“You look cool,” Siddharth said when she went back to the office later in the day.

“What do you want me to look like? I am tired of reacting to you games.”

“I think you have started enjoying them? You played along rather well. You could have rubbished it all.”

“What do you want to blackmail me for now? I understand the screenplay is complete, the payment for the rights of the book is done. So, you need a new leverage. But what for?”

“Would you like to talk to the press? About the wedding?”

“If I am not threatened, about my mother’s safety, then my answer is ‘No’.”

“Is that why you played along?”

“Yes.”

“Wedding will be this Sunday.”

‘He will lose no time in upsetting my life,’ she thought sadly. But outwardly she spoke with calm, “What do I have to do?”

“Nothing.”

—

“Your father and I had always wished to go back and stay in the village after you were settled. He didn’t live to see the day…”

“Ma. Please don’t be sad.”

“I am not sad. I am very happy and I know he would be too. But I do want to live there, while I can. Your father always missed the place.”

Karishma had never taken the her mother’s idea seriously – that of going back to stay in their native village, but this time she did not resist. Her mother wanted to spend some time in the village after her wedding. It would be good to have her away from Mumbai, safe from Siddharth Sen. Then she can fight her own reluctant battle with him without worrying about her.

“Fine Ma. But how will you stay alone?”

“Villages are not Mumbai or Delhi, dear. You are never alone. So many of your cousins are there…”

“Are you sure, Ma?”

“Yes. Don’t worry about that.”

“When do you plan to go?”

“As soon as you can get me the tickets after your wedding.”

“Fine. But Ma. Don’t tell anything to Siddharth about it.”

“Why not?”

“Just like that.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yes Ma,” Karishma faked blushing, “Just a little game. It would be good to see him scared for a bit. And he would be too busy anyway. I doubt you will be able to meet him after the wedding.”

She didn’t want Siddharth to know where her mother would be.

“Fine. As you say.”

—

Karishma had taken off her wedding jewelry and washed her make-up when Siddharth entered the room. Her hair was untied. The dupatta had also been untied from the intricate knots the stylist had put it in as a part of her bridal draping. It was now draped around her neck like she wore her dupattas with salwar-kameez. The part of the cupboard that had a bunch of night-dresses hanging was open.

“I hope there is at least one woman in your life who wouldn’t mind if I borrowed her night-dress. I don’t know where my stuff is. I will sort it out in the morning.”

“I don’t understand,” Siddharth didn’t know what to expect in his room on his wedding night. A blushing bride was probably out of question. But this wasn’t making any sense either.

“The women whom these night dresses belong to. Can I borrow one of them for the night?”

“They are… yours,” he said.

Karishma was surprised, but did not show it, “Ah! Great. Thanks.”

She picked up the first one she could lay her hands on and started walking out of the room.

“Where are you going?”

“The adjoining room is empty and the bed is made, I see. I don’t think you have any guests there. I plan to use it for myself. Good night.”

—

Siddharth did not stop her. He changed, washed and then lied down on his bed. He thought through all that had happened in last few months.

It all started in that fateful moment when he had realized that the writer who made Diksha’s soap watchable every third week was some Karishma Gupta. And he had obsessively watched the episodes written by her again and again. Even in the otherwise ever-stretching, ridiculous story-line, he had detected something that struck a chord. The romance, the father-son relationship, the struggle of managing career and home for women… The story-teller in him had seen the brilliance and he had made up his mind to meet her.

But he had to be careful. Aspirants in the film-industry – writers, actors, directors – all were always hungry for his attention. If he actually went out and sought somebody out, that would be raising her expectation too much. Diksha was in Paris. So, he devised that plan of visiting the office and meeting the entire team of writers. Ritesh’ absence also helped, because he could interact directly with her. And something happened to him when he saw her entering the conference room for the meeting. The other guy with her – what was his name… he didn’t remember… he probably never heard – was literally shaking in fear. She was composed however. Even a bit defiant at being summoned like that. Just how he had imagined the heroine of his upcoming movie to be. He didn’t care about her acting abilities. His production house had introduced many faces who couldn’t act to save their lives when they came. They were taught. Acting could be taught. But that natural fit was rare. The few occasions when he had found the natural fit between the actor and the character, the effect had been fabulous.

He wanted her for his movie. At least that’s what he thought. But all hell broke loose when she refused to act. Siddharth Sen was the person who always refused people. Nobody – NOBODY – refused him. How dare she! He had to show her her place. He had to destroy her and put her in a situation where she was at his mercy. Orchestrating her firing, not letting her get another job and leaving her with no option, but to work with him had been easy for him. He had crushed much more influential and powerful people in past. What was the big deal with this girl?

There was a big deal with her though. She wasn’t defeated. And then, one fine day, she had defied him. She had disappeared. He had to leave the country the very next day for three months because the actress and other cast members for his movie had been finalized and the shooting had to begin. Most of the shooting was happening in Europe, his own favourite shooting location.

But the first thing he had done after coming back was to track her down. Only after he met her again he came to know that her father had died and she no longer needed the financial incentives film industry could provide over the publishing. But by then she was his obsession. He had to get her back. When she refused to talk to him, his shrewd, scheming mind went at work again. He found out about her employer, knew which carrot to dangle in front of them, found a relevant book he could actually work with and executed his plan smoothly.

He was punishing her. Yes. That’s what he was doing. At least he couldn’t see anything beyond that. He didn’t see how obsessive he had become about her. He did not find it odd that he had stopped seeing other woman since he had brought her back in his life, even the women who threw themselves upon him. He was focused on defeating her. With all his humiliation and mental torture, she was still not defeated. He needed more control on her life.

And another plan had soon been formed and executed. It got executed faster than he had expected. Leaking anything about their past encounters to media and making such a love story out of it was not his plan, when he had taken her to the party with him. But when he saw the early morning newspaper, he decided to take  advantage. He immediately went to see her mother, who had been terrified of his presence. But he had created many stories in his life, and he had acted enough to play a character for short time in real life too. He had calmed her down. He had assured her of his intentions about her daughter. He had been an absolute gentleman next door with her. No starry airs. We all need love and care. And he had found that in her daughter, and she in him. He would keep her happy. Her daughter cared about her. And she was scared that her mother wouldn’t bless this relationship. That’s why she hadn’t spoken about it. But now it was out in the media. He wouldn’t want to be the reason for any tension between mother and daughter. He could not even mistakenly dream of giving them any grief. He was really sorry for the leak. He will find the person responsible and fire him. But if he could get her blessings, his life would be complete. Even if not, she shouldn’t hold Karishma responsible for anything. His heart would break if that happened.

The old woman was charmed. But the real surprise had been Karishma. She had capitulated far too easily. It didn’t make sense. She didn’t fight. She didn’t look defeated either. What was going on?

He realized now that probably she was the one playing games this time. She intended to humiliate him now. She had started it. By walking out on him on their wedding night. The idea angered him. He sprang out of the bed and rushed towards the other room. He had to show her her place. He had to crush her, defeat her.

—

The door was unlocked. He went in. The night lamp was on, but she was not there on the bed. He looked around. The door to the balcony was open. He tip-toed towards it. He could make out her silhouette. And there was some sound… What was it? He switched on the balcony-light. She was startled and turned towards him. The scene before him took him by surprise. Her face was swollen and red from crying. She had fallen silent for a moment due to the scare switching on of the light created, but she was not in control. Despite not wanting to do it in front of him, she sank down and cried piteously.

Siddharth’s anger was replaced by a feeling of wretchedness, he could not understand. He stood rooted to his place for several seconds unable to react in any other way. “You are crying?” he finally said foolishly.

His question angered her. She sprang up from the ground violently. Her reaction was so sudden than Siddharth was startled into taking a step back.

“I am crying. Yes. I am crying,” she was clenching her teeth and fist in anger, “Is that a problem too, Mr. Siddharth Sen? You want to control even my crying?”

“But you never cry. I have never seen you crying. Or defeated,” Siddharth was more consumed by his curiosity than affected by her anger.

“I never cry before you. Nobody should ever cry before a man like you.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Karishma was incredulous, “Why? Did you ask that? That is the answer to your question. If someone cries before you, you do not think of comforting them. You wonder why you could not make them cry earlier. Right? Oh! Wait… Is this what it has all been about? You had wanted to see me cry? That’s what you had been waiting for?”

Siddharth was transfixed. He did not say a word.

“You are worse than disgusting,” Karishma continued, “You are not worthy of being called human. If I had it in me… If I had even slightest of your wonderful qualities in me, I would have made your life living hell. But I am not sure I can stoop to the level that can make a monster like you hurt. You seem very interested in my hurt and my tears. If it satisfies your ego, then you should know this. When you had me fired from my job, when you made be wait days to beg you for a job I should never have lost, when you literally kept me with you like a prisoner and a slave, when you insulted me – I felt all that humiliation. I was not immune to it. There was hardly a night when I did not cry myself to sleep. That’s what you had wanted? Then be satisfied that you had achieved it. Long back. The reason I could not back off or break down was that unlike you, I did not have the luxury to indulge my ego. Unfortunately, I could not even nurture my self-respect, because it was the question of little comforts my father could enjoy in his painful last days. That was my biggest and only concern, not you or your insults. Not even the fact that I could not meet him before his death because you wouldn’t release me from your prison. You made me dance to your tunes again – because I cared for the people who had employed me, who let put a roof over mine and my mother’s head, when you had closed all the doors for me in this industry you own. You are a clever man. Of course, your big, inflated ego already knows it. You had shown them the dreams and the only way to achieve that was for me to sacrifice my ego and self-respect again. And yes – you succeeded once again. In scaring me, in insulting me, in humiliating me. Are you at peace now? You got what you wanted? Why don’t you leave me alone at least now? For God’s sake, LEAVE!”

And he did leave!

—

“Where had you gone?” Siddharth asked anxiously when she came back after dropping her mother to the railway station the next day.

“What happened? You thought I had escaped your torture chamber?”

“I was worried. You weren’t picking up your phone,” he was almost meek. But Karishma wasn’t paying attention to that.

“News for you. Your wife is not going to take it all like a slave. I am not a helpless employee of yours. You might want to find your next muse to torture.”

“You had your lunch?”

“What new game is this now? Stop pretending to be a worried husband,” she walked away and locked herself in the room she had claimed for herself.

—

“Hi Ramesh. Come in. So nice of you to come here. I was getting bored crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s.”

“I have no clue what you are talking about,” Ramesh smiled back. She had asked him to be sent to her room, when a servant informed her about his arrival.

“Just a jargon. I was editing a manuscript.”

“Why would you do that?”

“My ex-employers agreed to let me work from here. This is my first assignment. You look surprised…”

“By now I should be used to getting surprises.”

“Hmm…” Karishma smiled sadly, “There is no surprise really. Me being here is just a continuation of the saga you know very well. Anyway. How did you manage to evade your work in the middle of a working day?”

“I am here on work Ma’am.”

“Ma’am? Come on! Don’t do that to me.”

“I thought its better to err on the conservative side. Anyway – boss wanted me to give these to you personally and come back with your signatures.”

“On what?”

“VISA application. These are your tickets for UK.”

“Huh?”

“For the shoot.”

“No wonder movies need such high budgets to make. Scriptwriters are expected to be on location?”

“Arr… I guess you should know better… This is personal…. Isn’t it?”

“Oh. Take them back then. I am not going.”

Ramesh looked apprehensive.

“Or leave them here,” she added sensing his discomfort, “I will deal with it myself.”

“No. If you want me to…”

“Ramesh. I don’t want you in this cross fire again. Let me fight it out.”

“I don’t know what sense to make of all this. But if I can still be of any help…”

“I know. You have always been nice to me. I can never forget that.”

“I will leave now. You are not signing the application?”

“No. But you must have some tea before leaving.”

“I had come just after my lunch. Not now. Please Karishma.”

“Okay.”

She threw the VISA application and tickets on his bed in the evening, “I am not going anywhere. The director has the script and he has already made a thousand changes to it.”

“The changes were necessary for…”

“Yeah. That’s not the point. I am not going,” she was still curt, but she did notice that he wasn’t being sarcastic or aggressive.

“It’s a good time of the year to go there. You could visit rest of the Europe too if we get the Schenghen VISA…”

“You enjoy that. I have work to do here,” she stormed out of the room.

—

To be continued