Chapter 29: Chapter 29

"Four died in the landslide that trembled Chamba last night".

The newspaper read the ominous news for the city of Chamba. The police and reporters were near the location of the natural calamity that took place last night. And what they found out was terrifying and more than that it was mournful.

The investigatory team found out that the driver, along with a mother with a few days old babies, had been crushed under the huge rocks in the landslide. Their bodies were pulverized and dismantled so badly, that the only thing which they could see was the spluttered blood around the area with the torn clothes of four different people because of which they got the hint about the people who were murdered so brutally by nature.

But evidence caught their eyes. It was a polythene bag where there were few medicines and a mini statement. The account holder's name read "Ayushi Singh". As the region of Chamba wasn't much big, the police easily investigated from the bank of which the ATM was used for and they got all the details about the account holder along with the current address and phone numbers. They immediately called but that number was out of reach, then they tried another number and that was of Ananya.

"Hello, Mam. I'm Inspector Durgesh Negi, Himachal police. Do you know Ayushi Singh?" the inspector asked Ananya on call.

"Yes Sir. I know her well. She is my friend. But what is the matter?" Ananya asked the inspector in a serious yet worried tone.

"I'm sorry mam, but she along with her babies had been brutally crushed under the landslide that shook Chamba highway last night," the inspector finally spoke with a trembling voice because even he got emotional after seeing the fate of this lady along with her babies who were too young to face this tragedy.

"What?" Ananya bellowed out intensely.

"Mam, please don't panic. Kindly come on Chamba highway to take out the remains of the bodies," the inspector disconnected the call and Ananya sat with a thud on the floor with tears pouring down from her eyes.

"Why God? Why? Why do you have to be so cruel to that beautiful soul? Why? When she got a little happiness, then you decided to just take away her life as well as her babies? Why? Just tell me, why?" Ananya started sobbing loudly. It was seven in the morning only, even her husband Keshav got up after hearing her sobbing.

"What happened Anu? Why are you crying like that? Tell me?" Keshav asked her in a concerned tone after seeing her vulnerable state.

"Keshav...," Ananya wailed out.

"Ayushi is no more, she is dead, along with her babies, she is no more, the babies are dead," Ananya unstoppable cries traumatized Keshav too. He was shocked would be an understatement.

"But how?" he asked in a weak tone, praying to God that what he just heard was a lie, a dirty prank and nothing more.

"Last night, they were crushed under the landslide on the Chamba highway. We need to reach there, the police called me," she cried more, hugging Keshav and even his eyes were wet. Ayushi was like a little sister to him which he never had.

"Did you inform Dhruv?" Keshav supplicated in a perplexed tone.

"No, let's go to his house, I cannot tell something this catastrophic to a husband and a father," Ananya lamented.

"Dhruv, Dhruv. Open the door. Please. Dhruv," from the past fifteen minutes, Ananya and Keshav were trying to call Dhruv but alas, as he was drugged last night, he couldn't hear their voices.

"I think we need to find some other way to get inside," Keshav said in a solemn tone.

"I think I have a key to his house," she immediately took out the other key which Dhruv had given to her in case of emergency long back when Ayushi was pregnant.

They got inside and moved to his bedroom directly. Keshav threw some water droplets on his face and after a few minutes, Dhruv opened his eyes.

"Ananya, Keshav?" Dhruv asked them in his sleepy voice while looking at his surroundings which were dead silent with no chirping of birds, not any sound unlike all the other days of Chamba. Even nature was mourning over his state.

Ananya & Keshav were fiddling with their hands to disclose the disastrous news to the father of those few days old kids, to the husband of that pure and innocent soul.

"Keshav, please tell him, I don't dare to tell him, please," Ananya whispered in a crying tone.

"Dhruv, actually..." he fumbled.

"Yeah, please tell me. And where are Ayushi and the kids? I cannot see them? Did they go for a morning walk? " Dhruv asked them in a worried tone after getting up from his bed.

"Dhruv..." after gaining some courage, Keshav tried to say.

"Ayushi, along with your babies, had been killed in the landslide last night," Keshav finally spoke out with his crying voice.

"You dog! How dare you to say something like that for my family!" Dhruv immediately pounced on Keshav with his hands on Keshav's neck, strangling him hard.

"Dhruv, please leave him. He is right. They are no more. They have been brutally murdered by nature, leaving him," Ananya sobbed and tried to remove Dhruv's hands from Keshav's neck.

"You are fucking lying. They were with me all night. How can they be killed, you are fucking lying. I don't believe you," Dhruv shouted out loudly after glaring at Keshav and Ananya.

"Then read this newspaper, then you'll know," Ananya handed him the newspaper crying, in which the first page had the ominous news of his wife's and children's death.

Dhruv felt his feet slipped under the ground. He couldn't believe what he saw in the newspaper.

"No, they are not Ayushi and my babies. They are different people. They are not my family. Ayushi had probably gone for a morning walk along with our babies. Get out of my way, I'll go and check for them," he still didn't believe them. He was sure, he had enough faith in God that he couldn't be so atrocious and dreadful with him. He wouldn't dare to snatch away his lives from him, his family from him.

"Then read this Dhruv, maybe then you'll believe us," Keshav handed him the note which was kept on the side table by none other than the late Ayushi.

'Dhruv,

My life had been hell and not only after your entry in it but from the starting only. From the time of my birth only. My mother left me when I was just born. My brutal father raised me with another wife who was nothing less than a witch who had made my father worse than before. All kinds of barbaric tortures I had to endure because of them and you thought you were the first one to treat me like that? Haha. Then I had a boyfriend, who was also an abuser. Hoping that I would get love from someone, someday had always been a dream of mine and it will always be a dream.

After a few more years, I was engaged to someone who also proved how monstrous a human can be. Then you came along and you crossed all the boundaries. Beat me like I'm some slave, some animal, and you, my master. Treated me like I'm just the dust of your shoes. Even lower than that. But still, somehow, I fell in love with a monster like you. But then again. You didn't trust me when I begged you that night. You threw me out without giving me a chance to explain, to speak out my voice. And you dared to come again in my life after all this? As some Veer? What do you think of yourself? That I'll accept you again and plan for our future?

No, Mr Dhruv Singh Rajput, I may be weak but I have enough self-respect and courage to live my life on my own with my babies. Once a cheater, always a cheater. Once an abuser, always an abuser. You've abused me like I'm some dog or something. And now, I'm going away from your life because I don't want my children to have any of your qualities in them, I don't want to make a monstrous human being who can be fatal for society and its innocent people. I know I drugged you and your bodyguards but even in Bhagavad-Gita it is said, that to stand up against someone bad and cruel, even we have to keep our goodness aside for a while and my only motive was to be away from you for my babies for whom I can give away my life, I have just given up on a monster like you.

I'll be long gone, I'm sorry but no sorry Dhruv, oops, Sir, but I cannot live with you along with my babies, I cannot trust my babies with you," the letter read which Dhruv just read. His eyes were pouring down with fresh tears of guilt, anxiety, and pain. It was so dreadful.

He sat on the ground and cried like a baby.

"I'm so sorry Ayushi, please come back. Don't punish me like this. I'll die of this pain and guilt, please come back," he started hitting his hands on the ground. Keshav and Ananya somehow made him stand and took him to the spot where his family was killed mercilessly by nature.

When they reached the spot, they could see blood splattered all around the road with pieces of clothes here and there. The bodies were mercilessly crushed and it was hard to even recognize them but the mini statement was a big proof along with another which made Dhruv too agonized and woeful. He was shaken from within, he felt like his body had been paralyzed after he saw the dead bodies which were not even complete bodies.

His babies were crushed under those gigantic rocks, his lives had been snatched away from him. Maybe now he was getting the payback of what he had done before. Maybe it was his karma biting him back for what he had done to Ayushi. He lost it after he saw his baby's bodies, only the remains of their blood could be seen. His flesh, his blood was that. He started wailing out, and now the clouds too started crying. Maybe even the Gods were crying too for his agony.

"Sir, here this Mangalsutra and ring we found near the body," the inspector handed Dhruv the mangalsutra and ring which was none other than Ayushi and ran inside his jeep as it was raining cats and dogs now. They commanded all the other people as well to vacate this place as the landslides will soon start as the mud would be slippery again. All the people around immediately vacated that place but only three people were left there.

"It belongs to Ayushi. I had made her wear this mangalsutra and this ring. She is no more now. She is no more. My babies are dead. My babies left me. I am fucking alone in this world, why god why?" Dhruv started wailing out loudly near one of the rocks where he could see the same torn shawl which Ayushi had been wearing from the past few days.

"Dhruv, handle yourself," Keshav kept his hand on Dhruv's shoulder but Dhruv could only hear the cries of his babies, the voice of his wife in his mind. He had lost all his senses to take care of his surroundings. In the midst of all this, Keshav received a phone call from his house.

"Keshav, son, your mother has slipped from the stairs. We are in the city hospital right now, please come soon," Keshav's father's panicked voice was enough for Keshav to run to his car after pulling Ananya too for the hospital, leaving the unfortunate father as well as a husband alone who had lost everything.

"My baby, please come back to your father," Dhruv sobbed more, hugging the piece of rock thinking of it as his son.

"I'll be the best father to you, please come back my baby," he cried more, lying on the same blood which was running in his veins too. His dead baby's blood.

Do pal ruka khwabon ka karwan...

Aur phir chal diye tum kahaan, hum kahaan...

"I'm sorry Ayushi for treating you like that. I'm sorry. I'll change everything. I'll change myself, but please come back. Please. I'm sorry. Don't punish me like this, I beg you," he mourned and wailed out loudly.

"I was so lucky to have you all, why did you do this then, god? Why?" His cries were getting more and more vulnerable.

Very soon, landslides started again but Dhruv didn't care about it. He wanted to die too. Nothing was left for him to live; no reason was left to continue his life.

"Kill me too God, what is there to live for? My very reason for living is dead then why do you want me to live this li.." before he could speak anymore, a big rock had hit his head, hard.

Far away from there, a wolf started crying loudly even in the daylight.

~**•**~

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