“…”
“Even today it’s difficult for a woman to live separately imagine how it would be so many years back… We all moved to a nearby village and mom started working as daily wage earner… You wouldn't believe me Pooja! The problems my mom faced are immense. I have seen her crying all night... While it had so much impact on me, I could understand the rage in Nikki's heart too!”
“I can understand that Kalai…” said Pooja in a soft voice.
“Many times we used to shift from one village to another in the night… To begin with I used to wonder why and used to cry thinking about my friends, school etc. etc. But as days went by, I could understand…”
There was bitterness in Kalai’s voice and Pooja kept quiet…
“One day mom asked us to pack our stuff and be ready to move that night… By then we were sort of grown-ups and could realize what’s happening and we didn’t question… But Nikhil was so furious… I think he was around eleven or twelve then… He started shouting something in frustration and then mom asked him not to waste his energy yelling in the air but to take revenge for everything that we are going through…”
“….”
“She made him promise her that he will take revenge and make your father suffer… Not just that day, many times she would remind him about his duty… Our life went on like that till we meet Revathi aunty…”
“You mean AMN college principal Revathi madam?”
“Yes… She is my mom’s school friend… My mom discontinued her school after eighth standard while Revathi aunty went on to do Phd…”
“oh!”
“Our life changed a bit after that… Revathi aunty helped us financially and also put us both in a good school… She induced mom to study further and helped her to clear it too… Then mom started working…”
“Hmm…”
“We were some sort of settled when an old lady identified mom… She was very surprised to see mom working in a place far away from Kallur… Dad’s family had helped her family so many years before and she was shocked to hear our story… She asked us to come with her to her home… Though she tried to induce mom in many ways, mom didn’t accept her invite… But she died in a few days with a will giving all these properties to mom…”
“Oh! So this is…”
“Yes, it’s that grandma’s properties… Her only son and his family are now settled in Australia and they had no interest in this bungalow and estate… After Nikki took up the management he has expanded the estate almost 12 folds…”
“Oh! But there are still good people in this world!”
“Yes there are… So very nice people like you Pooja…”
“…”
“Though years went by, mom didn’t lose hope and she was trying all that she could do to get more information about daddy… Nikki was also looking for information…”
“Hmmm…”
“How did you knew that dad is in Nigeria Pooja? Nigeria is far from South Africa right?”
“Yes it is… I found it from one of dad’s old file…”
“Oh!”
“My mom never told me anything about their past Kalai. She just used to act weird…”
“Yes I heard about it…”
“hmm… After her death, Ranga told me about your father… Ofcourse he was not aware of the whole story… He just knew that my dad betrayed someone and became rich… That made me guess the reason for my mom’s odd behavior… Then I realized that her soul will not be happy till I find out about you all and pay back… I searched the entire home… In my dad’s cabin I found one old letter… It was a letter from Kannan uncle. He had authorized dad to take decisions on their new partnership… The paper had a Nigerian seal…”
“Oh!”
“Yes, so we appointed a detective to find out the whereabouts of uncle and he took so many risks and found the location of uncle for us… But uncle was in the custody of a very bad gang known for violence… Actually, both my dad and uncle got lost during their wild life safari and was found by some Namibians… But it turns out that those people were not villagers or forest rangers but gang people… They asked money from our dads… Unfortunately your dad makes the worst decision of his life and signs a power of attorney and asks his friend to go home, sell their company or properties and send money… But my dad the cunning fox, did sell the properties but never sent a single penny to save uncle…”
“oh!”