At the pub, Ananya and her friend stood at the bar. While her friend sipped from her drink, Ananya got to thinking. She stared at the half-filled glass of grape liquor. She could hear ambiguous and unclear voices in her head from people she had never heard from. The voices were in a hazy whisper. She couldn't get a single word from them. She gave it her attention. She tried to match the words and make at least a sentence out of those whispers. All she understood was a name, which was Anand.
"Ananya!"
Her friend's voice ferried her to the present. She blinked and smiled, humming in response.
"Won't you drink? You promised me. You said you'd have your first drink before your birthday. Come on, I don't know why you've been dodging this. It's normal in America. People don't judge. You can drink as much as you wish. It's sweet. Try it."
"I don't know. I'm not comfortable. It's addicting. I don't wish to get addicted."
"I wonder how your father, despite being the senior, is more modern than you. Had he been here, he'd order..."
"The most expensive because he doesn't settle for ordinary. I also wonder at times how I can't drink, even though I used to in the past before my accident."
"That reminds me. Your father asked me to ensure you take your pills daily."
"I can't rely on pills all my life. Additionally, pills I have no idea what I'm taking them for."
"It's for your health."
"I don't have a disease. If I did, it would show effects by now since it has been two weeks since I last took them. Except for strange voices I hear in my head, which at times make me drowsy and dizzy, I'm good."
The man who Ananya signed on his body showed up and asked for a glass from the bartender. He gulped it down in an attempt to impress her.
"Let's leave this place."
Ananya left the building and waited in the car. She started seeing unclear visions, which she has been seeing since the next day when she stopped taking her medications of people she didn't know. She also continued to hear those voices that would keep uttering the name Shraddha and something related to India, where her father lived. She had never visited there because she was prohibited from doing so. Her father would visit America when he wished to meet her and also leave when he wished. But for his seventieth birthday, she was planning to surprise him by going there. He told her work wouldn't let him find the time to celebrate it here, but he would visit a week later. She didn't want him to visit. She wanted to go meet him herself this time and also see what India had that he was trying to keep her away from. He said the weather was different from America, and she couldn't
handle the sun. She wanted to experience it herself.
The visions she saw cleared, and her surroundings returned.
"Let's go."
"Have you gotten the tickets ready?"
She drove through the city to her apartment.
"Yes. The flight will leave in two days."
"Perfect. We will arrive on the night of his birthday."
"All is good, but are you sure? Visiting Mumbai all on our own for the first time. Do you not think it is dangerous? I've heard there's pocket-picking at the airport. Moreover, you don't know exactly where your address is."
"He is a renowned person in India. I'll show a picture of him, and people will guide me to his address. When I reach him, I'll give him a call."
"I hope it goes as you plan."
"It will."
Two days later, Ananya and her friend landed in India to give her father a surprise visit. Upon landing in the new city—Mumbai—they lost their phones and purses at the airport because they ran into someone who was aware they were not familiar with India and extended to help them get out of the airport. If only they knew he was a thief. They were left stranded.
Anand and Lakshmi were also at the airport to receive Poonam as she was returning to India to practice at his hospital. She had completed her studies to be a surgeon when her father wanted her to be like him.
"We're left with no money, Ananya. Who will we start asking for help from? Who will help us?"
"I'm thinking Sarah. Asking people is out of the question, though. They will also think we're thieves. I can't risk my father's reputation like that."
She looked at the crowd and exhaled a deep sigh, as she was clueless about what to do.
"May the thief who got our things not leave here alive."
"That will be cruel. I hope he realizes his mistake." Ananya said.
The thief who had their stuff fell before Anand and Ananya's purse lured out the things inside, which included her identity card, her passport, her card, and some cash. Anand didn't notice any of those, but he helped the thief get up and also asked him if he was okay.
"I am. Thank you." He gathered the purses in a hurry and also stole Anand's wallet.
"My sisters are waiting for me." He said, and he ran off. Anand touched his pocket to call Lakshmi as she went to receive Poonam from the plane. He found his wallet missing, and immediately he realized the man he saved was a thief. He ran after him.
Ananya and her friend Sarah found someone who offered them a lift after they explained what happened to them. He also claimed he knew where her father's address was. Ananya didn't want to go with the man, but her friend persuaded her to get in the car. Ananya tried to tell her not to trust anyone there, especially after what just happened to them, but her friend told her every person has different personality.
The man showed them his license from the government to calm her down as he noticed how scared she was. Ananya was nonetheless conscious. She refused to let herself be kidnapped, just like her purse was stolen. She also regretted going to India without her father's approval because she knew no one.
"Is this your first time here?" the driver asked.
"It is our fifth. We know scammers are everywhere. I hope you're not part of them because it's showing your country in a bad light." Ananya answered.
The driver looked at her through the mirror, almost certain that she resembled someone he knew.
"What is it? Why are you staring?"
"Ma'am, you resemble the wife of a gynecologist who was never found after falling into the sea. But you can't be her. The other woman was from my village, Ladnun. She never went to school, so she couldn't speak English."
"That's weird. However, it's not so weird because they say we all have a doppelganger somewhere. May she rest in peace."
The stone Anand threw at the man made him fall flat on his face. He caught up with him and hauled him punches, all the while making sure he retrieved the wallet and one of the purses as the other fell somewhere from them.
"Please don't arrest me. I'll not do it again."
The airport's security intervened, and after Anand's statement, they took the man away for further interrogation with the purse to ensure it reached its owner.
Anand was walking back to meet his family when he saw the other purse resting on the floor—Ananya's purse. The things outside were scattered, including her picture on her identity card.
"We've arrived at the villa. You can pay with your jewelry."
Anand was about to pick up the purse, but Poonam's voice prevented him. He looked at his daughter, who was now 20 years old. It had been five years since he had seen her after her return to London. She had grown very tall and had become more beautiful.
"Father,"
Lakshmi stood behind them and watched their reunion. Her eyes encountered the purse on the ground, and she called the attention of the security guard, who took it away.
"Let's go home now." she said.
"Sure, Mother."
Anand observed his daughter holding Lakshmi's hand protectively, and they smiled at one another as if they were really mother and daughter.