Gowrigaatha - A love story [Completed](The story of Gowri)

16. The silent witness

Kalarikkal family was making it difficult for Vasudev to work in the village. He was already removed from the family businesses and agriculture. But during the time that he had started working for the family he had started saving money, buying properties and building a network of business friends because he had anticipated such a break from his family when his relationship with Smitha came into the open. Even though that relationship did not reach fruition, he had done well enough to take care of himself and his current family. But he had finally come to the conclusion that he needed to shift to a city to get ahead.

"Gowri, I am planning to shift to either Thiruvananthapuram or Cochin and continue my businesses there" he one day said to her.

"As you deem fit. Anyhow its difficult because now you are on the wrong side for your family as well as mine", she said.

"True. If I shift, you can also pursue a career, its only in this village that there are no opportunities for you", he said.

She looked at him thoughtfully and said, "You are right, but just now I have realized that I haven't got my degree certificate from the university".

"You can personally go and collect it", he replied.

"Maybe next week I can go" she said.

The next day, Vasudev was busy in the spice estate in the hills and he called her up, "Gowri, I just remembered that I had to submit a tender at the PWD office, could you do that? The documents are in a sealed envelop on my desk".

"Alright," she replied and got the envelope and took the baby and drove to the nearest PWD office which was in the next town. There she went and deposited the tender and was about to leave when the baby started crying. Unfortunately she had could not feed the baby there, but had a bottle and she went to the canteen to get some milk.

"Why do you look so familiar? Are you from Kaniyankara?" a man in late forties asked her.

"Yes, I am from there. I am from Kalarikkal family, married into Paarakkal family", she replied.

"Oh I know you. You might not know me, my name is Vincent, I was the driver who had taken the Irrigation department engineer to inspect the dam", he replied with a smile.

A tug was felt in her heart, she knew about the visit of the engineer.

"It might have been a shock to you. Did you see the body that day?" she asked him.

"Oh no! We did not, we came back before we got to the dam" he said and recounted what happened that day.

It felt very odd to Gowri and she said, "So the engineer did not see the dam that day?"

"No, Sara madam was sick. The canteen food there was truly bad then, I took her back almost immediately", he replied.

"Why did it feel so convenient?" she thought. "Who was the engineer?" she asked him.

"Miss Sara Babu. But she is no longer there, within a month she got transfer to somewhere in Thiruvananthapuram district and she left" he told her.

During the drive back to Kaniyankara all she could think of was about the engineer who did not inspect the dam on that fateful day. She must know something, how to get in contact with her?

Gowri was for the last few days speaking to a classmate of hers who herself hadn't claimed her certificate due to some unforeseen circumstances. Aleena was a kind-hearted and cheerful girl who of all the people in the world had gotten married to Niyaz Rehman, Anand's best friend. Hearing that Gowri was coming to the capital to claim her certificate, she had asked her to stay with her. Vasudev, who knew how lonely she was without the company of her peers urged her to take some time off the family. He said he would take care of the baby until then, but knowing how busy he was, Gowri had insisted on taking the baby to Kalarikkal and letting her aunts and sister-in-law take care of him during her absence. Gowri was sent off in a train by Vasudev and arrived at around 10 AM in the capital. She reached Aleena's home in half an hour and was greeted by a four months pregnant Aleena. They both had a lovely time exchanging pleasantries and around afternoon they went to the University and collected their certificates. Since Aleena could not travel a lot, they came back home and were having tea when Niyaz arrived.