Chapter 5:
Scene 1:
Location: Gagodia mansion, Swara’s room
Shekhar enters Swara’s room and asks her to get ready. She refuses.
Shekhar: now nobody could stop your marriage. Go and get ready!
Swara: you are right dad! Nobody could stop this marriage and it happened.
Shekhar: what do you mean?
Swara: I mean that I am married.
Shekhar: what? Are you kidding me?
Swara: no dad! I am married. I married someone six months ago. (Shekhar slaps her) and this was the reason I did not wanted to marry Sparsh.
Shekhar: you little filthy girl! I will kill you. You brought shame to our family. I will never forgive you. (Shomi comes and takes him from there. She comes to Swara and tries to change her mind)
Shomi: Swara! We can do much more still. Just take divorce from that guy and I promise we will never mistreat you or even ask you about this.
Swara: no mom! Nobody can change my decision. Marriage is not a joke. It is sacred and I am telling you that I am not going to apply for divorce.
Shomi: please Swara!
Swara: no mom! I am not changing my decision even if you kill me. I am not afraid of death. (Shomi goes from there in anger and she calls Sanskar again)
Scene 2:
Location: Maheshwari mansion, Sanskar’s room
Sanskar sees the caller ID and gets happy to see Swara’s name. He attends the call in jolly mood.
Sanskar: hello wifey!
Swara: shut up! Don’t call me that. I am not your wife.
Sanskar: but you married me few hours ago.
Swara: stop your non-sense and listen to me carefully.
Sanskar: yeah! I am listening.
Swara: my husband has to send a court notice to my house for belfry.
Sanskar: your husband, means…. Me?
Swara: unfortunately, yes! You have to say that Gagodia family has kept me forcefully over there. I thought that dad will bash me out of the house but he says that he will make me divorce from you and if this cannot happen, then also he will marry me to Sparsh without caring that I am married to you.
Sanskar: ok! Don’t worry! I will apply for belfry.
Swara: thank you and ….. take care of yourself. Be careful. They should never reach you at any cost.
Sanskar: ok bye!
Swara: bye! (Cuts the call and sits there tensely. Her father enters her room in anger and starts shouting)
Shekhar: you freaking b*t*h! Who is that?
Swara: who?
Shekhar: (clutches her hairs tightly) that bastard who married you. (he spit in venomous tone)
Swara: you will get to know soon.
Shekhar: what do you mean?
Swara: he has applied for belfry and now I will be free from this hell.
Shekhar: (slaps her twice) hell! Huh? Hell? (Slaps her) this place looks like hell to you? I will make sure you see hell. I kept you after you were born. I provided you with all the facilities and luxuries. I loved you and raised you, not for this shame. And let me tell you that I am going to shift you in a secret place tomorrow morning. Then I will see what this belfry could do and I will also kill your husband. Then I will see how you will escape from marrying Sparsh! (Goes out and she sits there crying. She decides to tell Sanskar to send belfry tonight. She dials his number but that was off. She was pacing to and fro in the room when her eyes laid on the window of Sanskar’s room.)
Scene 3:
Location: Maheshwari mansion, dining hall.
Sanskar was sitting and having dinner when Saabira informed him.
Saabira: poor Swara bibi! I feel pity on her. (he dropped the chunk of food back in the plate and looked at her)
Sanskar: what happened?
Saabira: woh ji! Mr. Shekhar beat her very ruthlessly. She is having marks also. She only refused to marry and her father is ready to kill her for that.
Sanskar: (stands up angrily) what? He beat Swara?
Saabira: yes sir! She is now lying in her room.
Sanskar: how dare he touch her? I will kill him. How dare he beat my Swara? (he gets up and walks towards the door. Sabira tries to stop him but he does not listen. When he opens the door, his friend Raj who helped him with marriage comes and sees him.)
Raj: hey angry young man! Where are you going and to murder whom?
Sanskar: (gritting teeth) Mr. Shekhar Gagodia. He beat Swara very ruthlessly and I am going to set his brains right. He cannot treat her like that. Now he will know what are the consequences of messing up with Maheshwari family.
Raj: but he did not beat any member of your family.
Sanskar: Swara is my wife and now she is member of Maheshwari family.
Raj: that was only paper marriage. Don’t keep your expectations high.
Sanskar: I don’t need your lectures. Get aside!
Raj: (clutches him and drags him inside) are you mad or what? You are going there all alone? Have you thought what will be the results. They can kill you right there and most importantly our secret would be out. All people would know that it was you who married her and when your parents will come to know, they will throw you out. Then how will you help her?
Sanskar: but she is living there in hell. My Swara is in problem and I cannot sit here and watch all this like a show.
Raj: (smiling) so you have developed feelings for her?
Sanskar: what? No ways!
Raj: yes ways, my dear friend. You have started loving her. In fact, you were in love with her when you met her first time.
Sanskar: (confused) but how?
Raj: you never comply with the orders of anyone but you obeyed her every order silently when you slit your wrist. Then you went to meet her in book shop where she insulted you but you were enjoying that. You will be the last person which she wants to see but still you always want to see her. You did not knew her well but still you agreed to meet Adarsh Bhattia and request him to help her and when he refused, you happily jumped in the middle and married her. She hates you to the core but when you got the news that she was beaten by her father badly, you are going to confront her father. Do you think it will work and they would agree to hand her over to you? And suppose if you succeed in convincing her parents, will she agree to live with you? When she herself said that she will get divorce once she gets out from there, it clearly means that she does not likes you. She will never agree for this.
Sanskar: (frustrated) then what should I do?
Raj: wait my friend wait! Till she starts trusting you.
Sanskar: I don’t have much time. His father is marrying her to her fiancé tomorrow and I have to do something.
Raj: ok fine! Go to your room and rest. I have to plan something.
Sanskar: be quick! (he comes to his room)
Scene 4:
Location: Maheshwari Mansion, Sanskar’s room
Sanskar hears a knock on his window and gets alert. He moves to the other side and sees Swara standing. He quickly opens the window and lifts her up. His face is near her hairs and he smells them. He puts her down and asks her.
Sanskar: what are you doing here? Do you have any idea of the results if the security would have seen you or dogs would have catched you? You should take care of yourself.
Swara: why did you stopped? Speak up dammit! If something is left in your lecture, you can demonstrate me that also. Idiot!
Sanskar: you are calling me idiot?
Swara: yes!
Sanskar: sorry to say this wifey! But you are bigger idiot than me. I accept that I am an idiot who married you but you are bigger idiot who came to meet me here secretly.
Swara: hey! Don’t call me that.
Sanskar: what?
Swara: wifey! I am not your wife.
Sanskar: jokes apart, why are you here?
Swara: dad is shifting me to a secret place tomorrow morning. Then belfry could not do anything. I needed to escape and I only knew you. So I came here.
Sanskar: what? You could have told me on the phone.
Swara: (sarcastically) if you have not kept your phone off, I would not have to come here. Dear husband!
Sanskar: I am honoured that you called me that.
Swara: shut up! (raises her index finger on him and he sees bruises on her hand and arm. This reminds him of the fact that she was beaten up by her own father. He suddenly gets angry and clutches her wrist tightly and drags her to bed and makes her to sit there.) hey! What are you trying to do?
Sanskar: keep your mouth shut else I will bang your head in the wall. Understand? (she sits there silently and he removes the cloth from her arm but she resists)
Swara: what are you doing, man? Don’t try to take advantage of situation. I am stuck here because I didn’t want to marry that brat. (tries to snatch her hand from him and he holds it more tightly)
Sanskar: stop wiggling, love!
Swara: don’t irritate me by calling me that.
Sanskar: fine. You sit here. I will just come. (he goes in dressing room and after some time, comes out with balm) I will apply this on your bruises.
Swara: give it to me, I will apply myself.
Sanskar: keep quiet and sit here. (he starts applying and she resists)
Swara: stop it.
Sanskar: shut up! I am your husband.
Swara: only in papers.
Sanskar: shut up! And don’t irritate me else I will cut your other hand too. Understood.
Swara: you can’t force me.
Sanskar: I know and I will not. Now stop moving. (he applies balm to her bruises and sits with her) now what will be our…. Oops! I mean your next step.
Swara: I will go to other city and talk to Adarsh. He will definitely help me.
Sanskar: (gets angry hearing his name and shouts) why can’t you understand that he will never help you. He said it clearly to you many times. And now he is married! (he lied in order to make her stay with him)
Swara: what?
Sanskar: yes! His parents married him earlier as they wanted to get rid of you as soon as possible.
Swara: then I will go to the college hostel and then do something. I can stay with any of my friends there.
Sanskar: you have to stay here tonight. I will take you there tomorrow.
Swara: no, when my family would come to know that I have escaped, they would tighten the security and I will not be able to go anywhere. So we should leave as soon as possible.
Sanskar: fine! Come with me. (He leads her to his sports car in porch. She hides her face behind the veil of her shawl so no servant saw her face. They were near to Rishikesh when he stopped the car near a workshop. She looked at him questioningly.)
Swara: why you stopped?
Sanskar: I forgot to take a spare tyre with me. So I want to check on them and also I would check the whole car so it would take time. Come! (he leads her towards an inn and sat there with her. They ordered their food. He was very restless as he wanted to stop her at any cost. He wanted to live his whole life with her. But she hated him. She wanted to get rid of him. He could not tell his feelings to her. He was barely controlling his tears looking at her. He was thinking) after some hours, I will lose my love for ever! I pray to God that he should do some miracle and she should agree to live with me. I will never irritate her. I will keep her happy always. (Swara heard Bhajan sound and asked a waiter about water. It was in drum. She went near the drum and was standing there. He also went towards her and stood behind her. She was not aware of his presence)
Swara: how will I wash my face from this?
Sanskar: if you don’t mind, I can help you. (she thought for some time and then agreed reluctantly. He took water in pot kept over there and she jerked as she touched the water. He got worried) what happened?
Swara: nothing! This water is ice-cold.
Sanskar: you should be careful else you will fall ill. (takes her hands in his hands and tries to warm her hands up but she snatched her hands)
Swara: this water is not much cold.
Sanskar: but you were saying that this water is ice-cold, then what happened?
Swara: time will go and I don’t want to leave my prayers for this stupid reason. (she washes her face removing the shawl which was covering her hairs and her first time saw her hairs which were hanging down her waist. He also saw a locket which became prominent when she caressed her neck. It was a small pendent with a pearl hanging down. He noticed a very expensive ring in her right-hand finger. She went to Mandir while he sat there. He saw her singing bhajan and doing pooja. After sometime, they were in car. He wanted to talk to her but she was busy looking outside the window. After sometime, he started speaking.)
Sanskar: so what is the basic reason for your escape? Adarsh, right?
Swara: no.
Sanskar: don’t you love him?
Swara: of course I love him but that is not the reason.
Sanskar: would you please tell me that what is in him that you fell in love with him?
Swara: he was very good at singing bhajans.
Sanskar: (surprised) what? Then I tell you I have a very mesmerising voice. And I bet it will be better than him.
Swara: what do you mean? Are you thinking that I will spend my whole life with you? A person who does not know what is religion? A person who has not left any sin of the world. He drinks, dances shamelessly, watches dirty things, involved with many girls, who tried to attempt suicide four times and who knows how much will be the number after some years just to find the next stage to ecstasy, who has never gone to Mandir in his life and many more things which I don’t know. Don’t expect that I will choose you as my life partner. It will never happen.
Sanskar: it was not suicide. I just wanted to experience what is next to ecstasy.
Swara: pain
Sanskar: what is next to pain?
Swara: nothingness.
Sanskar: and what is next to nothingness?
Swara: (irritated) hell!
Sanskar: what is next to hell?
Swara: (angrily) what do you want next to hell? The extremity where all the things end and the extremity of all the feelings, what will be next to it? Don’t you feel afraid? You should pray to God to not show you all this.
Sanskar: I don’t get your philosophy. I am unable to understand this. It is going above my head!
Swara: you will not understand now but you will understand it all when right time will come. And then you will be afraid of death, grave and hell. Then you will be afraid of everything. You will be afraid of God.
Sanskar: I have seen Adarsh. He has a usual face, he is not wealthy. I still don’t understand why you fell in love with him. He is nothing in front of me.
Swara: he loves God very much. And this quality is above the all so-called qualities of you.
Sanskar: I hope your perception is changed about me.
Swara: what perception?
Sanskar: that I am a bad guy who don’t care about anyone. I am selfish etc etc.
Swara: if I didn’t know about you, then my answer would be definitely yes. But unfortunately, my answer is no because I know you completely. But still I thank you for all that you have done for me. If somebody else was in your place, he would never have helped me like you did. So, thank you very much.
Sanskar: if you hate me this much, then why did you asked me for help?
Swara: because I didn’t know anyone except you and a girl could not help me in the way you did.
Sanskar: so where would you go? I will drop you there.
Swara: I don’t know where!
Sanskar: you don’t know where to go? And still you are refusing to live with me. What is the guarantee that you will not fall in any trouble?
Swara: I have full faith in God. I came out of my house due to the sole reason that I don’t want to spend my life with someone who does not believes in God and I am sure God will never let me fall in any trouble. He will never let me fall.
Sanskar: so you have very much belief in your God.
Swara: yeah! I trust my God more than anything.
Sanskar: so if I call your family and tell them that you are with me, then what would you do? (he typed her father’s number on his mobile phone and showed it to her ad then erased it and threw it behind him) but I am good. I will not do it. (he smiled and only she knew how much she hated that dimple of him which appeared on his left cheek) Or if I lock the doors of my car and take you forcefully with me, who would stop me? Tell me what would you do then?
Swara: (confidently) I will shoot you.