Kartik, a bright and talented medical student whose life takes turns he never expected. Trauma caused in his life makes him sail through the most unexpected life he had ever imagined as a merit-list student. His struggle to cope with academics, rela...
The sky grew darker by the time Kartik reached home. The rain did not let up and was now getting harder than the sky could apparently stand. His breath came heavy because he had run all the way, but his mind was running much faster than his legs. Sakshi's voice resonated in his head. "Kartik… It's Mom. She is not okay."
He opened the gate with a loud creak of metal on the wall, which didn't so much as notice him. He was stiff in his clothes, but that was the least of his worries. His whole concentration hung on one subject alone: his mother.
Inside, the house felt cold and heavy. It did not feel like home anymore. The warmth that greeted him normally was replaced by silence and unease. Sakshi paced up and down in the living room with a pale face, worried. As soon as she saw Kartik, she ran toward him, her eyes brimming with tears.
"Kartik, she's getting worse," Sakshi whispered, her voice shaking. "I don't know what to do. Dad—he's acting strange. He hasn't told me anything about what's really going on with her."
Kartik's stomach twisted. "What do you mean? Where's Dad?
Just when Sakshi was about to answer, a loud crash echoed from inside the kitchen. Kartik, turning his face, saw his father, Anand, standing there, with a glass shattered at his feet. He looked different, as if the weight of everything was breaking him down. This certainly was not the man Kartik had known all his life-a firm, calm man.
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"There you are," Anand's voice cut into the room as his eyes clamped down on Kartik, his anger and exhaustion mixed together. "Running around while your mom is in that room, fighting for her life."
Kartik clenched his fists. "I was at the hospital last week. Dad, I've been dealing with my own stuff too. Why didn't you tell me it was this serious?"
There he was, his face full of frustration. "You think I haven't been doing everything I can? I'm paying for her treatment, trying to keep this family from falling apart! You think it's easy?"
"You've barely been home, Dad!" Kartik shouted, his voice rising. "Sakshi's been handling everything on her own, and I didn't even know how bad things were until she called me!"
Anand's face set into a mask, his eyes narrowing. "You think you're not doing enough? I mean this is the person who at least ensures that we survive, and all you've been doing is getting mired in your books and your friends while your mother suffers!"
The words stung. Kartik's anger ignited. "You're the one who is hiding things from us! You've been distant, like you have some burden you're carrying alone, but you won't even tell us what's going on. What aren't you telling us?"
For a moment, the air between them grew tense. Anand's face shifted, and for a moment, he thought he saw in his father's eyes something almost like fear, but it was gone again before it came, and it reverted to anger.
"You don't know half of it, Kartik," Anand said quietly, low-toned but full of frustration. "You think you're ready to know everything? You're still just a kid."
"I am not a kid anymore!" Kartik shouted out, his whole body trembled in frustration. "I have the right to know what is happening!"
Just when things were taking the wrong turn Sakshi stopped the two, her hands stretched out, voice trembling. "Boys, please do not fight. Stop!" She gazed at them, her tears unwinding down her face. "This is not helping. Mom needs us now. Fighting won't improve anything.".
Her words hung in the air, and both men involuntarily retreated one step from the argument. The pounding of Kartik's heart was weighing down on him; anger had climbed up his throat to mix with guilt. He looked at Sakshi, who had been trying her best to hold things together, and his anger slowly receded, giving away to a deep sense of helplessness.
Anand shrugged his shoulders and stood with his back towards the wall. His voice was hollow as he voiced those words. "Do what you want, Kartik. When the truth comes out you will be proved to be not ready for it."
Kartik stood there, watching his father walk away, but the questions ringing in his head-these last words-khadalbhav lek tul kayya. What truth? What was he hiding from them? Kartik's chest stung with questions, but the tension between them left no space for more confrontation.
Sakshi lunged at Kartik and embraced him with all her arms. "Hug him tight, tight." She started crying, and her body began to shake because of it. At this moment, all the pain and fear that she had to keep inside for all those long years went shooting forth like a volcano finally getting opened.
Kartik wrapped his arms tightly around her, her tears soaking through his shirt. "I'm so scared, Kartik," she whispered between sobs. "I don't know what is going to happen to Mom. I don't know if she's going to make it."
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Kartik's throat constricted. He didn't know what to say to her; he didn't know how to comfort her when he himself was scared and lost.
They stood embracing each other, the weight of emotion falling on them as it was. The rain pounded against the windows outside, but inside, it weighed heavier-it lay between them. Kartik felt it. He could see how very close they were to losing everything, how fragile their family had become.
Sakshi stepped back. Her eyes, red-rimmed with crying, rose up at him. "We'll get through this, Kartik. Me, you, and whoever you need to have with you. You're not alone."
Kartik nodded. But inside him, he felt anything but reassured. His father's words were still echoing in his mind. Was his mother's condition the truth Anand was talking about? Or was there something else - something darker that no one was prepared to face?
Of course, that is when the buzz in his pocket was for his phone. He took it out; on the screen, his surprise, however, that it was Rutuja's name flashing there.
And the text was....
"Would you like to reply rather than ignoring? I know you are not in the moment because of your mom's condition, but please text me back. I want to be there for you as you are weak at expressing it with everyone else."
Kartik had ignored the message earlier, overwhelmed with everything happening. But now, as he stared at her name, another message popped up.
"I'm coming over tomorrow. I know something's wrong. You can't push me away this time."
Kartik stared at the screen, his heart skipping a beat. Rutuja had always pulled him out from the deepest darkest hole he ever got himself into, even when he didn't want to be pulled out. He was just complex enough to make her understand him better than anyone, and now, her words carried a weight that made him feel relieved, yet scared.
She was coming to help, whether he wanted it or not.
But even as Kartik thought about Rutuja's message, swirling in his brain was the warning given by his father, which would not go away. What was his father hiding? And how long before it all came crashing down on them?
