Chapter 8

We rushed to Shvetha's place on the bike. But on reaching, we realised there was no "Shvetha's place". We thought we'd taken a wrong turning and retraced our steps back, but we realised that it was gone. It was blown up. All we could see were dead bodies, of men, women, small kids, pet animals and of course rubbles of the thousand five hundred other things which were part of the household.

Shvetha went paranoid. She couldn't place how it all happened, in fact all she could do is match things as to which stuff among the rubbles were hers and which weren't. She frantically searched for the gold bangle I'd gifted her a couple of years ago, but in vain. What she found in turn, was the head of her seven year old brother. The sight was too hard for her to take. She fainted right there.

When she woke up, I was still there beside her. I refused to show her the bodies of her parents. Both their bodies were destroyed beyond any sort of recognition. The faces were hardly identifiable. I could recognise the clothes they were wearing and hence put one and one together to get two.

She was baffled at the misfortune that had struck her. But then, was it misfortune, or was it .... She immediately understood, it had all been Rasa's idea. But what took me by surprise was, the girl who was madly in love with me, the girl who blindly believed me all the while, based on the words of few others suspected me of being part of the conspiracy. This happened after she asked me if I could marry her then and there. This was when I made my life's biggest mistake. I refused to get married to her without Rasa's permission. She was disgusted, and slapped me tight. Then, wailing, she left the place. As she went off, I saw part of my life going away, but I did not have the words in my mouth to ask her to stay back. I was majorly responsible for all this. After all, Rasa was my father.

I rushed back home, and my father was celebrating his success with his protege. The man who had masterminded the entire thing, Rakesh Goyal, my father's right hand!!