The Normal Family

A Tragic Past

Flashback

I was living in the village Samastara, the place I had lived my whole life. My life has never been that great, I always wished to take my family's status to the next level. I worked really hard all day. My life was dull, until I met Vedavali, the daughter of a priest. The day I saw her, I knew she was my soulmate. She used to come to the river to see me every evening, neither of us spoke but we knew we were in love. Nearly a year later we had the courage to talk to each other, we regularly met in the spot near that river. Though she was a shy girl, she was open to me. One day, while she got me fruits from the trees in her house, someone saw us, soon her parents got to know. They decided to stop her education and get her married to a man of their own caste.

Caste discrimination was still prevalent in our village, it never occurred to us that our future shall be this uncertain when we fell in love. As they say love is blind. She told me how her family were reacting. We knew neither of our families will accept us and if we wanted to live together we had to find somewhere else to live. That is what we did, we eloped. I decided to leave the only place I've lived in my entire life. It was not an easy decision, but that was the only thing we could do. I had some of my savings, we moved to Chennai all I could do was rent a one room place. We both started working in a grocery store, the whole day's work would only get us food in the plate, but we were happy we had each other.

The situation changed when Vedavali discovered she was pregnant, I was overjoyed but worried, we were not able to afford the medical bills, and her pregnancy seemed to be a complicated one. I was failing my duties as a husband and as a father. That is when I met Reggie sir. He gave me a job and enough money, that is how I started working for his drug mafia. I knew the business he was engaged in was not right. It involved violence, black money and a lot of things that were not lawfully correct. Unfortunately, I needed this money for my family. We moved to a bigger place and were able to afford the medical bills. 

When everything was going well, tragedy struck, Vedavali gave birth to our beautiful little girl, but could not survive. I didn't know whether to grieve for the love of my life or rejoice the birth of my daughter. I named her Pallavi, according to her mother's last wishes. I was ready to give up everything for my daughter to have a happy life. Now the problem was that I was not able to do dangerous tasks for Reggie sir, when I asked if I could borrow some money he stated "Do you think you are in a government job, you want job security? Paternity leave? You get paid only if you work."

This is when I crossed paths with Kayal. She was women living in our locality, she was seen as a burden by her own family. She had been married twice, and the husband died in both the cases. Now she was seen as bad luck and was tormented by her own family members. They  threatened to kick her out. She worked in the grocery store I used to work in. I got acquainted with her. I first tried asking her to take care of my daughter in exchange for living in my house. She refused stating people will look down on both of us. I finally agreed to marry her. Our marriage seemed like a business deal. I was not over Vedavali, Kayal was desperate for a place to live, and I was desperate for someone to take care of my daughter. Besides I did not believe in nonsensical notions like a woman being bad luck.

Our lives seemed to settle, Three years passed. My Pallavi was soon starting school. She now grew into an adorable toddler. Kayal never asked me where I worked even when I returned home late night.

On one such day, when I returned I saw a sick crying Pallavi. "She has been like this the whole day, our fridge is empty, I don't know what is troubling her, I can't take her outside nor leave her alone when she is this sick." Kayal said. "I will get some milk from the nearby shop."  I said and hurried out. 

I did not have enough money in my hands at the moment, the small shops were quite far away, the situation was urgent. I entered the large diary shop, there was only one small packet of milk. An old man grabbed it right before me. I begged to him to let go. "I am an old man, I can't go to the distant shops let me take this milk." he said. I was in no situation to heed to his request. "You are old because you were born before me." I said trying to push past him and grab the milk. That is when a lady came and stopped me.

 "This man is a senior citizen, you can easily go to the next store to buy some milk, let him take it. or just buy one of this bigger cartons." she demanded.

"Mind your own business lady, stay away. Stop putting your nose in other people's business." I said trying to leave. "You don't tell me what to do, I think you don't recognize me, I am SSP Akilandeshwari, let the old man take the milk." she commanded. I realized I still had Heroin with me and did not want to be talking with a cop. I tried to escape, and by mistake scarred her arm. This became a huge scene. Soon the security and then the police were checking me. I was arrested, unaware on how long I would have to spend in prison and whether I will be able to see my Pallavi after this.

End of Flashback

Akilandeshwari's POV

How dare this man scar me, I was going to make sure he does not come out of prison alive. After a doctor's checkup and making sure I was ok, and the shock did not affect my pregnancy, we filed a case that very same night. We made the case as big as possible, he was sentenced to prison for five years. Unfortunately he did not provide much leads about the drug operations even after harsh questioning. I heard his wife and three year old daughter were there. I was shocked this man was a father, he looked quite young. Relieved that that man was going to spend a long time in prison I went home. Srihari looked worried, when I went to him he asked me "Where did that man go I want to beat him." "Enough people are doing that right now honey, so we can take rest." I said. Shiva was upset that Srihari was exposed to such violence at such a young age. I did not mind though, the women in our country have fought wars carrying their children along with them. This shan't affect my son in any way. 

Narrator's POV

Kalai refused to give out any information. The police were callous with him, as he had dared to raise his hands on an SSP. The women rights commission was furious as he had attacked an eight month pregnant woman who was out with her child. The news was flooded. Media demanded that if such a thing could happen with an IPS officer what was the fate of regular women. That night Kalai refused to see his wife and daughter as he knew Pallavi could not bear to see him in this condition. The DGP congratulated Akhila on her quick work.