The Expected..

(This is the last part of the short story series. Please read the 1st , 2nd , 3rd and 4th part also)

Part 1 - Unusual Train Story

Part 2 - Ultimate B'day Gift

Part 3 - Last Message

Part 4 - Second Time

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“How is he, doctor”, spoke a worried Tarika.

“He is good. No need to worry. I guess he got pretty emotional for something and
that pulled him down” assured the doctor.

“Oh ok. Thank you Doctor. Can I see him now?”

“Yes sure.. He is on sedatives now.. Don’t disturb him..”

“Sure doc.”

Tarika went to Sam’s room. She saw him sleeping peacefully. She went near him and gently ran her fingers through his hair. I have learnt an important thing from Sam thought Tarika. Sam moved his head a little. She took her hand off his hair and smiled at him. A nice fella.. thought Tarika. She gently closed the door behind her and sat down in the chair outside the room. Ram had come up to see Sam and saw Tarika sitting outside. He went inside the room and came back and sat near Tarika after 5 minutes.

“What is up with Sam… What happened?”, enquired Ram.

Tarika explained that Sam had come to her home and they were speaking about India and home and how Sam and she missed their home very much when Sam suddenly fell to the floor.

“Hmm.. I guess it’s better for Sam to go home now.” Spoke the ‘Major’.

“Can I also go, Ram? It’s been a year since I came here” politely requested Tarika.

“Hmm.. How can I replace two great resources?” Chuckled Ram. “Ok. You can start in a week after the transition is over”

“Thanks a ton Ram” Tarika smiled at him. Ram smiled back.


“Put on your seat belt..” Tarika spoke to Sam.

“Yeah. Will do”, replied Sam. He looked out of the plane’s window and could see the beautiful mountains. His thoughts wandered into those mountains and into his past life.

“So do you like the mountains?, questioned Madhu looking at the beautiful mountain picture on the wall of the Coffee Day shop.

Sam looked at the picture.. “ I prefer cities and beautiful girls to mountains” chuckled Sam.

Madhu also laughed. Sam and Madhu had been meeting every week after their first meeting. Sam wondered why Madhu had really wanted to meet today. He also had to tell her something important today. Something VERY VERY important!! He felt like a volcano which was about to burst from inside any minute, but Sam restrained himself and acted in a calm manner.

He spoke again, “What special about today?”

Madhu smiled at him. “It is my birthday today”

“Wow!! Many many more happy returns of the day..” spoke Sam trying to fool Madhu that he didn’t know about it. He knew that it was Madhu’s birthday and that is why he had made all arrangements and brought her here.

Sam winked at the waiter and he came to their table. The waiter had a big box in his hand. Sam winked again at Madhu. Madhu was very excited to see it.

“Open it”, spoke Sam.

Madhu opened and saw a small three deckered cake in that. On top of it was a beautiful girl sitting with a violin in her hand with her head slightly tilted. Madhu was all excited and she just looked at Sam with all gratitude. Sam winked again at the waiter. More tricks to follow.. thought Madhu. All the waiter came up to their table and as Madhu cut the cake and they sang happy birthday in chorus. After sometime, all the waiters went back to their work.

Madhu wanted to speak but her voice choked with emotions. Madhu finally spoke “I.. I want to thank you for all that you have done.. But I know no words can explain the happiness you have given me now.. I feel so so happy now..”

Sam listened to this and smiled. “What would you say if I were to tell you that I would want to give you this happiness all throughout your life?” Madhu looked startled. She regained her composure. Sam waited with bated breath for the answer.

“I have liked you from the first year of college.. I just cannot believe that it took so long for you to propose to me.. I LOVE YOU, Sam”

Sam took her hands into his.. “I love you too darling.. and I promise you that I will keep you happy all my life”. Madhu blushed..


“Happy all the time”.. Sam thought and smiled sarcastically at himself. He turned his head and could see Tarika reading a book. He really had no words to thank her for helping him go back home.

The 28 hour flight was pretty long journey. After helping Tarika pick up her bags, Sam turned towards the exit. He hadn’t informed his home about his arrival. He wanted to surprise them. But he got a big surprise when Tarika caught his hand and took him to a call taxi. She would not tell him where they were going. Sam intuition told him that he might be heading for more trouble. His troubled mind began thinking.. What is Tarika thinking about me? Hope she didn’t think bad about me when I collapsed.. but I don’t think she has thought bad about me.. else she would not be talking with me.. Sam’s thoughts paced hard as they both sat silently in the call taxi moving towards their destination.


Shekar was very disappointed with himself. He had made a big mistake. He had agreed to the marriage proposal for Madhu under pressure from Ganga. He had thought that sending Madhu to his brother’s home US for a month would help his daughter forget her past. But he was completely wrong. She had come back in week from US and was not speaking about her sudden arrival. She was becoming pale and thin day by day. All he wanted in his life was his daughter’s happiness and he knew he was not doing anything good to help her. He felt really guilty about himself.

His thoughts were disturbed by a phone call. He could hear Ganga picking up the call and suddenly she was shouting for him. He ran from his bedroom to the hall.

“Our girl.. our girl..” Ganga spoke as tried to catch some breath. She was completely tensed up.

“What happened to our girl?” asked Shekar.

“She.. She..”

“Speak up..”

“She has met with an accident and she has been admitted in ICU in Malar hospital”

Shekar dropped into the sofa putting his hands over his head. After five seconds he looked at Ganga. “Lets go..” He grabbed his car keys and rushed towards his car. Both Ganga and Shekar drove to the hospital, fully tensed up, not knowing what would have happened to their daughter. Shekar and Ganga tried to call to Madhu’s mobile. It kept ringing… and ringing..

On reaching the hospital, Shekar ran to the reception and enquired about any accident patients admitted in the last hour. Malar hospital was famous for attending many road accident victims and therefore the receptionist could not provide much information as there were many people who were admitted in the last hour in the ICU. Shekar and Ganga ran up to the second floor to enquire from the ICU receptionist.

Shekar spoke to the receptionist.. “My daughter.. aged 24.. we got a telephone call that she met with an accident and has been admitted in here.. can you please check your list?”

The receptionist quickly checked through admittance sheet and nodded her head n disapproval for any name called Madhu. Shekar spoke.. “Please check once again..”

The receptionist ran though the list once again.. Still there was no person admitted with Madhu characteristics. Shekar also checked through the list. Both Ganga and Shekar heaved a sigh of relief. Shekar then looked at Ganga and spoke, “Is it surely Malar hospital?”

A horrified look on Ganga’s face told the story. Shekar then quickly ran along with Ganga and they both visited all the major hospitals in Chennai. Not being able to find their daughter in any of the hospitals they came back home. On reaching home, Ganga picked up Madhu’s dress from her closet and hugged it and started crying. Shekar sat in another corner of the hall looking dejected.


Sam could sense something was wrong when the taxi screeched to a halt in a place familiar to him. He got out of the taxi and looked around and was horrified to see that they were standing right in front of Madhu’s home.

Sam turned around and gave a sharp glance at Tarika. “Where the hell have we come..? Do you know how much problem is going to happen now?”

Tarika calmly replied, “Nothing will happen. You come with me”

They took their baggage from the taxi and Madhu led Sam inside the front court yard and rang the main door bell. Sam was completely tensed up. All colorful butterflies were flying in his stomach. I am gone man.. My last rites will happen here soon..


Shekar opened the door and was surprised to see Tarika and Sam. He motioned them to come inside. On seeing Sam, Madhu’s mother jumped from her sofa and grabbed his shirt.

“Where is my daughter?” she shouted at him. Sam and Tarika had a bewildered look on their face.

Shekar tried to come in between Ganga and Sam.

Ganga shot an angry look at Shekar. Still holding Sam’s shirt.. she shouted again.. “What have you done to my girl? Where have you taken her? Why don’t you leave her?”

Her grip on Sam’s short loosened and she slowly slid to the floor and pleaded “Please give me back my child.. I am sorry for all the things I done to you.. Please give me my child…”, she begged.

Sam was astounded by the turn of events and he came back to his senses quickly and was about to reply when he heard a voice from behind. “What is happening here?”

All of them turned around to see Madhu standing at the doorstep. Ganga quickly got up on her feet and hugged Madhu and kissed her. Shekar too followed and hugged his daughter.

All of them settled in the hall and they all understood that the phone call was a hoax call. Ganga asked Sam to forgive her for what she had done and also for the way she spoke to him on the phone a few months back. But all of them were curious as to who would have done such a thing.

Shekar then looked at everybody and spoke. “I only asked my friend to give that hoax call” Everybody sat in the hall with stunned faces. Ganga could not believe that her husband would do such a thing. She finally recovered from that shock and asked “Why?”

“The reason is you, Ganga” Shekar spoke looking at Ganga.. “You.. your stubbornness.. you don’t know how much you have destroyed our girl’s life.. She does not smile.. she does not talk.. she has become a living dead..”

Tears streamed down Ganga’s eyes. Madhu looked at her dad in amazement. Shekar continued “I did this to make you understand the value of life.. to make you understand that love and life are more precious than your so called religion or caste..”. Tears started rolling down Madhu’s eyes also.

“This boy, Sam.. He loves her.. She loves him.. Who are we to stop them.. It is their life.. They have as much independence to lead their lives as we had..”

Madhu hugged her dad while Ganga looked down towards the floor. She was ashamed of what she had done. Shekar continued “I don’t want to hurt you Ganga.. But please.. for my sake.. let Madhu live her life and let her be happy”. Ganga stood up and came to Shekar and sat by his legs and put her head on his lap. She spoke in a cracked voice.. “I am sorry Shekar for causing so much problem.. Please forgive..” She cried once again.

Shekar was very happy at Ganga’s change of heart. He asked Sam to come closer and took Sam’s and Madhu’s hands and was about to bring them together when Madhu slipped her hand off and spoke “Appa, I don’t want to marry Sam anymore”

All of them were shocked. Sam was lost again. His weak body combined with the long journey and many shocks and amazements had made him little tizzy but he didn’t want to show his weakness and tried to stay calm and composed.

Madhu continued “He is not the guy I wanted in my life. He does not listen to anybody nor does he understand anybody’s feeling. I don’t want to live with him”. Sam heaved a sigh and turned his head away after listening to what Madhu had to say. An arrogant girl..

Shekar understood the ego problem between them. He quietly winked at Tarika to take them out to some place. Tarika took the car keys and caught Sam’s hands and led him towards the car. Shekar and Ganga caught Madhu’s hand and gently nudged her towards the car.

When all three of them sat in the car, Tarika spoke “So where do you guys want to go?” Getting no response, she drove to her favorite place, Coffee Day, Nugambakkam.
They drove in complete silence and reached their destination in 15 minutes.

On reaching there, Tarika pulled them out and made them sit next to each other in a corner seat. Both of them were not ready to look at each other. She looked up at them and spoke “I am giving you 5 minutes of time while I get some coffee for you.. that is all the time I can give you both before I come back and bug you..” She smiled at both of them and went off to the counter. She could see from the corner of eyes that they were still not talking. She whispered some words to the waiter. She then looked around to see somebody standing near the corner seat talking with Sam.

“Hey dude, when did you come back man? And you guys are back together? Wow!”, spoke Bharath.

“Just came today da.. How come you are here”, spoke back Sam trying to avoid any conversation that included Madhu.

“I was just driving around and I saw you guys. Great to see you both together after all that had happened”. Suddenly he heard a voice familiar to him. He turned around to see Tarika. HE FROZE!! Tarika smiled at him and hugged him. Bharath also hugged her. Sam and Madhu’s jaws dropped..

“I missed you so much.. I am so sorry that I left you..” continued Tarika. “I love you..” she spoke as she kept hugging him.

Sam collected himself and spoke.. “What is happening here? Bharath, do you know her?”

Bharath slowly released Tarika and spoke excitedly.. “Ya machi.. We loved each other in undergrad and we had a fight and she went away from me. This is the first time I am seeing her in 3 years. I am so sorry.. I should have told you about her before”

All the four of them sat down and Tarika could see that Sam and Madhu were smiling now. Tarika spoke to Sam, “If it had not been for you, I would have never wanted to come back to Chennai to meet Bharath.. When you collapsed on the floor screaming for Madhu , I understood your love for her.. At that point, I felt how badly Bharath must have missed me also.. So then I decided to come back for him”

Madhu eyes became moist. She looked at Sam and spoke “You cried for me?”. Tarika looked at Madhu and told her the whole story. After hearing the story, Madhu started crying. She held Sam’s hand and begged for forgiveness. Sam had a big doubt in his mind about the person who spoke to him when he had called her before. He asked her about it and she told him the story about how she had lost the mobile in the bus. All of them were laughing now. The waiter came near their table and put down a box on the table.

Tarika pushed the box towards Sam and asked him to open it. He opened and was very happy to see ‘Happy B’day’ written on it. “It’s a small gift for what you have done for me” Tarika winked at Sam.

Madhu hugged Sam’s arm and motioned him to cut the cake. Sam cut the cake and gave the first piece to Madhu. Bharath gave a piece of cake to Tarika also. Sam then looked at Madhu’s eyes. He had missed her for so long. Madhu felt all her joys returning back to her.

Sam then looked at the picture on the wall and spoke.. “Do you want to live with me in the mountains?” he joked.

“I will live in anyplace, if you are there with me” replied Madhu and smiled gently. Tarika and Bharath also smiled at them.

“And I will keep you happy forever!!” spoke Sam and hugged his angel and she was forever buried in his heart and in his arms.

THE END...
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