Non-erotic The Scarface I Hated by Trambak

[Ramesh_Rocky]

But the fever persisted. On the second night, I sat with him. Sumitra had dozed off, out of sheer exhaustion. He opened his eyes and looked at me with red glazed eyes. He held my hand and said, "I know you don't love me but I have started loving you." He closed his eyes and let my hands go. I realised, he was in delirium. He kept calling my name and clutched my hands. Early in the morning, the fever came down and Imran slept peacefully. Sumitra came and I asked her to go and sleep. I sat with him, dilemma raging within me.

Over the next three days, he recouped. He was probably ashamed of his behaviour although I thought that he had only spoken those words in a delirious state. He probably remembered nothing, I guessed. On the fourth day, he insisted on going to the workshop. Our life again started its normal routine.

It was just a stopover.

In seven days, Imran improved but the scars of illness showed through his frail body. I too had joined the college. I had nothing to do at Imran's house but couldn't wait for the closing time and my feet took me back to the house that I refused to recognize as my home.

It was a Friday and college was closed for the long weekend. Before I returned, I went to meet the headmistress. She was sitting thoughtfully. I entered and she gestured me to sit down. She had an odd expression. She said, "Strangely, I am not able to dissociate myself from you and Imran. Since the time you spoke about him, I have been trying to connect many disjointed facts. Meanwhile, you did not come for a few days on account of Imran's illness. I am told that he is fine now!"

She paused and continued, "I have been hearing things about Imran and I am not sure as how to assess him. On one hand, he is intelligent and hard working. On the other hand, it appears that he has had a difficult past. And that past is closely associated with his scar. You are like my daughter and a strong one. I want you not to react but find out for yourself and decide. Don't allow emotions to overtake your finer judgement, either way."

I tried to decipher the puzzle that Shubhra Mukherjee was throwing at me.

She said with a chuckle, "You also need to know why Kiana stays away from him. Don't be surprised. Kiana is his mother."

My head started spinning.

I don't remember how I came back. I found Suresh and Sumitra. I had three hours with me. And I had decided to know the truth.

I directly confronted Suresh and asked him what he knew about the scar. He was completely tongue tied and miserable. But I pressed hard and told him that today was the test of his courage and faith. If he faltered today then I would never be able to know what was right and what was acceptable. That broke Suresh. And he started to speak. I soon realised that he was an awful narrator. His story went through roads, lanes, by-lanes, bridges and came back to the same crossing. It was a nightmare. After 20 minutes of monologue, I could decipher the gist.

Suresh said, "About five years back, Imran had just finished his engineering degree but was jobless. He stayed with his widowed mother who worked in a hospital. Going was tough. I was his friend and he looked after me like his brother. Wherever he applied for jobs, people were impressed by his brilliance but the job went to someone else because he had no influence. He was getting frustrated. Slowly both of us got into bad company. Imran was very good at heart but poverty made him desperate. We started doing odd jobs for Bhavani. He was very fond of Imran and was hugely influential. We thought that he would help Imran get a decent job but Bhavani started using him more and more for his own purposes.

One day, we were asked to pick up a girl and bring to Bhavani. We had no idea why we were being asked to do this. Imran managed to persuade the girl and brought her to Bhavani's place. We later realised that it was an act of kidnapping and for ransom. For two days Bhavani tried but the girl's parents refused to pay. At the end, Bhavani called all of us and declared that the girl needs to be eliminated. The girl was also present there and she was scared to death. We were all very upset. Suddenly Imran walked to Bhavani and asked him not to do anything to the girl. Bhavani was awestruck by Imran's defiance. He slapped him hard and said that did he not know the rules? Imran remained adamant. We were all very scared and surprised by Imran's attitude. Slowly, Bhavani got up and walked up to Imran and took out a knife. He said, "Imran, what you are doing deserves death. Do you want that?" Imran continued to look at Bhavani fearlessly and nodded his head in assent. Bhavani suddenly slashed Imran's face. Imran did not even flinch and continued to stand. There was blood all over. The girl meanwhile had fainted. But immediately after the slash Bhavani broke down and embraced Imran again and again, saying sorry. He really loved Imran.