One Last Time - Part II

One Last Time- Part I

Chapter 3: Some more questions

The neighbourhood was unusually loud in the evening; not just because it was Diwali. The news of the sudden disappearance of the Khannas had spread to one and all. The ever curious Mrs. Gupta suspected something fishy when Mrs. Khanna didn’t come to the temple that morning; which was very surprising as she never skipped going to the temple, come what may. Her next stop was their house, which was found to be locked and the news spread like wild fire. Their disappearance was all the more alarming as Mrs. Khanna’s sister had just arrived the day before. Moreover, no one ever saw Dhruv playing with his friends…

It is normally very hot in the month of October, but the weather was surprisingly very cool. The three of them were sitting quietly, not looking at each other. They were on a north-bound train. Mrs. Khanna and her sister did not know where they were headed and Mr. Khanna would not tell them either, despite being asked many times. After ‘escaping’ from their own house, the sisters went to the railway station, where they found Mr. Khanna waiting for them. Mrs. Khanna told the entire story to her sister on the way to the station. The sisters fought, Mrs. Khanna tried to explain why they didn’t lodge a police complaint, apologized for not informing her and in the end both of them cried together; something Mrs. Khanna could not do in front of her husband. However, few questions were still unanswered.

“Bala, I guess you know the whole story by now. I have booked your ticket up to Ludhiana, we will continue ahead…” said Mr. Khanna

“Jiju, can I please come with you’ll?”

“We will be a pair of nomads didi, we won’t be settling at one place. You’ve anyways become a bit old; you should live comfortably in your house.”

“I can’t…”

“Why??” enquired Mrs. Khanna.

“Well, my husband had taken a loan against the security of our house. He obviously died without repaying the loan and the Bank auctioned our house a couple of days ago. That’s why I came to your place yesterday”

“Oh didi, I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you inform us of this before?”

“You think…?”

“Hmmm…so I’ll extend your ticket as well, but you won’t be asking where we are headed.” said Mr. Khanna

“Alright! Not even a clue?”

“None whatsoever. And knowing you Bala, I guess you’ll have it out of your sister before we reach there!”

All the three laughed. It was the first light moment they shared since Dhruv vanished. Just where could he have gone… the question was still unanswered. And as the train chugged away, standing at the door, Mr. Khanna looked back at the city which had given his family a new life, for the last time…

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Chapter 4: The Valley

The last stop of the train was Jammu. The trio boarded a bus from the railway station to their next destination- a small town called Riasi. It was about a two hour journey from the station. Mr. Khanna had been to that place as a teenager with his father. His father was engaged in the business of carpets and often visited Riasi, which had a few handlooms making silk and woollen carpets. He took his son with him once and the boy fell in love with the place; however he never got an opportunity to visit the place again. It seemed that life had come a full circle and it was probably destiny that Mr. Khanna had to come and settle here. It was very late by the time they reached the place. They had their dinner at a Dhaba and they stayed over at a small Dharamshala, money being a constraint.

Ironic as it would seem, there was one person who could not sleep that night- Mrs. Khanna’s sister. She knew Dhruv very well, probably even better than his own parents; she just could not accept that he had left without a note. But she had to wait till morning for an answer…

“So jiju, what would you be doing to earn a living over here?”

“Well my father had a few friends here. I spoke to one his friend’s son last week. He can give me a job in his handloom. I’m just leaving for the same thing, have to reach there in about half an hour.”

“Oh…so you had this planned out?”

“Ofcourse! We knew we had to leave that place someday, for many reasons. Firstly the house seemed very empty with Dhruv not being around and secondly our neighbours were very nosy; they would have found out sooner rather than later that Dhruv was missing.”

“Are you sure you checked the entire house properly? I mean he surely must have left a note, even you know that, he’s not that irresponsible.”

“Trust me; I almost tore the house down in search of any small piece of paper…Anyways I have to leave now, tell your sister I was getting late, so I left”

“Okay, all the best…see you in the evening.”

About a minute later, Mrs. Khanna came running down, something clutched in her hand, her hair still wrapped in a towel, “Your jiju left?”

“Yes…he just left…what’s the matter…you’re looking very worried…”

Mrs. Khanna handed over a crumpled piece of paper to her sister.

It was the last thing she wanted to read after all that had happened in the last 36 hours or so. Not believing her eyes, she read the note one last time…

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