Destined to be Together

Chapter 45

It was a normal weekday afternoon and Karishma had just returned home from her shift. Actually, she had been away for the last 2 days on a layover. As usual, she walked straight into the kitchen from the backyard. Unexpectedly, to her surprise, Pushpaji was not there, as she usually would be around at that time of the day.

She just walked into the drawing room calling loudly, “Amma I am home.”

But after getting no response, she got a bit suspicious as her mind gushed with thousands of thoughts. This is because she spoke to Pushpaji before boarding the flight, which took place mostly at night according to their time zone. While she said that she would be at home and would prepare lunch for them, she did not inform her about any appointments. In order to find her, Karishma headed to Puspaji's room. She could sense something was wrong. She brushed off the thoughts, took a deep breath, with a shivering hand opened the door, and saw what must have been the most shocking sight of her life.

Everything on the table was scattered around the room after the table fell. This created a bit of a mess in the room, as several pieces of broken glass were scattered across the floor and water was spilled everywhere. She gulped in fear as sweat buds appeared on her forehead. However, still unpersuaded, she dialed Pushpaji’s number but to her disappointment, the phone started ringing in the room itself. 

As she looked around, she moved towards the sofa and bent down to pick up the phone that was underneath it. With a heavy heart, she was sure now that her Amma was not well and that something had happened to her. She began to panic as she was not able to understand what to do. She fell on her knees and tears began to roll down her cheeks, which she had been holding back for a long time. 

"Amma kuch nahi hoga aapko kuch bhi nahi," murmured Karishma like a maniac.

Suddenly something clicked in her mind. She got up and wiped her tears while dialing Haseena's number but to her disappointment, she did not answer her call. She tried calling a few more times, but still got no answer from her end. In frustration, Karishma punched her fist in the air. 

Karishma ran outside and was about to get her bike when a neighbor came running towards her and asked, "Is Mrs. Singh all right now?"

Karishma was on the verge of crying and asked, "Aunty, I just came, can you help me with what exactly has happened?"

“Don't worry beta,” replied the neighbor aunty, rubbing her back and saying, “I don't know much. I saw the responder team come over and drive Mrs. Singh to the hospital. I guess she was unconscious," giving all the information she knew. 

Karishma felt her legs weak, as she would not be able to stand, so she stepped back and supported herself on the bike. Tears streamed down her eyes.

As the lady kept her hand on her shoulder, she said in assurance, "Don't worry everything will be alright, they must have taken her to the city hospital."

Karishma was completely freaked out but immediately wiped her tears and thanked the lady and got on her bike and headed towards the hospital.

For Karishma, the distance to the hospital was strenuous. She was getting blurry vision because of tears and all the disturbing thoughts were constantly consuming her mind. But reaching her mother as soon as possible and seeing her well was the only thing that kept her firm. Every second felt like years to her. With her incredible speed, she reached the hospital in no time. After getting all the information from the reception, Karishma ran down the stairs and finally made her way into the emergency room. There, she saw Pushpaji lying unconscious with all the IV tubes and wires of different monitoring devices attached to her body.

“Amma,” she called out loudly and ran towards her. Her voice drew everyone's attention in the room and the doctor ordered the staff to take her outside so they could examine her properly.