Episode -1
Between life and loss
The beeping machines fell silent just seconds , after the baby's first cry echoed through the delivery room." I'm sorry! " , its a girl baby.Arjun blinked once ,twice realizing she meant his wife.When the midwife handed him the baby girl,his heart cracked and he knew he had nowhere left to go.
Arjun promised her he had protect them both.His promise got unspoken,now his wife gone and new borns soft cry echoing in his chest.He set her down on the orphanage crib then walked away before he could speak.A silent apology in his retreating footsteps.
Will Arjun return? What becomes of the baby?
Setting: hospital,rain falling,dim lights
One life ends one life begins
The lie begins ;
The hospital asked him for the name of the baby.He stared at the form blankly,then walked away outside rain hits the pavement like shattered glass.Arjun held the baby in one arm trembling.He opened his wallet.Arthi's photo smiled up at him.Her handwriting peeked from behind it a torn letter she had written while pregnant " If something happens to me name her Arundhati after my grandmother. You said it was too old fashioned but now it feels right". His car keys in one hand a folded letter from Aarthi's in the other he entered a small private orphanage that same night. The matron looked at him in shock. Matron asked "sir! Is this your child?". He placed the baby on the crib mattress and stepped back. By walking backward he said" the mother died I'm......not in the position to raise her. She doesn't have a name, don't contact me again ". Before the matron could respond, he left.
The Burrial Of Truth
Next day, Arjun's appartment,
He burned the letter from Aarthi.When his sister called ......."how is the baby?"Anna, you made it in time, right?". The baby ..... didn't servive, the silence that followed became permenent.
A Hint Of Hope
The matron watches the baby sleep a small note is strucked beside her, barely readable blood smudged, written by her dying mother. In the note" if something happened to me name her Aru......." The ink fades their..... The matron gently holds the note, places it in a sealed envelope an write on word on it
Hope
Arjun, dressed in suit, takes a photo with a smiling women , a toddler , his new daughter runs to him in a rich home her name is anvi in the corners of the frame, a dusty photo of Aarthi's lies face down in a forgotten box.
A girl raised nameless with only a half identity.
"If something happens to me name her Aru....."
And one day the truth will burn it's way back.
I wondered if you were held my hand as you held hers i held on to his seent on this paper.
" As you live As you live
I may leave I may leave !
Will you come Will you come
Feel me some Feel me some !
It's me and you,me and you
Leave me blew Leave me blew !
Need is you Need is you
Will come true Will come true !
the age of playing balloon
Arjun and Aarthi left me alone !"
