Queen Of The Hills

Chapter VI

SIMMY MEETS HER MOTHER

A few days later, on a sunny winter afternoon, Simmy was seated on a bench in the Central Park at Connaught Place, New Delhi, waiting for the arrival of her mother. Jamie, her dear friend, had arranged this meeting between them. This was done after Simmy had talked with him and told him about her wanting to meet her mother. Soon afterwards, she started having second thoughts about it and wanted to back off, but Jamie would not let her. And he had his way over her, for once.  

On this day the meeting was finally materializing. While waiting for her mother, Simmy thanked Jamie from the bottom of the heart. After all, by meeting her mother, she would get the monkey off her back, for even though she had avoided meeting her mother, she could not stop herself from time and again thinking about her and suffering in the process. Well! Today could be the end of her woes.     

Connaught Place, or CP in short, is in the Central part of Delhi  and it mainly consists of a huge circular structure made up of uniformly shaped buildings, arranged in concentric circles. The place has now been renamed Indira Gandhi Chowk, but the older name, Connaught Place, is more widely used even now. The buildings mostly house, retail stores, cinema halls,hotels, restaurants and offices. The place was made by the British in the 1930s. There is a road around the outer circle and one around the inner circle, with a Metro train station below. The Central Park has been constructed in the inner circle, over the Metro station and is called Rajiv Chowk.

 Simmy's office was located very close to the Central Park and she had walked down to the place well before the appointed time. She sat at one of the benches near the entrance. It being a week day, there were a lesser number of people in the park. Jamie had subtly kept himself away, giving the mother and daughter the privilege of meeting each other in privacy, after eight long years. 

While waiting for her mother, Simmy could not stop her mind from running amok. How would her mother react after seeing her? Definitely she would be missing her badly and be full of remorse, which would also explain her eagerness in wanting to meet her. Damn her!She has every reason to be! After forsaking her family just like that! 

Simmy was determined that she would not make it any easier for her mother to come out of her discomfiture. In fact she would give her a hard time, and make her feel the anguish that she, her only child, had felt all these years. 

She saw the familiar figure of her mother from a distance. A wave of nervousness swept over her. She watched  her mother as she reached the entrance and entered the park.  And since her bench was located near the entrance, her mother's eyes immediately fell on her. Their eyes met. 'My God! She is still so elegantly beautiful and youthful even after the passage of all those years,' felt Simmy.

'Hi Simmy! How are you, my child?' Vinita greeted her with the most disarming of smiles. There was not a shred of remorse on her face. Shameless woman!

'I am doing very well, Thank you! But why bother. I don't think you would want me to believe that you care, do you?' Simmy had promised never to show the immense feeling of her hurt to her selfish mother, but not seeing any signs of guilt on her mother's face had clearly caught her off guard. Suddenly, Simmy's feeling of hurt, collected over the years spilled over. This was a woman she had worshipped, all her life! 

'How could you do this to me? Throw me out  like a pile of garbage from your life. How could you be so damned cruel?' ranted Simmy in a shrill voice, tears streaking down her face,' What did I do to deserve this treatment?' The words were coming in torrents now amidst sobs and shrieks.

A look of intense concern swept over Vinita's face, but she let Simmy continue with her tirade. She just stood and watched her ranting daughter with calmness writ over her face.

'I missed you badly Ma, I suffered like hell, every single day of those eight years. And you just didn't care,' whimpered Simmy.

'My poor child!' said Vinita and embraced a sobbing Simmy in her arms and patted her back softly. To her own surprise Simmy found that she did not resist. How warm and comforting her mother's embrace still was, definitely not the embrace of an unsure cheat.

'Please calm down.' said she in a soft reassuring voice.

'It is definitely a deficiency in my upbringing, that you are feeling that you were the only one suffering the pangs of our separation, through all these years. How miles away from the truth can you be, my child!' said Vinita,' I was confident that I had done enough that any mother could possibly do, to earn the trust of her child. How wrong I was!'

'Today I will unfold before you the chain of  events which led to my doing, what I did,' continued Vinita,' I will then leave it for you to judge whether I was the wrong doer or the victim. But first please calm down.'

Simmy somehow managed to take control of herself. They both sat down on that bench. There was a moment of silence.

'Firstly, before telling you my story, I want to reassure you that I had tried, time and again, to meet you, but could gather from Jamie that you had been feeling very strongly about not wanting to see me. Also your father was dead against my meeting you. In fact, back then, I was never informed, when you were being sent to Delhi and came to know about it only later through Jamie,'  spoke Vinita, her words tinged with sadness.

'I am not surprised at your father's reactions. I had expected him to react like this only, as any ordinary husband would. Behind all the trappings, a relationship between a husband and wife is nothing more than a contract. Very few spouses manage to have a pragmatic approach in dealing with unusual situations ,' she said ruefully, ' But you my child, are a part of me, born from that contract. My own flesh and blood. I expected a  bit  more  belonging from you..... You should have at least given me a chance to explain myself.'

Simmy could see sadness creeping on her mother's face. For the first time she felt sorry for her.

Suddenly in a firm voice, Vinita said, 'My dear child, now I will tell you how destiny played its hand and caused the unhappy events that happened in our lives, eight years ago and even earlier.'

.............................