The Unventured Passions

In the name of Humanity

"This is the last time I'm bringing my daughter here in the court." Bondita patted Rudhi lovingly, soothing her down. The sweetness of the lollypop had successfully charmed her to instant happiness.

"Infact, we shouldn't have got her out of Tulsipur in the first place." Bondita pouted her lips and gave a concerning look to her husband.

"I know Boudi, not Dada, but I'm to be blamed for this. I had insisted in bringing her here on this trip. I should've made sure that Mani Kaki is always there when you two would be out... I shouldn't have let her leave this morning."
Batuk let out a sigh as he held his arms out letting his niece jump into his embrace willingly.
Batuk was fond of Rudhi. Since the fateful wedding night when Anirudh and Bondita had saved the newborn baby and had decided to adopt her, Batuk was always beside them, supporting them in every way possible.
For six months, Anirudh and Bondita had decided to stay back in their ancestral home in Tulsipur, acclaimatising themselves to the newness of parenthood as well as their conjugal life. But, finally it was time for them to get back to their lives... The future that they had envisioned for themselves.
This trip to Calcutta was a prelude before embarking on the new journey of building their identity. The plan was to get Bondita her admission at the Hindu College whereas Batuk would enroll at the Calcutta Medical College. Anirudh in the meantime had decided to buy a house with modern amenities in the heart of Calcutta, so as to assure that his almost new bride doesn't face any difficulties to commute to her college. However, it was on the second day of this Calcutta trip that Anirudh and Bondita unwillingly got entangled with the Samaresh-Shashi Bala case.

...............................

The giant clock inside the courtroom ran faster than intended. Three hours passed in a jiffy and the defence attorney Lalmohan Chaturvedi brought witness after witness to testify Samaresh's innocence.

"Dada, why can't any of those women whom is he had wronged come to the court to testify against him?"
Batuk hushed in a lowered tone to his elder brother who sat in the row infront of him on the seat designated for the prosecutor.

"Because, few of them are dead, and most of them afraid." Anirudh whispered back.

"Oh... So, you knew about this man's character from before?" Batuk asked him.

"Hm... A textbook definition of a sly monster." Anirudh whispered back as the jury asked if the prosecutor would want to cross question any of the witnesses.

"Yes, My Lord. I would like to ask the last witness, Mr. Sankar, one question."
Anirudh got up from his chair and walked towards the witness box.

"I heard you claimed to be neutral." Anirudh stared directly into the witness's eyes.
"So, Mr. Shankar Raj, as far as I know, you are currently unemployed, and your family background is not financially remarkable either." Anirudh paused.
"May I ask how you came to be in possession of that engraved rare Rolex watch that you are wearing?"

A soft murmur filled the tensed ambience of the courtroom as the judge, juries, defence attorney, everyone looked at the expensive golden watch that Shankar Raj wore in his left wrist.

"I...I... A friend gave it to me." Shankar Raj murmured.

"Oh... I see... The same friend seemed to have given a similar gift to Mr. Samaresh Sarkar as well, the same Rolex watch with his initials engraved on the chain... What a delightful coincidence."
The suppressed murmur increased, reverberating a soft hum inside the courtroom. Samaresh nervously licked his lips repeatedly and made futile attempts to cover his waist watch with his right hand.

"My father gave it to me... On my... On my birthday!" Samaresh suddenly yelped out,  sticking his tongue out a little and running it along his lower lip line once again.
"I don't know how he got one."