The Visitor

seven

V A N S H
__

After I left Medha at the nursery, I was coming back to the villa when the main road got jammed. So instead of being stucked in the jam for long, I decided to rather take another road. When I was driving through the road, my gaze fell on their house.

It has been two years.

Two years ago, I was just a lazy boy with a medical degree and some on and off jobs. Two years of hard work and struggles later, now I am a kind boy who loves what he does and also owns a cat. Sometimes, struggle makes the best of you. But for them, I was still the same useless and lazy boy.

"Damnnit!" The car stopped right in front of their bunglow. Most probably a tyre puncture. I wasn't ready to face them just yet, now now, maybe not ever. But I had to take care of the car. So I got down and checked the front tyre, only to see, it was indeed punctured.

I called the nearest mechanic, who was also my friend now after all these months, and asked him to come on the given address asap. He agreed and while he was coming, I decided to wait a bit away from the house's view.

I was standing beneath a large mango tree, by the raod side, when I saw the bunglow main gate opening and then I saw her going out in her elegant saree along with him. Most probably, they were heading to some business meetings which they loved a lot for God knows what reasons.

Her as in my bhabhi. And him as in my bhaiya.
(Bhabhi- sister in law
Bhaiya- brother)

I saw them chatting between themselves happily as they sat in the car and went away. They were happy in their own world, and I was most probably just a liability on them. I looked away, partly embarrassed, partly sad.

No matter how much I try to console myself that it's ok. I am fine on my own. But it hurts to know the only two people who were important to me in my life didn't even want me with them.

Before bhaiya's marriage, everything was fine. Our parents got divorced when he was twenty one and I was fifteen. Since then it's him who raised me up. Because both of our parents went for their own work, in different cities.

But when bhaiya got married to bhabhi, everything started to change. Initially bhabhi was good to me, but later she started acting different. A bad kind of different.

I completed my medico degree and was doing some practice shifts for an year straight. She got fed up and called me lazy and useless. I've had enough and left the house. Since then, I'm on my own.

What hurts the most is, bhaiya didn't even care enough to call me since the. It's been two whole years.

"Vansh?" I turned around to see the mechanic friend of mine standing behind me with his tools.

"Uhh yes, Shyam. There." I pointed at the car across the road and he nodded, going straight to work. For a while more I stood under the tree, just staring at the house where my whole childhood went. Then slowly, I made my way back towards the car and once it was fixed, I thanked Shyam and made my way back home.

Home. It's funny how madam's house is more of a home to me now then my own brother's.

"Dear, you dropped shona in the nursery?" Madam asked me as I entered the house. I smiled and nodded at her, making my way to her. "Yes madam. I did, and she told me not to come back because she'll handle on her own." I let her know and went to check her blood pressure.

It was a routine where her blood pressure is to be checked thrice a day. She let me wrap the band around her forearm as we waited for the device to calculate the pressure.

"Vansh, beta you have started calling shona by her name." Madam said and I stopped for a second. It didn't cross my mind that it might come out unpolite to madam.

"I....she asked me so I....I will stop that and-

"No. I mean to say that if you call her by her name, why do you call me madam? Call me dadi like she calls. I will love it." She cut me in between and smiled at me. I was numb for a moment until the device beeped and I checked the pressure.

Dia-148
Sys-79
Pulse-99

It was almost normal. I smiled at her while removing the badge and then looked at her eyes, to see her smiling back at me.

"Really? You wouldn't mind that?" I asked a bit nervously. None of my grandparents were alive so I never had someone to call as dadi. But this woman here, in all her adorable and loving glory, is definitely someone I can look up to as my dadi.

"Yes beta. I am sure. You are just like shona to me. Both of you are my children. Please don't hesitate." The lady's smile eased my worries. Just like shona to me.

It made me so happy to see someone who cares for me and thinks of me as their own. Another wide grin formed on my face and the next second, I muttered happily.

"Dadi." The lady smiled at me widely. In that moment I felt like I won the world. Because honestly, having a family member who cares for you seems like a distant dream to me. And dadi here, though not my family member, was the closest to that.

I couldn't be more happy for now.

"Thank you..." I muttered and she smiled at me knowingly.