Meherbaan Hua...

5.

Shehnaaz stood there in a daze when she heard somebody calling her. "Sana baby, jaldi andarr aaiye, sab chai peene ke liye aap hi ka intezaar kar re the!", the housekeeper, Shyam kaka called out.

"Kaka!", Shehnaaz greeted and went inside. It was an old tradition in the Kulkarni mansion that after diner, everybody would sit in the living area till midnight and tell everybody about what all happened during the day and drink tea.

Shehnaaz loved this habit of her family. Ever since she was born, she had only seen her parents fighting or her mother crying.

The only person by her side, who could be said as the person who raised her, was her elder brother, Aarav. He was just 4 when she was born, but he dutifully took up the responsibility of an elder brother.

Their mother was a lost cause. She got sick when Shehnaaz had turned 5 and then got divorced with her husband. Earlier she refused to do so, but under the pretense of her illness, Shehnaaz's father divorced her.

That was the time when Shehnaaz and Aarav were brought to their maternal home. Since, Shehnaaz's mother was the youngest and the only daughter, she was pampered.

But after her marriage, she had a falling out with the family. Although, she was given the permission to marry the person she wanted, there was a condition that the person should be approved by her father.

He should have good morals and a clean background. But the person Aradhya chose was none of these and her father, Shehnaaz's maternal grandfather, disapproved.

Nonetheless, Aradhya still went ahead and married him which resulted in a fall out between the family. Although, her father stopped talking to her, Aradhya still had her two older brothers who doted on her.

Now, since Aradhya wasn't around, this doting and love was shifted towards Shehnaaz, who had an uncanny resemblence to her mother and just like her, was the youngest and the only daughter in the family.

Even though all of them loved Aradhya, they were still angry at her, not just because of the marriage but because how she failed to protect and raise her children.

Shehnaaz's maternal grandfather and uncles still remembered the heartbreaking image of both the children when they went there to pick them up.

Aarav was coaxing Shehnaaz to stop crying while Shehnaaz was just so  scared of the terrifying image of her father that she kept on hiccuping.

Her grandpa was so angry at how his grandchildren were being treated that he had almost taken out his revolver that he still had from his army days and shot that man called 'father' right then and there.

It has been about 22 years now and Shehnaaz was never allowed to go back to that house. But still, that didn't mean that they didn't come to find her and Aarav.

When Shehnaaz was 8 and Aarav 12, eveybody found out that Suneil Dewan, their father, had already remarried and they had a daughter of Shehnaaz's age. That was when eveybody understood that Suneil had cheated on Aradhya at the time she was carrying Shehnaaz in her womb.

Everybody tried to keep the news away from Aradhya whose condition was already getting worse day by day, but still it somehow reached her and when it did, her amnesia relapsed and now she didn't even remember her own children.

She was staying in a clinic meant for patients with Amnesia. They had tried psychotherapy on her, but she was still the same. Now, the doctors were thinking about hypnotising her and get back her memories, but Shehnaaz had no hope.

Her mother still sometimes remembered Aarav, but as for Shehnaaz, even before she was born, the fights and disagreements between Aradhya and Suneil had started, so Aradhya never particularly held her.