TRUTH

A Sudden Change

While we were all sitting there, thinking nothing and doing nothing Bhavika came out of her room. She had dark-circles below her eyes, and those beautiful eyes were swollen. She might have cried a lot. She saw us and as soon as her eyes met mine, she came running to me and hugged me tightly, trying to control her sobs but still weeping. I should have come early.
I called out Shanti who got some water for her as I seated her on the sofa. I tried comforting her by telling her the same lines Vishal and Karthi had already used on me but deep inside was a turmoil. We were trying to escape from a well woven web of situations, when suddenly the doorbell rang continuously; Shanti opened the door and someone came running into the hall. It was the watchman. He came and shouted; "Madam, sir is there in the parking area, come fast!"

What we heard was an unbelievable surprise; we went running after the watchman, Bhavika didn't even wear her slippers. When we reached there we saw anna but we could not believe our eyes. A devotee of Lord Vishnu who hated alcohol and non-veg as much as the lord himself was all drunk today. With his red eyes, he looked at all of us and waved with a creepy smile on his face. Irrespective of this Bhavika went running to him and hugged him. We also approached him but I didn't feel the emotion coming to me as it would have; had I found anna in a sober state.

Karthi and Vishal picked him up and took him home. While we were walking towards the lift I felt as if someone was watching us. I turned back but no one was there, but I couldn't be wrong because I saw Karthi doing the same he looked at me with a puzzled look; he also felt the same I guess. We reached the house and splashed water on anna's red face, Shanti brought lemonade for him and after sometime he fell asleep. It was nearly three in the evening  when he woke up. Bhavika's glow had returned and all of us were as cheerful as ever with the return of anna. Even Karthi, whose name itself was unknown to anna looked so immensely happy and joyous.
As anna came closer to the sofa he with a peculiar glance asked Karthi, "Who are you and why're you here?"

I said,"Oh anna; it's Karthik, a childhood friend."
"But why is he here?"
His tone was stony, so emotionless that it sent chills down my spine, but Karthi seemed unaffected maybe because he was used to such tone as his father spoke in the same way.

He stood up and said, "Annnaaa, you consider this Aasha a sister no, so I am her friend and when she came to know that you were lost, she was quite worried so I came with her to help. By the way, where have you been all this time? Bhabhi shree has lost an entire ocean of tears today." And we all chuckled, when suddenly anna shouted at the top of his voice, "I was not lost! You get that? I had just gone to chill out with my friends."

"What?" This was a mixed reaction from all of us, full of disbelief, anger and disgust maybe.
Bhavika spoke breaking the silence, "With whom? I called all your friends yesterday, none of them knew about you Charan."

With the same emotionless tone he said, "There are many friends you don't deserve to know." as if he didn't care about anything he spoke.

"I......I don't deserve? I don't deserve knowing about your friends?" her voice was breaking.
"No"
"You should at least have told Bhavika, do you know how afraid was she?" This time it was Vishal.

"I didn't consider that necessary."

"You didn't consider it necessary? Anna do you even know how irresponsible you are sounding?"

"Do I? Even if I do, I don't care. I wanted to go so I went. And I am not a five year old that I need to take permission from my wife before going anywhere."

"Well, we didn't ask you to do that but had you told at least your wife, she would not have been so worried." Karthi's bad habit of poking his nose in between.

Anna's face fumed with anger as he said, "First of all, it's my personal choice to tell something to my wife and secondly who are you to speak all this to me!"
It was the first time I had seen anna like this. He pushed Karthi and he fell down, had I not held him on the right time, he would have crashed his head on the edge of the table.
Karthi might be a funny and a happy go lucky man but his self-respect meant a lot to him, he couldn't stand this behaviour of anna.

Even I couldn't tolerate this, so I said,"Anna! What are you doing? He was just trying to make you realise your mistake....... Anyways, I think we should leave now. Come Karthik." and we left. Anna didn't show the slightest interest but Bhavika looked shattered and Vishal stared at anna in disbelief.

When we reached the car Karthi asked,"Is he the person for whom you all were so worried? Is he really the one for whom we spoiled an entire day, that too a holiday? You can't be serious!"

"No, he can't be the person for whom we all were so worried, he is not the same. It seems as though someone has deprived him of all his emotions and senses. He is not the mature, nice yet true Charan anna I knew. He is someone else."

"Or maybe he has become a different version of himself just the way Amla had." said Vishal as he approached us with concern in his eyes. "And I also think that Mr. Karthik must stay away from this matter. Doctor, may I talk to you? Alone?"
"Why? No Aasha, you are not going, and you Mr. Vishal, what do you think  of yourself? Why must I stay away from this matter? In fact...... you; you must stay away from Aasha."

"Calm down Karthi, it must be something important, just give me a minute." It was very difficult to convince him that Vishal meant no wrong. Finally leaving him in the car I went to talk to Vishal.

"Doctor, there is surely something wrong, I could see the same behaviour in anna as I saw years back in Amla."
This couldn't be true. How is Amla linked to this now! Lord help me!
"What do you think what sould we do?"
"I...I have no idea. The only thing I can think is that I will wait here with Bhavika to keep him in control. I wished you could wait too but I don't think it is possible after what he did just now."
I could say nothing so just nodded my head. "Okay then, bye."
"Bye, take care."
And we left.