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Chapter 5- The Past & Present
The breakfast was a relatively silent affair. Rudra occasionally cracked a joke and Shivaay simply smiled while Jaanvi tried to engage light conversation. Anika was lost in her own thoughts, and din't bother to look up at anyone just like Omkara.
"O please pass the fruit bowl!" Rudra requested to involve Om.
Om nodded and simply passed the bowl over to him.
Silence took over till Khanna appeared to announce that a woman had arrived.
Jaanvi nodded "It must be Sarika! Gauri's friend. I had called her to see Gauri."
Om looked up at once. "Is she awake?"
"No she was sleeping a little while ago, I will check on her." She quickly exited the dining area.
Om too quickly finished and followed his mother's trail. Shivaay looked up and sighed. So far so good. Omkara was at least not showing signs he feared he might show. His gaze fell on Anika, who was still aimlessly stirring her tea.
"Anika?" He called her out.
She looked up and forced a smile. No conversation followed.
***
"It's really kind of you all to take care of Gauri!" Sarika spoke as she left the room with Omkara who offered to escort her till outside.
"I wonder what God has in store for her. Hasn't she gone through enough to go through all of this!" She spoke in a small voice.
Omkara focused his entire attention on the woman. Gauri was still sleeping due to the effect of medicines. The nurse who had arrived in the morning had said she would only wake up a little after the evening. Sarika had spent some time sitting beside her friend and had offered to come the following day to meet her. Of course Jaanvi had only told her that Gauri had met with an accident and was found on the road, and they had been called when she was admitted to the hospital, the last contact being Jaanvi.
Om clearly had shown disapproval of the idea but had no say when his mother had signed him to keep quiet.
"Sarika. What do you mean?"
Sarika looked hesitant. Changing the topic she spoke, "She isn't hurt on the head much?"
"No!" Om answered. "The doctor said about a minor injury on the head. The foot is fractured. Three weeks I guess to heal."
"Thank God! Actually she had a bad injury on her head, so things would have complicated if the injuries were bad."
"In Bareli?" He shot his words. Wanting Sarika to reveal more.
"You know she is from Bareli?"
"Yes. Ahhh...she told me. We worked together so.." He spoke.
"Oh. You must be good friends then." She concluded. " She is an inspiration. After facing all that in Bareli, losing her mother, she made her life from scratch again!"
Om's eyes widened. Her mother had passed away!
"What about Kali Thakur?" He asked wanting to know as much as he could. Why had she told him he only knew half the truth? What was it that he hadn't seen and hadn't known about? Aadha Sach?
Sarika looked up at Om. Gauri had vowed to forget her past and never mention or complain about it again but she had told him?
"He bled to death on the railway station they say. No one cared to know more." Her voice trailed in bitterness.
Om gulped remembering the scene on the railway station where Kaali and his brother had come to beat him up. But, Shivaay had made it in time and the two had together beaten up the Thakurs and their goons. Poor brothers ! Kaali's own brother had inserted the sword in his stomach. That brutal scene he couldn't forget. For a man who loved his brothers more than life, he certainly couldn't stay unaffected by that scene.
They were nearing the huge gate. He had to know more. He was sure he knew less now. What happened when he had left? How did she get so badly injured? How did she loose her mother? Did the third brother of Kaali have a part to play? Most importantly why did she even enter the brutal man's life? If for money, why at the stake of her own life? Things were anything but clear.
"Ah..do you have her medical file or something? Will show it to the doctor, he needs to know the case history, I suppose." He spoke concerned.
"Mere pass toh nahi hai, but I m sure you will find a soft copy in Gauri's phone. She keeps important documents on her phone." Replied Sarika thinking a bit.
"Alright. I will manage the rest."
"Thank ..."
"Don't !" He cut her off. Feeling more than ever guilty.
She looked at him weirdly and left soon after.
***
He tapped the pen restlessly on the wooden table, his eyes fixed on his phone. He had got the document retrieved luckily. But what the document revealed had left him in a fix. Episodic Memory Loss and a few terms he dint understand in that document. He had quickly put his man in work. The document had also revealed a few otger details like Gauri's address and doctor. In minutes he would have all the information about her.
On cue Hus phone rang.
"Tell me Akhil, what have you learned?"
Akhil narrated about Gauri's life, by all information he had gathered from various sources.
She was an orphan adopted by Kalindi - her mother and lived with her uncle aunt and mother. Everyone in the town had something positive to say about her. She had once helped Thakurain who had tripped and had fallen in the temple. Gauri had escorted her home and that was how began Gauri's friendship with the Thakuraain. Sadly, the wicked Thakur's eyes had caught hold a glimpse of Gauri and so had his evil brothers. When his two brothers had both put forth their desire to marry her; Thakur had declared the three of them would marry her soon.
Thakur had put forward his proposal to Gauri and she had straight away refused and stopped visiting the Thakuraain, there after.
Then one day her uncle and aunt brought the Thakur's hand in marriage to her. She clearly expressed disgust and that's when they revealed to her that they had to marry her yobthe man or loose everything they had as they had taken a loan which turned to loss. Disgusted Gauri had worked hard and added up all her savings and given it away to the Thakur clearing the account.The Thakur enraged blackmailed Gauri using her sick mother and took her away. He warned Gauri to act in accordance with his wish or his mother would have to face his wrath.
The Thakuraain also couldn't stop the Thakur from committing such a horrible thing. She drowned in guilt finding herself helpless and comitted sucide. Everything went good for the Thakur until she ran away from the Thakur's place. The Thakur in rage suspected his then guest's Omkara's hand in helping her. In the meantime Om was done with his work and was leaving the town.
The reality now made more sense to him. He was drowning in regret by the minute. It all made sense. The villagers were behind Gauri because Thakur had filled their ears that Gauri had an affair with the man from the city and on other hand had promised go marry the Thakur but had cheated him and ran away with his money.
That's when Omkara had stepped in and married her. Maybe the Thakur's men never left her trail and that is why even in the train she had been running and had hugged him on sight. He closed his eyes in regret. She had seen a protector in him. No wonder she kept saying, "Shankar Ji ne aapko bheja hai!" And all he did was pushed her away, mistreated her, misunderstood her, and accused her. Tears made way to his eyes.
"Sir..?"
He gulped. "I'm listening!"
Akhil continued, "Then the next morning she was found unconscious outside a Dargha . No one had a clue how she ended up like that there. Her head had major injury. And once she recovered, she couldn't seem to remember anything of the past few days events. Doctor said it was because of the internal injury. Crisis still wasn't over, in two days time her mother passed away, she was suffering from a weak heart. In a matter of next few days after the final rites Gauri left for Mumbai, that was more than a year back. No one knows what happened after that! This is all I could gather from the stories of different people here and her neighbors,including her doctor." The other man stated in conclusion.
"Thanks Akhil!"
He ended the call and the phone dropped from his hand.
What had he done! He felt terrible.Guilt was drowning him. He was suffocating. How could he infect so much pain on a person he barely knew. To add to the past,was what he did the previous day. He was left broken. He was the worst man. How would he ever forgive himself? Forget about her forgiving him.
The last nights accident's glimpses made him feel still terrible. He was sweating. He felt miserable. He couldn't take it any more.
How would he face her? He closed his eyes trying to breathe which was hard now. Now that he knew the entire truth. He couldn't take the truth. He was too weak to embrace the truth. The truth was crushing him. Choking and suffocating him. He wanted to run away from himself, from the truth, from time. Her words echoed in his ears. No. No. How could he be this way? He was the one to understand a person's pain, then how did he not see the pain her eyes held. They were screaming their pain out the previous day, but he had turned deaf!
He hated himself.
He rushes to his drawer. A dark secret he had kept from everyone. He pulled open the draw like a frantic and groped for something. Hus hand finally lay on it. A syringe.
He looked at it. He needed it. He couldn't breathe. He was suffocating. That was his escape. He closed his eyes momentarily. He had promised Shivaay he wouldn't. The next millisecond her crying face, the accident made way to resonate in his memory.
He closed his eyes in despair. He was weak. Very weak.
He closed his eyes feeling the prick. He was indeed a weak man who couldn't face the truth. The same truth he swore defined him.
****
Whoosh! Now heading to the love angle!
This story got more intense than I assumed it would.
Anyways your reviews, comments and feedback is welcome. Especially at this point!
Never written on Omkara that way- as a vulnerable man. I am pretty comfortable depicting him strong headed and practical. Hope this other take on him was liked.
Awaiting your response!
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Edited by Khidki - 7 years ago
Anupamaa
