Page 271 - Musings 2020

Radhika: You say you love me and yet, you left me to pursue your project. It had been just
two weeks past our marriage. You knew that your parents were against our marriage and
wouldn’t support your wife and that’s why we had decided to live alone. You knew that your
wife couldn’t go back to her mother’s home because of the disgrace it would cause to her
family’s image in the eyes of society. You knew that in this new place your wife didn’t know
anyone but you. Yet you left her all alone and claimed to love her!

Anirudh: I completely understand what you are saying Radhika, but please try to understand,
when I was offered the project, it was expected to be completed in a month. Despite it being
my dream organisation, the happiness caused by that was always overpowered by the agony
of being away from you. But it was supposed to be a matter of just one month and then we
would have been together forever. Moreover, with the humongous sum of money that they
were paying, we would have lived the life we had always dreamt of. Had I the slightest hint
that the one month would get extended to a few years, I would have never accepted this
darned project! And Radhika, being away from you for these many years has been mental
torture for me, you have no idea how much I have suffered without you….

Radhika: (sobbing) I do not deny your suffering but did you ever think of what I went
through? Do you realize that I had no means to earn money for my survival? For the first
month, my day began with going for interviews and ended with rejections throughout the day.
The moment they would know that I was married but alone, their faces that gave receptive
nods throughout the interview changed to glances of suspicion and raised eyebrows. As the
days passed and the money in our savings account diminished, it became increasingly
difficult to remain calm. Neither could I ask for money from my old parents who themselves
were struggling. Eventually, I got a decent job and I started earning money, unfortunately I
could never earn any affection and respect in the eyes of others. Every locality residential
looked down upon me with some feeling of repulsion. What else would they do, when a
newlywed bride is forlorn by her husband, people naturally think that there must be some
flaw in the lady... (her voice grew heavy and burst into torrents of tears)

Anirudh: (softly) Please drink some water Radhika.

(Anirudh hands her a glass full of water)

Radhika: (drinks water) While all this was itself unbearable, the worst part was yet to unfold.
The terrorist attacks near our residential area invited a series of investigations and inquiries
throughout the area and when the authorities came at our doorstep, I encountered perhaps the
darkest moments of my life. In their eyes, I wasn’t a resident but a partner of a man who had
disappeared all of a sudden…

Anirudh: (cutting her in between) What!! You mean to say, they were suspecting us of being
involved in those attacks?

Radhika: I was taken to the police station and throughout those torturous hours of
interrogation, I was just trying to explain to them that you were working on a defense project
for the government itself. It took one complete day for them to verify from the concerned

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