Bell Bajao, Ring The Bell...

A real life story with minor liberties:

Vinod Kumar never felt so miserable. This, in a life full of sufferings and a troubled childhood. From the slums of Chennai, he had risen like a phoenix often does - this, after his parents’ death at a tender age. The meritorious boy he was, he paid up for schooling through scholarships. Along came college and Vinod had outshone others and eventually, secured a handsome paying job at a private firm in Mumbai. Wanting to start his life afresh, he left Chennai and headed for the city of dreams.

Day one of his first job, and it was there that he met Richika Gupta. Now, she was as beautiful a girl he had ever seen in his life. Not that Chennai doesn't have cute girls, but he instantly knew there was something special in her which he had never found in another of her kind. A Southie who had never ventured outside Chennai all his life and a Northie who had all along been in Roorkee! As diverse as they were, they hit out instantly. She liked him for his intelligence and more so for his childish innocence. And he liked for he didn’t really understand what. They went around, to the cinemas, to the parks, to the lounges. Marriage was now not a question of if, but when. And sure it happened, she proposed and he couldn’t have disposed in a thousand years.

The Guptas were a liberal lot and the marriage was grand. They moved to a comfortable 2BHK flat in Goregaon, like the one he had always dreamed of owning in his childhood, back in the Chennai. She continued working as that was what she always intended to do and he could never have said no to anything she ever wanted. Life was all that he had wanted – A house of his own in the great city, a wife as beautiful and caring as he could ever have hoped for. And then, one day he came to know that he was to about double that joy. He was about to become a father. And when he did arrive, the baby boy, the couple found a new meaning to life.A feeling of playing God, which they cherished beyond words. Life was indeed being dangerously kind to him.

A month passed, and then two and then six. She had been thinking of joining back at work for quite some time now. Career was after all, as important as family to her. Besides, the baby no longer lived off her anymore. On a particular day, she casually informed Vinod about her decision to join work. The man who had let her be her own on every single matter till now, somehow could not accept this. This was the first time he was going against her, because this time it was not about him, not about her, but about his son. He blankly vetoed her decision. She on her part could not understand what this was all about. The baby was growing up; she can’t forever be like this. A few years in a crèche and he would be on his own then. Why was Vinod being such a jerk all of a sudden? The tempers rose so did the decibels. And then it happened. He slapped her straight and square on her face. 

She stood shell-shocked for a few seconds only to be engulfed by a pulse of blinding rage. The princess of her parents, had been slapped by someone who had come just yesterday. She wept, ran into the bedroom and locked herself in. By now Vinod was regretting his deed; how could he ever hit a female, that too his wife. This was something totally against the principles he stood for. Impulsively, he rushed to the gardens to calm himself down. 

An hour later, he was slowly walking back. All this time, he had sketched out the plan to apologize, to pacify her. Back at the house, the door was left unlatched; he pushed it and entered. The baby and the mother were nowhere to be seen. The bedroom, empty. A paper on the bed shouted out to him to pick it up, and he did. Tears trickled down his eyes - she had left him, with the baby. 

He simply collapsed on to the floor. He despised his moment of rage but hoped that she had understood his intentions better. She hadn't taken her mobile along, for he had gifted it to her. He lay there with his eyes staring at the chandelier awaiting her call. Hours later, the door was being knocked. She was back, he thought. He was right. She was standing right there, but not with the baby, but with a relative. And behind them were the men in khakis. 

They kept him in the cell all through the night and it was in the morning that he was bailed out. The whole society was shocked when they came to know of the domestic violence case. It suddenly dawned on him how life had taken such an ugly turn. The dream he was living in was over. Reality - the great leveller. He decided there was no point in wanting to lead a life with her again, now that she had approached the courts directly, without caring to even speak a single word. He would now fight - for his son in the courts, alongside the domestic violence case filed against him.

Epilogue:

Four years later: Young Shashi is about to join his first day at preschool. His father and mother alight from the car and kiss him goodbye. Seconds later, Richika turns to Vinod and bursts into tears. She had returned to him a month back. She could no more live without her son and husband. The way she had been doing so for the past 3 years after the court had granted the boy’s custody to the father.

The ending describes the current real life status of the case. The epilogue is what I hope the family would be like with time. But sometimes this life is too short to forget the silly grudges we hold.

Quick Opinion: The law is being wrongly put to use in this particular case.