The Runaway Bridegroom (12 page)

  
“Hi Shikha!” said Abhi, his voice soft and polite. “I just wanted to check that you’re alright.”

  
“Well, what if I’m not? What do you intend doing about it?” asked Shikha, ruder than ever.

  
“I can come over and keep you company,” suggested Abhimanyu, quite serious and meaning every word.

  
The moron was ready to come over and spend time with her. What’s wrong with him? Didn’t he have any pride? She had always treated him like a nobody. But here he was, offering to come over. Shikha didn’t know whether to be amazed or angry.

  
“You’re joking, right?” she asked.

  
Ram continued in a soothing tone, “I’m quite serious Shikha. You’re quite sloshed yesterday and I was kind of worried. I’ll come over and—”

  
Shikha interrupted him with a rude laugh. “Ha ha ha! Very funny! Why do you bother?”

  
“Because I care,” said Abhi firmly.

  
Abhi cared - for what, for whom? Was he bothered that his favourite boss Ranveer would lose his secretary? Maybe if she fell sick, Abhimanyu would have to do her work too and he was bothered about that. Shikha couldn’t believe that he could genuinely care what happened to her. No one had bothered about her personally, only what they could get out of her.

  
“Look here, if you don’t have anything better to do, you can come over here. You don’t have to convince me that you care for me. And don’t you worry that I’ll not turn up for work on Monday,” said Shikha before disconnecting the call.

  
Twenty minutes later the doorbell rang. Shikha couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Abhi standing outside her apartment.

Nineteen

   Not having been left with a choice, Shikha allowed Abhimanyu into her apartment with great reluctance. She moved away from him, not wanting him to smell the alcohol on her breath. But she had forgotten to consider his intelligence and observation skills. He wasn’t the second-in-command of such a big software company for nothing.

  
Abhimanyu caught on immediately that Shikha had been imbibing. He didn’t comment on it as he sat down on the single sofa in the room on realising that he would have to wait forever for an invitation from the woman in front of him. She was beautiful, he could see that. But her looks were shadowed by her terrible habits. There was hardly a day that he had seen her sober and she smoked a couple of packets of cigarettes every day. Over and above all that, she constantly bitched about someone or another.

  
Then why was Abhi attracted to her? He didn’t understand it but it was definitely there. He could empathise with her and her insecurities were very obvious to him.

  
“Have you had breakfast?” asked Abhimanyu, noticing the empty whisky glass on the table in front of him.

  
“Mommy Mommy, why don’t you mind your own business Mommy?” mocked Shikha, a sneer on her face.

  
Abhimanyu was unfazed and refused to budge. “I’m planning to have lunch at Nysha Bar & Grill.” He pretended to look at his watch, giving her a surreptitious look, trying to gauge her moves. “I have a table booked for 2 pm and you’re welcome to join me.”

  
Shikha’s stomach growled much to her annoyance. But then, she hadn’t eaten much in the past 24 hours. She had, in fact, been suffering from heart burn thinking of Ranveer and Chanda together.

  
Abhimanyu got up, “That settles it. You’re hungry and so am I. Let’s go.”

   Shikha wasn’
t going to give in so easily, especially as she didn’t even like Abhimanyu. He had some guts, just coming in and trying to run her life. She glared daggers at him and said, “You must go on, Abhi. I have to do some cleaning up as it’s the weekend.” She pointed to the door as she said this.

  
Abhimanyu walked towards her, much to Shikha’s irritation. “Come on Shikha, you still have tomorrow off. You can do your cleaning up then. Let’s just have some lunch and I’ll bring you back home straightaway.”

  
“Can’t you get it into your thick head that I don’t want to go with you?” said Shikha rudely. Anger and frustration vied with each other as she so wanted to be a part of Ranveer’s life and that wasn’t working out. And over and above that, this old man, Ranveer’s right hand, wanted to go out with her. Why should she settle for second best?

  
In the end, the calm and quiet Abhimanyu had his own way. He didn’t give Shikha a choice but to go with him. Coming to the conclusion that she would probably be able to get rid of him only if she had lunch with him, Shikha decided to accept his invitation.

  
Shikha was on her worst behaviour and drank her way through lunch. She didn’t care what Abhimanyu thought of her. She wasn’t out to impress him and it wasn’t her fault that they were having lunch together. ‘That should teach him a lesson to force her to go out with him,’ thought Shikha as her empty glass rolled across the table and fell down with a crash. Abhimanyu was stoic through the whole scene and calmly called a cleaner over to clear up the mess.

  
And after that, he had the unmitigated gall to go ahead and order a huge lunch. And did he consult her? Of course not! But she wasn’t surprised at his behaviour. She knew that he had no manners, he had no—Shikha’s mind buzzed as her stomach protested against the abuse. She did her best to resist the food but got too tempted and had her share. Abhimanyu watched on with a twinkle in his intelligent eyes, quite confident that Shikha’s bark was worse than her bite.

  
He didn’t realise that just because he found Shikha attractive didn’t automatically stop her from being the mean person that she was.

MONDAY MORNING SAW SHIKHA in her office cabin quite early. She waited eagerly to meet Ranveer. She was sure she would be able to know the way the wind blew on meeting him.

  
She was shaken when she saw the Ranveer who walked into his office. He was smiling and that in itself was a rarity. Walking into his cabin to greet him, Shikha was amazed to hear him whistling a tune. Her face darkened as she guessed the reason for his cheerful mood. Doing her best to wipe out the anger on her face, Shikha gave him a shaky smile as Ranveer looked up.

  
“Good Morning Shikha, how was your weekend?” he asked, a wide smile on his face. All these days that she had been working here, Ranveer hadn’t said more than a ‘Hi’ in greeting and that too without a smile. What the hell had come over him?

  
“Good Morning Boss. Not too bad but yours seems to have been great,” she said, curiosity getting the better of her temper.

  
Ranveer’s grin became broader. “Yep, the best ever,” he said, his voice adding to the cheer.

Shikha had the strong urge to shake him up and clenched her fists to stop herself from doing so. She gritted her teeth and gave him a tight smile before leaving his cabin. She couldn’t take his joyous state any more.

   She bided her time. Usually Abhimanyu came to the office first, followed by either Shikha or Ranveer, one after the other. The rest of the staff came in almost half an hour later. Shikha waited for Chanda to get to work. She would teach the young lady the lesson of her life.

MEERA AND MOHAN decided to take the astrologer’s advice. They planned to trace their absentee son-in-law and try to make Chanda’s marriage with him work. For that, the two of them decided to travel to Veerendra’s village to meet his family.

  
Jaswantpura was a half-a-day’s journey by road. Meera and Mohan left with their driver quite early in the morning and reached the village before noon. They drove around the village for ten minutes looking for Veerendra’s home. They had visited the Choudhurys but once before Chanda’s wedding.

  
As their driver parked in front of the wooden gate, a couple of small children ran to look out at the car, a not very common sight in the village. Meera and Mohan got out and gave the kids a tentative smile.

  
With a determined expression on their faces, Chanda’s parents walked into the compound, keen to trace their errant son-in-law. 

Twenty

   Meera and Mohan walked into the compound in a determined stride and reached the open door. The kids that had been watching them ran along their sides.

   They stood at the doorway and Mohan called out, “Choudhry
ji
.”

   Surendra walked out from his father’s bedroom when he heard the call. His hair had gone a shocking white with barely a few black strands in between. But, otherwise he looked exactly the same as he had appeared during his son’s wedding to Chanda.

   Before he opened his mouth, Mohan called out, “Surendra
ji, kaise hein
?”

   Surendra gave the couple a vague smile as he was baffled as to who his uninvited guests were. Moreover, the man seemed to know him. Good manners prevented Surendra from directly asking them who they were. He invited them in, “Please come in. Sona,” he called out, “Bring some water.” It was obvious that he didn’t recognise his daughter-in-law’s parents. Mohan wasn’t too surprised as living in the city had changed him and his wife quite a bit. Even their style of dressing was very different today as compared to fourteen years ago.

   As Mohan and Meera sat down on the worn out sofa, Sona walked out with a steel tray on which were two tall steel tumblers of water. She pulled her sari further down her forehead when she noticed that there was a male guest. She offered the water to them and waited for further instructions from her husband.

   A small smile lifted the corners of Mohan’s lips as he said, “I think you haven’t recognised us, Surendra
ji
. We are Chanda’s parents. You must remember Chanda, your son Veerendra’s child bride.”

   Surendra’s face turned red with anger. “Don’t take that name in this house. Veera is dead as far as we’re concerned,” he said rudely. Then, realising that it wasn’t fair to the guests, he said softly, “Do excuse me, Mohan
ji
. I don’t mean to offend you. In fact, you’re more of the affected party then we are. But that boy has brought us nothing but shame.” There was so much regret and pain in Surendra’s voice while Mohan didn’t miss Sona’s lips twisting in anguish. Her hands holding the tray shook, rattling the empty tumblers.

   “Surendra
ji
, all that’s water under the bridge. We can’t change what’s already happened. Let’s try to do something about the future. Tell me something, where’s Choudhry
ji
?” he asked, looking to the left and right.

   “Pappa’s having a fever and is resting,” said Surendra, addressing Mohan’s question first. Then he said, “You have a big heart, Mohan
ji
, that you are ready to forget things so easily. I am not able to condone my son’s behaviour.”

   “If Choudhry
ji
is ill, then maybe this isn’t a good time to visit. We will come next week, I think,” said Mohan, as he got up from the sofa.

   “Wait, don’t go away,” said a feeble voice from across the hall as Veerendra’s Grandpa came walking out of his room, leaning heavily on his walking stick. While his facial skin was folded
over with wrinkles, his white moustache was as thick as ever. He walked slowly across the hall as Surendra moved swiftly to help his father to the easy chair that was placed to the side. “Do sit down, Mohan. I am so glad to see that you have it in your heart to visit this old man after what my grandson did to your daughter,” he said, the pain obvious in his voice.

   Mohan and Meera moved forward to touch the old man’s feet. They had great respect for Choudhry
ji
that hadn’t disappeared even though their son-in-law had vanished into thin air.

   There were tears in Choudhry
ji
’s eyes as he blessed the couple who were kneeling in front of him. He touched Mohan’s shoulder and said, “Do sit down, Mohan, and you too Meera.” The two of them went back and sat on the sofa. “Sona, get lunch ready for our
sambandhis
,” he ordered, still the patriarch.

   Surendra’s head was bent in shame as he didn’t have the guts to face his errant son’s parents-in-law. His father continued to hold court. “How are you all, Mohan? How is little Chanda nowadays? She must have grown up to be a beautiful young lady. Tch! We are the losers not being able to receive her as our daughter-in-law.” There was raw pain in the feeble old voice.

   “As I was just saying to Surendra
ji
, please let bygones be bygones Choudhry
ji
. Let us look forward to the future,” said Mohan. Meera nodded her head.

   “But what’s the use?” said the old man. “We don’t know where Veera went. There’s just no way we can set right the wrong that he did to your family and especially to Chanda.”

   “Well, actually, Choudhry
ji
, that’s what we came to speak to you about. We had been to an astrologer a few days ago. Vidyasagar
ji
is a learned man with forty-five years of experience in the field of astrology. No prediction of his has ever gone wrong over the years. We—”

   Choudhry
ji
raised a weak hand to stop Mohan mid-speech. “I don’t mean to be rude, but we have lost faith in astrology, Mohan. That’s just a load of rubbish,” he said, his voice bitter. They had been to half a dozen astrologers after Veera had run away. None of them had been able to help them locate the boy. None of them could recommend a
pooja
or
havan
that would bring Veera back home. They couldn’t even tell Veera’s family whether he was alive or dead. So what use astrology? He told Mohan all that.

   “I can well understand your frustration Choudhry
ji
,” said Mohan, his enthusiasm unabated. “But things have changed. I believe Veerendra’s horoscope was written wrong. Vidyasagar
ji
could see that within a few minutes of reading the horoscope that you had given me. I—”

   “What?” This was Surendra, a small light of hope dawning on his face. While he lived in denial, his love for his son hadn’t decreased over the years. Surendra found it easier to remain in a state of anger over the missing boy rather than breaking down in sorrow. Sona had been standing behind the door leading off the hall towards the kitchen overhearing the conversation. She hadn’t followed her father-in-law’s orders after she realised that their guests were none other than Chanda’s parents. She walked out on hearing her husband’s exclamation, her heart beating hard with new optimism.  

   Mohan turned towards Veera’s father. “
Hahn
Surendra
ji
! The astrologer was kind enough to create a correct horoscope to match the date, time and place of birth that was mentioned in the original horoscope that you had given us. And moreover, he predicted a beautiful future for your son and my daughter,” said Mohan, not bothering to control the happy note in his voice.

   Surendra looked at his father askance. This was news indeed! And there was hope too! He turned towards his father to see a tear rolling down the old man’s withered cheek. “Pappa,” he called out as he rushed over to kneel beside his father, holding his right hand. The old man’s hand was chilled.

   Meera felt quite emotional too as she held on to her husband’s hand tightly. She could so well relate to their anguish as it was so close to their own. And they still had their daughter with them.

   Choudhry
ji
said, “Are you sure, Mohan? You won’t give any false hope to this old man, will you? I can’t take any more disappointment regarding Veera.” His voice broke as he mentioned his favourite grandson’s name.

   Mohan walked up to Choudhry
ji
and held his other hand. “Why don’t you send Surendra
ji
to Jaipur? Let him meet the astrologer and find out for himself. Surendra
ji
, you can take a copy of your horoscope and see what Vidyasagar
ji
has to say about it. Once you are convinced that he is a talented man, you can go ahead and talk to him about Veerendra. What do you say?”

   Surendra held on to his father’s hand tightly, willing him to agree to Mohan’s suggestion.

Twenty-o
ne

   On Monday morning, Chanda breezed into the office, her feet on wings. She could still not believe her luck. She had had such a wonderful weekend and she hugged the secret to herself. She didn’t want to mention anything to anyone as she worked for Ranveer. She didn’t want to become fodder for the office gossip mill. But her black eyes glowed with excitement, unaware of what was in store for her.

   After a couple of hours, when Chanda went to the washroom, Shikha waylaid her. The latter had ensured that the rest of the female staff were busy in the canteen or at their desks. It was just the two of them.

   “Hello Chanda!” came the saccharine sweet voice of Ranveer’s secretary. Chanda turned around to see Shikha standing in front of the wide mirror studying her own reflection. Chanda smiled naturally and replied, “Hello Shikha!”

   “So, how was your weekend? You seem to be glowing.” Shikha managed to keep the anger out of her voice.

   “It was good,” Chanda toned down her enthusiasm and spoke softly. She definitely didn’t want to share confidences with this woman, of all people.

   “Oh, and what did you do?”

   A small frown gathered on Chanda’s forehead. What right did Shikha have to question her like this? She didn’t like her tone of voice. She wasn’t her friend, so why the inquisition?

   “Oh, this and that, nothing special. And how was yours?” she asked, more out of politeness than any interest.

   Shikha took the plunge. “Oh, I had a super time. Do ask me what I did, go on!”

   Chanda stared at the older woman in wonder. Whatever was happening? Why did Shikha want Chanda to know what she had done during her weekend? What was she trying to establish? Chanda’s lips moved in the semblance of a smile that was forced. “So what did you do?”

   “I had the time of my life. Ranveer and I—,” Shikha gave Chanda a keen look when she heard the younger woman make a choking sound. Did she imagine it? She couldn’t find any change in Chanda’s expression. Shikha decided to continue. “Ranveer and I had the time of our lives, you know. I’ll let you in on a secret.” Shikha’s voice became a dramatic whisper. “Our boss is sweet on me. He just couldn’t keep away during the weekend. The other night, after I left for home, I was quite irritated. He called me on Saturday, insisted on coming home and took me out for lunch.” Shikha described Abhimanyu’s visit and made out as if it was Ranveer who had met her.