The Bias

Chapter 20

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....Accha Dr kaur in case you are free tomorrow evening, I have a business party to attend.And I am asking you to be my date?"

She didn't answer for a second. Their part of the terms was that they would not belong to each others worlds.

"But Sidha....",she was about to speak,when he interjected.

"Shaadi karne ko nahi bol raha...its just a formal party.!'

This was the first time he had asked anything. Even if it would kill her, but if he had asked she would have agreed to.marrying him.This man had not once made her feel a little less, the least she could do was agree.

"Okay."

"Great! Wear something black.It's a formal party mad I will pick you up at 8!

Sidharth woke up from sleep way too early in the morning.It had been days he had properly talked to his mother and that was eating him up, seeing her all way tensed up .Without taking a bath he mover out of his room, walking to hers.Usually she would be up by now, meditating.

Rita was sitting on the floor, her eyes closed as she tried to focus her energies.Sidharth walked over to the couch placed at the side and sat there. He had done this a thousand times , walking to her room ,and seeing her meditate. This woman in front of him, had made him.She had made a successful and humble man out of him. She had taught him, and taught him right.Even now ,when she had been so rigid,Siddharth knew what her instict was. He didn't just know if her instinct was right? Maybe it was.Maybe Shehnaaz was the path to doom.But could anybody change what was designed.

"Sidharth?", Rita questioned once she sensed his presence, her eyes still closed.Her voice  brought him back from the chain of thoughts he had been following.He looker to her direction. The woman's face had slight wrinkles but an otherwise flawless skin.Her hair silken almost silver and her look, proud.No not egoistic, but proud of who she was, what she had achieved. Proud of the thing she was most successful at, raising two successful and kind children.

He got up from the couch and soflty moved towards her."Mom.",he said holding her hand in his and placing a kiss at it. The skin of the old wrinkled hand had turned blue from all the IVs that had been injected into her geriatric body.She opened her eyes and smiled, just like the first time she had seen her son in the hospital.Sidharth was more of a mirror image of hers than his father.The resemblance was brilliant. Her hands gently rubbed the sides of his face,looking at her little baby who was now a man.

"You did not sleep.Did you?", she guessed correctly.

"I could not.", he spoke placing his head in her lap.

"Kyu?", she asked.Though her heart knew what troubled him, she wanted him to speak.

"Mom, do you remember I was scared of darkness."

"Yes?",she spoke in a tone encouraging him to speak further.

"Par ab nahi lagta mom.Do you know why?"

"Because you faced it.Isliye.Tum ne andhere me jakar dekha ki andhere me darne k liye kuch tha hi nahi!", his mother spoke.

After the phone call with Shehnaaz, Sidharth had thought about her. She was so fierece yet so scared.He remembered the day he had first met her. That day he could not have imaged to meet another aspect to her,an aspect she did not show to anyone.He could understand that she was troubled.But why and how, he didn't know. But that wasn't the biggest thing,he knew she wasn't going to spell her story out loud,and that was going to burn her alive.