Barrister Babu

Chapter 52: Special to None

A week has passed by since Som returned to his usual monotonous life.

"Som Dada, can you come to the garden with me? I am making this new sculpture and I want to show it to you," Batuk said to Som, stepping into his room.

Som looked at him. "Uh... Batuk, I have an important exam tomorrow. Can you show it to Bondita Boudi instead?"

Batuk pouted. "Do you think you are my first choice? I wanted to ask Boudi first."

"But...?" Som wanted to know the reason.

"Well, you know how she is working on submitting some papers to invalidate having multiple wives at the same time. So I didn't want to disturb her or Anirudh Dada."

Mala and Chameli were walking together and heard Batuk. Surprisingly, Mala and Chameli were living peacefully, mostly Mala was the one who would be with Keth and Chameli was least interested in her husband. So Chameli took over the household responsibilities as much as she could.

"Bondita is still working on that?" Mala inquired curiously. She wouldn't let Bondita be successful in submitting those papers at any cost. It could fail Mala's plans.

Chameli was a bit happy hearing that her friend was doing something. Bondita explained to her already that maybe she couldn't undo what happened with Chameli, but she would work to make sure there would be no one suffering like her friend did. And it was enough to bring a smile on Chameli's face — other girls wouldn't have to go through what she was going through.

"Uh, yes," Batuk replied, having the urge to roll his eyes. He could never accept Mala as a member of the family.

"Batuk, why don't you take Chameli and Mala Boudi to show the sculpture you made?" Som suggested.

"I actually have some work to do, sorry, Batuk," with that, Mala went away. She had more important work to do after all; to keep an eye on Bondita.

Batuk glanced at Chameli and grumbled, "Aap jayengi ya aapko bhi koi kaam hai?"

Chameli gently smiled at him. "Of course, I will go with you, Batuk."

"Great!" he chirped, now excited that finally someone had the time to see his creation. "Chaliye." Not even realizing, Batuk grabbed Chameli's hand and was taking her to the garden.

But Chameli's eyes were on her hand which Batuk was holding. She couldn't ignore the butterflies erupting in her stomach at the touch of his cold hand against her warm one.

On the other hand, Anirudh was reading the papers Bondita prepared after editing it for the third time.

She waited patiently as he read while sipping the coffee she made.

"Perfect," Anirudh spoke up, a proud smile appearing on his lips. "This is perfect, Bondita. You can submit this tomorrow."

"Patibabu, do you think this will get approved?" she asked, playing with her fingers nervously.

"With the reasons you gave here, I see no reason why this shouldn't get approved. Though it might take a year or two with all the procedure to complete, I firmly believe this will get accepted." He kept the paper on the table and stood up.

Then he went to her and placed his hands on hers, giving them an assuring squeeze. "Don't worry, my wife. Everything will go nicely."

She nodded too, a smile appearing on her lips, which got replaced by a pout instantly.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

"You have an important case tomorrow and I have to be there as your assistant lawyer. So how will I submit these papers on time?" she pointed out, making Anirudh chuckle.

"That's not a problem at all. I will handle the case. It's okay."

"But—"

"Submitting the papers is more important, Bondita," he interrupted her, caressing her cheek lovingly.

"Okay."

"Well, now that we are done with this, can we focus on other important things right now?" Anirudh let out, and Bondita furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Other important things?" she mumbled. "Like, what?"

"Other important things like..." Anirudh went back to his table and opened the drawer, pulling a book out of it. "Answering your patibabu for starters, what is this you are reading?"

Bondita's eyes grew as wide as saucers seeing that familiar book in his hand.

'Love & Lust' — the book Batuk gave her to read and she was almost half way through it.

She gulped and averted her gaze.

###

"See. This is the sculpture I made," Batuk pointed to the long lion sculpture he made.

"That's so beautiful, Batuk." Chameli was indeed impressed by his creativity. "You made it perfectly. How long did it take for you to make this?"

"Well, it took me a month. But I am happy with the results," he answered and pulled out two chairs from the corner. "Take a seat."

Chameli nodded and sat along with Batuk.

She looked at the gazebo, only to find it filled with all sculpture related stuff. However, her eyes fell on a small Durga Maa sculpture.

"Wow. That one is really pretty," she breathed out.

"Which one?"

She pointed her index finger to that sculpture.

"Oh, that?" Batuk smiled. "That's Boudi's Dugga Maa. I made it for her and finished giving the final touches this morning."

"Then why didn't you give it to Bondita yet?" she asked bitterly, a weird feeling forming in her heart at the thought that Batuk was so close to Bondita that he even made such a beautiful sculpture for her.

"I will gift it to Boudi once she gets her first independent case. It will boost her confidence a lot," he said proudly.

"But that might take time. So why did you make it so early?" she couldn't help but inquire.

"Because I know that day is going to come soon enough. Boudi is meant to shine," Batuk uttered confidently.

Chameli wished Batuk would make something for her too, to boost her confidence like he wanted Bondita to. But maybe she wasn't special to anyone. Keth clearly liked Mala more and Bondita? She was the soul of the haveli.

Where did Chameli stand? 

A/N: Thank you for reading! Next update when there's at least 25 comments. Have a great day!