The Other Half

Chapter 30

(1995: Lucknow)

17 year old Shyam Manohar Jha had returned home to his father's employee quarters after a year in Mumbai Law School. It was the first time he noticed that Anjali Malik was not a kid anymore. She was a young, beautiful, chirpy woman in the body of a teenager.

It was the first time since starting school that he had noticed a girl. He had the urge to be near her, but anytime the opportunity arrived, he ran away as if they were monopoles of the same side.

It was one of these times he crashed into Subhadra Malik. She was amused by his tongue tied behavior towards her. With time, they developed a language. Shyam had been motherless since his mother passed away ten years ago. Now, he had Subhadra.

She told him tales. Fairytale, he would think. But he indulged her, nonetheless. And then she told him her biggest secret. Shocked, confused, and sputtering, he had asked her why. She confided that she knew of his intentions towards Anjali. And when the fairytale, the prophecy would hit, Anjali would need him.

To confirm her tales, he took a trip to Allahabad. But what he expected to see was far from reality. He wanted to see Advay, but not like this. Not running, hiding, surviving. Lost in the crowd, he witnessed another befuddling scene. A plump, fat woman saying, "Oh you'll thank me." She turned a corner and disappeared.

Hours later, as he sat waiting for his train home, the same woman sat beside him.

"You're a..."

"Yes."

"What I saw-"

"Was the beginning. Tell me child, what do you think the world would be without a balance of good and evil?"

Shyam looked up at the woman in confusion.

"Shyam Manohar Jha, you have a choice to make."

"I want to... tell them."

"And then what?"

"They'll come get him."

"From where?"

"He's here somewhere."

"He's hidden. Like the other will be."

"What did you do to her, the girl?"

"A necessity you needn't know."

"Will he come home? What do I tell them?"

"Gayatri."

"Gayatri?"

"Tell Subhadra that she's right. Death and destruction are coming."

"How do you- who are you?"

"The woman who got you here."

"I came here to see him, on my own."

"And who do you think, gave Subhadra the right time for you to do that?"

Shyam was dumbfounded. This all was planned? And she, a witch, was the mastermind? Maybe Subhadra Malik was right. Witches are evil.

"You didn't answer my question."

"What?"

"What do you think the world would be without a balance of good and evil?"

Shyam thought. "Unhinged."

There was no answer. She was gone.

(1999: Allahabad)

Shyam was pacing on a small parking space, thankfully empty. Why, oh why, had she called him? Wasn't it enough, that somehow, Anjali had survived the ordeal that she had been put through. He hadn't even been there.