Benaam Rishta:An Invisible String

Chapter2

"Barrister babu here's the madicine you have asked for"

A wide smile occupied Bondita's face as her twinkling eyes shifted from Bihari to Anirudh and exclaimed in joy "Got it. From now on I will call you Buh...br...biri..stuh..." she pouted in exertion unable to pronounce the word. Tried hard multiple times but failed miserably. Anirudh chuckled at her failed attempt bent down to her level and asked her to repeat with him. She did. However every time ended up uttering 'Biristra instead of Barrister'

"No problem" Anirudh let out a small smile and asked her to go on with this. In return She squealed brightly giving her toothy grin "Thik hai Biristra Babu"

After the termination of their cute banter all proceeded to start the post marriage rituals got shocked not finding Batuk anywhere in the haveli . As always He vanished without informing anyone. This guy would never change! Trilochan shook head in disbelief and stormed to his room.

It's about be midnight,
Trilochan's sleep broke due to some noise. Sluggishly opened eyes only to see Anirudh at his feet massaging his legs. Smiling affectionately he sat up on the bed, spoke in sleepy tone "Anirudh you still here! Beta, go and sleep. See it's been eleven past thirty"

Anirudh just nodded lightly. Kept sitting there without any word. His cloudy expression caught Trilochan's attention. Inching closer asked in concern if there's anything wrong. After a while saw his face raising up, glint of tears in his eyes as he spoke in cracking tone, " Kaka...I'm sorry for last night....for putting you in distress..I..was...."

Trilochan shook head horizontally"No Anirudh. Don't say so. I understand what you went through last night. Last night's incident refreshed those old wounds again..which is way too arduous for you to control. But beta try to forget them. Try to move on. and about Charulata...I'm also feeling bad for her. But you know very well that this is a cruel verdict set by the patriarchal society. It's irrevocable..."

"Who would know this better than me Kaka!!" A lost agonizing smile on his pale countenance, eyes raining mercilessly. pool of tears generated in his kaka's eyes too. He let his eyelashes to soak up those unpleasant emotions dripping in the form of tears, and breathed sharply "But Kaka what happened yesterday is horrible. Charulata...I couldn't save that innocent girl too. She also wasn't impure like them. Still this male dominated society killed her. Killed her and her unborn child atrociously...just like them. Charulata's painful, heart piercing screams are still ringing in my ears and yesterday I could see them in Charulata's place. They must have had screamed like charulata did to save her....to...I......." His breathing became uneven, lips wobbled causing difficulty in uttering further words.

Panicked Trilochan held his face fondly, said some soothing words in condolence, to calm him down. Came his quivering voice again "But...but I could do nothing. I could save none of them. I failed to give them justice. Everyone is right. I'm good for nothing. I..I...am a hideous person... coward a...a curse of their lives. I don't deserve to live. I want to hide from this world please. I want...I want to di........" "ANIRUDH..!!!" Trilochan shouted his lungs out thus dragging him out of his self destructive process. like a lost scared child he stared at his Kaka who pulled him in his warm embrace letting out a cry himself.

Trilochan was way shocked to see this side of Anirudh again after years. This broken...this lost and vulnerable. whole day he acted happy wearing a robotic smile. no wonder it was his favourite job... smiling away even being in pain. He was expert in hiding emotions, pain'. But previous night occurence was too harsh for him to compose himself. that replayed his haunting past in most barbarous way....like a show which he would tried to visualise all these years. Experiencing same pain again and again turn a person into moving corpse, and He already turned that. A moving corpse, but it wasn't enough. again those excruciating memories flooded unceasingly and drowned him into it's depth.