CHAPTER-50
COURT
Naomi’s POV
Eight years later, I, in a light blue sari, with my loose hair left freely on both sides in the front, was busy driving to the court. The milky white barrister’s bands almost choked my neck but I loved the attorney’s attire. My black coat lay alone on the slang.
“Madam, please help! Please!”, requested a teenage guy, joining his hands and sobbing at me, as I witnessed through the glass window. I stopped my car within seconds. I peeped out and pitied the pregnant woman whom he accompanied.
“My didi is suffering from severe labor pain. Can you please leave us at the nearest hospital? Please, ma’am. Please!”, cried the guy as the woman squealed with tears in her eyes. I nodded and gestured for them to get into my car.
“Thank you very much! It's hard to find genuine people like you. You are another form of God”, thanked the lady, breathing hard amidst her pain.
“Please don’t waste time. Get inside. Don’t strain yourself…It's just humanity”, said I, asking the guy to board her quickly. As soon as they closed the back door, I continued riding. It had already been a minute since the pregnant woman had stopped screaming. I shrank my eyes at the windscreen as I took a left turn.
How come her pain stopped all of a sudden? I recollected her hurried words to thank me after which her painful screams had completely stopped. It's absurd! Labor pain doesn’t work that way. I raised my hand and adjusted the driving mirror. I frowned at the teenager slowly unveiling a sharp knife from his pocket. As I continued driving, pretending everything to be normal, I was startled at the lady offering a wicked smile at the guy and gesturing something to him.
He was about to stab my shoulder when I caught his hand.
“Ouch! Ouch! Leave!”, he ailed, as I tightened his hand with all the force my left hand could apply while I continued rotating the steering wheel with my right hand and turning as required.
“Hey you!”, yelled the roguish woman, grabbing my neck, in an attempt to choke me. I twisted the teenager’s hand and snatched his knife only to attack the woman’s left palm having a demon’s face tattooed near the thumb.
“Ouch!”, ailed she. No sooner did I park the car than opened the slang drawer and grabbed a bottle of pepper spray. I opened the lid and sprayed its effective self-defense contents on my predators.
As they ailed, at the top of their voices, rubbing their eyes along, I turned back and chuckled.
“Back during college, a gang attacked me this way. I was innocent back then and fell prey. When my husband forced me to learn taekwondo, I thought that it would never prove to be useful in life. But, it helped me fracture a hand for the first time. Thanks! Above all, convey my regards to Mr.Jagdeesh, the king of constructions….Wait, why should you strain? Let's meet him together at the court”, said I, frowning and continuing to drive my car. I chuckled at the poor guy facing a strong dilemma to choose between massaging his right hand and rubbing his burning eyes.
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“Mumbai High Court”, announced the white font, all in block letters, on the blackboard put up on top of the court’s building.
“So, your lawyer isn’t coming?”, asked the judge, at which the poor farmer couple standing on the witness box, sobbed and shrugged at each other. Jagdeesh, a tall and middle-aged man, who wore a thick line of a grey beard as if he were to maintain his jawline like a celebrity, laughed at them.
“Your honor, lawyers fight for justice. When there is no truth on their end, who would agree?”, hissed the villain, offering the innocent a wicked smile.
“Objection, your honor!”, exclaimed I, entering the courtroom. My black coat hung down from my left hand. I shrank my eyes at the stunned Jagdeesh, as I made my way towards the seat. I put on my coat and headed to stand opposite the judge.
“Your honor, it seems that Mr.Jagdeesh was expecting my corpse while I showed up myself. Haha!”, chuckled I, as Jagdeesh bulged his eyes and checked out me.
“Apologies for the delay. I was attacked on my way to the court”, shared I, displaying my palm with a fresh red diagonal cut on the skin.
Love is so blind that it just happens unexpectedly.
You may fall for anyone!
Would you let go of your policy if you fell for someone you shouldn't? What would you choose-your policy or your beloved?
As the judge nodded and began his note-making, my prosecutor, at least five years elder than me, spoke, “Objection, my lord. How can Mrs.Naomi Malhotra blame my client? Mrs.Naomi, you are trying to divert the case…”
“Objection, your honor. I agree that I’m not as experienced as Mr.Krishna. But, I too know the law”, said I, rolling my eyes from the judge to the prosecutor.
“What will you say regarding this, Mrs.Naomi?”, asked the elderly spectacled judge.
“Huh, my lord, Mrs.Naomi would have cut her hand while chopping apples for her family this morning and calls it my client’s attack. Wow!”, Krishna mocked. The masses including the panel of lawyers and masses on Jagdeesh’s side laughed while the villagers on the farmer’s side gave me an anxious look.
“Silence!”, said the judge, tapping his desk with the gavel. “Mr.Krishna, the question wasn’t thrown for you. I asked Naomi. Note my warning.”
“Sorry, my lord”, said Krishna, bowing along.
“Proceed”, said the judge, gesturing for me to talk.
“Thank you, your honor”, began I, “Can I please produce my witnesses for the same?”
“Proceed”
I clapped at which a cop brought the teenager and the pregnant lady whom I had met that morning, and escorted them towards the free witness box opposite the farmers.
“Sir, we are Jagdeesh sir’s servants in his factory. He bribed us with a huge amount to kill Naomi so that we can stop her from appearing in court and disrupting his factory’s construction”, confessed the teenager, rubbing his eyes. The woman whom he claimed to be his sister nodded silently, with her eyes continuing to remain closed.
“Your honor, I attacked them with pepper spray to safeguard myself. I was left with no other choice.”
“No! She is lying. How dare you?”, Jagdeesh yelled at which I turned back and chuckled.
“Silence! This is a violation, Mr.Jagdeesh”, said the judge, as Krishna gestured for his client to sit down. I inserted my hand through the woman’s waist and pulled the circular spongy cushion out. I showed it to the entire court making the audience exchange puzzled faces at each other.
“Your honor, why should a woman fake her pregnancy like this and roam? Isn’t there a reason?”, I highlighted at which the judge nodded and noted down.
“I also have interesting and more convincing evidence to prove my point that the poor farmers, my clients were betrayed by Jagdeesh. Can you please allow me to play the video, your honor?”, asked I.
“Proceed.”
“Thank you”, thanked I, bowing a bit and returning to my seat, the fifth one, almost midway, from the judge’s. I offered the pendrive to one of the supporting clerks assembled in front of the judge, in the space juxtaposed to the elevated and tall seat where the judge sat.
“What’s the video? Urgh!”, I heard Jagdeesh whispering to Krishna who shook his head and bulged his eyes at me. I gave them another wicked smile and turned back to the judge who began playing it on his laptop.
“Your honor, a few scenes from an upcoming comedy movie namely ‘Cricket and Cutie’ were shot in the village. On approaching the crew and requesting them, I found this clip being shot accidentally while shooting a funny dance.”
“Yes, sir. Directors approached me for a few days of shooting three months ago”, added the sarpanch, hurrying upon the witness box. The judge nodded and continued watching the video. The sarpanch joined his hands together. I smiled and signaled for him to leave it free.
“Can I please call Mr.Jagdish on the witness box, your honor?”
“Proceed.”
As soon as Jagdeesh frowned, accompanying his servants on the witness box, I chuckled, heading towards him.
“So, Mr.Jagdish, I need confirmation”, began I.
I turned at the judge, continuing, “Your honor, it was three months ago that the fraudulent industrialist, Mr.Jagdeesh promised the two farmers and the sarpanch himself that he would be applying advanced technologies to improve farming practices in India. He had also promised that he was planning to start his new venture from this village in Maharashtra. Unfortunately, the uneducated residents fell into the rich trap and agreed with their thumb impressions. Instead, Jagdish’s plan was indeed totally different, to just ruin their crops and build his new factory far in a remote area.”
I turned back to face the accused, “Right, Mr.Jagdish?”
Jagdish bowed, rolling his eyeballs hither and thither and swallowing his fear.
“Your honor, as you can observe there, the video showcases how Jagdish himself has manipulated and convinced the deprived farmers.”
The judge nodded and made a few endnotes. He looked up.
“With the evidence produced in the session, the verdict is to sentence Mr.Jagdish for fraud, exploitation, and illegal use of agricultural lands, for a period of seven years. Besides, these two servants will be imprisoned for a period of four years, due to their attempt to murder a criminal lawyer and stop justice. The court would also like to appreciate Mrs.Naomi Malhotra for her excellent execution with perfect evidence. Case closed.”
I chuckled at the farmers and a few other villagers nodding at me with tears of happiness.
“Court can disperse now”, the judge declared, bowing and walking outside. The court reporter followed him. No sooner did I pack up and leave the courtroom than the team of farmers, including the sarpanch in his white turban, rushed towards me. They joined their hands together and sobbed at me.
“Please, it's my duty to fight for our defense. No farms, no food. How can your precious problem be ignored?”, said I, smiling and nodding at them.
“I couldn’t do anything to save my village for the first time and you saved us. I don’t have words to thank you”, trembled the panchayat, bowing at me.
“Sir, please. I’m born to fight for justice. That's my only aim as a criminal lawyer. I just performed my duty. I feel elated that I could help the society”, I convinced them.
“Mrs. Naomi Malhotra, I won’t spare you”, Jagdeesh yelled as the cops handcuffed him and pushed him into the police jeep. I chuckled, shrinking my eyes and offering him a wicked smile.
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“Naomi School Of Law”, announced the banner in front of a lush-green spacious college.
“Good Morning, sir!”, greeted the panel members as they stood up and smiled at Akshat entering the air-conditioned conference room with a circular table occupying members all around it.
“Thank you. Please take your seat”, began Akshat, sitting at the center, for he was the founder of his own law school now!!!
“First of all, I would like to congratulate each of our students, faculty, and panel members for our wonderful achievement just after the second batch”, announced Akshat, leaning forward and pulling the mike closer to him, on the desk.
I blushed, hogging lunch in my cabin, as I witnessed my handsome husband, in a navy blue suit and white tie with black diagonal stripes upon it. I watched his meeting through our video call.
“My only message to our ongoing batch-the final years, as well as the juniors, is to focus on your aim and keep proceeding. Our team is here to encourage ambitious students like you. Currently, Naomi School Of Law is one of the top schools in Mumbai already. Our long-term goal is to expand our empire at the national level with your marvelous achievements. Congrats, once again!”, concluded Akshat.
I blushed and clapped to myself as I watched his handshake with the other staff at the meeting.
“Kiku, congrats!”, I exclaimed, chuckling at him as the others left and he waved at me from the camera. I kissed my right palm and offered him a flying kiss that he caught in the air and smooched his right palm.
“Aww, you love me so much that you named your dream school with my name, back then when you started it.” I had never been this close to a guy ever before.
He nodded, blushing along.
“Sexy! But, I had discussed my goal with my ex back in college before we broke up. I’m sorry that i didn’t discuss much about this with you”, said he, sighing along.
“Ex? Why are you remembering Gauri now? Bye!”, roared I, cutting our call at once. He rang up again and again, followed by a stream of messages but I cut them all in the very first ring.
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“Sorry, Kiku! Told it off in a flow. She dumped me calling me boring and career-focused around a decade ago. Forget!”, pleaded Akshat, following me like a kid, in the kitchen as I prepared our dinner.
“Hey, Naomi! Talk to me, Kiku! Please!”, said he, catching my hand and making a cute sad face. I frowned and released my hand.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. Why would I ever do that? I wanted to convey that I must discuss more the institution with you, Naomi”, said he, nearing me and shaking his head as I ignored him and grew engrossed in measuring and adding spoons of salt to the poha.
“Kiku, move!”, squealed I, bulging my eyes and heading towards the opposite shelf. I just turned and he stood so close to me that I dashed and he pulled me to fall upon him.
“What are you up to? I’m seriously mad at you. How can you even take her name in front of your wife?”, rebuked I, beating my closed fists upon his chest like a chimpanzee beating itself. He caught my hands. He chuckled and blushed along, as I breathed hard and raised my eyebrows, in return. He pushed the half of my curly hair falling front, to the back.
“Sexy! Look at my possessive wife”, he commented, patting my right cheek and chuckling along. “Do you indeed love me so much? After all, it was a matter of a bitter past.”
“I am! I am! I am!”
“Are you indeed Naomi who hesitated to love me due to her own policy that a lecturer and a student shouldn’t fall for each other?”
“Akshat sir! You!”
I chuckled, beating his shoulder, as he blushed and chuckled.
“Ahaana!”, called I, faking a frown at him and leaving to the hall. He followed me. As we sat on either side of our daughter, we shrugged at her incomplete drawing of an elephant. She rubbed her eyes and sobbed. Yes! She was our six-year-old daughter in first grade :) Baby Ahaana has been a part of my career journey as well.
“I won’t draw. I won’t study”, squealed my daughter, hugging her father. I massaged her hair as I shrank my eyes at Akshat.
“What happened, baby?”, asked I, bending and hugging Ahaana.
“Mom, Dad”, began she, in her tender voice, turning restlessly from Akshat to me and vice-versa, “All my friends have a didi or a bhaiya or a choti behen or a chota bhai. Why not me? Uuuuu.” She sobbed, rushing towards the little cot in our bedroom.
I blushed and looked away from Akshat who patted my shoulder. He blushed and shrugged while I shook my head and stood up. He pulled me closer and wrapped his hands around my waist.
“Kiku, what’s wrong with you? Ahaana is a kid. Are you too a baby?”, whispered I, turning at Ahana's dark room to ensure that she didn’t come out. I released myself from him.
“Naomi, poor kid. You’re the reason why she is upset”, dragged Akshat.
“No! Kiku! No!”, exclaimed I, blushing and chuckling in the hall, as he chased me.
“Aye, aye, Kiku!”, chuckled he, as I shook my head and ran hither and thither, failed to hide behind the sofa, the refrigerator, and finally jumped on the master couch.
“Naomi can’t escape her Akshat!”, he teased, as I breathed, sitting back on the sofa and sighing. He clung to me and leaned forward. I blushed as he wrapped me in his cozy arms and closed his eyes. He smooched my lips and pushed his tongue inside to embrace mine. We were immersed in our French-kiss after a long.
Akshat and Noami lived happily ever after :)
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