Fated

chapter 26

Pooja and kabir sat on the sofa in the drawing-room of the house. Pooja glanced at kabir she could see kabir was trying hard to look composed. It was heartbreaking to watch an army man who is used to stare down his own death with every mission getting nervous when he was about to be confronted with his own unknown past. She held his hand entwined her finger with his; kabir looked at her surprised, he didn't want pooja to know he was too vulnerable at this moment.
Pooja : I don't know what she will say about dada (she purposely said this to make Kabir think it was she who needed his support)
Kabir didn't say a word just nodded but did not pull his hand away from hers.
just than an older looking woman with the help of walking stick entered the room. She looked at pooja and kabir from her glasses, coming forward slowly she sat on the chair opposite the sofa.
Amreen: my daughter in law said you have come to meet me.
Pooja : I am pooja Sharma daughter of Dr. Ashok Sharma.
Amrèen : (her eyes moistened with tears of remembrance) you are dr. Sahab's daughter? I didnt know he had a child. When he had left the hospital he wasn't married. I have not seen a man like your father; he was a gift to mankind, he was a nobleman and an efficient doctor. It was so sad to hear about his death. Beta, don't believe what people say your father wasn't a bad person.
Pooja (had tears in her eyes too for the first time after amma someone who knew her father had said such kind words for him) thank you; your words mean a lot to me. (She realized amreen did not know about the events of how she avenged her father)
Amreen: I have assisted dr. Sahab in many of his operations.
Kabir was listening to amreen, he thought to himself if dr. Ashok was really such a good man why did he give him to a monster? Why did he wrong me?
Pooja interrupted amreen and asked : do you know my mother?
Anuradha she was a nurse too...
Immediately on hearing her mother's name amreen's face turned into disgust. Both pooja & kabir noticed it.
Amreen : anuradha is your mother? (She looked surprised) I should have known dr. Sahab was too naive to understand the treachery of that vile woman. She did succeed in trapping dr. Sahab after all. Sorry, I am saying this about your mother but from what I have known she isn't worthy of dr. Sahab.
Well, pooja & kabir atleast both agreed on that.
Pooja : yes you are right! She betrayed my father. But can you tell me anything about 17th November 1991 about a baby boy that my father delivered?
Amreen: your father was a pediatrician he delivered a lot of babies many of them were boys I am too old to remember which baby was born on which date.
Pooja realized amreen was a very straight forward woman with a no-nonsense attitude.
Kabir: you remember any unusual case where anuradha was involved. she took your name before dying.
Amreen : (completely shocked) she is dead?
Pooja: yes she was shot but before she died she was going to say something about the child, a boy that P.K.Mittal adopted but she could just manage to say your name before she died. I think she meant us to come to you for answers.
Amreen : she took my name? How can I know about the child that P.K.Mittal adopted?
Kabir : please try and think you might remember something.... anything? (He sounded desperate)
Amreen : as far as I know that P.K.Mittal was the most disgusting man I have come across in my life. That man killed his own child, how can he adopt someone else's child?
Pooja : killed his own child? (Even after knowing P.K. so well she never thought p.k could kill his own blood.)
Kabir was speechless he didn't know if he had any strength left to hear more crimes of a man who he grew up addressing as dad.
Amreen : yes ofcourse his wife would deny it but I can't deny what I saw. in my whole career, I have never seen a case like that. I still can't forget that night. I was assisting dr. Sinha, he was another pediatrician working in the same hospital it was late-night; p.k came to the hospital with his pregnant wife, she was convulsing and was covered in blood. We had to perform immediate surgery. P.k. told dr. that his wife fell down from stairs accidentally but when we took her to the operation room we saw hitting Marks all over her body. I can bet my life on this; she was hit mercilessly and thrown down the flight of stairs.
Kabir held pooja's hand even tighter, he was trying hard to control his anger. The image of p.k. slapping suman flashed before his eyes, at that time he had thought it was the first time her mother was hit but clearly it was not the first time. Dear lord! he felt pity for the woman who had raised him and rage for the man who shouldn't even be called a human.
Pooja : she was pregnant; what happened to the child?
Amreen : she gave birth to a stillborn baby! child had died in her womb.
Kabir & pooja both couldn't hold back, a tear fell from their eyes. Pooja hated suman but even then she didn't wish any mother to deliver a dead child, she knew the pain all to well.
After hearing this pooja couldn't believe her father had handed over baby kabir to a monster like p.k. who hit his pregnant wife. Oh God! what had her father done. More importantly why her father did what he did? Even if kabir forgave her, how was she going to face him knowing her father had wronged him.
Amreen ( continued) : this world is so weird when on one hand we have monster-like p.k on another hand we have an angle like dr. Sahab
Pooja snapped her head up
Amreen (continued) : that same night dr. Sahab did a miracle. His shift was supposed to start in the morning but he came early maybe he was god sent!
Kabir wasn't sure if he could ever compare dr. Ashok with an angle. He was the prime reason his life was a mess.
Amreen : (looking at the disbelief on pooja & kabir's expressions) yes what he did that night was nothing short of a miracle. There was an accident. The man had already died when he was brought to the hospital but the woman who was badly hurt was alive & pregnant. when she saw dr. Sahab she intuitively sensed that he could save her child. Dr. Sahab held her hand and was pacifying her that everything will be alright while the nurse was readying the operation theater. But that woman told him she has very little time and asked to save her child at any cost. Dr. Sahab promised her he would do everything to save her child. After hearing this She died right there, that instant moment, in the lobby it seemed she wanted to hear dr. Sahab making that promise so she could die peacefully trusting him. We all were standing there I will never forget this scene, a child never survives in the womb of a dead woman it dies due to lack of oxygen. Dr. Sahab took a knife from the nearby trolley in an instant and cut open the stomach of the woman & saved the child. Everyone in the hospital witnessed a miracle that day; if dr. Sahab had not been this quick the child would have died. Due to dr. Sahab an unbelievable thing happened, A child survived a dead mother.
Kabir knew without a doubt it was him. He had gone numb his worst fears had come true his parents were dead. His birth was nothing but a horror story. He was born as an orphan this wasn't a miracle it was a curse. He let go of pooja's hand he needed to be alone. He got up.
Pooja : do you know what was the name of that woman? What happened to that child?
Kabir stopped in his tracks. Did he want to know his mother's name? Will it matter now? He would not be able to see her, meet her anyways, will it make a difference?
Amreen : no my shift had ended so I left for home besides there were many police officers in the hospital. But you might find it in records of the hospital. (pooja knew she would never find this in the records as those pages were torn from the file)
Pooja: thank you! Thank you so much for talking to us.
Suddenly pooja remembered something and asked pooja : was p.k there in the hospital when this incident happened?

Amreen : yes that monster p.k was right there beside me, he was completing the paperwork. He did not even take his dead daughter's body for burial. He asked a ward boy to dispose of the body. How can a man be so heartless!

Pooja and kabir left the house. kabir did not utter a word when pooja said she would drive the car. He was so silent it worried pooja.