“Just a few days left, Vivek, just a few days! What can I do?”
“Pray to God. You've got to be prepared. Talk to her about—”
“Don't! Don't speak like that! Nothing must happen to Kamini, I wouldn't be able to bear it!” Ravi exclaimed. “How can I ask my own wife to make a will? A will is for old people, not for a young woman who's carrying a child!”
“I understand, but sometimes it pays to be practical. If anything happens to Kamini, her half of the property will come to me. Then there'll be nothing for you. All your hard work in the company will prove futile! You've got to talk to her!”
“I don't care if I don't get any share of the property! I just want my wife to live and be happy!”
In the next room, Kamini listened with bated breath. The catch in Ravi's voice brought tears to her eyes.
Oh, Ravi, I love you so much,
she thought. Her heart was racing and her pulse felt unnaturally fast. She fumbled for the glass of water and her tablet. Trembling, she managed to swallow the tablet. Then, with a hand on her heart, she rested against the pillows. Just two days left before . . . before Vivek's prediction came true. Ravi loved her so much, but he just wasn't practical. She had to do something about the will. Not that she knew anything about her inheritance. She'd been so happy and content marrying a handsome guy like Ravi, it had never occurred to her to check out how her money was placed. But perhaps, now, it was time to do it. Time to make a will and leave matters uncluttered and simple.
She stretched out her hand to the mobile phone.
The phone rang shrilly and Sonia lifted the receiver.
“Hello?”
“She's had a relapse, Sonia!” Rita sounded frantic. “I don't know what to do; even the Doctor feels that he's helpless if she herself makes no effort. Sonia, I'm so scared!”
“Calm down. I'll be there in half an hour,” Sonia replied.
She scribbled a note for Jatin and left it on his table. Driving on a cloudy Diwali morning to Prabhat Road was not a pleasant experience. It certainly was an unusually depressing day. Never had the first day of Diwali looked so dull. Not that it had dampened the enthusiasm of people, which was obvious with the clutter of spent firecrackers on the road. Sonia despised crackers, which according to her were a source of menace to humans as well as animals, serving the sole purpose of adding to the air and noise pollution. But it would take a long time for the youth to realize that the bursting of deafening crackers was not an act of valour but an abuse of money!
The orange-and-cream public transport busses rumbled past, almost forcing her off the road. She slowed, allowing the next bus to overtake her. Sonia sighed. Really, it was true that if you could drive in Pune, you could drive anywhere in the world!
A heavy shower, once and for all, would help lift the hazy veil that enveloped the city, she felt irritably. Then she wondered: Why was she suddenly highlighting the negative aspect of life? Was it because it was Diwali and the festival meant everything good and pure? Was it subliminally instigating within her a burning desire to purge the negative—the evil? If so, did she have it in her power to do so, Sonia asked herself.
Minutes later, she drew into the Rane drive. Still no lantern hung from their main door, she noticed idly, and hastened to Kamini's room. She'd imagined a repeat performance, with Kamini full of tears. Instead, a very different sight met her eyes. Kamini lay quietly in her bed, with Rita at her side and Ravi standing in the background. The silence in the room was almost deafening. It was the silence of impending doom.
“What's happening here?” Sonia asked sharply.
“Thank God you're here!” Rita exclaimed. “She won't listen to me.”
“I don't need to listen to anyone. I know when my time has come,” Kamini whispered.
“I've never heard such trash before!” Sonia told her. “You were getting better, Kamini, what happened to make you think like this?”
The sick girl glanced at her husband. Ravi instantly bent forward.
“Do you need anything, dear?” he asked anxiously.
“I wish to talk to my friends. I hate to ask you, but can you go out for a while?”
“Of course!” Surprise flickered over Ravi's handsome face, but he left the room immediately.
Kamini's eyes followed him out, strong affection written in her gaze.
“Okay, shoot, tell me what's the matter,” Sonia pressed.
In halting words, Kamini repeated the conversation she'd overheard that morning. Her soft voice narrated her anguish.
“Did Ravi ask you directly to make a will?” Sonia asked.
“No. He loves me too much for that!”
“So what
did
you do?” Sonia asked.
“I called my lawyer, Advocate Bhate, and asked him to make a will.”
“A will!”
“Yes, but he refused.”
“Refused?” Sonia's voice held sudden hope.
“He said I didn't need to make a will. Because it was already made by my grandparents and it was unchangeable.”
“Oh, I see. . . . Which means that if anything happened . . . your half of the property would go to Vivek. So Vivek was right!” Sonia remarked dryly.
Rita glanced at Sonia, with a sudden gleam of understanding in her eyes. But Kamini shook her head.
“Oh, poor Ravi, I can't even leave my property to him! Even though I know that he's not interested. He has never wanted my money. He's never bothered, never asked me anything about the way the Shirkay property is tied up or if he'll ever get a share of it. But I wish I could do something about it!”
“I'm sure we'll never reach that stage,” Sonia cut in smoothly. “Now just relax. I've gone through your horoscope and found out that there's nothing wrong with you and that nothing whatsoever's going to happen to you. You're just a little stressed out with all this emotional trauma that you've built around yourself. Everything's going to be quite fine. Trust me; can you do that?”
Kamini's eyes welled over with tears, but she nodded.
Sonia turned to her friend. “Rita, can you stay with her today?”
“Of course! I won't leave her alone for a minute,” Rita answered promptly.
“Good. Kamini, I'd like to talk to your lawyer if you don't mind. You have his number, right?”
Mr. Bhate looked at Sonia with narrow shrewd eyes, surrounded by wrinkles. His snowy hair was thick and his eyebrows bushy.
“I've been most concerned about Kamini.” He spoke in a gruff voice. “She called me with a very odd request this morning. Some cock-and-bull story about her dying in the next forty-eight hours and needing to make a will! That, too, on the auspicious occasion of Diwali! I told her it was all trash. A young and healthy girl like her—she's going through motherhood jitters—that's what I told her. But she wouldn't agree, of course. Insisted that I make a will!”
“But there's a problem, right?” Sonia asked.
“Actually, the Shirkay money is tied up quite indisputably. Kamini's father was the elder son and Vivek's father the younger son. Since it was the hard-earned money of Kamini's grandparents, they made a non-contestable will. The agricultural property in the Konkan area was equally divided between the two Shirkay sons. When Kamini's father died in an aircrash, his share of the property went to Vivek's father. Similarly all the property in the city, including the business, was equally divided between Kamini and Vivek. If anything happens to Kamini, then all the property reverts to Vivek. And in the event of Vivek's death, his share of the property will automatically go to Kamini. And nothing can change this will.”
Sonia nodded, her mind churning. It all added up. The three horoscopes and their star combinations stood like a clear picture before her eyes. And they perfectly matched her conclusions. She turned back to the lawyer.
“One last question. Are Ravi and Vivek aware of the contents of the Shirkay will?”
“As far as I know, Vivek is. But does Ravi know? I wouldn't be able to say. I've never had this kind of discussion with him, ever. He could have of course gleaned it out of Kamini, but she herself is pretty ignorant of these affairs.”
“Thank you, Mr. Bhate. You've been of tremendous help to me.” Sonia shook hands with the old man.
“I'm glad to be of help, my dear. I only hope that Kamini will be able to pull herself out of this emotional mess she's tumbled into!”
“Oh, she will, I promise you that!” Sonia said grimly.
Jatin was fooling around the office and watching Television when Sonia breezed into the room. He was about to hastily switch off the TV when he paused and stared at her.
“Wow, Boss, you look splendid in a sari!” he exclaimed. “Why don't you wear it more often?”
“Thanks, but it's not the most practical attire when you have to hop in and out of vans and have work to do.” Sonia grimaced.
“You've got another of those Secret Admirer bouquets,” he told her.
“Toss it in the bin,” she ordered.
“But it says ‘Happy Diwali.'”
“Okay, keep it.”
“What's happening, Boss?” Jatin followed her into the inner office. “You look excited.”
“We're reaching the end of the tale, Jatin.”
“You mean there is a tale here?”
“Yes. I told you, didn't I? Never go by appearances,” she reminded.
“Oh, the joss sticks—I'm afraid I'm all at sea, Boss.”
“Never mind. We've got to go out.”
“But you're just back and it's dark as night outside.”
“Don't blame me if the weather's bad and it looks like eight in the evening at three in the afternoon—a
Diwali
afternoon!” Sonia sighed.
“Okay.” Now Jatin sighed. “Where are we going and what are we doing there?”
“We're going to try and save an innocent woman from being forced to death!”
“You mean . . .”
“That's right. But first I must speak to Inspector Divekar.”
“But your sari . . .”
“Will have to do!”
The thunder clapped with shattering certainty and then relapsed into silence. Sonia, femininely draped in a festive sari, studied the two men seated across from her. Ravi, dressed in casual kurta pajama, looked handsome and dignified. But the anxiety on his face and his restless hands belied his calm stance. Vivek rested his hand on the table, toying with a pen, his eyes on Sonia. Jatin sat beside his boss, unsure of how to proceed, but ready for any instructions.
“I guess you're aware why I've called this meeting this afternoon,” Sonia began, clearing her throat. “I know that both of you are very concerned about Kamini. Vivek, you've predicted her bad physical phase quite accurately, though I, as a responsible Astrologer, would never ever predict death. But there are some who do it, and you did it. You told Ravi about it and both of you discussed it in this very room.”
“What are you getting at?” Ravi asked, a little impatiently.
“What I'm getting at is this: that while you two have been dissecting Kamini's moods and voicing your concerns over her health, she's been an active audience to it all. Listening to your predictions and believing them to be consummately true!”
Ravi gasped. “But that's exactly what we didn't want—for her to ever know!”
“Unfortunately your study is not as soundproof as you would like to believe,” Sonia remarked dryly. “Or ought I to say, the study
is
as soundproof as you would like it to be?”
“What do you mean?” Vivek asked sharply.
“What I mean is quite simple, but I will come to that later. Ravi, you claim that you love your wife a lot. And yet you lied to her. You allowed her to believe that she really would die!”
“I never lied to her. And I wasn't at all aware that she'd overheard us. I trusted the Doctor to diagnose her illness and treat her!” Ravi exclaimed.
“But why haven't you told her about Meena?”
Ravi stared at her with wide eyes. An amused smile lit up Vivek's face and he leaned forward to observe his brother-in-law.
“How do you know about Meena?” Ravi asked Sonia.
“I know a lot of things about all three of you—I have your horoscopes, remember?” Sonia shrugged. “But I repeat: Why didn't you tell Kamini about Meena?”
“I couldn't—I was too ashamed!”
“What Meena did was not your fault,” Sonia pointed out.
“No, but when we got married I hid the fact that I had . . . had a sister—a sister who'd been to prison for being caught in the Red Light Area!”
Vivek's expression changed from amusement to disappointment. A sister?
“It was too humiliating and I didn't want to reveal my relationship with her.”
“Even though she'd reformed and joined the Home for the Old, devoting all her life to the service of needy, lonely women?” Sonia asked gently. “I think that's unfair of you, don't you? Simply signing huge amounts of cheques to relieve your guilt won't help, though I'm sure the money was put to good use. But there's more to life than money, isn't there?”
Ravi blinked at Sonia. “I know what you mean. Maybe it's not too late to make amends?”