The Extra's by Nagarkar Kiran

Author:Nagarkar, Kiran [Nagarkar, Kiran]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

13

‘Hey, where are you going? I told you to take me to Carmichael Road, so what the hell are we doing on Nepean Sea Road? Are you unfamiliar with south Bombay? Do you think I am new to this city and you can take me for a ride?’

Ravan shook his head. ‘Sorry, I thought you said Nepean Sea Road.’

‘Don’t give me that bull. Turn around this instant or I’ll haul you off to the police station.’

This is what happened to Ravan these days: he would be driving some passenger to Andheri, Kurla or Churchgate and he would sense something lying on a bed in a dark room lit by a single low-watt bulb. He would narrow his eyes and try and focus but only half-heartedly, as if he did not really wish to see. And then he would hear a gravelly voice telling him, ‘Stop wasting time. Take her away.’ And he would find himself staring at a crumpled woman tossing aside the sheet and he would avert his eyes, but just a fraction of a second too late.

He could see Pieta being whisked away again. When he had had to wait outside Dr Samant’s operating theatre for the second time, it had been worse, far far worse than waiting in the taxi near Falkland Road, not knowing where Pieta had gone. This time around he knew she was just behind that wooden door but he was none the wiser for it. Ravan sat down on the sofa in the waiting room, he walked back and forth, he did his tae kwon do exercises, he lay down on the floor, he held his head in his hands and thought he couldn’t take it any more. Time was the Chinese water torture, each reluctant drop stretched to infinity hitting his forehead like a bomblet and exploding silently. But the genius of the torture was not the ripping apart or the pureeing of his brains, it was the waiting for the next drop, the not knowing when the elastic in the water would snap and it would come crashing down.

Dr Samant had said they were taking Pieta into the operating theatre for the second time because she wouldn’t stop bleeding. Ravan could hear the voices from behind the closed doors. ‘You promised you would close down your practice. You swore in front of the family gods.’ Mrs Samant’s voice was not loud but the silence of the night amplified it.

‘You broke your promise and the gods will have their vengeance. The girl is going to die, both you and I know it. I have seen more deliveries and abortions as a nurse than you have. She is going to die, whatever you try to do, and they will hang you and leave me alone and helpless while all our neighbours point their finger at me and say she is that murderer’s wife. And they won’t stop there. They know I was a nurse and they’ll say that I too should be hanged for being your accomplice.

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