A Thousand Encounters

Chapter-62

Coming out of examination hall, she sighed in peace. There was only one paper left and then she would be a graduate. Her phone vibrated in her bag and she took it out. That shiny piece of android showed Daadu's number on display. Her Daadu had gifted her that phone a month back saying he couldn't keep tab of his medicines without she reminding him. She wasn't fool to understand how it was an idea which had popped up in one army mind and was executed by another army mind. 

"You need to buy groceries before heading home?" Daadu spoke as first thing as she picked it up. 

"You can't even ask for the sake of it that how my exam went?" She asked sighing. 

Daadu let out a fat army chuckle as if she had cracked a joke. 

"So that you can tell me to wait for results?" Daadu asked back mocking her. 

"Don't forget to buy some fruits as well," He commanded, reminded to be precise. 

Daadu had become a personal reminder of all the things she kept on forgetting these days. Getting out of campus, she looked at her truck which needed a wash so badly. Starting the ignition, she drove it towards the market. 

Her truck halted in front of a grocery shop. She opened her wallet to see two notes of five hundred. She couldn't continue her part time job at Uncle Bernard's this month owing to her exams and now she was surely out of money. She kept biting her lip till it started to hurt. Manik's debit card was there too in her purse, she checked and hoped she didn't have to use it. 

Getting down, she decided to exert her newly developed bargain skills to save herself some bucks. 

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Mr Murthy entered his house after a month long business trip to find it all quiet. Few servants were hustling here and there but there was no sign of his family members. 

"Where is Rishita?" He asked one of servants and he answered how she was in her room. 

It was the first time in all these years when she hadn't come to receive him on airport. He surely felt a void. He walked to their room and opened the door. She was not in room. He checked the washroom but she wasn't there either. He had started to feel anxious not finding her anywhere. He had gone to a business trip and Amisha too had accompanied him. She was supposed to go to USA anyway. She stayed back with her sister while he rushed back home as soon as his work got over. 

His eyes scanned the garden area and found her sitting there. She was soaking in sunlight, her eyes were stuck on a book. She was surely unaware of her surroundings. 

"You didn't come to see me today?" He asked blatantly. She looked up and her face showed slight of joy but then she covered it immediately. 

"You coming back from your business trips happens all the time so I thought why to bother you," She answered putting the book at table. 

Madhav could feel something had changed terribly. Rishita had hardly talked to him in this one month. Their phone conversations were strictly about family matters barring any discussion on Nandini. Rishi too had been away, busy in setting up Australia branch. 

"You are alright?" He asked noticing her dull features. 

"More than alright," She replied and called the servant to serve the tea. 

Her smile tasted the sour of air as she pondered over how nothing was alright. Her small family had scattered into pieces. Town was filled with gossip that how their daughter was living apart from them. Tittle-tattle was in the air how Murthys had disowned their only daughter and she was forced to live a harsh life. Rishita no longer pondered over Madhav's reputation, not after knowing how he himself was responsible for all this chaos. But then, she didn't know how to gulp those tales down where ladies in her kitty party told her about how town was talking about Nandini being in a relationship with one of cadets of Military academy. She closed her eyes to tackle the anxiety.