My Destination, My Bondita (3)

358 - The Return of Saudamini Bhoumik 😱

The conversation with Bhoumik Babu didn't go the way that Anirudh was envisioning. 

In fact, it went in a completely opposite way. 

He had stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him, to make sure there was a barrier between Bhoumik Babu and Bondita. 

Anirudh should have known... 

He should have known that Mini would be released from jail.

Her sentence was served...

Yet, he forgot. 

He forgot that Saudamini existed, in his life with Bondita. 

His attention had been focused on Bondita. Raising her, teaching her, guiding her. Falling for her, loving her, going through beautiful chaos with her. 

Saudamini was not even on his radar in all of these years. 

"Anirudh," Bhoumik Babu said, as Anirudh looked at him with an stern expression. "Even I don't want to come to you like this. What face do I even approach you with? After what my daughter did to you, after what she did to Bondita..."

"To Saurabh," Anirudh whispered, his heart aching as he recalled the servant who was his best friend. 

Saudamini had kidnapped Bondita, and tried to murder her. But instead of Bondita, it was Saurabh who died... while saving Bondita. 

"To... him too..." Bhoumik agreed. 

"If you know what she did. If you don't even want to come to me. Then why? Why are you here?" Anirudh asked, looking at Bhoumik Babu with a sorrowful expression. "Why do you want to talk to me?" 

"Because I need your help," Bhoumik confessed. 

Anirudh stared at him blankly. 

What kind of help would the father of a murderer want?

"My daughter... she..." Bhoumik looked down with shame, and then brought his hands up in a form of pleading. "She... doesn't remember what she did." 

Anirudh looked at Bhoumik with disbelief. 

Bhoumik Babu continued, "The jail informed me... that they released her. And they told me what happened to her, in jail." 

Suddenly, the man started to tremble. 

Anirudh watched Bhoumik Babu shake, and his heart dropped immediately. 

After he embraced fatherhood... the mere sight of another father pining for his child was difficult for him to face. 

Still, he remained calm, and continued to watch him sternly. 

"W - when she went to jail, she was never treated well. She was the chhodi hui aurat of a Britisher -- someone who was left behind by her British husband, so they treated her very badly. And most of the prisoners were Indian... they... I guess, they felt like she ditched their country. And they hurt her. They hurt her badly," Bhoumik Babu said, a lone tear rolling down his cheek. "They kept the females and males separate. But the females were vicious... and the officers were male. The officers they abused her. Hurt her." 

Anirudh couldn't help the ache in his heart as he heard how she was treated. Even if she committed a crime, her sentence was given by the judge in court. How could others abuse her from within the walls? 

And officers too on top of that? 

What kind of law were they upholding by doing this? They were only taking out their own frustration... not doing anything else!