Reunion (Part 13)
Another year later…
“Miss!”
“Sumedha, what happened?”
“My Baba is here.”
“Why are you crying?” he came every year to pick her up for summer vacation.
“He is ill, Miss. Very ill.”
“Where is he?”
“In the guest house. Unconscious.”
“What? Oh God! Doctor… did you…”
“They called the doctor. I am so worried… What will happen to him?”
“Come with me. Stop crying, nothing will happen.”
In these five years, she had prayed every single day for his well-being. From the fragments of Sumedha’s report of summer vacations, she had suspected that he was not in the best of his health. But she hadn’t imagined it to be this bad.
“Drinking! He cannot afford another drop of alcohol,” the doctor told Piyali as she took charge of the situation at the guesthouse, “His liver will give way!”
She gasped in horror. Mukundo Babu! Uncontrolled drinking? She looked around to ensure that Sumedha had not heard it; then escorted the doctor outside.
—
“Take the key, Sumedha, go to my house and stay there. I had cooked lunch; help yourself to it. And don’t worry about your Baba. Just let him rest for a while, and then he would fine. Okay? Can you do this for me, Sumedha?”
After reassuring Sumedha and sending her away, she shut the door to the room without locking it and sat on a chair beside his bed. She took his hand in hers, closed her eyes and started chanting all mantras from Durga Shaptashati that her mother had made her memorize as a child. In between, when she could not contain herself, she prayed to the Goddess in her own simple words. “Spare him, Ma, spare him. He is not guilty. I am. How will I ever face Sumedha should something happen to him? Take my life, Ma, and spare him!”
She did not realize that he had gained consciousness, until he spoke. “You came?” Her heart stopped. That voice, after so many years! Weak, but unmistakably his. She opened her eyes slowly, as if afraid that it was a dream that will break if she hurried through anything.
“I’m very happy to see you,” he spoke again, smiling, with an effort.
“What have you done to yourself? Oh God! I am sorry. I am sorry, Mukudo Babu.”
“Sorry? For what?”
“For everything. For everything I did. I am so ashamed of even apologizing…”
“But I love you. More than ever.”
She broke down completely and started sobbing, burying her face in her hands.
“What is going on?” The door was pushed opened suddenly and Sumedha barged in, panting. “Why are you crying, Miss?” She looked at her father and burst out. “What did you tell her to make her cry? What did you do to her?”
“Sumi…” Mukundo was baffled. He was only half-awake and had imagined it all to be dream. Only now did he become aware that Piyali was indeed there. In the guesthouse of his daughter’s school. He tried to sit up, but was stopped by Piyali. Her face was tear-stained, but startled by Sumedha’s entry, she had stopped crying.
“I was too young. I came here silently, when you gave up on me – yet again. I had believed that since I was motherless, there was no other option. But that innocent delusion could not last long, could it? I still had my father. He could still have given me a home. But no! He chose not to. Four weeks in a year – that was all he had for me. Four bloody weeks. All through this, who was one person who made me feel wanted? Who was one person who loved me, welcomed me at any hour, nursed me through sickness, helped me with studies, treated me when I won prizes, and gave me shoulder to cry on? It was her, Baba. For my sake, she came here to look after you. And this is what you have for her too? Tears? What did you do to make her cry?”
Piyali had collected herself by then. “Enough Sumedha. You are out of your mind. Is this the way to talk to your Baba?”
“Oh! You are on his side now, are you?”
Piyali was tongue-tied yet again. She had never seen Sumedha like this. If she had always had so much bitterness against her father, she never showed it. Disappointment? Yes. But such vitriolic anger?
“Sumedha. It is nothing like what you have made it out to be. Give us some time. We will explain everything. He did not make me cry. Take my words for it.”
“Why were you crying then?” The child grew embarrassed on realizing that her outburst might have been uncalled for. And that the bitterness she had kept hidden till then was out in the open.
“I will explain. At a suitable time. Now apologize to your Baba. I can’t believe you could say such horrid…”
“No Piyali,” Mukundo still did not understand Piyali’s presence there, but he was more collected than earlier, “She does not need to apologize. She might be wrong about you. But she wasn’t wrong about herself or me. I have failed her. She has every right to be bitter.”
A child’s grudge against her parents, howsoever strongly held, is not like an adult grudge that overshadows all other emotions. Despite her dissatisfaction, despite his failings and absence, her father was the ultimate safe-haven for her. Thinking that she might have alienated him for life, she broke down.
“And now you hate me. You won’t come for me ever again.”
“What has gotten to you, Sumi,” he made to get out of bed, but Sumedha stopped him even before Piyali could. “No! You are not well. Stay in bed.”
“Come here, then.”
He pulled his daughter in his embrace and murmured, “I am sorry. I know how inadequate I have been. You have every right to hate me. But even in my dreams I cannot hate my daughter.”
“Have you eaten?” Piyali asked her gently.
She nodded.
“Do you want to lie down?”
“I will,” she went to the sofa lying in the other corner of the room. Piyali went with her and caressed her head until she fell asleep. Mukundo watched on. It felt like a dream.
—
To be continued