Chapter-19
All my joys were short-lived. I lost my baby after twenty-eight weeks of gestation due to unexplained complications and felt totally broken. Not even Shamit and Aaru could bring any relief to my excruciating pain. The mother in me was hurt beyond repair. Felt like everything was over and I contemplated ending my life when the tender arms of little Sharu around my neck aided me to absorb my tears. She felt like the first drop of rain on dried barren land.
Adarsh wept in solitude too. He was deeply annoyed with destiny. He knew we had taken every care. He had picked the shattered pieces of his heart and tried to put a brave front for everyone but the fact is fathers go through equal pain. I needed his arms to comfort me but his own pain was so overwhelming. We got pregnant again twice but didn’t get enough of God’s blessings to have a child of our own. We accepted it as our fate. Time kept crawling at its pace.
Aaru always consoled me that Sharadhya is my kid too and that I can help her rear her and she would be blessed to have two moms. Shamit too was as understanding as always, thus I started spending a lot of time with my darling Sharu who was perhaps the cutest and most well-behaved kid in the town.
The silence between Adarsh and me had only widened in these years, we tried to maintain cordial relations though, but the fact that he was growing more and more short-tempered with each passing day, and made me worried. He was secretly brooding over his lost children and his heart had refused to move on.
Shamit and Aaradhya had given us a lot of support in these testing times and had always been around almost like family. Shamit particularly had attempted to talk to Adarsh several times and also took him out often to play golf while Aaru guided me not to strain my relationship with my husband because of something that was beyond my control. These two, my best friends were the best.
I know many of you would have already conceived a lot of wrong notions about me so far, even thinking I was the evil eye on them or I would destroy their love abode but I would never.. not even in my farthest dream, do that. I am the custodian of their love from the day there met at school, how can I harm someone, I myself have nurtured. I will give my life someday to save them, their love, if the need is, without thinking even once. Yes, I loved Adarsh as my spouse but my love for these two is divine and deep-rooted and something words would always fail me to express.
I was sure things would be fine soon and believed Adarsh was thinking the same way as he gifted all five of us a Jungle Safari in Jim Corbett, near Nainital for Sharu’s fourth birthday which was coming soon.
Everyone was pleasantly surprised by Adarsh’s thoughtful gesture. I honestly was so grateful to him. Shamit didn’t take a lot of vacations as a precautionary measure as he wanted to live the longest with his wifey and little princess so disciplined he was always. But he too agreed to this one. We all started planning and packing and were super excited.
Aaru and I also went birthday shopping with little Sharu clinging to my waist. It was so much fun. We were all the more excited because we will get to go to Nainital too, our forever home. My parents too had now moved back to our ancestral home there and it would be blissful to reunite back at that place.
It was going to be a weeklong trip and everything was well planned for by Adarsh.
All of us so looked forward to it and reached the resort on time only to bonfire and dance and rest on the first day.
Aaru had withdrawn to her room to put Sharu to sleep and Shamit followed her as it was already late. They both too curled up together and kept chatting until late that night.
“Sham, I plan to start writing my first book in Nainital this time. It has been on my mind for a while now.”
Aaru said casually to which Shamit popped up in bed with surprise.
"Wow Radha, will I be the hero in your book, or you have someone else in mind."
Shamit said pleadingly.
"Of course, you will forever be the hero of all my stories."
She laughed.
"One more request Radha. Though I have not read many books, the ones with a sad ending make me feel sick. So please promise me, it will have a happy ending."
He was so serious this time.
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