Tu Dua Hai

Chapter 21

Next morning Gauri woke up early as she had many scheduled appointments and a delivery for that day. She peeped into Darshan’s room after she showered to find him still sleeping. But as turned around to go, she noticed that Darshan’s phone was vibrating. She was about to ignore it, but something made her stop. What if it was his parents? Or what if was an emergency from his work. Being in medical field, Gauri was taught to take every call seriously and she just couldn’t help herself from taking a look. It was Naushad Khan, Gauri immediately froze. She knew Naushad Khan was Darshan’s manager. Gauri was just trying to decide if she should receive the call when the call got disconnected. She sighed and was about to turn around when the phone started ringing again. Maybe it’s important. That is why he is calling so early in the morning. Gauri mused. She knew that Naushad khan was aware of Darshan’s drinking and knew that Darshan didn’t wake up before afternoon. If he was calling this early and repeatedly, it must be important. Taking a deep breath to gather courage, Gauri picked the phone and swiped the answer button. Shaking slightly, she put the phone to her ear. “Hello? Darshan? Are you up?” She heard a deep voice asking worriedly. “No.. I mean… he is not up.. yet.” She stammered out and there was silence for a moment. “Who are you? Wait… You are Gauri right? I am sorry I was just surprised.” Naushad khan said and Gauri smiled. “Yes I am Gauri. Darshan is still sleeping. Do you want me to wake him up? Is it urgent?” She asked. “Umm… He had a shoot today. A photo shoot. It will be really…” Naushad Khan was cut off mid-sentence by Gauri suddenly. “Err.. Naushad sir, I don’t think Darshan will be able to shoot today.” Gauri told him, glancing at Darshan’s bandaged hand. “What do you mean? I asked him yesterday and he said he would shoot today. What happened? Is everything ok? Listen if he drank last night, it’s totally fine. He does this often and has no problem working the next day. Just make him some lemonade and he will be fine.” Naushad khan rattled off while Gauri tried to think of some way to tell him that Darshan was injured. “Sir… I really don’t think Darshan will be able to shoot today. I mean.. he.. yesterday….well last night he umm… scratched himself and the wound is not deep but large and it covers his entire left forearm. It was an accident and I was not home so I couldn’t take care of it immediately. He has large bandages and umm.. I don’t think … you would want to shoot him in this condition.” Gauri stuttered and tried to explain as best as she could. There was a pause where Gauri assumed that Naushad sir was absorbing the information and then she heard a sigh through phone. “I well… ok… I understand. I will reschedule this shoot and I will make sure his schedule is clear for a couple of weeks. Gauri, also make sure he is not seen outside. You know he just got married and the cuts..scratches and his forearm… people will assume things. You know what I mean, right? Don’t get this wrong, but you know how the media is. They will blow everything out of proportion. So just.. make sure he doesn’t go out of the house, especially at night.” Naushad khan said and fell silent as he waited for Gauri to respond. Gauri stood frozen for a minute, trying to understand what he was trying to imply. When she had recovered, she agreed and put the phone back on the couch. She stared at Darshan. She had planned to go to hospital to catch up on her pending work, but now that she saw Darshan sprawled on the bed, with his bloody bandaged hand lying on a cushion she just couldn’t bring herself to go to work. She called the hospital and asked them for a couple of days leave. Being a just married celebrity had its own perks. She easily got the leave and the first thing she did was to shift her entire wardrobe and her luggage to the guest room. She was already invading Darshan’s private space and she still didn’t know if Darshan would be happy to have her interfering in his life. But somebody has to, she thought grimly, he could not keep living like this or he would destroy himself both physically and mentally. He was definitely suffering from chronic depression. She knew because she had studied post partum depression in women and the signs were all there. He was just a difficult case because he was stubborn and a superstar with a lot of money. There was little anyone could do to stop him from doing what he wanted. She was going to need a lot of patience if she wanted to deal with him and help him get cured. And for that she needed to go to the root of Darshan’s depression. The cause or the reason because of which he had started drinking heavily in first place. He either wanted to forget something or he wanted to get rid of a constant pain, heartache. She knew it had something to do with Ayesha, his first wife but she couldn’t just work on the basis of assumptions. To start treatment she needed accurate diagnosis and there was only one person who could tell her the entire truth. She knew she had to know the whole truth, not the crap media printed. So after arranging her room she checked on Darshan who was still in deep sleep. It was just 10 AM in the morning and she was starving too. So she decided to make breakfast while she made an important call to her mother-in-law. Rajal maa received her call within two rings. Gauri was not sure if she should tell Rajal maa that her son had hurt himself while being extremely drunk. It might be a shock to her and her condition was already delicate. So she decided not to tell her anything and just try to casually broach the topic. “Hello maa. How are you?” “I am fine beta. How are you?” After the small talk about how things were going, Gauri broached the topic. “Maa, last night, err… Darshan was talking in his sleep. He took Ayesha’s name.” Gauri told the partial truth as it was always difficult for Gauri to lie. She had never lied in her 25 years of life, and this marriage was the first big lie she had been forced to tell. There was silence for a moment as Rajal maa considered how to answer her daughter-in-law.