chapter 19

Khushbu had tears in her eyes as she continued her story,"I hated your wife Sugandha as I thought that I was more beautiful than her and yet she was loved by her husband and adored by my ex-husband Pushpendra. I started weaving an evil plan to leave Max and get married to you just to spite my ex-husband and your ex-wife!"I interrupted her story as I corrected her,"I never divorced Sugandha as I didn't sign the papers of our divorce!"She looked at me and said that,"Whatever, it doesn't matter much to me now, as I am a completely transformed person but some months ago I was behaving like a monster who was hell bent on destroying the peace and joy of my ex-husband Pushpendra and my ex-boyfriend(Palash).One day I was stalking you in the shopping mall and I was about to call your name when someone tapped on my shoulder, it was none other than Taara Mam. She said to me,"I know your intentions, Khushbu and you have done enough to destroy the peace and love of my student Palash. You have used your evil designs to make him fall in love with your external beauty but the truth is you are ugly and destructive from inside. The fire of revenge and jealousy are eating you up from inside and one day you will beg for forgiveness and mercy from those who were humiliated and used by you for your personal gain.I am not trying to sugarcoat my feelings for you because I have seen Palash crying after his wife left him.If you will try to become intimate with my student with the intention of making his life a living hell then let me tell you very frankly that he is more than a son for me and I will never allow any negative person to disrupt the peace of my student's mind.I am not only his Teacher but also his Guru and my job is not finished till he sees the light at the end of the tunnel. A Teacher is not someone who helps her student to excel in his or her studies but a True Teacher is the one who helps the child in realising his or her potential in life so that the child becomes an enlightened being."I regretted for my negative way of looking at things and said to her,"Mam, I wish I was your student as you would have guided me to live my life in a positive way. You would have held my hand like a parent and would have helped me to stand on my feet after falling on the ground. When a Teacher guides a child then a child learns to be fearless in life as he or she knows that someone is there to show him or her the right path in life.Taara Mam, tell me is it a sin to desire to be a mother when your husband or boyfriend are not supportive! Our society always blames a woman if she can't become a mother after getting married. People say that there is a fault in her stars, or in her uterus but they always put the blame on woman on her failure to fulfill her role as a mother. Do you know that one of my friends gave birth to a set of twins and they both had a hole in their ears. Her husband's family spread the rumour about her that her uterus was defective as her children are born with holes in their ears as a result of her faulty uterus! Can you imagine her pain when she narrated to me her story one day as I was playing with her cute little children and was thinking, how lucky she was!Mam, do you know that a mother's body is like earth. I have read somewhere that If the seed is just scattered on the ground then birds come and eat them. If they do not get rain and sunshine then they don't germinate and if there is no moisture and nutrition then they don't flourish. Mother earth never stops doing her work but humans cut the trees, cause soil erosion and global warming. If one day, she will stop growing crops then do we have a moral right to point our accusatory finger at our beloved mother earth?Not at all, if you will ask me. Do you know Mam, how much I cried for being stigmatized as a barren woman. I was asked to go for a check up and in order to satisfy my in laws I even went through all the tests being fully aware that I can't be a mother if my husband can't become a father!I was asked to go for a sperm donor but came back the moment I realised that if I can't meet the father of my unborn child then how can I spend my entire life loving his child. After all, father is the link between a mother and child. If my child didn't turn out well then my husband would have said that he is not his own flesh and blood. If I would have conceived after this child then my husband would have loved his own child more than mine.I wanted to be a mother to a child whose father was known to me personally.Do you know, my father-in-law told me to find someone from my husband's family, just imagine how things would have been if I accepted his suggestion. I would be loving the relative of my husband as he would do a huge favour for me while pretending to be faithful to my own husband!I said, "No" as I put my foot down on the matter. Then, I met you, Palash and I felt instinctively being drawn towards you. You were like an innocent person who just wanted to be loved without any inhibitions and I was ready to love you without any fear of being blackmailed by you later on because I knew that you also loved me and would never try to hurt me as you considered me to be your best friend!"