FF: Adrift Completed Feb 3rd 2014 - Page 8

Bittuji paced around the hospital corridor, visibly agitated. After some thought, he dialed a number.

"How is she?"

"She is fine. No change. Doctors want to try out a different treatment plan from tomorrow."

"Hmm."

"I...I wanted to talk about him"

"Don't..."

"No, hear me out. I am in the hospital with him. He's been unconscious for 24 hours, but now he's out of danger. Apparently he ate too many of the sleeping pills that were prescribed to him last month." Bittuji heard a faint gasp at the other end, but no words.

He continued,"This is the third time he has tried to kill himself in the last two months. That accident last month almost killed him, and it was no accident. We need to tell him the truth."

"No..."came a muffled teary sound."No..there has to be another way. He will get over it. He has to."

"Madhu, I am not asking you to go back to Chief. I am not asking you to forgive him. But do you really want him to die? Because he doesn't seem to be snapping out of it. And he will not be this lucky every time. Or unlucky, as he calls it."

"No. I don't want him to die. I love him, I still do. I cannot not love RK. But I also hate him. And I cannot go back to that place again. RK will get over this, he always does. You have to help him get over this, for my sake. He just...he just needs a new obsession. I am better dead."

Madhu hung over the phone, and Bittuji slumped on the chair in the hospital lounge, feeling helpless. He knew RK well enough to know how self-destructive he could be. And even though he was still hurt and angry at whatever RK had done, he still cared for his ex-boss. He knew now, though, that he cannot wait for him to move on in life. He would have to look over him until he did. And so, even though he didn't want to, he would have to be with RK at all times. If for nothing else, then for his little sister Madhu's sake. Because no matter what she did or said, Bittuji knew too well that she could not take RK's pain either. She had been through enough already, and noone except Bittuji even knew she was alive. Helplessly, Bittuji reflected upon how they had all reached here.

**flashback**

That night, when Madhu jumped off the cliff, Bittuji was, thankfully, only a few minutes behind. Although he could not prevent her from jumping, he ran after her, and found that Madhu was hanging for her life at a small, fragile landing, about 100 ft below where she had jumped from. With some difficulty, he had managed to pull her up with the help of another passerby who showed up a few minutes later, though she was badly injured and completely covered in blood by that time. He had thrown Madhu's yellow and red body in the car and drove at breakneck speed to the nearest hospital. On the way, he called RK multiple times, but he wouldn't pick up. All he found was a retort from Ria that made his blood boil. Then he called Madhu's mother, but unfortunately, the moment he said the word accident, she had a heart attack and collapsed. He didn't know what had happened until almost an hour later, by when Madhu was already in surgery, and then he had rushed to bring Madhu's mother to hospital as well. He had found Madhu's note, but he had refused to believe it until the time when, traumatised, with both Madhu and her mother in the hospital, he drove to RK's farmhouse intending to physically bring him along.

When Madhu gained consciousness, she was distraught at being alive. Knowing RK's apathy and watching Madhu's condition, Bittuji's heart bled.

"Why did you save me Bittuji? I don't want to live. I cannot survive RK's hatred any more."

"I understand Madhu. Trust me, I do. But, you are like my little sister, and I cannot see you die."

"No Bittuji...I am tired of this life.."

"No Madhu. I will do anything that you want me to. I will go against Chief. But do not lose faith in yourself. You have always been a fighter. If not this life...build a new life"

**flashback ends**

No one except Bittuji and Madhu knew what really happened. How, by the slightest of margins, Madhu had survived. At that point, Bittuji was willing to do anything for the slightest hope of peace and happiness in Madhu's life. He still was.

He did as she said - he moved her to a different hospital to finish her treatment. Her mother, meanwhile, slipped into coma, and when Trishna arrived, she was told what was to be the truth from now on - that Madhu was dead. Madhu insisted that a complete break from everyone in her family was needed for everyone to find closure, and to convince RK. She was convinced, somehow, that she was a bad omen for every life she touched. So whoever asked was told that she was dead. The idea at the time was for RK to be told the same as well the same day, but it never came to that. RK never even noticed, or cared! Eventually, to keep the press from being curious, Bittuji had strategically planted rumors of Madhu having left for US. To his surprise, people bought it easily, including RK's family and RK himself!

Madhu was badly injured - esp her face had been brutally scarred. But she refused treatment to correct them. Once she could walk, Bittuji had helped her move to Delhi, where she had been living in a small colony ever since. She was no longer Madhubala, and her scars helped her not being recognized as an actress. It was a cruel irony, Bittuji thought, because it was her beauty and her superstar-dom that had sowed the seeds of insecurity in RK's heart.

Now, Madhu was Mitasha, who lived alone in a small one room house and taught kids to earn a living. Bittuji did not know if she was happy, but she definitely seemed more at peace than in the last few months before the accident. They did not speak much, but one of them would call every week or so to keep tabs on Padmini. That was Madhu's biggest pain, the fact that she couldn't be there for her mother. She blamed herself for her mother's chaos. Despite Bittuji's protest, she had been sending money from her small income to help Trishna provide for her mother's treatment.

Sometimes Bittuji wondered if he had done the right thing, listening to Madhu and killing her for the world. Maybe, if he had brought RK to Madhu by force somehow at that time when Madhu was in the hospital...maybe things would have resolved themselves. Maybe RK would have seen his faults and they would both be happy again. But Bittuji knew he couldn't have not listened to Madhu that day. She had given up on life, she truly had. She had suffered much more than she ever deserved. He couldn't gamble with her life again. He had to do what he could to help her find her self-diginity again, that she had sacrificed at the altar of RK's ego.

No, everything had turned out all right. Madhu deserved the choice to live the way she wanted to. Madhu deserved the right to her happiness, which had somehow been taken away the day she was half-married to RK. Madhu deserved to not be in excruciating pain every second of her life - she had given nothing but love and kindness to the world herself. She was pure, honest and innocent. Life had dealt her a cruel hand, but surely she deserved another chance.

Madhu was fine as Mitasha. Not exactly happy, yet, perhaps, but at least she was willing to fight again. Someday, she would begin to heal too.

As for RK, he had done what he had done, but Bittuji decided he couldn't die for his mistakes - sins, actually - because he still somehow cared too much. He decided he would keep aside his feelings for some time and would just help RK build a new life too. A different life, and hopefully, a better life.

As Bittuji continued to fight his helplessness with his new-found hope for hope, he couldn't help but be mad at destiny for screwing up true love, and letting two soul-mates go adrift.

It was cruel, wasn't it?