Chapter 9: A Terrifying Realisation

Wind blew across Suhasini’s face as her knitted muffler flew matching the speed of Nihaal’s open jeep. He drove quietly but Suhasini could see the strain on his face, something that was bothering him, something that he desperately needed to let out.

‘Mr. Nihaal?’ said Suhasini when Nihaal cut her in, ‘Ms. Suhasini, what were you thinking teaching my daughter to fight like hooligans?’

‘What?! I taught her no such thing and I thought you appreciated Madhavi standing up to that devil of the girl’, she said.

‘That thing…you calling a little girl devil is what I don’t appreciate. And I definitely don’t want my daughter to quarrel in school’, he added.

‘You just told the principal…’, said Suhasini when Nihaal angrily interrupted, ‘so what else was I supposed to say? Was I supposed to argue with you in front of her…huh?’

‘What’s there to argue? Madhavi fought for herself and there is nothing wrong in it’, she squealed.

‘Noo!!! There is so much wrong with that, Ms. Suhasini! I can’t believe I have to explain you that…and I will not allow it’, he said exasperatedly.

‘You really think that I taught Madhavi to fight? You really think that I told her to beat that girl up? Mr. Nihaal, I am her governess not a matchstick that will ignite fire. I never told her to do what she did. Yes, she did tell me about that girl Ruchi and she harassing her, and I told her to speak with that girl and tell her to stop else she will complain. I can never tell Madhavi to go and lock horns with that girl’, she said as she sulkily crossed her hands over her chest.

‘Though she deserved every bit of thrashing she got’, murmured Suhasini.

Nihaal looked at her shocked, ‘I can’t believe you just said that Ms. Suhasini’, he said shaking his head as he changed gears on the sloppy roads of Dehradun.

‘That’s my opinion but I know better not to share this with Madhavi, so don’t worry’, she added.

‘Thank you very much!’, Nihaal said sarcastically and added ‘I am going to talk to Madhavi and make it clear that this kind of behavior is not acceptable. And I hope that you too will have a word with her, make it clear that by standing up for yourself, you didn’t mean Madhavi beating the day’s light out of that poor girl.’

‘Poor girl’, scoffed Suhasini.

Nihaal with some effort ignored it and said, ‘Ms. Suhasini, Madhavi has grown fond of you in past couple of weeks and I would hate to have to upset her. But one more act of indiscipline or any inappropriate behavior by Madhavi and I will fire you!’

Suhasini zapped, turned her head and stared at him in shock. He looked decisive and handsome, his hair slightly falling on his forehead and giving him a boyish charm which Suhasini had never seen before. He halted the jeep, finger combed his hair back and the authoritative man with deep lines on his forehead was back. He got off the jeep and said, ‘I don’t want to be rude but mean every word I said’, and started to walk ahead.

Suhasini with her bruised ego jumped off too, ‘where are you going? Why aren’t we going home?’, she demanded.

‘I have some work; it will take no more than half an hour. Meanwhile you are free to explore our tea gardens if you wish or you can have some tea and sit in the office’, and he pointed towards a simple yet smart looking brick single floor building which had a white façade reading, ‘The office of Choudhary Tea Estate’.

‘I am not exploring anything, I am going back to the house’, she said testily.

‘How?’, Nihaal’s matter-of-fact-tone irked her more.

‘I’ll walk if I have to’, she said sulkily.

‘It’s 6.5 Kms, Ms. Suhasini!’

Suhasini’s annoyance was rising, ‘that’s fine, anyways, I need to be home on time to talk to Madhavi else you might fire me tonight itself’, she added irked. Nihaal kept quiet and the silence simply embarrassed Suhasini as she turned around and started stomping away.

‘Ms. Suhasini?!’, came Nihaal’s strictly business voice.

She turned not knowing what to expect as Nihaal said, ‘you are heading in the wrong direction, home is on the other side’, and pointed with his thumb towards the right direction. Suhasini’s face flushed with anger and exasperation as she walked away.

*****

Suhasini walked down the dusty footpath along the steep and circular road which had the tea gardens on one side and a gorge on the other. ‘I haven’t seen a man like him’, she sulked as she walked thoughtlessly with the deep gorge running parallelly. ‘One moment he is supporting me and the other moment he’s threatening to fire me’, she muttered. She walked a few paces trying to calm her mind and as she succeeded a question surprised her – why was she so angry? Nihaal had hired her and had full right to fire her! It was not unheard of. She came to a halt pondering; she knew that things were changing for her. First the dream, then the joy she felt when Nihaal stood for her and she definitely could not ignore how every time her heart skipped a beat when Nihaal was around. As her thoughts brought in a realization, her face lost lustre as she muttered, ‘does this mean that I am falling in love with him?!’ The thought terrified her and she refuting it walked ahead but in a thoughtless moment stepped on a stone and lost her balance. Suhasini had no time to gather herself as she found herself rolling towards the deathly gorge. Her eyes widened with fear as she grappled to hold on to something but all she caught was dust. Moments later the valley echoed of her scream as she helplessly slipped down the gorge.

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