Force that brings us together

True love happens in a dimension beyond human understanding.

-Unknown

His face was bruised with patches of dark maroon colored clots stretching all the way from the jaw bone right up to his right eyebrows. There were stitches on the back of his head and the blood that had flown out of the head wound had flown down from the head through the neck. The dried-up traces of blood were still there behind his ears. Those cheeks that blushed even with a slight expression of love, today seemed all bruised. The doctor came in and said, “we have to take him for the MRI and X Rays.” Ravi’s mother with folded hands and tears in her eyes asked, “please doctor do something, he is my life.” The doctor, a middle-aged guy already tired from working overnight kept his calm and replied gently “don’t worry, we just need to check if his skull is alright, rest all wounds and broken limbs will heal.” Savitri had been looking it all through the windows, it was hard to keep calm when the love of his life was struggling to stay alive. Both Savitri and Ravi’s mother, Namita had passed the last few hours with great difficulty. They had no clue what had happened last night.

Last night Ravi was returning from his office when Savitri was, as usual, waiting for him outside the Pizza outlet in Seemapuri. Savitri’s phone rang; she picked it up and replied “Hi, you are late mister.” Revi replied jokingly “I am there in your heartbeats dear, where else can I be!”, with a little excited tone “I have a surprise for you, my love, better wait for it then give it a miss” and he disconnected the call. Savitri kept waiting for almost an hour but Ravi didn’t come. It was only when she was about to call a taxi that Ravi’s call came. It was not Ravi, but a harsh-sounding man “Madam, I am calling from Shramjeevi hospital in Manglapuri this guy has been admitted, has been badly hurt, can you please inform his family. ’ Savitri was left dumbstruck as if the world around her is revolving and the ground beneath her feet has suddenly disappeared. Within the next few hours, Ravi’s mom and Savitri were there.

Rushed to Ravi’s room Savitri asked “What happened to him, doctor?” The doctor replied “A police complaint has already been filed, Inspector Sanju will give you the details”, and pointed at the man in a police uniform standing at the end of the room with a file in his hand. Inspector Sanju a strongly built tall man with a mustache entered the conversation “Are you both Mr. Ravi’s acquaintances”, they both nodded.”Good, it appears that Ravi had gotten into a brawl with some of the local goons in Mnglapuri, who armed with batons and knives stabbed him, beat his head to toe, and hit him on the head with the baton.” The reason for the fight is still under investigation, we will update the details once we get hold of the culprits.”  Namita said “It’s highly unlikely, Ravi would never enter in such skirmishes, he mostly avoided such places and people claiming he has a lot of other stuff to do” Savitri also interjected “Yes inspector, further he was coming to meet me from Janakpuri as I was waiting for him in Seelampur, there is no reason for him to go back to Manglapuri ” Inspector Sanju looked puzzled and said, “I understand you ladies the investigation is on and I shall take your statements too, let us see how it goes.”

Savitri belonged to a high-class business family the Oberoi’s with a number of political connections. She had a father, mother, and four brothers in her family. Her father Mr. Mahesh Oberoi had been the business tycoon from the Gurugram. Whereas, Ravi belonged from a lower-middle-class family. His father migrated to Delhi in search of work started to work as a supervisor in a small manufacturing firm. Ravi was still in college when his father passed away. After losing his father Ravi took tuition classes for school students and his mother sewed clothes in the nearby boutique in order to eke out a living. After passing out from Delhi University with best in class grades, Ravi got a job with a consultancy firm and started to earn well. He purchased a small house in the suburbs of Delhi and shifted there with his mother. He also purchased a bike to save time in traveling. Every day he used to travel to his office in Gurugram. It was on one such day when he was traveling back from the office during the evening hours that he found a girl waving out to him. He pulled his bike sideways to check. The girl came to him asking for a lift to the DLF Gurugram. Ravi checked his watch and asked her to sit. On the way, he asked her “What were you doing in the middle of the road to Delhi?” The girl replied, “It was my friends from the college, they challenged me that I can’t go back home if they drop me somewhere around Delhi without a phone.”

Ravi asked her address and replied, “Miss your friends do have a point.” He continued, “You wouldn’t have made it, had you not met me today”

“What made you make this judgment?” She asked.

“Firstly, you were standing on the wrong side of the road, which means you had no clue that the way you were going was exactly the opposite of what you are supposed to go. And secondly, you should have waited for public transport like a bus, rather than waving hands to a total stranger, the city is not that safe for a young lady like you.”

Savitri getting his point kept quiet for the rest of the journey. “By the way, I am Savitri,” shaking hands Ravi replied “Ravi.” While Ravi was turning around she again asked “Can you ping me at 989887666, I need to say thanks to you”.

And that’s when the friendship started. It was really strange how within a short time together they fell in love with each other. Once Ravi visited her house in the posh Gurugram locality. She introduced Ravi to all of her family. After Ravi left Savitri’s father Mahesh said to his eldest son “Sambhav! Better look after this guy, check if this middle-class rat makes a hole into our houses. Better keep the scum out.”

After Ravi’s accident, Mahesh instructed Savitri to stay inside the house as some guests are coming. Later that evening a family visited the house and Savitri was asked to sit alongside a guy named Saurabh. The family had old ties with Savitri’s family. All talked like people in a sophisticated high-class page 3 party people. In all of this Savitri missed Ravi and almost laughed at how he would have reacted to these superficial conversations by these people. It was with great effort that Savitri managed to stay away from marriage proposals that seem more like business proposals. As her father Mahesh and elder brother Sambhav would usually say, ”Malhotra’s are ready to lease their land in acres, the Bhutani’s have offered joint ventures in further assignments and why the hell are we still looking for Savi’s affirmation on these marriage proposals.” It was Savitri’s mother who understood and would always find a valid reason to avoid any further escalations.

Time passed and Savitri’s heart missed spending time with Ravi so much so that she was always lost in her dreams, thinking if Ravi is alright or not if he has recovered why he hasn’t called me. Ohh God please take care of Ravi. I have so many things to share with him.

She had tried to call Ravi and aunty so many times but no one would pick up the call.

Then one day, about six months from Ravi’s accident police turned up at the Oberoi house, “Need to talk to Ms. Savitri ” said the inspector followed by a constable and another one still struggling to get down from the police car. Mahesh asked, “what’s it about inspector”. Inspector replied “That we will let you know.” Mahesh called Savitri and the constables cleared the other family members away from the room. She immediately recognized inspector Sanju “Inspector what happened”.

“We didn’t see you since Ravi’s incident”, where have you been?” asked the inspector. Savitri explained her situation to the Inspector. Inspector said “Now I understand the situation completely. The information for you is that Mr. Ravi has recovered well and has been discharged from the hospital last week.”

Savitri was happy to hear the news but was also a bit frustrated at not being able to meet him. Inspector continued “We have also got hold of the goons and it happened so, that they acted on someone’s orders,” Savitri asked, “who was it then?” Inspector said “Someone planned all of this through, to call Ravi to Manglapuri and assassinate him. A call was made to Ravi telling him that his lost wallet was found there, which was a setup. It was ordered by your brother Sambhav and your father Mahesh.”

She was shocked to hear that her father and brother were capable of doing such a heinous act.  “So we are going to arrest them both today as all of their men have already confessed,” Said the inspector. Clarifying all this inspector stood up and went outside with Mahesh and Sambhav already sitting in the Police van.

The rest of the Oberoi family was shocked but in the end, understanding the importance of feelings in personal relationships and that there is a force beyond explanation that brings people together. After a few days Savitri was standing outside the Pizza outlet at Seelampur when Ravi arrived, He still had a small bandage over his head, but seemed to be wide awake and fresh after a long sleep. They hugged and held hands and went into the pizza outlet with nothing but love and care for one another.