A sleepless night later
For the outside world, it was if everything was the same. Manav and Archana were the same, their daily routines, their actions were the same.
But reality was that both of them were fighting a battle of their own- trying to figure out what should be their course of action.
Archana was immersed in guilt about not having believed Manav earlier, and the consequences of her action. Time and again, she wondered how everything could be reversed, whether there really was a way to set things right again. Would there be a day when Manav would truly, truly forgive her? Would he ever come to trust and depend on her wholeheartedly? Would there be a day when he would actually be proud of her? How could she convince him, ask him to give her just one more chance?
She didn't know and thinking hurt. So she tried to divert her mind by the only thing she knew to do well- taking care of Manav's family- now HER family. For starters, she tried to coax Damodar Baba to quit alcohol. The thought came to her mind when she saw Manav bringing him home one day in a drunken state, unable to stand or take care of himself.
"I've tried heaps of times," Baba told her. They were sitting on the porch where he read the newspaper every morning. "It doesn't work. It just doesn't work. Depression is tough to fight."
"What are you depressed about?" she persisted. "You've a wonderful family who loves you, respects you, so many friends.. what are you depressed about?"
He only shook his head in despair. "You won't understand.. how it feels to be.. so useless.. and unsuccessful in everything in life.." he said sadly.
She didn't know what to say to that. These days, she too felt very useless and unsuccessful, and terribly guilty on top of it.
"I know my habits make everyone worried." He accepted. "And believe me, I've tried.. but.." he trailed off.
Archana sighed. Maybe it was not an easy task. But it couldn't be left. Alcoholism was dangerous and especially the country liquor that Baba consumed could end up even taking his life. She thought hard about what to do.
"Baba, is there any good play coming up?" she asked. "I am in the mood to watch one."
"I don't know," he said, turning the pages of the newspaper. "I have not been aware of what is going on in the theatre circuit.. do you like Marathi plays?"
"I have seen only one till date." She said, smiling. "And that was yours. I became your fan then on, I guess."
Baba beamed with pride. Archana continued. "Baba, can you write as well?"
"I have never written a play till date." He confessed. "Why are you asking?"
"We need a script for a street play." She told him. "NGO's like mine use street plays to educate people about social issues. But we cannot afford to pay for it. Some of my friends who are going to perform are struggling with ideas and dialogues. I thought maybe you could help, considering you have been part of theatre for so long."
"Hmmm.." Baba thought hard. Then he smiled at her. "Alright, I will try and see how I can help, street plays are an entirely different territory. Maybe I can help with the dialogues and stuff- I used to write my own dialogues earlier when I was not satisfied with what was given to me. I'll visit your NGO in the evening today."
Archana smiled. She took the empty tea cup from Baba and got up. She would have to talk to her senior and request him to let Baba write the play. Should I tell him now?- she thought. Not now, let him come to know by himself that the street play is on awareness against alcoholism.
*****************************************
That was about Archana.
Manav on the other hand was in a different sphere of thoughts. Things had been happening so fast these last few days.
First Archana did not trust him. Repeatedly she turned him down and even demanded divorce. He heard about her marriage plans and totally lost hope of saving his marriage. And then, when he had accepted fate, she had suddenly returned when she came to know he was ill, claiming that she had always loved him even though he was a cheat. And now she said she trusted him that he wasn't a cheat.
He thought about everything she had said yesterday. It was quite clear that her trust on him had not developed bcos of the truth of Varsha's story coming out, rather it was the other way round. It seemed to have been a slow realisation for her, one that had taken lots of time and effort to accept. His words about Varsha's story coming true strengthened his stand in the brothel fiasco , but was really no proof actually, since they were independent events- just cos he had been right about Varsha did not really mean he was innocent in the brothel fiasco. However, her faith had strengthened due to the truth coming out. He wondered if it would last- for someone who had been dragged till the divorce court, trusting and relying again did not come easy. He had started doubting any small hints of positivity.
Her words rang in his ears. "It doesn't matter to me whether you are guilty or not, I have accepted you for what you are." Even if the trust would not last, Archana wasn't going away. A smile came up on his lips as he remembered Archana trying to avoid Ajit and prevent him from instigating her. She was indeed trying her best- he thought. She was trying her best in fitting in his family, she was trying her best in trying to save their marriage, she was trying her best in everything. And now that she had started trusting him, she had herself tried to uncover the truth of Varsha's disappearance to understand it all better. She seemed determined to stand by him, whatever the scenario might be.
Today she had faith on him, not the blind faith born out of love and attraction, but rather she now understood him better than she did in those initial days of matrimony. She wanted to be with him in every circumstance, and would do anything to bring the truth out and keep her husband's respect intact.
Wasn't this what he had always wanted from her? Hadn't he always wanted that she support him while he got proof of her innocence? Hadn't he always wanted that her faith should work as a catalyst to urge him to rub away all the accusations meted on him? It had not been possible in those days, since misunderstandings had been severe, and her faith had not been so strong- he had eventually ended up losing hope. Today however, things were different. She was there to support him, no matter what- or at least that was what she said. He did not know how long their relationship would survive, he reminded himself that she had initially come back for reasons of sympathy, and their family problems were still intact- but maybe.. just maybe.. if he succeeded in bringing out the truth- would it change everything?
As he sat alone in his garage, surrounded by Dharmesh's spare parts, he thought about this new probability and about Atya's words to utilise the precious opportuinity he had got due to Archana's return, and resurrect his marriage for good. He was afraid of dreaming now, it hurt when dreams broke, but maybe.. maybe if he found out Varsha, then.. her family would accept him? And maybe he could find out the evidence that had been lost due to Varsha's fiasco?- slim chance of that happening, he told himself, but anyways, fact was that they HAD to find Varsha to save their own necks from the police.
Maybe.. Archana and him could really be a team this time?
"Lost in thoughts Dada?" Manav smiled at Vedant, who came and sat next to him. From the past few days, the boy had been behaving a little differently, a little.. grown up. Not only did had he started helping Manav in the little tasks in the house, but he also talked more to him these days. He did not try to shut himself up in his books, like he earlier did, and frequently talked about medical matters also. Thanks to him, Manav had been having things considerably easy.
"Nothing as such."
"When is Tarun Dada coming back?"
"He said he would come back in time before my surgery," said Manav. "I hope he does. It would be a real morale booster."
"He will surely come back, after all, both of you share such a Pavitra Rishta," giggled Vedant. Manav gave a lopsided smile in return. "You have to go to Juhu to meet the lawyer." Vedant reminded him.
"I don't want to go." Manav admitted. He hated going through the whole discussion of the counter complaint again and again. It reminded him of Manjusha and everything they had had to undergo. "Besides I feel sick."
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I am." Manav admitted. "But my head feels heavy. I am feeling very tired today."
Vedant looked concerned. "I'll come with you to Juhu today- Vahini will come directly from work I guess." Manav nodded. After a pause, Vedant continued. "Dada, maybe it's time for you to stop working now." He advised. "You really don't look upto it now."
**************************************
Archana gazed at the long stretch of water in front of her. The rays of the sun sparkled on the water of the sea, making it look beautiful. As she stood barefoot in the water, holding her sandals in her hand, she felt immensely relaxed. She breathed in deeply, taking in the scent of the sea.
"Why does the water of the sea look blue?" Vedant murmured aloud. He had his trousers folded till his knees and was fooling around in the water.
"Bcos of the reflection of the sky?"
"And why does the sky look blue?"
Archana sighed. "I don't know." She confessed. "Go ask your brother.
Vedant shrugged. They had come to Juhu to talk to their Baba's friend- the lawyer for their court case against Manjusha. Unfortunately he was busy, so Vedant and Baba had suggested that they spend time at the beach till he got free from work. So there they were- whiling away time at one of the most popular sand beaches of Mumbai.
Vedant sped away after a while to get something to eat. Archana too got tired of strolling aimlessly in the water. She came and sat on the sand, and having nothing to do, started collecting sand from both sides and made a hill out of it. She used both her hands to smoothen out her hill and removed the pebbles and thorns from it. She didn't notice when Manav came and sat behind her.
Since morning, they had talked about everyday things just like always, but not about the most important confessions and innermost feelings that were within them- strange as it might seem but at this juncture they felt uncomfortable in pouring them out to each other- it was as if their silences were communicating and trying to end the struggle within them and eventually reconcile. As they sat together on the sand, Manav started speaking, "What is this?"
"My house."
"This is a house?" he asked, his eyebrows raised. It looked more like a dirt hill to him. However, he tried to suppress a smile as he watched Archana adjust a leaf on top of the hill by its stalk. "And that I suppose is the flag on top your house?"
She giggled and nodded. He smiled and continued to watch as she collected small pebbles and started decorating the 'house'. Suddenly a ball came from nowhere and hit the 'house', which collapsed.
"Sorry Aunty" a little boy apologised.
"It's alright." She said somewhat uneasily.
"Ball please, Aunty?"
"Here." She said, throwing it back to him. "And please don't call me Aunty."
"Okay Aunty." Said the boy and ran away with the ball. Archana grunted under her breath.
"Sorry, your house broke." Manav said. Archana who had already started scooping sand from both sides replied back. "It's okay, I will make it again."
"Look over there." Manav pulled her away by the arm. A big wave came and the sand hill toppled over. Archana looked disappointed. Manav looked at her as if asking, "Now what?"
She quietly bent down and started making it again. Manav couldn't help marvelling at her patience. The real life parallelism of the situation amused him. He got up and started looking for some large stones and bricks. He brought them to the site and made a fence of sorts, so the waves wouldn't be able to cause as much damage the next time.
Both of them sat peacefully on the beach, looking at the sun setting into the sea. Finally Manav talked to Archana.
"I couldn't sleep last night." He admitted.
"Me neither." She said.
"Why?"
"I was.. worried.. for lots of things.. and so much has gone wrong too.." she looked at him. "I have disappointed you terribly.. I guess that guilt will not go easily.'
He found himself unable to reply back. Try as he might, he just could not speak. Her words of her trust on him kept ringing in his ears. It was weird that at this juncture, both of them could not open their hearts to each other. Maybe the distances had reduced, reduced considerably in fact, but the last stretch, the most difficult one was yet to be covered.
He looked down, then looked back at her. "Maybe things didn't work out bcos we were never together.. not just physically.. but also..all this while.. it's as if we were just fighting our battles one person at a time.. we weren't.. together."
She looked at him, each word touching her more than ever. He didn't say anything more. It was as if the silence said everything that was left to be said.
Finally he got up again. "Let's walk about a little. I'm tired of sitting."
"We'll get wet." She said. The water would surely be colder now, she thought. But still she took her sandals in her hand and was surprised to see Manav offering her his hand. Nothing more was left to be said now.
She took hold of his hand silently and got up. He glanced at Baba and Vedant- they were hogging at the food stalls, with Vedant exclaiming loudly how unlucky Savita Aai and Vandita were not to be part of such an unexpected outing.
Together Manav and Archana walked on the beach, leaving their footprints on the wet sand. Manav recounted the whole story of what had happened the day when Varsha had got caught in the drug scandal, and how he had subsequently lost evidence of his innocence. Archana listened, for the first time, the whole story from Manav's mouth himself. At places Manav wondered whether she was still believing whatever he was telling her, especially when the story shifted from Varsha's drug scandal to how he had lost evidence after that, but he continued anyway.
"And what was the evidence?" asked Archana.
"It was a recording- in my cell phone. I lost my cell phone sometime back, remember?" she nodded. "It had Ajit confessing to everything."
It took some time for her to digest everything. Ajit and confessing? It sounded too far fetched, and if someone had told her this a few days back she would have instantly said it was rigged. However the new Archana couldn't even think of doubting Manav anymore.
They walked for some more time, unable to bring their emotions in front of each other, but still talking about lots of things, and primarily about Varsha. Manav told that there was a way by which they could reach her.
"It isn't easy though." He admitted. "I need your help for that."
"I'm ready." She said immediately. "What do we have to do?"
He told her about Abhimanyu Karmarkar, the criminal lawyer who had promised to help Varsha. "His firm is collecting witnesses against their case for Prasanna job agencies, which has been accused of many such drug scandals. They promise jobs to gullible people in foreign lands and use them in their drug trade. Varsha may not be talking to us now, and we may not be able to contact her, but Abhimanyu would definitely be knowing where she is. We have to get to Varsha through him."
"But how can we contact him?" she asked.
"If I am not wrong, Abhimanyu and Varsha first met since their families wanted to hook them up. This means someone or the other from your house must be having contact details of either Abhimanyu or his family."
Archana tried to recollect. "Abhimanyu Karmarkar.. Abhimanyu.. yes.. this match was brought to us by a relative who knew the family well. I will have to ask Aai if she still has the contacts of Abhimanyu's parents, or maybe I'll ask that relative.. through them we can contact Abhimanyu. Oh I hope Varsha is alright.."
"She must be alright Archana," said Manav, looking at the setting sun in front of them. "She would have definitely sent a message otherwise. By ANY means, ANY how. She is a smart girl."
****************************************
DELHI, 7.30 PM
A bell rang loudly, once, twice, thrice.
"Coming!" The door opened suddenly and she started shouting. "How many times do you press the bell? I am not deaf!"
"Madam you should come fast, we don't have time to waste!" said the milkman arrogantly, as he poured out milk in the container that she held in front of him. "Come sooner next time!" he said, twirling his moustache, and then he was off.
"Who was it?" asked Abhimanyu as he came out of the bathroom, towelling his hair. He laughed at the figure in front of him- scattered hair, hands covered with flour, dirty apron- she looked like a mess.
"Thank god I did not marry you Varsha Karanjkar!" he said loudly. "Thank God I rejected you!"
"Excuse me?! You DID NOT really reject me! I asked you to reject me, bcos I did not like you! By the way, why are you feeling lucky for having rejected me?" asked Varsha as she wiped her hands on a napkin and set the milk to boil.
"Bcos," said Abhimanyu with a smirk, "After living with you for almost three weeks, I know well now that you would have been an extremely bad wife!"
Varsha gasped. "How dare you!!!"
"Yes!" he said, sitting on the sofa and drying his hair. "You don't know how to cook, clean or sew; you can't manage the house by your own, heck, you know nothing!"
"Well I never had to do all this in my house." Answered back Varsha, as she made chappatis quickly. "Aai and Archana Tai ran the house. I worked in the office and they let me relax when I came back."
Abhimanyu made a sorry face, "Wish I'd got a proposal for your Archana Tai instead.."
She was shocked and threw an apple at him in rage. Abhimanyu caught it and started eating it. "This will suffice till you manage to make dinner. I know it will take 2 hours or more."
"You know what- you're a male chauvinist pig!" she shouted at him.
"Don't shout at me, concentrate on the chapattis, don't burn them today." He started clearing the table.
Varsha murmured under her breath. 3 weeks with this guy in this little house out in the boondocks- it was a wonder that she was still alive.
Alright, to be fair, he was good, and helpful and decent- no doubt about that. But he was boring, dumb, ugly to look at, and took an obvious pleasure in making her angry and she didn't know why. She was always left fuming in the midst of their exchanges.
She looked at the chapatti in front of her- not yet round, she thought and groaned. At home, she had never valued Archana Tai enough, who always set meals on time and took care of the house so devotedly, she had always taken her for granted- now she was realising how difficult it all was, and what a blessing Tai had been for all of them.
In some ways, her dark days had really been a period of reflection and realisation. Being away from home and in trouble, she had realised why her mother worried about her so much- the world was not really a safe place. Being forced to quit her job at the mall and live in confinement (or protection, as Abhimanyu called it) and run a house for both of them, she had realised how difficult it was to run a house. Being away from her family, not even being able to talk to them, she had realised how much she missed them. Every night she cried thinking about how much she must be worrying her parents by not talking to them, and even wondered if they would think that she had forgotten them after going to 'London'.
Often she had asked Abhimanyu to let her talk home- contact her Aai, Baba, Archana Tai, anybody and just about tell them that she was alright. But she herself knew it wasn't possible. Drug scandal was a serious issue. Ever since news had leaked about her being a prime witness in the case against Prasanna job agencies, she had been followed at every corner- even attacked and threatened once- told that they would inform the narcotics in Mumbai about her escape if she did not take her testimony back. That was when Abhimanyu's law firm had sent both of them to this small farmhouse on the outskirts of Delhi. They had told her that here she would be safe, under the false identity of Niharika, till they worked on her getting an actual bail in Mumbai. No one knew her here. There were few facilities, but she had consented to stay anyway. She had no choice.
She had accepted all of it, and requested that the Narcotics should not come to know of her escape from Mumbai- she knew it would spell trouble for Manav. The law firm had promised her that they would not let any harm come to Manav or her and even arrange for an official bail, but for that it was important for her to abide by the rules too- not call home, or try to contact anyone and stay in hiding. The men from the agency who were out for her would not leave a single stone unturned to trace her out, and then it would spell doom for all involved.
Everyday she prayed to Ganpati Bappa for some way to end all this soon. She feared that by the time she reached back home, her family would start hating her, Manav Jiju and Tai too, if she led Manav Jiju to trouble. She feared that everyone had started hating her already. Her only consolation was that her Tai was with Manav Jiju- that was what Manjusha Vahini had told her once when she had called home- that Tai had returned to Jiju. She was happy that her sudden departure and Manav Jiju's inability to go to the court hearing that day had not ruined chances for her Tai's happiness.
"Hey Varsha!" she turned when she saw Abhimanyu standing next to her. "You know none of the things that I would expect a girl of your age to know, but you know very well how to shed tears like a typical girly girl."
Varsha tried to smile and blinked her tears away. What would she have done without Abhi? She hated him, but he was the only one whom she really and truly trusted here- he was already doing a lot to make sure that she was safe and he was the one who consoled her every time she was down. He was boring, and ugly and dumb and a male chauvinist- no doubt about that, but her parents had been right when they had thought he was trustworthy. She bit her lip. "I want to go home.." she said, trying to hold her tears.
"You'll go home soon." He said, feeling less confident than he made himself out to be. "I promise you."
XXX
Belated PR anniversary to everyone!
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