Part 81
The silence engulfed the atmosphere along with the darkness around. The taxi was moving at its pace towards Chandenpur. Suchi and Dev sat there at the back seat like two strangers. Suchi's eyes were looking hopefully at the passing streets, hoping to see a familiar face there. She doesn't know why she is hoping for that, but somehow her inner mind wanted to just see her in front of her. She doesn't want to know what happened in between the two, for now she is not bothered about that, especially in front of a stranger who is driving the car, it is not the time to argue, there is no time to waste, it is already late passing 2 AM, For now she wanted to see her daughter in law safe and sound.
"please stop the car here"
The car came to halt as the driver heard Suchi's voice.
Dev understood the reason, he just looked at his mom's face calmly. The rolled up tinted glass gave him the secresy of space as they entered chandenpur , and Dev rested his head to the side panel, and sat there with an empty mind. Suchi walked towards Radhika's house. The driver came out and started checking the bonnet and then wiped the front glass and the mirrors. Dev's eyes followed his mom's foot step. Purposefully she asked the driver to stop the car little faraway, to hide her son, so that no one will raise their finger on him. He felt the vision getting blurred as the tear drops filled his eyes. Turning his face to look front blindly , he wiped off his tears by rubbing his thumb finger over his cheeks. His lashes lowered , his fingers started counting numbers , he was not knowing what he actually doing, all he could feel was the wetness from the tears that was rolling down his cheek and an unknown inner heaviness.
"Maaji, aap"
Chameli came running towards her : babuji and him is not at home, they left to town early morning. Maaji and daadi is inside, let me tell them...
Chameli again with a surprise tone: come, nobody told that you are coming. so it will be a surprise for them...
Suchi smiled back as a reply as she was unable to bring her voice out. She felt the relief as she saw chameli running into the house. Suchi got time to put the mask on to hide her innerturmoil and she stepped intot he main hall. Soon she saw Rohini's surprising look as climbing down the steps.
Suchi gave a nice smile
Rohini: Suchi, what a surprise, what happened? Is everything alright?
Suchi: ha, why?
Rohini coming near: I couldn't believe when Chameli told me that you are here, that also this early.
Suchi: actually I came to meet Sushma, she only asked me to come, need to get back to work later today. So I thought first I will stop by here and stamp my attendance and then go to haweli and then from there I can go directly back to Delhi.
Rohini: so you need to get back to work tonight
Suchi: Ha, two others are on leave, so
Rohini: so that means you are in a hurry.
Suchi: kind of
Rohini: anyway, let's have something to eat and then
Suchi: no I am ok Rohini, how is Maaji
Rohini: oh, she is doing fine, then tapping on her forehead, I forgot to tell you, actually she is talking with Radhika, that is why I was coming from upstairs.
Suchi skipped few beats, her eyes flickered, suddenly realizing back
Suchi: so Radhika is online
Rohini: no no, its been months she came online , she said something happened to her computer and Dev is too busy with his project work. So now a days she is talking to us also through phone only, and her babuji was teasing us the other day for that, saying now all accepted his choice as best.
Suchi: can I talk to her too
Rohini: why you need to ask that, come on, she just told me, she talked to you three days back .
Suchi forwarded her heavy legs to climb those steps, saying . : ha she did, but she didn't talk much, she kept the phone quick saying she needs to go.
Rohini: ha, you are right Suchi, now a days she is like that, I think now she also started counting the dollars and pricing it to Indian rupees. Rohini continued her talk, but Suchi was hearing her own pounding heart and was trying to hear Daadi's voice talking to Radhika.
Suchi entered Daadi's room with a smile
Daadi smiled back and told Radhika: Radhika, somebody is eagerly waiting to talk to you, can you guess? suchi looked at Daadi's face for reaction, she heard.. no... no ... no... no.. I will give, you only talk
Suchi took that receiver with her shivering hands and holding it closer to her ears she said: hello, Radhika beta... ha, mei, ... no just came to meet sushma,... ha,... ha,... her eyes were looking around for the best moment of privacy, slowly slowly she moved away from the bedside , to the corner, to the window, and then seeing Rohini and Daadi involved in their own talk, she asked softly: Radhika, are you Ok? Her voice gave up on her and asked in broken wet words: where are you beta? Her voice trailed off, and she expected the reply, but the silence from the other end, awaken her senses, she called out softly: beta, Radhika..., Radhikaa... It went little louder for Radhika to hear : Radhika..., Radhikaaa..., hello,... hello the hope that just just sparkled in her mind, just faded away right then.
Rohini coming near: what happened? Is the line got cut?
Daadi: I don't know what happened these days, not getting enough, after talking to her. When Rahul was connecting it to the net, we used to talk for hours and hours, but then she started asking all those vague questions, which sometimes I felt like questioning back at her, but thank God, now a days that type of talk is not there anymore, especially when she is getting kanjose with each call.
Suchi curiously: what type of questioning maaji?
santa looked at suhci with a cute smile and said : so she didn't ask you about that and all. that is good for you. But it was months back, she was asking me about Lord Ram, Sita , Lexman and all
Suchi went and sat near her bed: what about Ram and Sita and Lexman
Daadi: she used to ask me such questions when she used to do dance programs here, to bring the emotions on her face, she ask me about the story that she tries to tell through her movemnts, but that time it was reasonable but now , especially towards lately it was totally different
Suchi impatiently: what was she asking maaji?
Daadi: jaise ke. One time she asked me, who is more loyal, is it Sita mayya or Urmila?
Suchi tightening her forehead: which Urmila? Lekshman's
Daadi: ha vahi, her question was Sita left all the luxury and went to forest on her bare foot , accompanying her husband . whereas Urmila, she took the pain to separate from her husband and stayed back to take care of her husband's old parents. so whose action was really hold the upper hand. Is it Sita mayya or Urmaila?
Suchi looked at daadi's face once and asked: what type of question is that?
Daadi: that is what I also asked her? I told her not to ask such questions, instead give me my lav and kush in my lap, and then I will answer your question. Ha ha now a days, who think about all this? she was really crazy at that time especially when she is with her Ram, why she should ask such strange questions. Even sometimes I heard Rohini also shouting at her,
Suchi: Rohini shouting at her! Why?
Daadi: I don't know, that's all between mom and daughter.
By then Rohini came up with a tea cup: Suchi, come chameli got the breakfast ready on the table, come let's have something, you are in a hurry too, right?
Suchi: Rohini, maaji was telling me that you were shouting at my Radhika earlier, for what?
Rohini suddenly flickered her eyes and looked at Daadi and then said in a serious lower tone: ha, sometimes this Radhika need nice beats, she has been brought up with all the love and care, never got a chance to beat her up na, so instead of getting that slaps when she was near and growing up, she got it from me when she is away. But not now, it was small nok-jhok talks between us, now she acts like a mature girl. so.
Suchi: what?
Suchi impatiently: Rohini, what are you saying, I am not understanding anything?
Rohini: nothing suchi, you come, let's have breakfast. Maaji had her breakfast, only chameli and I left out.
Suchi tried to bring so many questions to bring it out from Rohini, but Rohini gave vague answers blaming all the girls in the world and their attitude.
Suchi gulped few pieces of food, to satisfy Rohini's mind and said bye and walked out to the taxi.
While waving her hand up in the air Rohini thought "how can I say this to you Suchi, how can I tell you she was pleading to come back , when as a mother I was trying to make her understand whom she needs to be with and how she needs to behave and adjust in cetain situations, how she suppose to give up sometimes, even I had to warn her many times, but if I tell that, then some where in a corner my girl will fail , she will fail as a wife, she will fail as a daughter , and she will fail as a bahu, and it is my duty to correct her otherwise I won't be able to stand in front of you like this, her babuji won't be able to show his proud face outside, all those stories become fake, the kids will stop dreaming listening to the princess story. I wanted her to live a happy life with Dev , nothing else, but many times I felt she is still living in that dreamworld of hers, like her babuji many times mentioned : she needs to come out of that, and face the reality, so I tried to guide her, I tried to advice her, and I tried to warn her , to bring her to reality, and I am glad I am successful, now she stopped asking all those strange questions to maaji to get the support for her thinking , now she stopped complaining, now she stopped saying about her wish, I am glad she is happy with Dev and she is supporting him with everything.
Suchi sat back inside the car. Dev looked at his mom's face. She was in deep thought, where are you Radhika, you are some where near only? But then why that strange questioning?
"mom' the soft voice of Dev, brought Suchi back to reality
Suchi jerking self: ha, ha. Then looking at driver , gave him direction to haweli. Suchi moved closer to her son and held his hand in hers, and looked at him with a hope.
Dev looked back at her with questioning eyes, but Suchi kept her silence, she just wanted to meet Sushma quick and get back to Delhi, she don't have much time, in one week Lechu will be back, Surender will be back, before that she should find Radhika, who is there some where very near, as if she can still hear her voice in her ears calling mom...
She slip back into her thoughts : why Radhika asked that question, the answer is clear it is Sita mayya, right? But then Urmila, may be she didn't accompany her husband to the forest or suffered the sufferings inside that thick forest but whether her mind was enjoying all those luxuries, whether she was able to see the color of the nature when her piya was away from her. For sita mayya, even though she went bare footed, the stones or thorns never gave her pain as her pathi was with her, but then she has been taken away by Ravan? and that was the destiny.
Suchi's mind just asked one question: where are you Radhika, samne tho ajavo..
******
At the same time, somewhere near a odd place, a train was moving faster, shaking its body proudly, carrying many people from the different parts of the world in its different compartments. The passing ground kept on changing its color from green to brown to small houses, to ponds to dried river. Wearing loose white kurthi with a black colored medium length shall hanging around her neck down from the back, her long partially curly hair was open and it was flying with the wind, Radhika, yes , she was looking very simple. But her eyes transfixed on a book. She has a black frame glasses on.. she looks like totally immersed in that book; in between her body was shaking with the hauling sound of the train. For a second, she took away her eyes from those letters and looked outside, as she turned her eyes away, involuntarily her eyes met mine, she didn't see me instead her eyes caught the attention of the passing ground with a flat affect.
I (Devika., met her here, in this journey of her) looked at her curiously.. is she in a deep thought? Or is she thinking of the letters in that book? I don't know. But I found the deep aching in her beautiful long eyes. My mind started thinking.. why she didn't notice me? Why she didn't see my curious eyes.. what is struggling her? I heard the big hauling of the train as it was entering the tunnel, the darkness covered us.. for a second I thought of the light at the end of the tunnel that is waiting for me.. but in that darkness with a chirpy smile on my face, I tried to see her.. will I be able to see her before we reach the end of this dark tunnel?.. all I could hear was the scraed cry of the shaking train'..
As the darkness gave path to brightness I looked sideways, my eldest one was reading curiosly a book, which she got as a gift, story of panchathanthra, she also looked very serious while moving her eyevalls through the letters. " why all these girls are acting so serious and mature " ... Then my eyes went to check on my two other little ones, the middle one's eyes curiously checking on people passing around and passively twisting her fingers on her short straight hair ,and the little one was totally engaged into coloring the princess picture, trying to give her the most colorful dress in the world that she can give.
Without saying anything she took it from me, as if somebody who accompanied was waiting for her. I didn't notice that person. Picking that from me, she walked away.
"mom, who is she?" my eldest one asked
I shrugged my shoulder and said: I don't know
Middleone: I know , that is mom's friend
Eldest one: is it true?
Me: nope still my eyes were following her way out.
My little one coming near and jumping up to sit on my lap: I know , I know, that is a princess, look at her long hair, look at her beautiful eyes, look at her.. i saw my little one's dreamy face drawing the picture of a princees with her expression along with explaning ' she continued her description but my mind said: no beta, her hair is beautiful, but she is not combed it well to keep it look nice, her eyes are beautiful , but it is dry, the life is missing, and her '. I contradicted each of her description, and my mind said: so she is not a princess, just a girl, just like you and me.
I looked back at her and shrugging my shoulder I said : prince !, then after a chuckle I continued; he will come , riding a black beauty , to take his princess away.
My little one with a winning face told my other two daughters: see, I am right, mom told me, and then slipping down from my lap she went and turned the next page, to color the prince picture , who was riding a black beauty.
I looked back at the platform as the train continued its move after hawling loud. My eyes scanned through that crowd and as it was passing by I saw her looking at that hard binded book cover and she might have read "Classic collection of worlds best Fairy tales'. I didn't notice any change in her face, I expected her to open the flap and read what I have written in it, but no , to my surprise, her hand just losen the grip on that book on the top of an open lid of public waste bin, and she freely walked away with the crowd. My eyes tried to follow her, but by then the train I travelled howled again loudly with the speeding and the vision of that platform changed to flowing water under the bridge.
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