From the author's desk: As promised, the second update of the day is here! Sorry to break your hearts dears! but the story has to move on- Thanks for the congratulations and thanks for your feedbacks!People who have res'd- unres soon😛Happy reading!_________________________________________Part 62There was an increased aura of antiseptic severity as they approached the ICU corridor and they could see the buzz of activity as
nurses dressed in Blue skirts and white stockings walked around from one place to another with increased tempo.
Sid crossed a few of the ICU wards and stopped at one door, pausing to turn back to his companions he directly looked at Arnav.
"Kushi might need little assitance when she sees Shyam. Stay close to her" he murmered to him as he gestured La to stay close to Dadi. La nodded at him as he turned back, opened the door and stood aside to let them all in first.
A gush of medical aroma filled their lungs as they went in. As Kushi gasped looking at Shyam, with his body covered in black burns and pink flesh where it was not covered in bandages drenched in yellowish stuff. Arnav moved closer to her as he heard another gasp very near him. He heard Sid's muttered assurances to Gayathri.
Arnav could see the placement of intravenous lines through which resuscitating fluid was being administered to shyam, special lines were also placed into the circulation to monitor the resuscitation. A catheter was passed into the bladder to monitor urine output, another index of fluid resuscitation.
"Shyam" Gayathri called out in hushed tones as she went forward to the bed "Shyam- I shouldnt have let you - I shouldnt have let you - " she cried in hushed whisper.
"He is usually on sedatives at this time..he would open his eyes a little later" Lavanya told as she moved towards the other end and pulled out two chairs for Gayathri and Dadi to sit.
"You people didnt tell me he is hurt this bad" Dadi whispered in anguish as she stood rooted to her place.
"He was better than this during the first two days..." Sid told them "then he was treated with hemolysis of blood, which his kidneys didnt take well... He had to then be only on fluid resuscitation - that has slowed his improvements- He will be better-" Sid told as he held Dadi by her elbow and took her near Shyam."come closer Kushi" Sid told her "If you are staying a little away because of the smell..."
"No no its not that,, I.. " Kushi held Arnav's hand tight as she swallowed the lump on her throat.
Sid laughed a little
"You dont have to be polite... I know the smell gets you a little, sulfa- the wounds are dressed to prevent infections and spread of bacteria and toxins..I was teasing him yesterday too- that no girl would dare approach him if he smelled like this" Sid said trying to cheer up the lady folks at the room.Shyam shifted a little and his eyes was still closed.
"Shyam, look who have come to see you" Lavanya called out softly near his ears, as Shyam slowly opened his eyes.
"Dadi Maa" Shyam called out with Strain, his happiness evident in his strained voice.
"What have you done to yourself shyam? Why didnt you tell me.. ""we shouldnt have let him try this at all maaji... Its our mistake" Gayathri told
"this is nothing- you didnt see him two days back" Sid told them. Shyam smiled.
"I am fine...Dont worry too much...havent he always suspected this kind of adventures when we started this? " he said at last
"but... this is too much to take Shyam.. you should have stayed away - I shouldnt have consented to this at all"
"Gayathri Maa- dadi Maa- I am fine really- dont worry, Infact I have been talking to the authorities all day yesterday and I have given as much help as I could to trap Rana"
"you dont have to strain yourself Shyam- take rest- I will be here by your side until you recover" Gayathri told him
"No I have to ... now that I have seen you all... " he paused again... "I dont know If I will get a chance to tell you all what I wanted to tell"
"Shutup Shyam" Sid told quickly "you will be alright"
Shyam smiled a little and continued.
"I heard that Arnav didnt want to get married by this 18th... " Shyam said still unaware that Arnav and Kushi were there in the room "then we have to go by Plan B- hopefully that should"
"We are getting married in two days" Arnav's voice caught Shyam by surprise as he turned to look at Sid and then he caught Arnav and Kushi standing behind him
"Arnav" he exclaimed as he gestured him to come closer to his bed. Arnav went near him
"I need a promise" he said with strain " Anjali should never come to know" Shyam paused with a stress of emotion
"that you are good? that you have always strived to help us candidly? " Arnav asked him
"her impression on me is not her mistake... She would feel guilty if she knows about me"
"I cant promise that- with your news all over the news channels.. But May be I can promise to make sure that she is free of guilt " Arnav told him as he nodded his head a little.
"So you have decided to marry in two days?" Sid asked as he looked at Arnav and Kushi and then at Shyam "Your state has surely inspired him to change his decision- Kudos man"
"My decision has nothing to do with Shyam's state" Arnav gritted his teeth
"Sid, is this the time to rile him up" Shyam asked as Sid grinned at him
"Its very tempting" he said as Shyam tried to laugh too...
"Kushi" Shyam called out as she came near him with tears in her eyes
"I owe you an apology- which I have never given nor have you sought till this minute"
"You dont have to- you have made up for much more than a need for apology"
"But that doesnt change the fact that I did carry out a role play which suggested my obsessive lust for you"
"It was only a pretense- and you couldnt help it- you had to-"
"that doesnt alter the fact that it made you feel digusted- I am sorry"
"Shyam- dont worry about all this- get well soon- we will argue about this later"
"Happy married life" Shyam told at last as he looked from Arnav to Kushi
"why this advanced wish- you wish us after we come to visit you after the ceremony" Kushi smiled at him.
"The patient's wounds needs to be changed... can you all please wait outside?" A nurse who stepped in called out to all of them.
As they all ventured to move out, Shyam feebly called out to Sid.
"Yeah Shyam" Sid said as he leaned towards his friend.
"You will carry out my mission until the end- wont you?" Shyam asked him as Sid looked puzzled"Mate- but why do you ask me this- you will be there to see the victory of your mission" he said but Shyam strained again to speak
"I dont think so Sid... I am sorry to dissappoint you" Shyam's voice grew more feeble as Sid's eyes grew wide
"No.. No - Shyam- mate hold on- look you are going to survive this" Sid spoke out urgently as he got up and screamed at the nurse to call the doctor...
The others rushed to the bedside as the various instruments around Shyam started to give beeps, indicating that he was sinking.
"you have been a great friend Sid, more like a brother" Shyam told in his feeble voice as sid urged him to hold on his life...
"Thanks mate...and Good bye" Shyam spoke out his last words before his eyes turned souless and he lost his battle of life... Sid stared at Shyam Aghast as he felt his breath hitch - watching his friend slipping into his one final everlasting sleep...
To be continued...
It was already two days since Shyam's death- two painful, dreadful wretched days passed by with heavy hearts filled with awkwardness and agony not only because of the loss of a life but also because of the inevitable downpours from the past drenching their lives once again- rendering them incapable of running away from it this time.
Everything else seemed to come to a stand still as soon after Shyam's body was cremated following his death and subsequent closure of formalities from the hospital and police officials, and as they all returned back to the hotel where Sid and La had been put up, and broke down, not able to take in the suddeness of the loss- the fact that one amongst them was no more -refusing to sink into their minds.
Arnav was more composed than any of them - reason being that it was only few days since he knew about Shyam's intentions- infact he didnt get much chance to get associated with the real Shyam. He started taking charge, urging them out of their mourning mood and to decide on further course of actions.
If there was one thing that Shyam's death propelled them towards a positive turn of tables- it was the general feeling to stop defending in the game and start avenging for his death.
Even though the determination was visible in Gayathri and Sid- the most virtuous change of the lot was Arnav's willing capitulation for their objective.
While Dadi agreed to go home with Arnav and Kushi- Gayathri opted to stay back at the hotel- Even though Kushi tried to take her home and Arnav remained politely quiet, Gayathri was obviously reluctant to join them. Sid and La decided to stay back with Gayathri, assuring Kushi that everything would settle down soon. Kushi didn't try to push anything further, as Shyam's sudden loss was hanging on top of their heads still.
Thus they split up with further action items decided amongst them. While Arnav and Kushi decided to get ahead with the wedding plans- promising to pay no heed to whatever threats that they would receive nor to let Shyam's death put a hamper on the magnanimity of the wedding celebrations, Gayathri and Sid planned on putting a check to put a stop to any further hurdles from Rana.
With Arnav in the game, very soon a workable plan was unanimously agreed upon. While a straight forward attack on Rana would demand energy and resource that was not currently at their disposal, they decided to use the resources readily available at their expense. What with the nation's two shrewd and young business minds and a person with close knowledge about the activities of his past, it was only a matter of minutes before they came up with a simple but an effective plan to put Rana in such a fix that he would have to relinquish any plans on them and concentrate on saving his own skin.
So it happened that when the Delhi police who were already being tirelessly bashed from all sides- the public, the ruling party as well as the opposing party and higher officials from police department itself for not making any visible progress on the bomb blast case were given an anonymous tip about the possible involvement of the renowned ruling party political figure- Ashutosh Rana in the bomb blast activities, they could'nt help but take it a little seriously. Further anonymous inputs to a very influential ruling party leader that a dominant person from his own party might have had a motivation for a facade of terrorist activity in the city capital when the elections were very close - built up significant pressure for the Delhi police force to dig up the fact on those lines. The Opposition party with hawk eyes, were just waiting for such an opportunity and jumped in on such a promising prospect.
A motivation of that frequency worked wonders on the team which were investigating on the case than it would have had if the personal motivation was brought to light. The end result was Rana didn't realise what hit him the next morning after Shyam's death that nearly made him stumble on the hard built steps of his political career.
Any efforts made by Rana to get the ruling party leaders to shield him went in vain as all of a sudden a tirade of complaints from all the victims of his past activities sprang up from all directions- forcing the ruling party to act mean and let him get out of the mess on his own. Before he had a chance to figure out the source of stimulus for such actions from all ends, a definitive arrest order was issued for him.
All of Rana's men were busy figuring out the master mind for all this ' as Shyam was a closed chapter, Gayathri and Subadra were nowhere in picture and were last seen mourning for Shyam and Arnav seemed to be well absorbed in marriage related activities. All this ensured that a precautionary bail was not in hand when the arrest warrant was issued for Rana- forcing him to abscond to avoid arrest.
***
Meanwhile at RM ' as planned in advance, the family was taken into partial confidence and was told about the criteria of the Will but nothing else about either Gayathri or Shyam was revealed or even mentioned- Though what was revealed was received with enormous surprises from all of them, the family accepted it nevertheless, and soon the preparations for the wedding kick started with full swing.
With a traditional Roka and a private engagement ceremony getting done in a flash, the ladies settled down for a mehendi ceremony that evening while the men basically being denied entry into the hall where the ceremony was being held, got to spend the evening in eachother's company up in the terrace at shantivan.
Arnav was almost pushed to the breaking point with NK and Sid pulling his leg to an irksome point while a serene Akaash watched over the entire leg pulling session with a smile on his face. Mama jovially joined the fun gang annoying Arnav further when Ashok walked into the terrace with a serious expression on his face.
"Arnav, read this" Ashok pushed a paper into the direct view of Arnav's eyes as they all looked up.
"This is serious- I happened to glance at yesterday's paper in the hospital lounge and see what I found- The person who died in the recent bomb blast- the police cop- he- he looks very much like Shyam- see notice his initials- Police Commissioner SM Jha- too much of a coincidence isn't it? "
Arnav looked at Sid who had gone very quiet suddenly. He pondered a little and then let out a sigh. The past two days had been very busy for the family that no one had bothered to browse through the papers or to switch on the TV to grab the news. Some vague points on the dirty game of politics being in display for the last two days was a more juicy topic than to discuss the unfortunate and unknown face of a deceased cop- who was almost forgotten. Those who knew about Shyam felt that it was all for good as they wouldnt have to deal with Shyam's truth revealation to the fmily at this juncture. But now Ashok has brought it to front - Arnav decided that he wouldn't be breaking his promise to Shyam if he told Ashok and other men present there about Shyam.
"This is the same person- Ashok" Arnav spelled out slowly "Shyam was a lawyer and a police commissioner too"
"What?" Shock itched on Ashok as well as the others faces were justifiable.
As Arnav shifted himself, getting prepared to give more explanation to the stunned faces around him, Anjali marched up the stairs carrying her naughty nephew. Arush had squeezed out the entire mehendi out of a cone which was left unattended a little while earlier spoiling his dress and smudging his hands and face with generous amount of the paste.
"Hmm But now I think we should have denied entry for you as well you naughty little fellow.. enjoy with your father and chachas for a while - until we finish this mehendi ceremony - or your mother will really blow her top soon...Poor soul...how will she be able to keep her mehendi intact if you keep trying to smudge it all the while.. what were you thinking when you tried to taste her mehendi? you dont like palak anyway- what did you think it was?" She smiled at him as he looked at her curiously as she took the stairs to the terrace oblivious to what was being discussed there at the moment...
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