from all evil and harm. They didn't hurt you or use you as a pawn on a chessboard.

And there had been a time when she'd had a real family, when she had felt loved.

And that time was when her mother had still been alive. But it all had died with her passing when Madhu was perhaps 5 or 6 yrs old. She didn't recall exactly. Her beautiful, wonderful mother. Her revolutionary, trend setter, modern woman mother. The one who had refused to follow the tradition of parda or live in the zanana quarters. Indeed after the death of her in laws, she had taken it upon herself to abolish that practice altogether, even daring to converse freely with the male guests who visited the house. The mother whom her father had fallen hopelessly in love with; whose only daughter's birth had been celebrated like that of royalty.

Though most of the memories were vague and flimsy, Madhu fiercely held on to them, wove them together with whimsical threads of affection and kept them securely locked away within an area of her brain from where she could access them at will. For they conveyed to her that her birth hadn't been an accident, that somebody had wanted her, loved her, treasured her existence.

But just as the joy of the monsoon rains is fleeting so was her happiness.

Her mother succumbed to a sudden unknown illness almost right after she welcomed her first daughter-in-law home, and with her death Madhu's family died. Her father grief stricken at first, blaming his only daughter for his loss (she being the obvious target) banished her from his sight, later resorted to drown his sorrows in bottles of bourbon and perished to the effects of the same.

Thus of her family, all that remained were those who alternatively considered her an unnecessary accessory, a mistake, and a weakling, except perhaps her beloved brother, second from the top of a total of four, who'd left home for the city to become a teacher. And where she'd been dispatched as well, when her adolescent beauty and uncharacteristic streak of defiance to authority made her a dangerous liability to have around in a small town.

As a result she'd received an excellent education unlike what was the usual lot for most women in her community and she grew independent thereby essentially banning herself from the traditional marriage market.

She'd just begun to believe that the ties had been permanently severed, until a couple of years ago she was summoned back on the anniversary of her mother's death. Let's forgive and forget, she was told and she had acquiesced gladly--after all blood is thicker than water, isn't it?

It isn't, particularly if you are a lowly woman born in a misogynist society, as Madhu soon found out. If mother was still alive, she wouldn't have allowed this to happen. But she isn't. I'm all alone.

She blinked away her tears, "Alone doesn't mean helpless, does it? Think, Madhu, think!"

And she thought. There was only one way out; perhaps a desperate move--but she didn't see any other way out.

---xxx---

The following morning after whiling away as much time as he could on his bed, Rishabh decided to join the clan at breakfast. It was probably best to face the situation head on, because dodging would only land him in a worse situation than he already found himself in.

He'd barely taken a seat at the table when the interrogation began. His mother had never suffered from jet lag. "Where is my bahu, Rishabh?"

"Is she still sleeping?" His aunt Rashmi piped in with a knowing wink.

"No she isn't."

"Then perhaps she is getting ready, I can go and help." Rima suggested starting up from her seat. It seemed like she'd adopted Madhu as her younger sibling already.

"You won't find her in the room sis."

That led to an immediate uproar of anxious and scandalous whispers among those gathered.

"Then where is she?" His mother asked looking grim all of a sudden.

He looked her straight in the eye, it was vital did, "She had to leave on an assignment."

"Assignment? What assignment? Isn't she supposed to be a teacher of some sort and wouldn't she be on vacation?"

"She also happens to be a much sought after photojournalist." His brain raced and the falsehoods came pouring out, "She had signed up for some projects a while ago which she was obligated to fulfill. The wedding was unplanned (that much he knew was true). She got a call last night. I wanted to go with her but...but..."

"What? Unplanned wedding! I don't believe it! What's going on here?!" Shobha erupted.

"But Mom listen..."

For the first time in his life, his phone saved him from further embarrassing himself. "It's her. She wants me to come right away. Got to go!" He was out the door in a flash.

Shashank frowned in disbelief. My son seems worse off than me.

tbc

PS: Please like and comment. Let me know if you find it boring.. (I do tend to get serious sometimes which may not be to your liking) then I will stop here.

Thanks!

S

bcz we already missing our rishbala so i cant able to see rk madhu suffer or in some serious thing

Brilliant update !! :)

I guess it's not possible for an individual to have a life as a bed of roses ... Everyone has to face hardships in their lifetime, so has Madhu and I think it's only fair that you go with your decided pace and storyline as I'm absolutely loving it !!

Thank you for giving frequent updates.

Hope our RIght K will so something to win her..all over 😉