She woke up when a drop of water fell on her cheek. She felt that the tiny drop itself put out the burning images inside her mind. ‘Oh, was that a dream? Cute baby, loving and caring Sanju. Dream again.’ She wiped her cheek and turned aside. She was tired and horrified with the events happened during the day. It was a long wait to have a baby. When it happened, things changed all of a sudden. Never had she thought that her life will be so tragic and dramatic. Both the man whom she dated throughout college and married after two years and the baby for whom she waited for the last four years, will meet a dead end on the same day.
It’s a Friday. Three months pregnant Ameya woke up with a lazy yawn and a pleasant face in the morning. As usual Sanju, her husband, left for the work after making breakfast for his pregnant lady. Ameya, brushing her teeth, thought about Sanju, ‘He is the best thing ever that happened to me. He enriched the fragrances in my life. Even though he couldn’t give me the riches of the world, he tried to make it as best as he can. He is working hard to make it all happen. Now I am pregnant and he just joined his new job after his back to back termination from the last four companies.’ She sat near the breakfast table and ate what Sanju had prepared for her. She ignored the taste and forgot what she likes, all for her baby. After eating mechanically she grabbed the medicine box and had the tablet Sanju kept for her. She went back to the bed with a magazine thinking how badly they both are struggling to survive in a city like New Delhi with only one of them working. She fell asleep and in the dream she saw a garden. A garden which is full of flowers, butterflies and beautiful babies. Suddenly it began to rain, she raised her arms to collect the water, only to see red drops on her hands. It smelt like blood. She felt something hit on her stomach and teared into pieces. The pain began in the stomach and the vibrations passed to each and every cells in her body.
When she woke up from the dream she found out something terrible happened to her. She examined herself and found that she was lying in a pool of blood. Pain struck her brain and all of a sudden she knew it happened again. An abortion. Praying to her God she tried to find the phone near her to call Doctor Nirmal with whom she was consulting, one of her schoolmate and her best friend. Within ten minutes an ambulance arrived and she was taken to the hospital. When she opened her eyes again, she was in the hospital with Nirmal standing beside her. She searched for Sanju. Gaging what Ameya was looking for Nirmal held her hand and let her know that Sanju is busy with work and will meet her in the evening at home. Wiping Ameya’s tears Nirmal said “look Aami it is not an accident. The medicine you had in the morning was not the one I prescribed. It is Misoprostol. I don’t know how it happened and I found it inside your medicine box. It may be a fault of the medical staff here or…”. Ameya didn’t hear it completely. Now she knew what had happened. Last week’s incidents came to her mind as if in a movie. Sanju’s request to abort this baby echoed in her ears. Dr. Nirmal’s voice came back to her “Aami you are okay now. You can overcome this feeling. It all happened and you have to move on. And If you want you can go back home in the evening or else you can stay here one more day and take rest”. She just nodded her head and closed her eyes.
Again a drop of water fell on Ameya’s cheek. She wiped it and searched for her mobile phone. It was 5 am in the morning, Saturday. She touched Sanju’s hand, he was in deep sleep. She didn’t notice when he got home and slept. As on every Friday night he might have gotten drunk and must have lost himself. ‘How dare this animal come and sleep next to me. Is this the man I loved for years? He spends every Friday night partying with friends. At least he could show up early yesterday after, having secretly planned an abortion behind my back, he should have at least been there to console me’. She got out of the bed and took the bag she had already packed on returning back from the hospital. With a well determined mind she walked to the door. When she closed the door behind her back she signed a divorce petition in her mind.
At the same time somewhere in New Delhi, a man was searching for the bag of medicines he accidently swapped with some other’s in a bus and a bar owner was signing a paycheck for a man who shows up every Friday night well dressed in a suit and works whole night cleaning the tables and serving the liquor.
