The Burning Wings - Part I

Sometimes you spend years with a stranger in the hope of getting to know him one day. And then one day you realize it was nothing but a waste.

“We are almost there.”

Vasundhara opened her eyes and looked out the window of her car. The serene scene of clean air and green trees filled her heart with a fresh new feeling that she always felt whenever she and her husband, Anish, came here. The calm aura of this town always relaxed her heart and allowed her to soar in the tranquillity.

It wasn’t like that she hated Delhi. It was the place where she had made a proud place for herself in Anish’s construction firm. It was the place where she worked and thrived on the risks and new possibilities coming their way. In all these years, work has become the distraction that she needed. And Delhi was the place of distraction. Her hometown was not.

Dehradun was where she was born and raised and then, unfortunately, lost her father to an accident at the tender age of fifteen. Lots of memories are buried in this town, along with lots of wishes and desires that she’d had once. She might have gotten all of that what she had dreamt of but Aditya…

Vasu shook her head to bring herself out of her reverie. She couldn’t allow herself to go down that memory lane. Not now, perhaps not ever. Especially now, that she was going to the home her husband had built with so much passion.

It was ironic that she came to the same place where she had lost a part of herself to seek solace.

Vasu shook her head and stopped her mind from swirling all these thoughts and focused on the long weekend ahead. Just thinking about a weekend away from the work and stress in that beautiful house brought a smile on her face. She wasn’t going to waste it away thinking about her past.

Vasu hummed and said, “When we reach the home you rest a little, Gopal. Then we’ll leave for Ma’s home.”

“Okay.”

She recognized the smile in his words and knew that he had rolled his eyes at her. Gopal might be her driver, but he was the brother she never had. At least one thing was good that came out of her marriage with Anish.

Her husband felt more like a stranger to her instead of a life partner. But what else could she do now? She was bound to him for eternity, wasn’t she? She had lost all her rights to dream or to hope the day she had lost the love of her life and married a stranger instead. If only…

She stopped herself from thinking again when the car reached the giant gates of their villa. She took a deep breath and braced herself for the peaceful time, a breather from the hectic city life of hers.

The car entered the gates and after passing through a mile Vasu was able to see the monstrosity of the home that she loved very much. There was a garden in front of the villa whose one section was full of nothing but roses.

Roses are the perfect fusion of beauty and strength and stealth. A kaleidoscope of colors and soft petals blooming around embraced their thorns as well. Vasu loved roses.

She inhaled the sweet smell of flowers coming from the garden and felt at peace already. The biggest smile in ages lightened her face and it wouldn’t have faltered had there not been Anish’s car parked in the driveway.

***

When you get to know the truth beneath his lies, it’s not just dreams or desires that are lost. It’s you who shatter irrevocably.

Vasu couldn’t help but get confused when she saw Anish’s car. Didn’t he say he was leaving for Bangalore for a meeting with his client? Vasu stepped out of the car when Gopal opened the door for her. She noticed that even he was frowning in confusion.

“Wait, here. Don’t get my luggage, yet,” she told him and took out her keys from her bag. She didn’t know why, but she had a feeling that she might not be staying here today.

Vasu opened the front door with her keys and entered the home. Her heart started racing as if she had run miles and beads of perspiration dotted her forehead. Neither her mind nor her heart was ready to face whatever that lay beyond the few steps. As if her whole body was asking her to turn and get away from there.

She didn’t know how, but her instincts led her directly to the backyard and not because she loved the swimming pool out there. She reached the glass wall that separated the pool from the outer area and came to a still. And just like that in the space of that one tiny second, she saw her castle tumbling down at once.

Anish was there in the pool, and so was the girl wrapped in his arms. Those two were so embraced in each other; they didn’t even know that Vasu was standing just beyond the glass wall.

Vasu stood still in shock. Her heart, that was pounding so fast a few seconds before had suddenly lost the energy to pump. As if the whole world had stopped for an instant and then it started functioning again. The blood whooshed through her body like a storm making her light headed.

Vasu didn’t realize she was holding the keys in her hand until it fell on the floor with a clatter. Anish’s head jerked to the door and their gazes met. As if at that moment she realized what she had just seen, a shiver ran up her spine and her breath was caught in her throat.

She saw him get away from the girl and in that very second, she turned and ran. She ran as if her life depended on it. She heard her name followed by a loud curse but didn’t bother to look back. She simply ran.

***

Sometimes it’s fine to be scattered. Sometimes it’s better to suffer that pain. Because you might not realize it then, but it’s the great beginning for you. And if not, then the end of the misery would suffice.

Tears ran through her face and she felt like hundreds of needles were piercing her heart at once. She couldn’t speak but she didn’t need to tell Gopal. He was already taking her to her mother’s.

Vasu might not have loved her glass castle with all her heart, but it was still her castle. It was her life for the past five years that she built with a lot of sacrifices. How many times did she try to convince her mother? How many nights did she spend crying over him? But then she built a façade and did give up on her dreams, her wishes. And then she gave up on him too. And she became from Vasundhara Ranjan to Vasundhara Sahay.

Her marriage was nothing but a change of her name. A piece of paper which she felt more like a negotiation even at that time. Sure she never loved Anish. She wasn’t happy in her marriage either, but she never thought about taking solace in someone else’s arms. Instead, she put herself into the work. And work she did. Tirelessly, she worked herself to the exhaustion. It was Vasu behind the rise in success of Anish’s construction firm.

Love was not in her destiny. She knew it, accepted it, in fact. But work was her consolation. She had built herself back to one from a crumbled heap of nothing.  

And now that the reality had finally struck her, what would she do? Vasu couldn’t stop her tears and couldn’t stop her mind from racing a mile every second. Oh God, what am I going to do?

After almost half an hour of a miserable drive, Gopal eased the car in her mother’s driveway. Vasu didn’t wait for him this time and got out of the car as fast as she could. She left the purse behind her in the car inside which her phone was ringing off the hook. No doubt Anish was calling her like crazy. And she wasn’t sure what she was going to talk about.

What do you talk with your husband anyway when you have just caught him cheating upon you with another woman?

Her sister opened the door with a concerned face just as Vasu was about to knock on the door. Her sister’s face soon replaced by her mother’s frowning one but Vasu didn’t have the heart to face her right now. Just as Vasu stepped inside her mother’s home, she ran upstairs to her room. But soon her mother and sister joined her. And from the mewling cries that she heard, her lovely cat, Belle, too had followed behind them. She should have known that Anish might have called her mother already.

“Vasu, what is this? Why is Anish calling almost every second? What did you do?” Leave it to her mother for always blaming her for everything.

“Ma! For at least once treat her like a daughter, will you?” Malini, her younger sister, snapped at her mother.

Vasu sat on the bed, still sobbing silently. Malini quickly sat beside her and wrapped her arms around her big sister, giving Vasu a shoulder to cry upon. Malini remembered the two incidents she had seen her sister in such a state. It was only two times did her sister cry like this – when their father had died and then five years ago when she let Aditya walk out of her life. Had it been under Malini’s control, she wouldn’t have let her sister do as their mother told her to.   

“I saw him with another girl at the villa,” Vasu whispered to her.

“What?” Malini froze at her place. She pulled away from her sister and lifted her face to look into her eyes. The tears welled up in there didn’t leave any doubt about what she had just heard.

“How dare he...”

“So?” Malini was interrupted by their mother’s stern voice. “So what you saw a girl with him? She could have been a client or anything.”

“Yeah, Ma, because we do business meetings in the swimming pool, don’t we?” Vasu was as shocked as her mother to hear the sarcasm in her voice.

Her mother shook her head at her. “You are being melodramatic, Vasu.”  

“I saw it with my own eyes, Ma. How big of a fool do you think I am?” It had been too long since she had talked to her mother with such disrespect.

And from the looks her mother was giving her, it was clear she didn’t like this change in her daughter’s demeanor. “Fine!” her mother snapped at her. “So what if what you saw is true? It’s just an affair. Give it a day or two and he will break it off. Stop acting as if someone snatched your toy from you. Behave like a grownup, for God’s sake.”

Vasu stared at her mother in shock. Was it just she or even her sister was seeing her mother in a different light?

***

To Be Continued...