When souls drift - Part 6

This was it; the ultimate blow on Sanjeev’s mind. The respect and honor for Raj suddenly diminished and all of a sudden he stood up. His forehead and eyes narrowed and staring at Raj all that he could his say was “What the…!”

“Relax…please relax and sit down Sanjeev. I know this is too much for you but please let me complete the whole story. And please do not interrupt before I finish. Please sit down.”

The perspiring Sanjeev sat back slowly and went silent. Raj’s request to remain silent till he finishes was unnecessary for him. He was already speechless.

Raj continued with a huge sigh. “29 years ago, our father Vikramraj married Savitriji i.e. your mother...in fact…our mother. This was a love marriage. Savitriji came from a very poor family i.e. the Joshi’s from Ratnagiri. Our grandfather and the entire Sardesai family were strictly against this love-story. Luckily dad had a nice hold on his family and thus no one had the guts to fire against him. Eventually mom settled down in the family.”

Up till now Sanjeev had at least a slight doubt that there was a huge misunderstanding. But the details given by Raj registered the assurance that this utterly true. Sanjeev’s mom was indeed Savitri who hailed from Ratnagiri. He heaved a huge sigh and tried to concentrate more on Raj’s every word. This was getting exciting every moment.

“After you were born, mom was diagnosed with some sort of cancer that shook the whole family. The doctors even said that they fear this had infected the baby too i.e. you. Vikramraj Sardesai, a young and shallow man couldn’t take this and instead of being with his son and wife he started to ignore them. He was so much affected by this sudden catastrophe that he didn’t even care to ask the doctors about the chances of your and maa’s survival. Eventually, mom was shifted to a hospital ward and later the family, including her husband, stopped visiting the hospital. Dad told me all this a day before he died. The pain of ignorance was more killing than the actual pain of the disease and its treatment. Lucky for her, that the fees of the hospital weren’t stopped. You were still a baby and till a year or so she was in the hospital. Miraculously, she was saved. The heavy treatment had taken away the entire beauty of the innocent woman. After the treatment she knew she wouldn’t be accepted by her shallow and mean husband. She wrote a letter to him and left the hospital without intimating anyone about her destination. Probably she herself wasn’t aware of it. No one knew and no one from the Sardesais cared to trace both of you. After 4 years, dad married his family’s choice…Kalyani…my mother. We were very happy till mom passed away a few months ago and utterly shocked by this, dad had a massive heart-attack. The cardiac arrest took him to the ICU where he had been admitted since the past 2 months. Last Monday he passed away, but the entire incident made him repent deeply. At times I had seen him weeping like a baby. We thought it was because he missed and loved mom too much. But this was just one reason. Last Sunday he asked the doctors to meet me urgently. He told me everything and then gave me your address. He wanted to say sorry to Savitriji…wanted to say sorry to both of you. But when he learnt that maa had passed away an year ago, he knew it was too late.”