“I will be at the temple, Chachi. Don’t cook lunch for me,” Karishma told Geeta when she stepped out of the house. And she hadn’t lied. She did indeed spend the time until afternoon in the temple, while Siddhartha was at the university. After that she went to his home.

“I wanted to ask you something, Prof. Sen…”

“Karishma. You are no longer my student. Can’t we drop this ‘Sir’ and ‘Prof. Sen’? Just call me Siddhartha.”

She smiled nervously, “One doesn’t stop being a student.”

“Fine. One can start being friends? Or… just acknowledge the friendship that I believe already exists.”

Karishma felt happy and sad at the same time. “I’ll try. But it is also a matter of habit. So…”

“Try.”

“Okay.”

“You were asking something.”

“Yeah… That… I was wondering… Did you ever consider adopting?”

Siddhartha let out a sigh and spoke after a pause. “I did. I researched and came pretty close to… But then it didn’t feel right. A child should have a home and should be loved for its own sake. It didn’t feel right that I should bring one only to relieve me of my loneliness.”

“Will you… adopt my daughter?”

“Excuse me?”

“I sympathize more with Anna today, Prof. Sen. Sometimes circumstances push you to the edge… And I’m going crazy in my desperation to save my child.”

“What are you talking about Karishma?”

She told him about her predicament.

He was aghast as expected. “This is bizarre, Karishma. Don’t you… Wouldn’t you like to bring up your daughter on your own? Get out of there.”

“I have considered everything. I would have fought an ideological battle, if I were fighting for someone else’s child. My sister-in-law’s, for example. But when I think of this little creature, not even born yet, I don’t want her to fight for justifying her existence. I want to welcome her to the world like every child deserves and give her a loving home. If my family got involved, that will never happen.”

“Karishma. Don’t take it as my unwillingness, when I am trying to get you to explore all options. I just want to make sure…”

“That I don’t take a decision with which I have to stick all my life without really knowing what it entails. I understand you, Prof. Sen… Siddhartha. But I have made up my mind.”

He thought for a while; then said, “In that case, Karishma, let’s discuss some technicalities.”

Siddhartha had done his research on adoption earlier. And there were hurdles. She couldn’t give her daughter for adoption without his husband’s consent. Both parents required to make a decision. The workaround for that was to possibly leave the baby in an orphanage anonymously, from where Siddhartha could adopt her. But the adoption rules prevented a single man from adopting a girl child.

Karishma looked hopeless. She hadn’t thought of the technicalities at all. Siddhartha paced in the room, while she sat slumped on a chair. Suddenly he stopped and asked, “Have you already been to a hospital here?”

“No.”

“Then I have a plan. It might be as bizarre as the situation, but…”

“Anything for my daughter, Prof. Sen.”

—

“I don’t understand. What exactly have you come here for?” Geeta could not ignore Siddhartha dropping her home a second time.

“Sit down, Chachi, and listen to me. I have come here neither to do any penance, nor to find a lover. I have come here to save my daughter and I will do it.”

“What are you talking about? What daughter?”

“Don’t be alarmed. Again, it is not from a lover, but from my dear husband himself. Unfortunately he would do nothing to save her.”

“You are pregnant, already?”

“Yes. And with a girl child.”

“You had planned all this?”

“Yes.”

“Lord help me. What are you getting into? And what are you dragging me into? I could never have thought you are capable of so much deceit…”

“And I had never thought that you were capable of killing babies before they were even born. My in-laws never go there themselves, do they, Geeta Chachi? They always send you with the hapless mother to get it done in some shady clinic. Do you think God is not keeping a tally for you? Now is the time to do your penance. Help me save this girl and God might forgive you.”

But Geeta was worried for herself. “What am I to do… What will they do to me…”

“Geeta Chachi. Help me; go with my plan; and nobody needs to know anything. We will go back at the end of one year as planned.”

“How on earth in that possible? How can people not know such a thing?”

“I will tell you how…”

Geeta was still unsure after hearing the plan. “It’s just too much… too much…”

“Geeta Chachi. I am hoping that you have some kindness in your heart. And you will help me out of that kindness. But remember this, I am determined about it. If anyone questions my daughter’s right to live, I will question the entire world’s right to live. I will kill people if I have to. At the very least I will call police and hand you over to them. But don’t get me wrong Geeta Chachi. I am not wicked. I am just a desperate mother.”

Her determined monologue did mellow down Geeta slightly. “You have done a brave thing, my child. But I don’t know… If someone should come to know…”

“Then I will disappear with my child and you can tell them that I have run away with a lover. You don’t need to own anything.”

Karishma was prepared for that eventuality too. She had brought all her jewelry with her. That was her last resort to get money needed to bring the child in the world and to sustain herself for a while.

Now that she had enlisted Geeta’s help, even if with reservations, she was relieved. She called Mou and updated her.

—

To be continued