The Other Side(4)

The Other Side

39 woman turned to the old man and nodded. I could see the man's eyes were watery. He walked upto me and was about to fall in my feet when I held him.

“No, no. What are you doing?”

“You saved my wife, you saved me.”

It was the first time I heard him speak something else though it

was on similar lines to what we had been hearing so far from his mouth. I patted him on the shoulder. “We do our work, Tau. The rest we leave it to him,” I said pointing skywards and the old man nodded, running a hand over my head.

“We'll take your leave, Tau. Here, I've written some medicines for Tai. Do get them first thing in the morning,” I said.

The old lady was about to say something when I thought that they may not have the money to buy the drugs even though they were residing in a haveli, I was sure he was only the poor caretaker of the property.

“Here keep this,” I said, placing a five hundred-rupee note in the old man's hand. He was not willing to grip it but I was adamant and stuffed the note in the pocket of his kurta.

“Lavanya, come!” I said to my wife, who folded her hands looking at the old couple in a respectable gesture. “How can we allow you to go like this?” the old woman shouted. We turned to look at her climbing down from the cot and walking towards us.

“You're like my beta and she, my bahu. How can we allow our bahu to leave empty-handed when she is visiting our place for the first time?”

“No Tai, we don't need any fees. I was just in the vicinity…”

“Who's giving you any fees? I want to give some shagun to my beautiful bahu here,” she said moving towards the wooden cupboard. The old man smiled in the background and walked to join his wife. The old lady soon came towards us with something in her folded palms.

She took Lavanya's hands and dropped two little earrings into her palms. Lavanya gasped. I noticed the minute detailing of the piece of jewelry in my wife's hands. It surely seemed to be an exquisite artwork from a bygone era.

“But… but these are gold ornaments. We can't take them,” Lavanya said, looking at me.

“They're the only thing we can give you,” the old lady said,

patting my wife's cheek.

“We don't need anything, Tai. Your blessings are more than

enough for both of us,” I interrupted.

“Consider this a blessing. We insist that you keep it as a token

of our appreciation,” the old lady replied, placing her palms on top

of Lavanya's. The earrings glittered, drowning the glow of the

pendant on Lavanya's neck.

“Take it. You make a perfect couple. God bless you!” the old

lady said.

“Thank you,” we said in unison as I sensed my cheeks burn. I

quickly pulled out my visiting card and handed it to the old man. “If there's any complication again, you can reach me here. I am

available at the town hospital from 10 AM to 9 PM,” I said.

“If it's something serious or the fever relapses, give me a call at this number and I'll try my best to make it here,” I added in a

The Other Side

41 whisper. The old man nodded and joined his hands to thank me again. The first thing I did after coming out from the haveli was turn towards Lavanya and hug her tight. She was surprised at first, but hugged me back.

“I'm really sorry, Lavanya. I know this is not the anniversary you would have imagined in your dreams. All that I want to say is that I love you and I always will,” I said looking into her eyes.

“Nikhil, it's alright, honey,” she whispered, placing her head on my shoulder. “Come on, you must be hungry. We'll make a quick trip to the dhaba,” I suggested.

“Nikhil, it's alright. Let's go home. I'll make us some noodles,” Lavanya replied.

“Are you sure?” I asked, hoping I had not missed any intended causticity.

Lavanya nodded and with a coy smile, she gave me a peck on the cheek.

“Noodles in candlelight!” I said, under my breath before we got into the car.



A couple of days later I was called to inspect a patient some four kilometers away from the hospital. It was a case of flu due to which the child had weakened. I gave him a shot, wrote down some medicines and was on my way back within half an hour.

Driving ahead, I came across the same wrong turn we had taken that night. I thought about the elderly couple and wondered if it would be a good idea to check on them unannounced. It would be nice to see them again and I decided to drive towards the old house. I reached the place some fifteen minutes later aided by the afternoon light. The surrounding no longer seemed menacing under the sun. The gates of the haveli were shut and I could just about make out the large worn lock on the hinges. I parked the car outside and alighted. At a distance, I could see a few locals squatting beneath a tree, some with beedis in their hands and some with a glass of tea. They seemed to be sharing a light moment when I walked up to interrupt their banter.