by UD Yasha
I did the same. The house had three stories. All its windows were closed. We were coming in from the side so I could not see the front door. The back door appeared shut. There was a window next to it. A fisheye camera swooped our pictures. Rathod tried to open the door but it was locked. He smashed the window and put his hand inside. He unlocked the door and opened it.
Our hearts stopped on seeing what waited for us inside.
Ranjit Kadam stood inside right in front of us. He flashed us a smile.
‘Put your guns down,’ he said and then held up his hand to show something that he was holding. ‘Radha and Rahul are upstairs. I’ve hooked them to a sedative that’s being given to them using an IV. They’re only unconscious right now. But they will be dead in a matter of a few seconds if you don’t listen to me. If I press the button on the remote I’m holding, a higher dose of Propofol will be released into their bodies. And you know what that means. So, drop your weapons right now.’
‘You could be bluffing,’ Rathod said.
‘Do you want to take the chance?’ Ranjit replied. ‘You’ve three seconds.’
I exchanged a glance with Rathod. He nodded. We bent in our knees and kept are guns on the floor.
‘Now kick them away,’ Ranjit said.
We did as we were told.
Ranjit smiled again. ‘Now walk with me,’ he said and stepped backwards.
For the first time, I got a chance to look around. I realized we were in a large room. It had no furniture. Ranjit walked backwards, down a corridor to our left. We were about twenty steps behind him.
‘Where’s my mother?’ I said.
‘She’ll join us soon,’ Ranjit said as the corridor opened into a dining area. It had a well-polished teak dining table and six chairs of the same wood.
‘Have a seat,’ he said beckoning to us to the chairs.
‘What do you mean she’ll join us?’ I said.
‘You have so many questions, Siya. Please sit back and relax. This will be smoother if you listen to me.’
Rathod and I did as we were told once again. I was confused. What was happening? Where was maa?
‘You must be hungry,’ Ranjit said. ‘Would you like something to eat?’
‘Cut it with the games. You know this all going to go down quickly. The backup team will be here anytime,’ Rathod said.
‘They’ll take a while to come. If you’re not hungry, I’m sure you would like to drink something. It’s cold outside, so maybe something warm, maybe? Does that sound good?’ Ranjit said.
His voice and tone were nonchalant as if all of us were friends and unwinding together after a long day at work.
Just then, our attention was drawn by a sound behind us. We turned around. My stomach turned to ice when I realized who I was looking at. I froze. It was maa. Tears streamed down my face before I could realize what was happening. I was looking at my mother in flesh and blood. There she was, standing in front us.
But something was wrong.
Maa was smiling at Ranjit. She glanced at me, and almost looked through me like she did not know me.
‘What have you done to her?’ I said, my voice barely coming out. I somehow managed to push the chair away and get up. I stumbled towards maa, but she moved away.
‘Get back in your chair, Siya,’ Ranjit said. You know what’ll do if you don’t do what I say.’
I was not able to move. What the hell was going on?
Ranjit turned to Rathod. ‘Get her to come back to the chair or I’ll…’
‘What have you done to her?’ I said, as my voice cracked and Rathod held me close. He helped me find some balance as he guided me to the dining table. My eyes were fixed on maa. There was something wrong. Something very bad had happened.
‘Sit down,’ Ranjit said.
‘I heard you come,’ maa said, looking at Ranjit. ‘You must be tired. Should I get you something?
‘That would be great. Did you make tea today evening?’ Ranjit said.
‘Yes, I made an extra cup for you as well, thinking you would like to have it while you read at night,’ maa said.
‘It’ll be great if you can split that between four cups and we’ll all have it together,’ Ranjit said.
Rathod held my tightly. I wanted to go after maa but he was holding me down. My gaze shifted to Ranjit after maa went to the kitchen.
‘What have you done to her?’ I cried out loud.
‘I haven’t done anything to her, Siya. You can see that she’s perfectly okay,’ Ranjit said. ‘In fact, she’s not even locked up like the other women. She’s free to do whatever she wants. I don’t even lock the door of this house when I leave her alone. Whether you like it or not Siya, she has forgotten you. She treats me like her son. She loves me.’
‘I’m asking you for the last time, what did you do to her?’ I said as I felt my eyes burn.
‘As I said, she’s behaving this way because I have done nothing to her. You see, unimaginable things happened to her when Zakkal had her. When I took her, I treated her like she was a queen, and before I realized it, she felt safe around me. Because in her mind, as long as I was with her, she was away from Zakkal. I treated her like you would have, Siya. In fact, one may argue, I treated her even better. I was her guardian angel. Imagine how much you owe a person who has been your mother’s guardian angel for five long years. She has treated me like her son and I have loved every second of it,’ Ranjit said and smiled. ‘And now, she cannot do without me. If you hurt me in any way, she’s going to remember you as the devil, not me.’
I noticed the excitement in Ranjit’s voice was raw and full of emotion; the same as it was when he had described the Bedroom Strangler’s relationship with Zakkal.
Ranjit went on. ‘Your mother is suffering from what psychologists call ‘The Stockholm Syndrome’. It’s when a hostage bonds with the captor. I didn’t realize it was happening in the beginning but once I did, I made sure our bond strengthened. Now, we’re inseparable.’
He went silent as maa returned with a tray in her hand. It had four cups. She looked at me apologetically and said, ‘I’m sorry that the cups are only half full. I didn’t know we were going to have company.’
Maa placed the tray on the dining table and handed us all a cup of tea and sat next to my chair and opposite Ranjit. The smell of the ginger and lemongrass in the steaming hot tea spread through the room.
‘Taste the tea and tell me how you like it,’ Ranjit said. ‘You’ll see why I told you that day that the tea I had at your house reminded me of the tea that my mother makes.’
Rathod was still holding my hand under the table. He gripped it tightly, sensing I was going to get up and smash Ranjit’s face to pieces. I continued to stare at Ranjit. I could not believe maa was next to me. After all the years of searching for, she was right here.
‘Please have the tea, Siya,’ Ranjit said, raising his ever so slightly to reveal the remote control in his hand.
My hand shivered as I touched up my cup to pick it up, making the cup rattle against the saucer.
‘Are you feeling cold?’ maa said, looking at me with earnest eyes.
There was a lump in my throat. I wasn’t sure how long we had sat there, but the backup we were expecting had to be close. But, in that moment, I realized the backup was going to be virtually useless. Ranjit had the remote control in his hand. At even the slightest aggression from any of us, he was going to press the button and Radha and Rahul would be killed. I couldn’t wait for backup. I had to take the matter in my own hand.
I don’t know what happened next but my instincts took over. I held the cup tightly and raised it to bring it close to my mouth. I counted to three in my mind, while I tapped Rathod with my other hand, the one he was holding, and counted down with it.
One. Two. Three.
I flung the steaming tea in Ranjit’s direction. When something hurts like hell, the first human instinct is to touch it. That’s exactly what happened. I had to get my aim right. I was hoping to f
ling the tea on Ranjit’s face. I had done even better. Some of it had entered his eyes. He bellowed in anguish as the remote control in his hand rattled on the table. I reached out and grabbed it.
Rathod was alert. He heaved across the table and hung a low blow to Ranjit’s neck. He was thrown back as a stream of blood flowed down from his mouth. Ranjit was smart, but he had practically no experience in hand to hand combat. Rathod squashed his face again, this time sending his left hand under his chin.
Ranjit fell to the ground and held his hands up as a shield. He backed away while still being on the floor.
‘No!’ I screamed out loud when I realized what he was doing.
He put his wrist to his mouth and before Rathod or I could do anything, his mouth was frothing. I ran to Ranjit as his body started shaking. He was having a seizure. Before I could reach him, he stopped moving. I put a hand to his neck and felt nothing.
‘No, no, no,’ I cried loudly as I slapped Ranjit’s face and pumped his chest.
Rathod pulled me away. ‘He’s gone, Siya. He’s dead. If he had the poison on him, he had always planned to kill himself. He sacrificed himself for Zakkal. I wonder what got him to look up to Zakkal so much.’
At that moment, clarity hit me. I got up and ran to maa. Looking at her, I could tell she was afraid. She had no idea what had happened. I hugged her tightly. Tears flowed down my cheeks. I wanted to say so many things but no words came out.
‘Why…what did you do to him?’ maa said as I hugged her.
Pain ripped through me, knowing that the mother I had got back was hurting and in pain. She had lost track of what was true and who she was. But, I had got her back. She was with me now. That’s all that mattered.
‘It’ll be okay, maa. It will all be okay. I’m with you now. We’ll see this through’ I said, choking up.
I only noticed that Rathod had left the room when I saw him re-enter it.
‘Radha, Rahul and Shadow are upstairs. They’ve all been drugged but seem to be okay. I can hear the backup outside,’ Rathod said. ‘Radha was half awake. She told me that the basement of this farmhouse has the other women who were taken by Zakkal.’
There was something in Rathod’s eyes.
‘What is it?’ I said.
Just then, three members of the backup team smashed the front door through which we had got in. Maa recoiled on hearing the loud noise and hugged me. I wasn’t sure if she had recognized me but I had never felt happier than how I did then.
Rathod turned around and screamed, ‘The farmhouse has been secured. But I found some blueprints here that hint at Zakkal’s possible escape plan. I don’t have cell phone signal here. Please alert ACP Shukla on the radio.’
Maa held me tighter on hearing Zakkal’s name. Goosebumps crawled up my skin.
Rathod continued. ‘I found metro station plans along with some blueprints of the tunnels that the British had built when they ruled India. They were used as water canals back then but were undiscovered for all these years. The construction crew of the metro stumbled upon them while digging for the metro line,’ Rathod said.
The backup team officer who had come ran out, shouting out loud on his radio.
Simultaneously, a team of paramedics came in. They put maa on a stretcher.
‘There are some people on the upper floor and the even the basement,’ I said and turned to maa. ‘I’m your daughter Siya Rajput. I’m going to make sure no one hurts anymore. You have my word.’
Maa looked blankly at me for a flash but then nodded. I walked with maa’s stretcher. She was transferred into an ambulance. I went along with her, holding her hand throughout. I was not going to let her out of my sight.
Through the open door of the ambulance, I saw Radha, Rahul, Shadow and the other women being brought out of the farmhouse on stretchers. All the women were unconscious. Behind them, Rathod ran towards me.
Panting he said, ‘I just spoke to ACP Shukla. There’s bad news, Siya. Zakkal has escaped. He killed the doctors when they took him in for an operation. And we suspect he used one of the tunnels under Sasoon Hospital to get away. The backup team found the blueprints of the tunnel upstairs.’
I gulped and closed my eyes. I knew right away it was going to be a battle for another day. I held maa’s hand tightly. In that moment, I could feel a big source of energy erupt inside me. Nothing else mattered. I had got my mother back against all odds, and all that remained at that point in time was love and gratitude.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Eight weeks later
Over the next few weeks, maa started becoming more responsive and aware of her real surroundings. She stayed in the hospital for three weeks. She was sedated for most of the first week while the doctors performed tests on her. They scanned her brain, gave it the right medicines and gradually brought her back to consciousness.
A week after she woke up, she recognized Radha and me. The doctors told us that it would take some time for her to regain her full memory. We were also told to tell her what had happened in the sixteen years when she wasn’t with us. After being advised by the doctors, we also told maa about dad; more so to shock her out of the mental state she was in because of the Stockholm Syndrome she was suffering from being held captive for so long. She was taken aback when we told her about dad but that day marked a big change in her being able to remember all of us and being more aware of who she was.
In the fourth week, maa returned home. I took three months off from work. My family was always my priority. My savings from my days of practising law were strong enough to carry us through.
In week six, maa’s memory was almost back to normal. She was delighted to meet Shama and Rahul. She had realized that her children were old enough to find partners of their own.
Once maa got home, we settled into a cosy routine. We loved every minute of it. Our lives had a new found meaning. We all had Rahul’s delicious giant omelettes for breakfast. Maa's physiotherapist came to our home before noon. She had therapy sessions thrice a week in the evenings. Rahul would be back from work around five in the evening. Radha's boss was kind enough to let her work from home for six months. She only needed to go to her office for a couple of hours a week. Shama was always with me, looking after maa like she was her own mother. All of us would sit in the evenings and talk for hours. At times, Karan joined us on a video call. We had a lot to tell maa. Our maushi, the woman who had looked after us when maa and dad went missing, would come to our home for dinner almost every second day.
I last heard from Rathod the day Ranjit Kadam was killed. I wanted to thank him for everything and also tell him why I had been gone for three years. But I kept putting it off. I would do it eventually, I kept telling myself.
The CID found out that Ranjit had killed more than seventy women over a period of twenty years. That was the known count. It was suspected the real number was in three digits. They also found out that Ranjit had helped plan Zakkal's escape. The killings of Supriya Kelkar and Tarla Raheja were mere statements to draw attention. Zakkal chose the time outside with inmates as he knew he would have many eyeballs on him then. He could have taken a medicine to induce a heart attack before as well, but no one would have been there to attend to him in his cell. The time in the open with inmates was a ploy to make sure he got urgent medical attention. The CID had no clue or new leads to where Zakkal had gone. The search was still on.
One day when Rahul and I were alone, he told me, ‘I’m going to propose to Radha next month. Let everything calm down. This a huge moment, especially for all of you. I feel even maa will be healthier then.’
I smiled at him and changed the topic because Radha entered the room with maa and Shama. Shadow followed them, wagging his tail. He was already playing a big role in helping maa recover, just like he had done with me.
‘I’m blessed to have all of you back,’ maa said, stroking Radha and me. She turned to Shama and Rahul. ‘Even you two are like my children. I’m really fortunate that I’m getting to spend this tim
e with you. I never thought such a time would come again. Thank you.’
Tears trickled down my eyes. I blinked them away. Maa being with us still felt unreal. We sat and planned the next month. Maa was the most upbeat I had seen since she had got back.
She said, ‘We could all go someplace near Pune for a small holiday. Maybe Mahabaleshwar or even Lonavala. We can get away for a weekend from everything and have time to ourselves.’
Rahul must have noticed maa's happy demeanour as well. His face lit up. I could make out he was excited. He could not wipe the grin off his face. I knew what he was thinking about. He had just found the perfect time to ask Radha to marry him. He glanced at me. I smiled and nodded my head to give him the signal.
Rahul stood up and went down on one knee next to Radha. All eyes turned to them. Radha realized what was happening. She covered her face with her hands.
‘Yes, of course. I will marry you, Rahul,' she said, even before he said anything.
Rahul took Radha’s hand and slipped the ring on. She got up and hugged Rahul. I saw maa’s eyes welling up. In that moment, everyone in the Rajput household was the happiest they had ever been. I wiped the tears away, unable to hold back the glee within me. Maa and Shama hugged me from both sides. The Rajput family was happy again.
SIYA RAJPUT RETURNS IN ‘Little Girl Gone’.
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Author’s Note
Writing this book was an extremely special experience for me. In many ways, it made me believe in myself again. I had to become a better version of myself to write it. Siya Rajput will be back soon. The next book in the series will be out by the second week of April.
Her Mother’s Grave also marks a big change in my personal life. It is my first published novel, even though I have written other novels earlier. It is also my first novel in pursuit of becoming a full-time writer. I have always dreamt of telling stories for a living. Towards that endeavour, I really want to thank you for picking up this book and showing faith in me. It really means the world to me.
