The Estranged Lovers (A bond of a lifetime- Episode 13)

“I will love myself a little less.” The words rang in Anirudh’s ears as he stood by the window in his study looking at the moon. Yes, he had changed. He had never wanted to but he had to. His village needed him to. His family needed him to. Those situations needed him to change. He needed to fight, to hate and to make those people repay. But he had never thought that revenge was a double-edged sword. His thirst for vengeance and hatred had blinded his vision. He had been too blind to realize that he was shedding someone’s beloved’s blood to protect his own loved ones. Too blind to realize that he was burning someone’s house to protect his home. In this journey of retaliation, he never had once realized that once meant to be Rakshak, he had turned himself into a Rakshas. But not anymore. He will bring that Anirudh Roy Chowdhary back from the past. He will bring his Bondita’s Sakha babu back from the past and the first step, will be to reunite the two village before any more mishap occurs and the misunderstandings continue to grow. “Just wait for me, Bondita.” He said as he picked a picture taken eight years ago, where a young Anirudh and his little bride were smiling ever so widely at the camera in their barrister costumes. “Your Sakha babu will prove himself worthy of your love.”

“Anirudh- Bondita” Bondita whispered as she traced the tattoo on her hand gently, with her finger. “Do you ever regret it?” Tapur questioned, suddenly coming from behind. “Regret what?” she responded as she beheld up to face her younger sister. “Meeting him, getting that tattoo of him and falling in love with him?” Tapur asked. “Meeting him was pure luck, if I hadn’t met him, I would have been unable to see the next sunrise after the day I was being forced to marry an 85-year-old man, this tattoo was a sign of knowing him, the man I had considered to be my god, the man I had looked up to and falling in love with him was the most natural thing that had happened in my roller coaster of life. So, no I never regretted it knowing him, loving him and most of all, meeting him.” Bondita replied with a gentle smile. Tapur was stunned, as she looked up to her sister. Bondita looked different today, as the moon shone on her delicate features and her long silky tresses.

“Today’s court proceeding made me realize something, but I need to wait to find out if my assumptions do stand a ground or not” Bondita suddenly spoke up, with her eyes still stuck on the moon. “What is it? Tell me na, please” Tapur begged. Bondita suddenly straightened her back, looked at Tapur dead in the eyes and said “To him who waits all things to reveal itself, with a courage to not to deny in the darkness, what he has seen is the light.” Bondita immediately stood up and began running with a hint of mischief in her laughter after earning a groan of frustration from Tapur. “You are seriously too much sometimes, what was with this jalebi way of asking me to shut up?” Tapur huffed, as she began chasing Bondita.

“Something must be amiss. What am I missing?” Anirudh slumped back into his chair and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He had been replaying the moments of the deadly feast in Krishnanagar, from eight years ago constantly since the second he got up at dawn. It had been the 15^th time of reliving those unforgettable moments in his head and no matter how painful it had been each time, he still had no clue of where it all went wrong. “Throw these things away, there should be no sign of her existence or her presence in this house.” A voice thundered across his study. “Who is shouting so early in the morning?” he strode out of his study to find out. “Somnath” Anirudh bellowed, the sight of his brother, standing in front of the room where he had painstakingly preserved the memories of his beloved, while asking the servants to empty it out, made his blood boil. “How dare you?”

Somnath, though thoroughly shaken by the blood curling shout of his brother, did not budge. He was prepared for this. “I am doing what is necessary, Da. That woman was a scheming spy who has no place in this haveli, till the day I am alive.” He replied while mustering up his courage. “Are you dumb or too obstinate to the truth? wasn’t she given a clean chit in the panchayat.” Anirudh spoke in rage. “You don’t even know half the truth, Da!!” Somnath shouted back. “Enlighten me” Anirudh argued back, menacingly. “Did you know when that when that Bondita came as Vayjanti, she had brought some kulfi for the kids. Our Sashwati and other little children who blindly believed her, ate it and later at night started throwing up, it was only later when I ran some tests, I found that those kulfis had minor dosages of poison in them!!”

“Kulfi, poison, Bondita” Anirudh pondered, transfixed to the spot after asking the servants to move the stuff back into the room and warning a dejected Somnath to not mess with his stuff or her. Then, the realization hit him like a truck. “I need to talk to Bondita, now !!” was the only thought with which Anirudh ran back towards his study, after crashing into a few puzzled servants, who could only wonder “what is it, that happened that made their Barrister babu suddenly run like an unhinged bull?”