Episode 7

Chandigarh, 2017

Divyaant

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth.

Today, I was surely bestowed by some divine power or some magical vigour, a strong witness had suddenly appeared out of the blue in the court today, blindsiding each of the person present inside the dull courtroom who were already prepared to hear the death sentence of an innocent. I'd be called a liar instead of a lawyer if I am not counted in such people.

The same girl's friend had come forward to share the hideous and abysmal side of the liar who had pressed charges against my client because he had rejected her marriage proposal, citing he had raped her but the reality was, they had consensual sex. The eye witness, the phone recordings, the extortion for cash and a blackmailing video was triggering and gutsy enough for the judge to put the much-needed charges against the goddess of prevarication, using section 182 of Indian Penal Code along with the IPC ACT 499-500 which would give her a pleasant and fashionable time inside the jubilance jail along with other financial liabilities.

The truth belatedly won!

But I was still not convinced, someone's magnanimous helping hand was already inculcated in this case as I had scanned every part of the house where the crime was said to be operated but not a single source of the shreds of evidence could be vouched. The CCTV was not functioning, the police was always a crying-cranky baby to me and my men, so, not only this girl but a big party was also involved in this case, that much I could decipher.

The eye-witness was like the haven inside a parched desert for me. If not for that girl, I'd have lost along with my righteous client.

But I let it stop here only as the evening too had befallen and there was no end to my thinking process and reasoning. I exited my cabin and raced my wheels towards my residence.

The moment I merely crossed the vestibule, the most sweet-smelling aroma smacked my nostrils that was coming from the galley. Bhabhi surely was preparing my favourite exotic cuisines, I sighed in contentment and tip-toed towards the kitchen.

Walking slowly like a clandestine hoodlum, I was just going to surprise her when she turned abruptly and saw me training like a thief towards her, "Ahan. So, someone won and is in a jovial mood today?" she kidded in her happy tone, coming towards me with a steely spatula in her hands. "Yes, Bhabhi, we finally won, the truth cannot be long hidden, could it?" muttering like a baby, I hugged her, closing my eyes in sheer happiness and tranquillity.

"Congratulations, Chutku, I was so confident that you'll win this case, but am I seeing some positive drastic changes in you? What had happened so suddenly? Say, say," performing some exorcism of voodooism and related principles, she tantalisingly asked me giving me those I-know-something-special-has-happened look. I could not guess what she was hinting at? "Will ask you after our dinner," winking at me, she plodded away towards the counter from where the main mitochondria of ambrosial aroma were located at.

What was she indicating at? I couldn't get it. Giving it no second thoughts, I footslogged towards my chamber having my heart bubbling in another mysterious contentment and joy.

After having my favourite delicacies down my oesophagus, I was sauntering carelessly in our garden under the enthralling moonlit night when I heard Ambika Bhabhi's voice calling out for me. She was just behind me in her night suit with a glass barrel in her hands. I looked puzzled registering her accessories and sudden call for me.

"Head massage?" bringing the bottle a little in the air, she asked doubtingly. Who could say no for a head massage, I nodded my head with a smile and advanced towards the garden bench. She perched on the seat and I, on the lush ground with my eyes closed as her magical hands started doing wonders on my head.

Not being able to hold her inquisitiveness anymore, she asked dubiously, "You wanted to say something?". I could only close my eyes more tightly as I knew at what she was betokening at since the beginning. Three long hours of processing and rationalising had asserted these out. "Bhabhi, can someone's mere glance change our whole day which we hadn't even dreamt about?" I asked the one enigma which was playing table tennis in my cognisance since the time I had conquered this lost case.

"It can happen, Chutku. Sometimes some people are serendipitous for us and they bring immense fortune and prosperity for us. But why are you asking this?" still massaging my head, she articulated in a catechism manner. "You know I was losing this case, all the pieces of evidence I had collected were not enough to claim those charges as false but today, out of the blue, everything changed and I won, ultimately," I explained emphatically, the flashback of yesterday's night and today's morning event already playing merry-go-round inside my crest.

"So, who's responsible for this sudden winning of yours?" her hands had stopped working inside my tendrils and her voice too had lowered down. I could just wish that she won't hyperventilate once I tell her that it's about a girl that I was talking about.

"A girl I met yesterday in Rudra's engagement ceremony, I mean she wasn't even a girl but a grown-up kid in the body of a woman, but I don't know why I had felt very confident and sturdy when I had encountered her again in the morning on the traffic signal. Before that, I was exploding tension and raw tension in my environment," I had opened my eyes and started explaining all the things that had happened with me since the last night.

Sighing soundly, I continued, "You won't believe it, Bhabhi but she was very unconventional than all the girls I have been confronted with. You know, yesterday, she was playing hide-and-seek with some invisible person and had booed on me thinking I was that invisible friend of hers. And consequently adding to her type of dark game at that ungodly hour, she was wearing a black dress too. Can you believe that?".

I snickered and recommenced, "And today, she was bursting her larynx apart and croaking out a song in her car when we were on the signals. And crazy girl, she hadn't even worn her seat-belt! Even our Tannu and Mannu are aware of traffic rules, but that kiddo! Albeit she is very entertaining, you could've seen her reaction, Bhabhi. She was behaving like she had seen a demon when she had noticed me just beside her. Joker girl," I ultimately concluded my fascinating story at a laughing note, reminiscing about all those teheeing times that she had presented to me in just two rendezvous.

"Divyaant, this is the first time that you had noticed so much in a girl and also retrieving about all those minute details that had trespassed between you two, isn't it incredulous?"

Suddenly I sensed that I had been launched on a stage full of judging audience, my face turned heated and my hands had already stopped extirpating the green blades.

The curvy smile on my lips had been rotated by 180º and later, migrated towards my forehead, knitting a deep frown on my crest.

"Bu..." I was out of words momentarily, all the merchandise of my words were stock-out, I was left empty with just one person's thoughts and about her reminisces only.

Whatever Bhabhi said was unconditionally true, I hadn't even regarded any girl before forget about her wearing a black dress or a seat-belt, I hadn't cared much. Instead of hormones and haemoglobin, LLB and LLM were running inside my system, I was a no-heck given person, not a knocking-on-the-windowpane-for-helping-a-girl-in-need kinda person.

This was the first time I had broken my own legacy and acted on my instincts and not on my susceptible brain cells. But this incident was different. All the day long I had kept recollecting about the events that had transpired since yesterday night, from our first meeting to our second rendezvous.

Could a girl leave such an ever-lasting effect on me? Was she L'Oreal Paris, leaving long-lasting effects? I would've laughed it off if someone would've asked me a day before yesterday but today even I was worn out in the web of being affected and cemented to the one-day-old past.

Ambika Bhabhi likewise left me on my own reverie but not before whistling and humming a famous romantic song of the era of the booming and glorious old songs.

Pehla Nasha, Pehla Khumar

Naya Pyaar hai, Naya intezaar

(The first intoxication, the first hangover

This love is new, this wait is new)

Does black magic exist? I started playing quiz with my brilliance.

~**⁕**~

So, how's it?

What do you think about black magic?;)