Chapter 7: Towards Light
The traffic light turned red, and Rishabh hit the brakes. Talking about the last seven years during the debrief this morning had brought back a lot of wounds. It was the first time he had put most of it in spoken words, and still, there was SO much he hadn't spoken about because it wasn't relevant to the Air Force. So much of it was a blur, especially the first five years, when he believed every day was going to be his last. He remembered vividly the moment his plane had exploded 12000 feet above the ground, and how he had ejected just moments before. How he had gained consciousness days later and found himself in enemy territory, his uniform having given him away.
Five years of darkness had followed. Darkness and constant pain.
They gave up on the torture after the first month, realizing they couldn't break him, and threw him in a dark dungeon. But every few months, something would happen, some fresh conflict with the armed forces and they would round up all the prisoners, trying to ask questions. It was in those periodic torture sessions he would see the others and see the emptiness in their eyes. They were barely alive, and many wished for death. Many died as well, he presumed, going by the changing numbers over the years. Truth be told, there were many nights when he had himself wished for death. But it was the thought of Madhu and the warmth of her love that had kept him alive though those cold, lonely, painful nights. He would be hungry, but the lingering taste of Madhu's kiss on his lips as he had walked out of his home on the night he had seen her last sustained him. Every passing minute though, his faith wavered, the image of his daughter in his mind got blurrier and the struggle to keep his hope alive exhausted him. He was a soldier, he was trained to endure torture. And yet, he discovered that it was the strength of Madhu's love and the hope of seeing her again that kept him alive all those years. The best physical training does not compensate for the pains of emotional anguish.
Then there was that night, two years ago. He had been woken up by sounds of gunfire all around. It had been chaotic, and Rishabh recognized the opportunity of escape when it arrived. His occupants were under attack, and when a bomb took out a huge chunk of the premises where he was housed, he somehow made his way out, breathing fresh air in more than five years. He did not really know where he was though. It was a forest, and even assuming he had fallen from the plane in some radius around where he had been flying, he had no way to know if he hadn't been moved in those initial days and whether the territory he was now in was friendly or hostile. He tried to stop and make out the attackers in the hope that it was friendly forces, and so he hid nearby. In the next 15 minutes or so, he deciphered that the attackers were local tribal forces who were rivalrous to the militants who had captured him, but who themselves were not exactly aligned with the Indian militia. Also, he was in the tribals' territory, close to the border but on the wrong side of it. He needed help to escape.
Spotting a satellite phone in one of the abandoned barracks, RK made his way towards it, taking cover to stay undiscovered. As he reached the phone and started to dial, he considered dialing Madhu's cell phone for just a split second, but dialed the Air Force emergency control room instead.
"Hello" he spoke as he connected.
"This is Lt Cdr Rishabh Kundra from Operation Wildfire. I need rescue from hostile territory. Repeat. I need emergency rescue. My coordinates..."
"Please identify yourself. Which unit.." came back the voice from the other side. It was understandable, their need to verify identity before launching any operation, but the next 30 seconds as he tried to explain, a passing soldier heard him, and recognizing him as an Indian military person upon hearing the Air Force code words, immediately shot RK from a distance. RK collapsed with the two gun shots, and a third grazed his temple as he fell, eliminating any chance of a rescue. Any chance of letting Madhu know he was still alive. As he lost consciousness, his last thought was he had lost his last chance to hear Madhu's voice again, his last chance to tell her how much he loved her.
The next thing he remembered was waking up, weeks later, in a small village by the border controlled by the same tribal groups that had attacked his initial captors. But he didn't know that at the time. In fact, as he regained consciousness, he realized he knew nothing and remembered nothing. Vague memories of explosions and fire haunted him, but beyond that he remembered nothing. Every inch of him was hurting.
The sound of cars honking behind him brought a sweating Rishabh back from his nightmares, and he turned the car right towards his house. The house that he needed to make into a home again.
He put a smile on his face as he braked in front of his house, and honked until Madhu came out. He looked at the watch. He had made it in time. He had left early in the morning as he had lots to do and he spent almost three hours at the Headquarters, but he had managed it.
"Madhu!" he shouted, grinning, as she finally came out.
"Come! We are getting late!"
"For what? Where did you get this car from?"
"To pick up the kids! Come, come quickly." he yelled and pushed Madhu to lock the door behind her.
As she sat in the car, she asked again, "How did you come early? And whose car is this?"
"Ours, who else's. And I didn't come early. I came just in time to pick kids up from school. Didn't you say yesterday we should go pick them up together?"
"Yeah, but you had to go to the Headquarters."
"Your husband is a super-fast jet-flying Captain, pumpkin." RK said, before realizing Madhu's expression change. He had said the same thing many times in the past, but this time, it brought still-raw memories of the one jet flight that hadn't gone too well for both of them.
"Come on, do you like the color. Is red still your favorite, or.." he tried to change the subject
"Yes, but...it's so expensive."
"No it's not. We always had a car. And Air Force owes me a ton of money..."he said as he parked the car in front of the school gate. They stepped out and walked towards the gate, and a second later, droves of kids rushed out, excited as if they had been released from a prison.
It was Rohan who spotted RK "Dadddyyy" he yelled, but there was a big crowd and he lost sight of him immediately after.
"Where?" Ria asked.
"There...at the gate I just saw him. Let me go." Ria tried to look in the direction Rohan was pointing, but couldn't see RK or Madhu. Meanwhile, she held onto Rohan's hand firmly, not letting him run into the crowd without knowing where he was going, should he get injured or lost.
"Didi, let me go. Daddy is there, I swear. I just saw." he cringed, but Ria resisted, herself trying to peek in that direction as they moved alongwith the slow-moving crowd towards the narrow exit.
"Ha ha. He doesn't even have a Daddy. Rohan's gone crazy." Ria turned as she heard the group of boys to their right making fun of Rohan. They were in Rohan's class and Ria recognized them as bullies who scared the shorter, thinner kids. On more than one occasion, she had kept Rohan safe from them and even threatened to complain, but hearing them at the moment drove her to rage.
"I have a Daddy. He is the best Daddy. " Rohan immediately protested, scowling at the kids in between looking towards the gate hoping to get another glance of RK.
"Oh really! Then why haven't we ever seen him."One of them responded
"My mom says their Dad doesn't live with them." another added.
"Maybe he didn't want to live with this loserface Rohan...that's why he left them."
Rohan turned towards them to hit them, but before he did, Ria herself gave the leader a tight slap.
"My Dad is a hero, okay. And he loves us" she said.
Before the stunned bully could respond, Madhu, who had spotted Rohan and Ria in the crowd a few minutes ago and had walked towards them, stepped between the kids. The slap had also attracted a teacher's attention, who, familiar with the bullying tactics of the rowdiest group of seven year olds she had ever seen, rushed in to reprimand the kids. Not wanting to block the crowd, Madhu pulled Ria and Rohan, who had immediately hid behind Madhu when he first saw her but was now grinning with pride for his sister. As she walked upto RK, who she had asked to wait on the corner, Madhu couldn't help but control her smile. She was supposed to scold Ria for being violent, but having caught the last bit of the exchange and having heard Ria's words delighted the mother's heart like nothing could. The previous night she had had a long conversation with Ria, apologizing to her profusely for shouting at her. She had explained, listened, apologized and reassured until she was reasonably sure she got through to her daughter. She understood Ria's rudeness were coming from a place of protectiveness and fear - she was really afraid of Rohan and Madhu being hurt again. Madhu's heart broke at seeing the complex emotions her nine-year old was dealing with, something that no child should have to worry about, and it took all of her motherly love and reassurance to get her to promise to try. As they reached Rishabh, and Rohan left her hand running to his Dad, who was kneeling down, and Madhu turned to Ria who was holding her other hand. Their eyes met, and a second later they both smiled. Then Ria left Madhu's hand as well and joined the embrace in which Rohan had already engulfed his father.
Madhu blinked away the tears that threatened to overwhelm her as she looked at her family finally starting to feel complete.
The world felt lighter and brighter than it had in years.
Real Estate
Anupamaa
