The Veiled Bond

Marriages are forged in heaven but the bonds of matrimony are broken here on the earth, and no one knew that better than Sanjay. With a career spanning over twenty years as a divorce attorney he knew more about breaking up families than saving them and it suited him well. But right now he wished quite the opposite. Because for now he was trying to save the marriage of his best friend Aakash who had suddenly developed a strange affinity for some college girl who met him at some seminar-or-convention. He didn’t know much about her except the fact that Aakash had been acting weird since he met her and his once a family-man best friend was today missing along with a girl half his age, leaving him to manage the wrath of his wife.

As she disconnected the call from her mother, Maya’s temper seemed to flare up quickly. It had been 12 hours since she had returned from her parents’ home in Delhi and Aakash was nowhere to be found. Couple that with a photo of Aakash with that girl from some unknown person, she was returning home to a nightmare. Focusing all her rage on the nearest target she moved out into the living room where Sanjay sat with a tired look indicating another futile attempt at locating her absconding husband.

What the hell is going on between my husband and that bitch?’ Maya’s patience was at its lowest ebb and she was ready to burst.

Sanjay knew that she was serious. ‘Look, Maya. There is nothing going on between the two of them. Just a little bit of healthy flirting, I’d say.’

‘Flirting? Healthy flirting? Really Sanjay …’ She rolled her eyes in disgust. ‘That’s what you men call it? There is nothing healthy about flirting, Sanjay, not for a married man.

Healthy flirting is a term in traduced by perverted men who want to lend legitimacy to their extramarital dalliances. Flirting invariably has a sexual connotation to it.’ She got up from her seat and walked around the room gesticulating and muttering something to herself. Suddenly she stopped, turned back, looked at Sanjay and asked, ‘Did my husband sleep with her? You are his friend. Did he ever tell you anything about it?’

He was stumped. Never in his life had an answer eluded him as badly as this one. The reason was quite simple, he didn’t know. Aakash had been very hush hush about her and had actively avoided the topic whenever he had initiated a discussion to probe further. His analysis and his experiences rendered a simple answer, “Something was surely going on between the two of them, and she seemed something more than just an intern hired out of the blue.” But he knew Aakash too well to mistake him for an adulterous companion.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling it so slowly that it convey his dilemma more clearly than a thousand words would fall short of, he whispered, ‘I don’t think he would do such a thing Maya and you know that as well. He loves you too much to every think about any other woman?’

‘I also thought so when I left this house, but the how do you explain this photo. He seems to enjoy himself with some girl half his age in my very own house while I was gone just for a few days.’ Sanjay’s unconvincing tone frustrating her more. He seemed to downplay everything and she was now exploring the possibility that maybe he was hiding something from her as well.

Staring hard at him she said ‘Did he tell you anything at all about where he was going or something?’

‘No Maya, he left his clinic in a haste yesterday and I have not seen him since. I tried calling him but every time his phone was out of network coverage.’ Sanjay said still sounding irresolute.

She fell onto the sofa with a blank look upon her face and tears rolling down her face. He was not sure what to do, never ever had he seen a strong-willed woman like Maya seem as weak and vulnerable as she seemed now.

Here was a woman who had been such a pillar to her husband when he was diagnosed with life threatening cancer and had been with him during his recovery when the miracle happened which even the doctors found hard to believe. Seeing her in this state of despair broke his heart and he wished he knew where Aakash was right now so that he could punch him as badly as he could for leaving her in such a mess.

The awkward silence that had befallen them was broken by the sharp sound of the doorbell that echoed through the empty apartment. She looked at him with disbelief, a bright shine in her eyes. He walked up to the door, opening it with a silent prayer on his lips, hoping Aakash had finally come to his senses and returned home.

But it was not Aakash. Instead a police inspector walked in, and looked to Maya, ‘Are you Maya Sharma?’

Maya got up from the sofa and wiping the tears off her face she said in a sad tone, ‘Yes I am. Is there something wrong officer?’

The inspector let off a deep breath and removed his cap, Maya’s heart stopped for a moment as she prepared herself for she thought she knew what the inspector was about to say, ‘Maam we are sorry to inform you that your husband was hurt in a road accident on the Mumbai-Pune highway and he passed away before he could make it to the hospital.’

Maya stood their stunned looking at Sanjay who couldn’t believe it either. The inspector nevertheless continued, ‘However the paramedics were able to save your sister-in-law and she is currently undergoing treatment at the same hospital although her condition is said to be critical. We have a car waiting outside, if you wish to you can come with us to collect the body.’

Sanjay looked confusedly towards Maya for he knew that Aakash had no sister that anyone knew of. But what troubled him more than this mystery sister was Maya who suddenly started sobbing quietly. These were not the tears of a woman grieving the loss of her husband. It was something different, something more painful and relieving at the same time. As the inspector left, she looked up towards him and said it in a tone soaked with guilt, ‘Richa, Sanjay, it was Richa.’ The mere mention of Richa took back Sanjay to that fateful day two years ago when they were going through the darkest phase of their lives.

It was two years ago that Aakash had crossed paths with Richa, an aspiring doctor starting college, during a forgetful trip to Pune. He had been under a lot of stress with his firm going bankrupt and his marriage falling apart. He had recently taken up drinking and seemed to treat it as the cure of all his woes.

One day while one of his frequent shuttle between Mumbai and Pune after a meeting with an unwilling group of investors, his third meeting in the same week, he had a little too much to drink and crashed his car into a vehicle parked on the roadside at a desolate patch of the highway.

Richa had gone for a vaccination campaign in a remote village and upon returning found her car highly damaged by a forceful hit of a sedan. When she looked inside the car she found Aakash passed out and minor bruises on his forehead. She somehow felt pity for a man whom she did not know. She had been considerate of his condition and treated him prior to calling police, reporting it as a minor accident in which no one was at fault, thus saving him of a lot of trouble.

Aakash had never forgotten this gesture of hers. Maya too was thankful to her even though she had never seen her as she had made her husband realize the true importance of things that really mattered and had helped bring their family back together.

Now that everything was so clear Maya felt bad about thinking so lowly of her husband. He was simply helping out a friend who had saved his life in more than one ways. He had offered her an internship at his clinic after she was fired from her job for not following protocols and helping out patients that the hospital she was working at would have otherwise turned away.

Sanjay also understood why Aakash was acting weird by being so protective of her. He had mistook his concern for Richa as some cheap fling that he assumed he was involved him. He never cursed his instincts for smelling adultery more than he did now. Feeling ashamed he looked to Maya.

Wiping the tears off her face she got up and said to him, ‘Will you come with me to Pune, I have to take care of a sister.’