The Nidhi Kapoor Story (7 page)

Life got back to being normal for the Kapoors. After a long and tumultuous relationship, they were now closer than they had ever been. And as luck would have it, the newfound closeness bore fruit. One night, after Nishant was drunk on success and Neelima drenched in the torrential downpour, things got out of hand and they ended up making love in the garden.

A few weeks later when Neelima told Nishant that she had missed her period, Nishant was aghast. He had thought that Payal would have ended all further conversations about kids. He tried talking Neelima out of the second child but Neelima wanted to bring a new life into the world.

Yet again, the delivery was a complicated one. The gynecologist wanted to do a caesarean section but that could be fatal for Neelima. A natural delivery could have gone either way. Nishant just wanted to get it over with. Neelima was resolute. Naveen Verma took the lead yet again and got the best gynecologist that he could find at the short notice to oversee the delivery. He carved a part of his house to make it into a mini-hospital. He did not want to risk anything. Most labors take between 6 and 12 hours but this one took almost 18, as if the child didn’t want to come out. But finally when it did come, she was the most beautiful
thing that Neelima had ever seen.

Nidhi Kapoor. Her daughter. Her flesh. Her blood.

Nidhi was all of five pounds; underweight by a good three pounds, but she had survived the crucial first ten minutes after birth. The gynecologist, who had flown all the way from Mayo Clinic in the US, said that it was a medical miracle that both the mother and the daughter had survived.

Neelima was overjoyed. She was finally a real mother. Nishant, on the other hand, had a busy schedule to keep and any child other than Payal was as good as a pest that he couldn’t live with and yet would have to tolerate. Verma was ecstatic. Yet another strain of Verma blood was now in the world.

In just three odd years, from a desolate house where tiniest of sounds echoed in the emptiness, Ronak had transformed into a real home with two toddlers, a caring mother and a successful father. It was like a dream come true for Neelima. It had taken some time to take shape but now it was here. Neelima vowed that she would not let anyone, anything affect accord at Ronak. Nishant inadvertently had other ideas. Life to him was not about one woman and two kids. He had worked hard to achieve his fame and he was not going to give in just because he was a father now.

∗∗∗

Nishant would often come home drunk and reeking of perfume from other women. To keep the tranquility intact, Neelima ignored Nishant’s drunken stupors and his flings. As long as Nishant was home to the girls, Neelima was
content. As long as Nishant behaved in the presence of Payal and Nidhi, Neelima was fine with whatever Nishant did at other times.

The two girls grew up together but they were very different to each other. While Nidhi was shy, reserved and socially awkward, Payal was the polar opposite. She loved attention and ensured that she got it. She actually craved for it. Just like Nishant did. At home and in school, she was the social butterfly.

At home, Payal got more of Nishant while Neelima was closer to Nidhi. Nishant would regularly ignore Nidhi and would shower Payal with dolls and dresses and things that young girls want. To ensure Nidhi did not feel left out, Neelima bought Nidhi the same things, but only the next day. To girls of that age, that tiny amount of time where Payal was made to believe that she was superior to Nidhi, felt like a lifetime. Payal was OK sharing her loot with Nidhi but every time she did, she made it a point that everyone noticed.

At school, Payal was a teacher’s pet and yet part of the notorious group of girls that was always in trouble. She was obedient, bright, tidy and everything that a teacher expects an ideal student to be. And she was insubordinate, naughty and mischievous, which made her classmates look up to her in awe and with respect. Nidhi chose to remain silent in class, sit by herself in a corner at the back and spoke only when spoken to first. She was always lost in her drawing book where she made doodles of birds flying over mountains and lakes.

Nidhi liked reading about the world around her. Payal
had no such interests. And as the knowledgeable one, Nidhi had an influence over where the two of them went and what they did, but she rarely exercised it. Nidhi could see that Payal was special and craved for her affection and attention. Nidhi would often take on blame for Payal’s mischiefs and to save her from reprimands.

Payal was very happy to have such a devout friend, ally and partner in Nidhi. She thus reciprocated and helped Nidhi when she was stuck. Despite the differences in their personalities, over time, the two Kapoor sisters stuck together and grew thick. They became each other’s best friends.

Things would have been great for the Kapoors if only Nishant and Neelima could sort their differences.

∗∗∗

Today, the spat had turned too ugly. Basheer, Nishant’s bodyguard, had just dropped him home. Nishant was coming from a meeting where a top builder had offered an astronomical sum for Ronak. The builder wanted to mow it down and erect a high-rise instead. When the builder made his offer, Nishant laughed in his face. When the builder showed hints of anger, Nishant nodded at Basheer. It was a signal as clear as any for the 6 feet 5, 130 kgs, more-muscle-than-fat Basheer. He grabbed the builder, locked his arms behind his back and stuck a thick forearm across his neck. The builder couldn’t move an inch and Nishant spat on the builder’s face before he left.

When Nishant reached home, he was drunk as usual.
Both on alcohol and pride. Before he slept, he often went to Payal’s room to check on her. Today, when he did not find Payal in her room, he panicked. He looked around the entire house and finally found her sleeping with Nidhi. He lost it at the sight of his daughter sleeping with Neelima’s. He snatched Payal away from Nidhi’s bed and put her back in her room. Once Payal was back asleep, he sneaked into Neelima’s room. She was still asleep when the first blow hit her and Nishant’s belt ripped the skin off her. Nishant continued to belt her and she never got an opportunity to get up from the bed.

Her hysterical moans woke up everyone in the house. The commotion made Nishant angrier and more brutal. Neelima somehow dragged herself on the floor and Nishant started to kick her instead.

The first to reach their bedroom was Payal. She stood at the door, clung onto the doorjamb. She saw her father beating her mother mercilessly and yet she remained quiet. Malti had reached the room by now. She hugged onto Payal and covered her eyes. Shankar was on the doorsill and was pleading at Nishant to stop. Nishant hurled non-stop abuses at him and kept on beating Neelima. Out of nowhere, Nidhi appeared and she ran towards Neelima. Shankar tried to stop her but she was nimble and fast. She draped herself over Neelima hoping that Nishant would stop. It turned out to be a serious mistake.

Nishant was infused with more anger at the interruption. He tore Nidhi away from Neelima. He pulled at her hair and dragged her to the door where Payal, Malti and Shankar were standing frozen with horror. He was too
strong for the twelve-year-old Nidhi and he carried her like a featherweight pillow. Neelima crawled behind them. Nishant stammered, “If… if anyone dares to interrupt me, or stop me, he or she will go through the same treatment as this bitch.”

Neelima could tolerate any amount of physical pain but she could not let the monster hurt Nidhi. She mustered whatever little strength that was left in her and stumbled after him as he raced away towards the door of the house, still dragging Nidhi with her hair. Nidhi was falling, crawling, stumbling behind Nishant.

Nishant took Nidhi to the swimming pool in the garden. He was about to hurl Nidhi in the pool when Neelima finally caught his legs. She said, “No… Nishu… please…”

Nishant looked at her and laughed deviously. “What, no?”

“Please Nishu, don’t hurt her. I would do anything you say… please…”

“Anything?”

“Yes. Anything. Please don’t hurt her.”

“OK. Strip.” He said plainly. Devoid of any emotion.

“What?” Neelima could not comprehend.

“I want you to strip. Is that difficult to understand?” Nishant said in a slow measured tone. He was oblivious to Neelima’s injuries, the ones that he himself had inflicted upon her.

Neelima remained silent for a minute but then meekly obeyed. She was in a long tee shirt and it wasn’t difficult to remove.

“You’re so beautiful Neelima,” Nishant quipped and started to laugh hysterically.

Neelima was speechless. Physical abuse was something, but this, this was worse. She was naked and in the open. She folded her arms across her chest. She tried talking, “Nishant… so sorry… please…”

Nishant interrupted her. “What’s the matter, Neelima? You don’t love me or what? Why did you fold your hands? Are you feeling cold or something?”

Neelima meekly nodded.

Nishant yelled at the top of his voice, “You fucking bitch! You go around sleeping with everything that has a thing hanging between his legs and here you are pretending to be cold in front of your own husband!”

Neelima begged, “Don’t talk like that in front of Nidhi. Can we at least send her back to her room?”

“No, we can’t. She needs to see your true colours. Your character. She needs to see the whore of a mother she’s got. She has to know who her real father is. Because I definitely am not. And she needs to learn to stay away from Payal.”

“Nishant!” Neelima was angry and helpless. She knew that anything she said will make Nishant more irate. “I promise I would send her away from Payal. We can send her to a boarding school. I promise Nishu. Just let her go,” she begged.

“You think I am a fool? Don’t I know that the moment I turn my back, you’d go running to your sissy brother and complain? And then he would come after me with everything he’s got. Tell him I am not scared of him. I am Nishant Kapoor and I am not scared of anyone. Especially
if that thing is merely 5 feet 5 inches.” With that, Nishant started his raucous laughter.

He paused suddenly and said, “OK, I’d let Nidhi go. You are right. We can send her to boarding school.”

He left Nidhi slumped next to a chair and came close to Neelima. He held her arms tenderly, stared at her shapely breasts and then hugged her.

Neelima looked at Nidhi over Nishant’s shoulders. She could see her daughter bleeding from knees and ankles. Neelima merely closed her eyes and started to cry silently.

“Don’t cry now Neelima. I will not hurt Nidhi. I swear,” Nishant said. He was now caressing her back.

Neelima was still naked and despite her husband’s embrace, she was still scared. She tried to take a chance. “Thank you Nishant. Let’s… let’s please go in. It’s very cold out here,” she said.

Nishant nodded. He held Neelima’s hand and said, “Yeah, it’s cold. Let’s go in.”

Just when Neelima thought that the nightmare was coming to an end, Nishant did the unexpected. He pushed Neelima in the swimming pool. Neelima went down with a loud splash. Neelima knew how to swim but the shock of cold water on her bare skin and the enormity of what Nishant had just done was making it difficult for her to breathe and stay afloat.

Nidhi, at the sight of her mother disappearing in water, rushed to help. She flung herself towards the pool but Nishant caught her deftly. Nidhi stumbled and fell on the cement pavement lining the pool, headfirst.

“Look at your mother. She is such a good actress.” Nishant was still laughing.

Unlike her mother, Nidhi did not try to reason with him. She kept struggling and kicking against him. Most of her shots hit Nishant in the fleshy part of his thighs but one of her misdirected kicks hit Nishant in the groin. He screamed out in pain. He hurled Nidhi like he was shrugging a bug that had bitten him. She landed on her forearm against metal base of a pool lounger. A fountain of blood gushed out from her forearm. Despite the deep cut, she kept crawling towards Neelima. Neelima by now had struggled to the shallow end and had found her feet in the pool. She walked to the edge of the pool but a surprisingly agile Nishant ran the length of the pool and kicked her back in the pool.

“You shall remain in the pool till the time I please. Or I will kill the two of you.” He pulled out a pistol from somewhere.

∗∗∗

Nidhi Kapoor, twelve at that time, took a beating that would have left a fully-grown man begging for mercy. She was red with bruises; her yellow night suit was torn from the shoulders and had turned orange from the blood from the cut in her arm. Neelima was still naked and was half-dead from physical and mental agony. She struggled out of the water. Nidhi removed her night suit and covered Neelima up, as much as a twelve-year-old’s t-shirt could.

The mother and daughter then somehow dragged themselves away from the swimming pool and lied down
in the comparative comfort of the grass bed. Going indoors was not an option. They knew Nishant would have locked the entrance and would’ve threatened everyone against helping them. The mother and the daughter embraced each other and waited for the sun to come up and end what had been probably the darkest night of their lives. Hoping that when the sun did come up on the other side of the night, it would bring freedom from the tyranny of Nishant Kapoor.

The two Kapoor women stared up at the moonless night.

Throughout the ordeal, while Neelima cried and mumbled, Nidhi Kapoor, twelve, did not shed a single tear.

7. Day 1, Evening. Vie Lounge.

Just when the jeep was passing through the busy Juhu Tara road, Rujuta spotted the Vie Lounge and she realized that she was supposed to meet some of her friends in the evening.

“I am so fucked!” she exclaimed out loud.

“Did you say something ma’am?” Tambe asked.

“No no, I was talking to myself. Just drop me here and I will come to the station in a bit.”

Rujuta maintained a very chaotic social life and she liked it like that. Though she did not have a steady man in her life, she was happy making use of whatever was available to her. She was discerning in her choice and yet she always had someone to be with. Her success, social life and connections helped her make such plans easily.