Incomplete - 7

It was now her third day in the village and Sharada was getting restless. In a jiffy her focus drifted to a different world- her world in which she lived, slept, breathed and survived. Fear and selfishness slowly crept in; it was important to stay detached. Grand mother's condition was deteriorating; and all she wanted to avoid was the last minute ceremonies and her relatives around. But she was running away from everything

To her dismay, Nirmala's current state was her tying down. She took forward her best step and got hold of the situation, not for anybody else but it served as cause to get away from the village. She picked the receiver of the phone and spoke to a high official in the police department to speed up the process and get the case attended on a priority basis. How did she manage to get such connections was not any miracle; she was just gifted that she had good friends around. In just half an hour the police arrived at grandmother's house.

Privately having conversation with Sharada, this time the investigations were more sophisticated; the team had changed and were holding interactions with people in the village. Nirmala got a little confident and now it didn’t really matter to her if Meera was raped or married; all she wanted was her daughter ALIVE. This was a great change considering the mental frame work the village people were in. Sharada was responsible for the inevitable change of attitude and took pains to prepare Nirmala for police confrontation. The only relief this time was that Nirmala heard her convincingly. The police had got some directions, a register office, background check on the boy - who hailed from a reputed family, and the places they could primarily escape to. Definitely a miraculous work, considering the pace of police investigations.

A phone call at around 3:00 pm gave some respite to everyone and relieved some tension. Meera spoke to Nirmala. The boy and girl were spotted, taken into custody and promised to be back by night to the village. Nirmala would just say "come back Meera, and we will get you married, don’t worry about anything" she would repeat that forever. Grandmother cried and held Sharada's hand for a long time in gratitude. Sharada wished to ask her why grandmother wanted to meet her; but didn’t say a word. She just wanted to avoid any of her forthcoming pleas.

Nirmala was into discussions on marriage modalities with her close associates. As it progressed, Sharada opportuned to get into her past. This was also a marriage.

It was the time when Grandmother's mental frame work had thickened with regard to Sharada, she was upset and "written her off" as somebody who would not come out with flying colours. Sharada just observed anger and silence and continued to do what was instructed to her. They both were off for a marriage at one of grandmother's brother's family. Some incidents were nothing to do with life but always remembered and this was one such thing- Sharada always remembered.

In the marriage, Sharada's role was only to help people around, she would cut vegetables, help put clothes into the washing machine (then having a washing machine was an asset enjoyed only by the rich), run around distributing things, offer drinks, iron clothes etc. Everyone would ask about Sharada and her ambitions and dreams. Grandmother would rubbish such questions and would just start discussing if a suitable match could be identified for Sharada. Sharada felt insulted almost all the time. There was only one soul in the entire family and gathering who empathized with Sharada and that was one her farthest "cousin" - Shekar, he was studying for medicine.

Two days at a stretch, Sharada wore very normal clothes and performed normal duties. She did feel the distance, the gap, the crack; yet suppressed her feelings. She was one among them yet not like them. Shekar’s mother wanted some clothes to be ironed. As Sharada took the clothes into the room, Shekar followed her. He would talk to her nicely and make her feel important. She wondered why. It was hardly fifteen minutes into conversation, he pulled her close, brushed her lips and kept it locked for more than 5 minutes. Sharada unaware, puzzled, bewildered, stood there shivering for the rest of the time and could not believe something like this happened to her. She would not move out of the room scared to face the people. After all she was just 17. Next day, during the marriage function, she stayed away from all formalities. She did not look into his eyes. All her eyes did was to look around for him one last time when they had packed bags to leave.

Ironically, Sharada wondered whose mistake it was all the way through her life.

After 20 long years, they happened to look into each other's eyes and this time the doctor was apologetic. Sharada sighed with her dimpled face.