THE CONTORTED LOVE...

Meera was pulling her SUV into a petrol pump in the morning when she noticed Jai, tanking up his brand new Audi. As always Jai looked very dashing. His glares suited him well and so did his tapered pants and Golf tee.

No wonder, he was born with a silver spoon. It was easy for girls to fall in love with him. But Meera was an exception. She was an Architect with brimming confidence. Probably not as rich as Jai, but Meera definitely belonged to an affluent family.

Around 5 years ago, they had first met at an exhibition at Jahangir Art Gallery. They hit it off instantly, since both were creative. Their frequent calls soon turned into meetings and before they could realise, they were in love.

Meera had liked him for his brains and not looks. Once, while they were off to Italy for a holiday, she had fleetingly mentioned to him about Arjun.  Arjun was Meera's special friend for over 2 years. They were crazily in love, but somehow, their ego clashes drifted them apart. This revelation probably had hurt Jai somewhere. However, he dismissed the conversation with another cup of fresh Italian hot brew .

All was well between these two except for one thing. Meera was not willing to take the plunge with  Jai yet. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to spend her life and grow old with him. After chasing her with this proposal for almost a year, Jai was getting restless. He was not the one to fight, argue or raise his voice to prove his point. He kept calm and decided to bide his time and get a clear picture about their relationship very soon.

A month or so later, Jai happened to spot a Meera look-alike at a pub with some guy late at night. Though he was unsure, Jai decided to approach the girl and confront her. As he was about to step away from his table to go towards the couple, he heard a little scream. A lady had probably slipped and fell on the dance floor. Being a gentleman, he quickly paced towards her and helped her to her feet. He turned around to get back to the look-alike, only to realise that the couple had disappeared. He shook his head in dismay and walked away..

Jai never brought this up with Meera. He didn't want to be seen as a suspicious boyfriend...'well' he thought to himself, 'what if there is someone else in Meera's life?' He shrugged off the thought. But he was determined to get a final nod from Meera.

They decided to meet over for dinner followed by a movie at his home theatre. Since he had his own place away from his parents, Jai could indulge in his leisurely time with Meera or his former girlfriends and other casual friends there.

By noon, Meera had finished her work and she decided to go shopping at the nearby mall.  A slight pat on her back made her  jump in surprise. There was this girl whom she had spotted many a times at local pubs and fancy restaurants. She introduced herself as Sonia, Jai's good friend, and they sat themselves down at a cafe for a tête-à-tête.

That evening Jai had made elaborate arrangements for the dinner date. With the best of daisies and dahlias, he had decorated his bedroom with utter perfection. There were tea lights and aromatic candles all over. The bed had silk covers and pastel lace sheets and the lights were dim, making it perfect night for  love-making. He was all excited about the evening and was hoping to get a positive reply from Meera.

But, at dinner, Meera seemed very upset and quiet. There was no connection between the two. There was no excitement during their intimacy. She refused to kiss or get close to him. After a long pause Jai finally popped the question to her. She frantically got up from her place and paced up and down the room. She seemed furious. All she said to Jai was 'How could you?!!!'

Jai was dumbstruck. He didn't know where he had gone wrong. .  Her eyes were red and full of tears. She grabbed her car keys and flung the door open. Within a minute she was gone. He just stood there watching her leave.

Jai thought for a while and then asked his house maids to clean up the place while he blew away all the candles. He realised Meera wasn't coming back.

Almost 4 years had gone by and there was no news from Meera after that evening. She had probably moved on with her life and so had he.

And today, unexpectedly, out of nowhere they were face to face. Meera was still driving her old SUV and looking the same, only this time, she had a  little baby girl in the back seat. With awkward smiles they decided to sip coffee at a nearby cafe. 

Jai ran out of icebreakers and eventually asked her straight up about her sudden disappearance from his life. Meera gave up, all her composure fell by with the outpour of her pent up angst. 

'Jai', she said, 'I was all excited to meet you that evening. I decided to buy some gifts for you and visited the nearby mall. There I met Sonia'. Jai managed to somehow hide his amused and shocked look. 'Sonia was getting married, it was an arranged nuptial. She had to meet me alone because she was badly in need of help and wasn't sure whom to turn to. She wanted to abort her pregnancy. And whose child was she carrying? Yours, Jai !!!.  Sonia told me about your fling with her, and also about the other girls you had duped earlier. She had not aborted the child earlier, hoping you would keep your promise of marrying her.' 

'She had no one to turn to, and was hoping that I would be able to understand her situation and help her out. Sonia did not have the courage to ask for help from her family and so, wanted to quietly close the matter. She also wanted to warn me about having a relationship with you.  You had kept both of us in the dark. I had made up my mind about not seeing you ever, but still came half-heartedly to your place that evening.' 

'After I left your house, I called Sonia and assured her that I would help her in every way possible. I knew I would need help in fulfilling my promise to Sonia, and reached out to the one person  who would stand by me in any situation. Arjun came down immediately to meet Sonia and me. He had known all along about my relationship with you, but was more than forthcoming to offer help. Arjun asked me if he should confront you and get you back to your senses, and believe me, he could do that with ease. However, both Sonia and I were against it, because we had liked you in our own way and didn't think we could be the judges of your character.'

'Thereafter, we consulted a gynaec for the abortion, but the doctor's opinion was that it would be too risky to abort the child at that stage. The three of us consulted some of the best doctors, but all of them had the same conclusion. . Sonia had to carry on with the pregnancy.'

'She delivered a premature baby in the 7th month.  The delivery was extremely complicated and due to excessive blood loss Sonia lost her life. Her parents had already alienated her when they got to know about her pregnancy and had suffered enough humiliation due to the cancelled wedding.'

Meera wiped the lone tear from her cheek and continued, 'I volunteered to look after the baby and decided to give her all that a mother would. Khushi is now, my baby. I love her more than my life. She is 3 yrs old already.' Meera trailed off...

Just then a man walked into the cafe. With a warm hug to Meera, he smiled at Jai expressing a gentle hello. Jai smiled back with a handshake introducing himelf. He said, 'Hi ! i am Arjun, Meera's husband. Have you met my my daughter Khushi?'...

THE UNKNOWN TRUTH

Sunanda had been working at our place since she was 11. She accompanied her mother Shobha bai every morning in her school uniform and would leave by 11:30 am to reach school. My mom usually made tiffin for her along with our tiffins. My old school bag, compass box, water bags, unused books, pens etc.. would all be handed over to Sunanda. She was a bright student. She would often stand next to us on weekends to see what we would be studying. She always smelled of Lifebuoy soap and her hair oily but well combed. Her dresses were always mine and she always wore slippers. She was dark complexioned weakling, but she was always cheerful. Sunanda was 1 year junior to me but looked tiny and frail.

As years passed we reached 9th and 10th respectively. I had tons of tuitions and I would be ferried from one class to another by our Driver kaka. My schedule was so hectic that I hardly had time to sit back n spend time with my best friend 'my mom'. I hated this part so much !

And then that day arrived when I caught fever and was advised by the doctor to take rest, so obviously no school and no tuitions. Oh, What Fun !! I was hoping that mom would pamper me the whole day like she always did through my childhood, when I fell sick. But as the clock struck 5 pm, in walked Sunanda with her books and she sat on the carpet. Mother sat beside her tutoring her for 2 long hours. By then My Dad returned from work. I looked gleefully at him but he seemed busy. He then walked straight to the drawing room and dictated a few notes of science to Sunanda...he also cleared few of her Maths doubts.

I fumed! Why on earth was everybody tending Sunanda? Why was everyone so kind to her? It was my time with my people and why was she meddling in my life? Why was everyone giving importance to a maid's daughter? I lost my cool...I dashed out to the living room and yelled hard at her " Why are you still here? Can't you study at home? As it is, you have been using my stuff since childhood and I have never uttered a word but now you are even encroaching on my personal space...they are my parents and this is my time with them!! Just get out of my house right now!!!"

Sunanda froze. Her eyes welled up and she ran out of the house like a lightning bolt. Nobody spoke anything for a moment. Then my Father turned to me and said " What's wrong with you Medha? I can understand your point of view but this is not the way to react and handle a situation".. My mom had lost her temper by now. She screamed at me like no man's business. She said "Do you even have slightest idea why me and your dad are helping Sunanda? It is so easy to yell at somebody and ask them to leave, but did you even put a thought before acting in such a crazy manner? Sunanda was getting married when she was 11yrs old. Me and your father intervened and stopped this act. Her father was very furious. He created a big scene. Shobha bai too was against us. Since then he would regularly beat Sunanda and would threaten to kick her out of the house. Then one day Sunanda came to our house and narrated her agony. She said she wanted to study further but her family won't let her. So we spoke to her parents again. After a lot of persuasion they said that if Sunanda fails even once then she will have to stop her studies and either get married or become a domestic maid."

"Sunanda aspires to become an engineer. She doesn't know what an engineer is but she wants to be one because Medha you want to be one. You are her role model. She says if I have worn didi's clothes , used her stuff all my life then I should return the favour by being someone like her! so me and your dad have been spending time to give her tuitions, pay her fees and help her fulfil her dreams which in turn are woven by her to impress you...Now tell us Medha, Are we wrong? Are we being unfair to you?..."

Tears rolled down my cheeks and I was speechless....