Dark Secrets

5

"Dimpy? All well?" Yuvansh asked. He was talking to her after several months.

"Where are you?" she asked.

Something about her voice set off alarm bells in his head.

"I'm in  Lucknow. Are you here ?"

"No. I'm in Ajmer. Dad's not well so I came here to see him."

"What happened?"

"He suffered a cardiac arrest last week. He's all right now, but a little weak."

"If you like, I can refer him to one of the best doctors in the country. Just say the word."

"Thanks. I know I can always rely on you. But I didn't call you about that."

Although Dimpy knew that they were great friends, she was also was aware of how long ago it had been. She was caught between telling Yuvansh what had just happened and letting it go.

"Then? What it is?"

"I just met a girl outside your house," Dimpy blurted out before she could change her mind again.

"Girl?"

"She said her name was Shreshtha Srivastava."
Yuvansh understood that Shreshtha had not only seen his phone screen when his father had called but had also not believed his impromptu fairy tale about the friend nicknamed 'papa'. And she didn't go to Udaipur from Tosh.

"What did she say?"

"That you're a friend and had asked her to check if your parents were all right."

"Did she meet them?"

"I don't think so. I invited her in because I was on my way in to meet uncle and aunty. She said she would come tomorrow."

"Okay. Thanks for letting me know."

"What's going on? Who's this girl?"

"A friend."

"Really?" Dimpy snapped. "A friend whose name is Shreshtha Srivastava?"

Yuvansh drew a long breath and said, "Keep out of it, Dimpy."

This was the first time in his life that he had been rude to her in a threatening manner.

"If you say so. But I hope you aren't doing anything that's going to have bad repercussions."

"I won't harm anyone."

"You've never harmed anyone but yourself."

"I know what I'm doing."

"So, this is not what it seems like, huh ? I wish you good luck."

"I'm sorry but - " Dimpy had already hung up.

He knew he shouldn't have talked to her the way he did, but he had had no other option. He couldn't tell her what he had been up to for years now and why he had done it. He knew Dimpy wouldn't shove oar in, but what about Shreshtha now that she knew that his parents were alive? He weighed the pros and cons and then called her. The reception was poor, and they had trouble hearing each other.

Seconds later shreshtha texted him.

Shreshtha: CAN WE TEXT PLEASE? NETWORK SUCKS HERE. I'M IN THE TRAIN.

Yuvansh: SURE, WHERE ARE YOU?

Shreshtha: I WAS IN AJMER WITH SHRADDHA. NOW ON MY WAY BACK. MET HER AT DELHI AND SHE PULLED ME TO AJMER BECAUSE HER BOYFRIEND'S FAMILY HAD COME TO VISIT THE DARGAH.

Yuvansh: YOU DIDN'T TELL ME ABOUT IT. I THOUGHT YOU WERE IN UDAIPUR.

Shreshtha: I WAS ON MY WAY BACK, BUT UNEXPECTEDLY GOT SIDE-TRACKED TO AJMER. I HAD TO ACCOMPANY SHRADDHA EVERYWHERE. I'M SORRY.

Yuvansh: IT'S OKAY.

Shreshtha: LET ME CALL YOU THE MOMENT I REACH UDAIPUR.

Yuvansh: I'LL WAIT. TRAVEL SAFE.

There was no mention of her going to his house and learning about his parents being alive. Yuvansh realized that she was deliberately withholding that information. It could mean one of two things: one, she didn't really care that he was lying to her; two, the lie meant a little too much and his duplicity was setting off her alarm bells.

Shreshtha was indeed in a train, but she wasn't going to Udaipur. She was returning to Delhi from where she would board the bus back to Tosh. After the shock of tonight's discovery, the realization that Yuvansh could lie to her so brazenly opened an emotional Pandora's box within her. She had started to think back about her entire life. She couldn't remember anything of her childhood, her college and not even the accident. Whatever she knew about her own life was primarily from her parents, her diary and bits and pieces gleaned from Yuvansh. There was nothing about herself that she could be conclusively sure of because her memory was as good as non-existent.

She reached her house and found it locked once again. She called her parents casually, talked about mundane things and then asked, "Where are you both?"

"At home. Where else?"

"Tosh or Kasol?" she wanted to be specific this time.

"Kasol is mother's place. Tosh is our home."

And with that Shreshtha knew she was trapped in a strange conspiracy. She had only two worlds until then: her parents and Yuvansh. And now they both seemed to be colluding to conceal things from her.

Dimpy, while talking to Yuvansh's parents, was lost. There was something wrong both about the girl and Yuvansh. And her gut told her it wasn't possible that the girl's name being Shreshtha Srivastava was a coincidence.

"Don't you two ask Yuvansh to get married?"

"There was a time but now I think he has crossed that age when anyone would want to marry him", Mrs Thakur said. There was deep-seeded grief in her voice. Dimpy understood Yuvansh had told them about no girl yet.

"Any news of Shreshtha?" Dimpy blurted out. Both Mr and Mrs Thakur glanced at her as if they didn't remember the name. And then suddenly Mr Thakur said, " So unfortunate. She died in a car accident with her husband. They were so young. Been years now."

"Who told you?"

"Yuvasnsh told us," Mrs Thakur said.

"If I remember clearly, she was from Punjab?"

"Yes. The Srivastavas of Punjab. They had a name. Yuvansh and I had gone there twice....." Mr Thakur started talking as if revelling in good old times while Dimpy's brain was working fast. She was supposed to visit her in-laws with her husband in a week. She took her leave after a few minutes of banter.

Shreshtha returned to Udaipur the next day. In the meanwhile, she avoided talking to Yuvansh on the telephone- dodging with one excuse after another. She was sure he wasn't going to tell her anything. And even if he did, how could she trust him now? Her perfect boyfriend was turning out to be a barefaced liar. She fought the impulse of confronting him and her parents directly about all this. But by now she knew that they would tell to justify it all and that it may not be the truth. She had to find the truth herself. The only thing she didn't know was how.

The morning, Shreshtha reached her institute, Shraddha told her that she was required to fill out a form. The MBA institute, in collaboration with a women's health NGO, had set up a free medical check-up for all its female students. One by one, every girl from the first-year batch underwent the check-up revealed no abnormalities. When the gynecologist checked her genitals, inserting a vaginal camera as she had done with the other girls, for diagnosing possible PCOD (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), she told Shreshtha something that made her head spin. Shreshtha was told she only the second girl in the whole batch whose hymen was still intact. She was a virgin.