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In the following week, Dadima's health improved considerably. That morning Maan got a call from her doctor informing him that as he was attending a conference in Mumbai, he was sending his colleague to check on her. Maan had agreed, least expecting that the doctor who was to attend the call was none other than the one who examined Geet at the hotel where they stayed during the storm. So when the doctor walked into Dadima's room while Maan was administering the medicines to her, both were taken aback to see each other.
"Mr...Er....Khurana, right?" the doctor tried to confirm.
Maan gave a lopsided smile and nodded his head, hoping he would not enquire about Geet. But sadly he had no such luck because the very next question was, "So how is your wife now?"
Dadima became alert at the mention of the word 'wife' and turned to look at Maan curiously, "Your wife, Maan? Do you know this doctor?"
Before Maan could answer, the doctor enlightened her of their encounter at the hotel, "Yes Savithriji, I had met Mr.Khurana at a hotel where I am a consulting doctor. I attended to his wife who was ill then."
He turned his attention back to Maan and continued, "Is she taking the calcium and iron tables I prescribed regularly? It is important that she does for the baby's well rounded groW*H."
"Baby? What baby?" Dadima asked Maan in a surprised voice, looking at him intently.
Maan's hands went cold and his throat turned dry. He tried to speak but no words came out.
The enthusiastic doctor, however, spared him the trouble by answering her question.
"Your great grandchild, of course," he exclaimed, wondering why Mrs.Savithriji looked surprised.
Seeing Maan's pale face, Dadima gauged that he was hiding something from her. Not wanting to betray her ignorance of her grandson's deeds to a stranger, Dadima quickly recovered to say, "Oh yes, my great grandchild, indeed. I'm becoming disoriented these days. Blame it on old age. Physically though I am feeling much better now. I think I should stop taking the medicines."
"Well, Savithriji. Let me first examine you before I concur with you," he said and proceeded to check her blood pressure. Dadima fixed her eyes on Maan, waiting to confront him alone. Just then Geet walked in calling out cheerfully, "Good morning, Dadima."
Seeing the doctor, she stopped in her steps midway.
"Hello, Mrs.Khurana. I was just enquiring with Mr.Khurana about your health. How do you feel now?"
Dadima looked at Geet sharply, prompting her to nervously shift her gaze away from her.
The doctor, who was unaware of the palpable tension between the three other occupants in the room, closed his BP monitoring equipment and assured that Dadima's pressure is back to normal again and she seemed to be doing fine. He asked them to stop all medications except the vitamin tablets. Maan thanked him and walked him out of the room as Geet stood nervously near Dadima's bed, waiting to get reprimanded.
"What is this I am hearing?" Dadima asked sternly.
"Dadima, I...." , she stuttered as she tried to tell her the truth but before she could go any further Maan hurried back into the room and raised his voice to drown hers.
"Dadima, I'll tell you everything. Do you remember the night I had got locked in the conference room of my office?"
Dadima screwed her eyebrows together, trying to recollect. As memory of the night returned she said, "Yes, yes. I remember. You said there was some urgent work and had to go to the office. You had even forgotten your mobile that night and I had to send Dev with it to return it to you. As usual, the useless guy came back without doing his job."
"Well, that night Geet was also with me. I had called her over to help me with the Chopra project. We had finished the work but could not get out because the door was locked. One thing led to another and I gave into the temptation. Only recently we found out she was pregnant."
Dadima was appalled to hear this, "Maan, I did not expect this from you. Don't you have that much self control? And you," she turned to Geet and said sharply, "I thought you were an innocent traditional girl."
Geet put her head down in shame. Maan hurried to her rescue. "Dadima, Geet is not to be blamed here. I was the one who coaxed her into it."
Geet tried to intervene in order prevent him from taking the blame and sullying his reputation but he restrained her by holding back her arm.
"Dadima, I'll assume responsibility for my actions."
"Is that why you have agreed to marry Geet?" asked Dadima, not pleased that her grandson was getting married only because he knocked up the girl.
"No, Dadima. I want to marry Geet because I love her and she loves me too. I was a little hasty in my actions but I don't regret it."
Dadima looked at both of them and sighed, "I'm sorry, I over reacted. I'm just an old fool who believes physical intimacy should be within the bonds of marriage. But I guess I'll have to move with the times. Anyway, I am glad that you two are getting married because you want to and not because you have to. We need to arrange the wedding as soon as possible in order to stop tongues from wagging."
"Dadima, I don't care what the world thinks of us. I am answerable only to my conscience which is clear," said Maan.
"I know you don't care about the rest of the world, Maan, but I do."
Maan did not argue with her for he too wanted to get married soon, and in any case before Dev and NT returned back from Agra. He had told his manager in Agra to send Dev to the Government offices to obtain the necessary clearances for the project, knowing that it will take him at least two weeks to get the job done, given the corruption levels in the U.P. Government. As one week has already elapsed since Dev had left for Agra, he had less than a week for the wedding.
He looked up at the calendar and asked, "Dadima, how about the coming Friday, then?"
"Friday? That is just five days from today. Would we be able to make all the arrangements by then? We need to send the invites, arrange for the caterers, get the mandap..."
"Dadima, I don't want an elaborate wedding. As Geet has no family, we need to call only our close family and friends. As to our business associates and clients, we can invite them for the reception later. My friend, Ashok is a wedding planner and a specialist in arranging weddings in short notice."
Dadi couldn't help but smile at Maan's enthusiasm to get married soon. "For a guy who doesn't care what the world thinks, you seem to be in a tearing hurry to wed Geet."
"Well, I want to make Geet mine forever," he said passionately. Geet blushed hearing this and quickly excused herself, saying she has some urgent errand to run. Dadima and Maan smiled at her retreating back.
Dadima said to herself, "She is a really sweet girl." Turning to Maan she continued, "I'll call the Panditji then and check if Friday is an auspicious day."
"Dadima, I don't believe in auspicious days. With Geet by my side, every day is an auspicious day for me."
"Maan, I know you will have your way no matter what. So Friday it is, then. In any case I'll have to call the Panditji to perform the ceremony. By the way, when is Dev.....," she stopped in mid sentence and said grimly, "No, it is better that he is not around. I don't think I will be able to happily celebrate your wedding with him around. I'll be constantly thinking about what he did to that poor girl. In any case he doesn't deserve to witness your marriage after all that he accused you of." Maan could see that she was getting worked up thinking of Dev. So he placed his hand on her shoulder and pressed it reassuringly.
"Dadima, please don't get agitated over Dev. He will not return till next week."
"I'm surprised that you have not yet thrown him out of the house, Maan. You threw him out for getting into those gambling debts but isn't this crime worse than that?"
"It is precisely for that reason I have not thrown him out, Dadima. The last time I threw him out, he ended up committing a crime far worse. I need to keep him under check and make sure he never gets an opportunity to repeat his sins."
Dadima nodded her head understandingly and picked up the phone to call the Panditji. In the meantime Maan called up Ashok, the wedding planner to make all the arrangements for his wedding.
Continued here:
Edited by Opti - 14 years ago
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