CHAPTER 48
THE LOST SON
“Urgh! RSU leaves us at one. It's exactly when most bus drivers break for lunch”, grumbled Tanya. She stood with young Alok at the bus stand opposite their university.
“I know right! Full working days on Saturdays is far better than waiting endlessly for the bus”, added son Alok. Tanya turned her smartphone on. She shrugged at him, as her home screen displayed a half-past one.
“Fuck! This is horrible. I wonder if there is a local strike going on in the city”, worried Alok. “Mihir and Sooraj-look at these guys. They bunked. It was always a waste coming to college on a half-day. We only had a boring class. That's it!”
“Correct!”, agreed Tanya. “I too came because you were adamant to come”, said she.
He smiled at her who chuckled, looking down and rubbing the base of her white shoes against the ground. Alok blushed, looking away from her, to check if any bus was headed towards the sheltered stop.
Tanya folded her hands. She shrank her eyes at him. She pulled her light blue T-shirt down, as usual, when a girl wears jeans pants. She neared to stand closer to him.
“Aye! What are you doing?”, he asked.
She inserted her arm into his.
He chuckled. “Why do you want to hold my hand?”
She raised her eyebrows. “So, you really don’t know?”, she asked.
He blushed and nodded. She sighed and looked away. He released his arm from hers.
“Why? What’s wrong?”, she enquired.
His left palm caught her right palm while his eyeballs rolled hither and thither to spot none except the other students engrossed in their gossip as they left the university building opposite them.
“I love you and you love me. Yes yes, neither am I that forgetful. However, I feel this romance is more decent and cuter too. Do you agree?”, he whispered.
They, blushing along, looked into each other’s eyes.
“Cute boyfriend”, she commented. She touched his nose.
“Ooo!”, he chuckled. She blushed and rested her head on his shoulders.
She began, “You are so sweet. I don’t know how I missed you until recently. Our juniors are sharper than me in this matter…”
A motorist stopped his bike near them. Alok tickled Tanya at which the latter chuckled, taking her head off his shoulders. Tanya was about to release her palm and Alok smiled, tightening it further.
“Alok! People are coming”, she pointed out.
“Yes yes. It's a bus stop. Of course, commuters will come. What’s the problem? What is this, Tanya? Don’t you want the poor conductors and drivers to earn? If there isn’t a passenger in the local bus, how do you think they will make money?...”
“Hmm! Leave the rest. Are you so innocent?”, she asked him. Her attempts to release her palm were literally fruitless!
“Leave it. You can’t escape. My palm was glued before holding yours. Did you know?”, he teased her.
“What! Are you kidding me?”, she screamed.
He placed his finger on the lip and hissed, signaling for her to stay quiet.
“Alok, are you serious?”, she confirmed, at which he nodded with a wide smile.
“This is not fair. How will I board the bus?”
“Why worry? I will carry my girlfriend”, he solved.
“No, come on. Holding arms isn’t decent. How come carrying a girl in public is decent according to you then? Come, let's dip our hands in hot water….”, she went on.
Alok observed the little boy waving at his motorist who was already riding away. He bulged his eyes as the two-year-old kid screamed.
May it be a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, a couple of years, or even throughout one's life, relishing the most beautiful feeling on Earth-the love, it still matters.
While most couples are almost near the silver jubilee of their wedding anniversary, Alok and Nisha are just about to begin their love life!
Love at any age is love. Why not a middle-aged love story?!
“Papa! Bye! Bye “
The child’s father didn’t turn back yet. However, his mother massaged his head. She smiled, asking him to stay quiet.
“Where are you? Tell me how to remove the effect now…”, Tanya questioned Alok. She waved her free hand in front of him. She followed his eyes to witness the young mother smiling at them. She pulled her child with big glittering eyes, closer to her.
“Sorry for the trouble. My son is very attached to his father. So, he is unable to leave him and come to his mamaji’s house. Sorry, that's why he is screaming”, she answered.
“It's okay, didi”, said Tanya, waving at the kid and smiling at the mother. She stared at her boyfriend standing like a statue who couldn’t take his eyes off the child; neither did he bother to close his stunned mouth which continued to remain open at the kid.
“What happened? Do you know them? Speak something…”, panicked Tanya, shaking him harder. All of a sudden, she realized her left palm was getting freed. Her eyes moved slowly to learn that he spread out his palm, contracted to close his fist, and repeated.
“Hey, what happened?”, enquired the lady, as well.
Scenes of Dr.Alok, back in his thirties, leaving his son on the footpath just outside the Cubbon Park of Bangalore and speeding away in his motorbike flashed in young Alok’s mind. He took breaths at a greater rate. His eyes wanted to shut while his fists wanted to close themselves.
The face of the man who ditched him was an exact match with that of the younger version of Dr.Alok that he could correlate and compare. He gnashed his teeth, recollecting the professor smiling at his Nisha followed by the latter putting Dr.Alok’s arms around him. He shut his ears with both hands. He closed his eyes. He shook his head hither and thither. Tears rolled down his eyes.
“Wait, why are you crying? What’s happening? Should we go to the clinic nearby?”, offered his clueless girlfriend.
“Open your eyes”, said she, with her trembling voice full of tears.
While the kid’s mother offered him a bottle of water, young Alok opened his red eyes. He hugged Tanya.
“Tanya, I remembered every damn truth. It's my own father who orphaned me”, he revealed.
She shook her head. She closed her eyes. She sobbed hugging him, in return.
While the kid pulled his mother’s hand asking what had left Alok so startled, she swallowed her tears.
“Ashok Vihar '', announced the whiteboard of the local bus nearing the stop having ‘RSU’ written in bold red on a white board erected on top of the wide shelter.
“Come, let's go. Our bus is here”, said the lady, dragging her child along. They boarded the bus. The conductor witnessed Alok and Tanya hugging and crying. He smiled, whistling for the driver to leave.
“Alok, what are you telling? I only know your mother, Nisha. Do you have a father?...”, said the confused girl.
“Dr.Alok’s face is the evil man’s face who abandoned me in the middle of the road”, declared son Alok. “And his wife, that sadist woman, Payal, is she my mother? Did she give birth to me?”, he realized, breaking down on the footpath.
“What do you mean? Is Dr.Alok, the professor who is the head of our research department, your father?”, asked Tanya, as her voice kept cutting in shock. “He seems to be so nice. How could he do this to his own son? But, how come? I think you are mistaken…”
“Not me. I was purposely lost”, yowled Alok. He pressed Tanya’s shoulders firmly. He continued, “My biological father deliberately left me on a footpath telling me that he has work to do and that he would return to pick me up. He asked me to stay there. I stayed till night but he never returned”, clarified Alok.
Tanya sobbed as he wept bitterly as if his kin had passed away. She rested his head on her chest. “Calm down. Does it mean that Nisha aunty knows about it?...”
“No way! My mom is the most innocent soul one would have ever seen in life”, he argued. “Dr.Alok is my biological father. For the past few days, scenes of my young past have been flashing in my mind. But, I couldn’t recollect his face. At first, I wondered, because I only had a mother throughout my life. I have never addressed anyone as ‘Paapa’. Who is this man that has been flashing in my mind then?”
He stood up. As he walked towards the end of the footpath stage of the bus stand, he narrated, “That was when I realized the man in my pasts which I recollected, was none other than my father. It was far before I came to the orphanage. I joined the dots. I know it's my biological father…But, now, I need to save my mother from the stone-hearted devil. He, of course, doesn’t deserve love or family in his life.”
“What? Orphanage? Is Nisha aunty your foster mom and not your biological mom?”, queried Tanya, as she followed him.
As she hurried along with him, on the road, he stopped. He turned to face her. “Yes, but Nisha mamma looked after me more than the affection that the bloody hands of a sinner’s wife, Payal, a greater sinner indeed, would have showered me with.” He frowned, nearing his face, towards Tanya.
“I don’t give a shit about that cunning and self-centered woman”, he shared. He faked a wicked smile.
He headed at Tanya who stepped backward, a step after the first.
“But, why did my father dump me? I want to know the entire truth right now”, he demanded. Tanya swallowed her fear at the green nerve, forming the shape of the letter ‘V’ in English, below his knuckles, as he grabbed all the force of the globe to tighten his fists.
“I must learn every inch of my past right now”, said Alok. He bet his right knee with his right hand. He dragged her along.
“Where are we going? Wait, calm down. Control…”, she aimed to advise him.
“Control what?”, asked he.
They stopped.
He frowned at her.
“Alok, you are frightening me. What are you going to do now?”, she trembled. “See whatever it is, let's sit and discuss. I don’t think you know everything. Look, you were just two years old back then. Dr.Alok is sensible. There must be something else. I think we must talk to him…”
“Talk? Have you lost your minds?”, young Alok yelled. “Will you control your frustration if you were hated and lost like this?”
He bet his forehead.
He sobbed, feeling, “How could anyone hate an innocent child?”
He wiped his tears, concluding, “No wonder an inhuman can only wed another inhuman.”
“Listen, Alok…”, called Tanya, as her boyfriend began walking away.
“I can’t listen. I want an answer. I know it's only Dr.Alok who has the same”, said son Alok, gnashing his teeth and hurrying.
“Fine. I too will come along”, she said. He stopped. He looked at her. He caught her hand. Her heart throbbed fast as she rushed while he dragged her along.
On the other hand, Ramlal drove Dr.Alok and Nisha to the veranda of the house. He opened the door of the passenger’s seat where the lovers sat together.
“Nisha medam, welcome to my house”, Dr.Alok greeted.
“Saar, is this the first time I’m visiting you?”, Nisha chuckled. She wore a pinkish-red sari with small brownish-yellow mica prints on its body. It had a blend of thick brown stripes running in a diagonal fashion and separated by black rug-like cloth, on its border.
While she shrugged, he came closer. He smiled, plugging her hair behind her ears.
“Welcome to my house as my officially declared to-be wife”, he whispered.
She blushed and nodded.
“Sarla, get your Saahab and Sahiba two cups of tea, and a plate of potato chips”, he ordered, holding hands with Nisha and walking into the house.
While the maid cheered back from the kitchen, he wrapped Nisha in his cozy arms as they sat on the couch in the hall. Nisha shrank her eyes and hit his right shoulder.
“Sexy! Why is my medam angry with me?”, he asked, raising his eyebrows up and down. He lied to rest his head on her lap. He folded his hands and looked up at her. She let her fingers through his beard.
How will Dr.Alok face son Alok? How will young Alok's anger impact Nisha and Dr.Alok's relationship?
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