Hey Dad! Meet My Mom (19 page)

“Even I am serious, I confessed my love ages back.” I replied a little rudely, I was still in some kind of a hangover and that hurt her.

“Fine, all you needed was a one night stand with me, right?”

“What the hell? Are you mad Rosh, I love you.” I got up instantly.

“Okay, now you can leave, you made love, it’s enough, your wish is fulfilled, now don’t try to contact me.”

“What happened, Rosh?”

“Yaar,
I love my kids, I can’t love you, it’s as simple as that.” Oh! So the reason was different. She was still thinking the same thing.

“They are my kids too.”

“And when did they become your kids?”

“If you are their mother then I am their father, that’s the rule of the universe.”

“I am not joking.” She had a strange magnetic look in her eyes, which pulled me into the depth of what she was saying.

“Even I am not joking, see I’ll love them and treat them the way you do. If your happiness is tied with them, trust me I can do anything for your happiness.” I assured her.

“Thanks, Puneet.” She cried, again.

“What, why the ‘thanks’?”

“I love you.”

So, finally she confessed her love.

“You know what, all those kids are adopted.” She said.

“I don’t have any problem if they are adopted or they are your own blood, all I know is I am the dad to those three little kids.”

Finally love made its way, and fate gave me yet another good news.

“Hey Rosh! What are you doing here and that too at 3 am, are you okay?”

“Nothing Puneet, I was feeling suffocated so I just came outside to get some fresh air.” Roshni whispered. Both of us looked down from the fifth floor of our balcony. The whole world was sleeping deep, lost in their dreams. I was the only one who was awake, holding the hand of my dream.

“Happy Birthday, Puneet.” She whispered in my ears once again and planted a kiss on my lips. She handed me a present too.

“Thank you darling. What’s in this?” I asked her.

“Take a look yourself.” Then I started to open the wrapping. It was a watch.

“Keep this bound to your wrist; it will remind you of our love and the ‘time’ we are spending right now.”

I took her along with me to the room and huddled her into my arms just to show my love and care for her. We were both having the best time of our lives without the slightest hint that everything was about to end very soon.

We were both immensely in love with each other and we decided to get married in the presence and with the blessings of our parents. Yes, indeed it was going to be a love marriage and it wasn’t going to be easy for us to confess our relationship to our families but somehow we managed to do so. We informed our respective families about each other and from that day onwards, the story of our separation had started to be written.

One fine Monday morning, while preparing breakfast, Roshni rushed to the basin and started puking. It was unexpected and yet quite obvious.

Somewhere along the way, she had an idea of what was happening to her yet she wanted to be sure. And the two red lines on the pregnancy kit too confirmed it. Now her mind started planning, how to break out the joyous news to me.

Post dinner, when we were back in our bedroom, Roshni finally decided to blurt out the golden news but waited until I came beside her on the bed.

“Honey, you haven’t slept as yet. I thought you must be snoring by now.” And then I winked at her as she sat on the right side of the bed.

‘’Can you feel something?’’ asked Roshni sitting beside me, placing my palm on her stomach.

I immediately got her point. I leaped up like a spring on the bed filled with immeasurable joy and impetuously called up my mom saying that a baby was coming soon. I was closer to my mother. The news of the baby reached my father and that damaged everything.

“If it’s a girl, then we will name her Ritika and if it’s a boy, we will name him Rishi.” This was instantly decided by Roshni herself. She was very excited. She called her dad too. They told her that they would reach the following morning itself and that gave Roshni more happiness because it would be the first time that she would be having her parents in her new home.

We were both ready to welcome our parents. My father came rushing to me, leaving all his campaigning for the upcoming election and that was totally unexpected. I was happy that he still cared for me.

We had no clue what they were all up to. They came, showered us with love and then betrayed us. They stabbed us on our backs. One night, her mother mixed mifepristone in her milk which caused a chemical abortion. The pain arose, tearing out of the blood cells, killing her baby inside. Roshni was clueless about this unfortunate mishap.

After murdering our child they tried to murder our relation too. First they tried cheap tactics like arousing hate between us by telling us false stories about each other but when nothing helped, they showed their real face. Roshni and I were both devastated to know about our child’s death. It was as if nothing was left for us to feel happy about. All we had left were her three children. The day her father came to know about them, he left them in some orphanage at a remote city without even informing Roshni. That blow on our souls shattered everything inside us.

Roshni left food and water, she got hospitalized. The same thing happened with me. Our parents’ pride took away the life of their children. I was taken back to Delhi, my father thought that time would heal everything but nothing helped. Then I was referred to my uncle who erased my memory with treatment and drugs.

He erased everything about Roshni from my mind but forgot to erase Rishi, my ‘dead’ son.

Chapter 20

Back to Puneet’s present life...

Life is really strange and so are we! We keep asking it so many questions; why, who, when? But the day life starts answering our questions, we start wondering why the hell is it doing this to us? Can’t it just keep quiet and hear our crap without answering them?
Strange!

My whole life, my whole
fucking
life was nothing but a lie. A lie told by my parents. They knew everything but never told me. They let me sway away with my assumptions; they threw me in the darkest cave from where there was no escape.

“Why, mom? Why did you do that to me? You knew everything, right?” We were both unable to make eye contact now.

“We did that to bring you back son; bring you back to normal from that state of depression. There was no way left for us.” My mother knew that these words would leave no impact over my injured soul but that was the best attempt she could make.

I chuckled and stood up, “See mom, I am back. You brought your son back from that horrible state. Now feel proud and happy.” I was furious. I had never before screamed at her, the way I did that day. She continued to sob and I left for my room.

We both loved each other; we were both ready to live together and also to die for each other. Now I didn’t remember anything about her but her love never allowed me to forget her. She visited my dreams; she tried to make me remember her but I had felt afraid of her. I tried to block her thoughts from my mind. I tried to search for someone else when there was already a girl out there who was madly in love with me. She remembered me, cried for me, prayed to God for my return but
I remembered nothing.

Tears were free to flow now; there was no reason for them to stop. They deserved to flow and keep on flowing till I myself got drifted along with them. I had broken someone’s heart, I had broken a promise, I had broken a trust; why the hell was I still alive. What was the point of going on living now?

Wait! Where was Rishi? He had seemed to know everything. He had turned things right for me. He had directed me to find the missing link in my life and sometimes he also spoke to her, to Roshni.

“RISHI!” I burst my lungs out and screamed his name but he did not appear. I called his name out again; and yet no response. I looked for him everywhere in the house; I found him nowhere. My mother got afraid to see my reaction. She followed me everywhere, tried to stop me, but I was not going to stop now. I wanted Rishi back; I wanted to talk to him; I wanted to know where Roshni was and how she was doing. I wanted to meet her once. Just once..........

“Do you know what the best thing about you is?” I asked her while lying on her lap. We were naked, exhausted and very happy.

“What?” Roshni said. Her wildness was slowly transforming into cuteness. She was a lady of various colors.

“It’s the language of your body. It speaks to me and asks to explore every part of it again and again and again.” I ran my fingerfrom her neck to navel and transformed her into a tigress once again.

Suddenly everything faded like it had never existed and at that very moment I understood that I was dreaming. A white color white filled the space around me. Everything was bright, very bright but still bearable for the eyes.

I knew that at any moment, Rishi would pop up from somewhere in front of my eyes. I waited, I called out his name; but he didn’t appear. Then suddenly, I felt like I was falling; I was falling as though from high in the sky. The feeling was so real that I couldn’t stop myself from screaming. I could see the hard concrete floor waiting to hurt me the very moment I would hit it. I knew it was all a dream but still, that feeling took my breath away for a moment.

I was about to hit........ 5 ... 4.... 3.... I closed my eyes in fear. Waited

for the ‘crash ’-moment but nothing happened I opened my eyes and saw Rishi standing in front of me; pale and expressionless. I wanted to ask him many things but words weren’t coming out of my mouth. It was as if someone had controlled my mind and ordered it to shut down. The next urge which grew within me was to look around; to look at the place around me. It wasn’t my will to look but it was like someone was ordering me and controlling my actions.

I looked around, it all looked familiar. I had seen this place before, in another dream. Yes, it was a railway station in Ahmedabad. But what was here? Why was this place so important, that it kept coming in my dreams again and again? Rishi really wanted to show me something here.

I turned my gaze back to Rishi. The moment our eyes met, he started walking away, I followed him. While following him, the surroundings started to change again. It firstfaded, turned white and then a new scene emerged. I could see Rishi entering a huge building. I tried to find out the name of the building and saw it written on the top. It read Apollo Hospital’. What was in there?

I followed Rishi inside the hospital but the moment I entered the building, he disappeared. I looked around but he was gone. ‘Where was I to go now?’ I asked myself but got the answer from the lady at the reception.

“Room no. 209. ” She said and showed me the stairs. I ran towards the indicated direction and followed the stairs till I reached the second floor.

Room no. 209 was now in front of me. I could see Rishi standing in front of the closed door of 209. He crossed it without actually opening it. I didn ’t try that. I opened the door and saw her; Roshni lying on the bed with so many machines around indicating that she was ‘just alive’. Behind her bed, Rishi was standing. The moment he saw me, he said, “Hey dad! Meet my mom!!!”

Suddenly I woke up. My breath was totally out of control. It took me around 5 minutes to regain control over it. I thought nothing for a moment other than packing my bags and travelling to Ahmedabad.