Unreachable Destiny- The Curse Of Your Love

Chapter-10: Every Encounter They Could've Had.

As soon as they reached the camp, Ranav searched for the woman whose duppata was now in his possession. He was just behind the buses during the journey and had no idea how he lost track of the bus the woman was sitting in. By the time they reached, he entered the bus but the woman was not there. Since he hadn't looked at her face properly, he had no chance of knowing who it was except for the fact that it was a woman. He asked every woman on the bus if that was theirs but none of them claimed the duppata and it remained with him. 

Maya placed her luggage in the tent and went to the main tent where the sickbeds were present. She did her rounds, asking each and every patient how they were feeling. A few of the doctors stay here at the camp on weekends while the others either go back home or stay in a nearby hotel if their homes are too far. It is going to be Maya's turn the week after the next weekend and she can't help how glad she feels that she can stay away from home. Kuhu's birthday is around that time and everyone is planning to throw a birthday party, even Aditya joined in, and Maya definitely doesn't want to be a part of it. She can barely stomach the fact that she is staying in the same house as that of her mother's murderer.

"How are you feeling this morning, Dadi?" She asked the grandmother who came in five days ago with a high fever and due the her age, she had to be monitored until she got better.

"Much better, Beta." The grandmother said, clearing her throat. "When can I go home?"

Maya checked her temperature that had been taken this morning, and replied, "This evening, if you take good rest." Maya takes out the morning medicine prescribed for the grandmother and hands her the medicine along with a glass of water. She then proceeds to pull the blanket over her much closer, to prevent the cold air from entering.

"Thank you for taking care of me so well. Thank the other nurses for watching over me day and night."

"I will do that and it is our duty, Dadi. You should take some rest now. I will come again in the evening and take the temperature and if the temperature is moderate, I will check you out and you can go home to your granddaughter and finally make her the lentil soup she likes so much." The grandmother's name is Vasumathi and since she came to the camp, all she had been talking about was her granddaughter who loves her cooking. While Maya shares some smiles with her patient, Ranav looks at the interaction from afar. He was standing there, having nothing to do after stocking the medicine in the store room, and noticed the doctor carefully tucking the patient in the bed. He smiled at their interaction and took a seat at the front table. From where he was, he could not really make out her face but the bangle she was wearing looked familiar. He tried to remember where he had seen the bangles but couldn't remember. The week passed uneventfully yet again and the weekend arrived far too quickly. Maya had already discharged Mrs. Vasumathi that evening and had other new patients assigned. Luckily none of them had any major health problems that required them to stay at the camp and had left after getting treated, so she doesn't have to worry about them staying at the camp while she rests back at home.

Ranav hadn't given up the idea of returning the duppata and had handed it over to the staff to return it to whoever it belonged to but none of them had enough time to ask around and eventually, he took it back on Friday, in case he gets a chance to return it to her in the future.

Maya returned home to a spectacle. The house was in chaos with drapes covering the walls and paint buckets lying everywhere. There were men on ladders working on painting the walls a chestnut brown colour as Maya carefully walked around the lying buckets and went upstairs quickly. She finds her brother munching on a huge packet of Lays with his feet crossed and watching something on the TV with great concentration.

"What is happening?" Aditya jumps at his sister's voice, almost swearing and risking his backside at the expense of her sister's anger. He sits up straight and smiles with a cheekiness that Maya does not appreciate.