His Lost Heartbeat

Chapter 3

It has been eight days since Aadhya and Anirudh final conversation but Aadhya didn't give up .She daily arrives at the court , stays till the working hour, observing Anirudh from a far. Whether he is surrounded by crowd or is presenting his argument in the court .

He has noticed her sitting in the public and scribing in her notepad, when he presented his arguments in front of court . He even caught her , behind him, whenever he went out of the court for site visit or for some social work .In short ,in these eight days , Aadhya Awasthi is following him like a shadow,and testing his patience. Till now he has done well in avoiding her .

On the other hand ,Aadhya's patience is also getting  tested by constant ignorance of Anirudh . She knows that he has seen her , noticed her , but the way he looked past her as if she was nothing but air , is taking toll on her . Today is again the date of some hearings . Aadhya is  hoping to learn some new things. She wishes that she can see through his opaque cubicle to know how has he prepared for the case.

Her musing is cut short by screeching voice a jeep's tyre. She turns back , only to find  some men and an elderly woman , sitting beside driver seat.

"Dekh kar nhi chalti , Ladki" The woman said with harshness in her voice.

"Chal to mai Rahi nhi thi. Mai to yahi per hu. Daatna hai to apne Driver ko datiye" She said pointing towards the man sitting on the driver seat.

"Driver nhi hu Mai inka , Jawai hu " Said the man obviously getting offended.

"Sorry , Mujhe pta nhi tha ." Said Aadhya as the  men and the woman comes out from the jeep.

"Lagta hai nayi ho yaha." replied the man , looking at her from face to feet in a strange manner "Tunhare sari pehne ka tarika Bengalio Jaisa nhi hai" he clarified.

"Sari ki bahut samjh hai aapko .Pehnte hai kya?" She said with mocking smile . Obviously the difference of drapping style of saree is easily noticable but the way he looks at her , trigger her to give him some befitting reply.

She saw anger flashing on his face as he steps forward towards her.

"Chandrachur ...." Anirudh's voice comes from behind .She turns back to find him coming towards her.She sigh in relief and looks at him with small smile . But Without even looking at her, he walks past her and stands between her chandrachur.

"Aaiye Barrister Babu"Chandrachur said with bitterness in his voice " Pichli baar hum Jab aapko apna case dene aaye the tab socha nhi tha ussi case me aap humare khilaf khade honge"

"Mai sach ke saath khada hu , Chandrachur" He replied ."Tum dusri taraf ho isme meri galti nhi hai"

"Lagta Apno ke khilaf  ladne ka beda uthaya hua hai aapne" Said the woman .

"Meri ladaai to bahut pehle se suru hai , Thakuma. Apne mere khilaf khade hai ." He replied and bend to touch her feet. She give him blessings with smile,before treading behind him ,inside the courtroom.

Aadhya too follows  them and sit in the audience while taking notes . Apparently, tbe man Chandrachur has confiscated land of a poor farmer by wrong means and Anirudh has taken the case in his hand. Aadhya carefully takes notes of his argument and counter argument, looking at him in awe as he forced the truth out of Chandrachur mouth by tricking him. In whole proceeding Aadhya has noticed that Anirudh is paying respect to the  woman ,whom he referred as Thakuma , and somewhat is listening to him. Obviously they are related to him.

"Suniye" Aadhya calls thakuma after being sure that Anirudh is not around."Aap Barrister Babu ki rishtedar hai na" She asked and Thakuma nodded" To aap meri madat karengi Please .Mai kab se Barrister Babu se Milne ki koshish kar rahi hu .Per wo meri baat nhi sun rahe hai .Wo aapka samman karte hai  .Wo aapki baat bhi sunenge.Please unhe kahiye na ki wo meri baat sun le ,Please " She pleaded while speaking in one breath.