Train companion

It was a typical rainy night of Mumbai with storms and heavy thunders. Radha boarded the local for Borivali from Churchgate. After a hectic day at work in the hospital, she found some time to relax in the women's compartment. As it was a late night local, only few passengers were there along with her.  Radha being tired just closed her eyes and was about to doze off when she felt a pat on her hand. She opened her eyes and found a nicely dressed women standing in front of her.
Radha asked her what she wants as there was enough place to sit.
The lady asked her for the water bottle that Radha was holding.
“Oh,” said Radha and offered her the water. The lady sat opposite to her and drank the water in a gulp.
The lady smiled and returned her the bottle.
The ladies started chitchatting from the weather to the traffic of Mumbai, before finally talking about their families.
The lady was very comfortable in asking personal questions to Radha which later made Radha a bit awkward and conscious. She was not comfortable answering all those questions. It seemed the lady understood Radha’s discomfort for she soon started talking about her family. She continued with the pain of dressing in saree in the hot and humid weather of Mumbai as her In-laws prefer that. Radha agreed to that and told her that she was lucky enough to wear any outfit depending upon the weather condition. However Radha found it strange that the lady seemed to talk about the 90s’ a lot.
But she doesn't seem to look like that mature.
Finally, after all their chitchatting, they reached their destination and said goodbye to each other.
Next morning again it was raining heavily. With great difficulty Radha was able to reach her hospital. After a hectic day she boarded the same local as yesterday. As soon as she reached the compartment she found the lady again; she waved at her and sat beside her. 
Radha had started calling the lady as her tai (elder sister). Today they discussed everything and Radha was more open to her today for she felt a cosmic connection with her.
This routine continued for a week but then suddenly Tai stopped coming .First Radha felt that she must be out of town but she couldn’t see her even after fifteen days, Radha thought of calling her at her office number that Tai had given to her before.
 The same night she saw Tai, Radha beamed with joy but Tai's response was not that warm. Radha could make out that something was wrong when she sat beside her. She asked her where she had been for all these days. “Hospital,” she replied. “Oh! What happened?” “I was beaten up by my in-laws and my husband very badly.” She opened her hair to expose the big scars on her scalp and bruises on her back. “Oh no!” screamed Radha. “You should complain to the police and get them arrested.” “No, it's not easy,” Tai said. “I have kids.” “They need their father, but they need their mother too!” Radha screamed, “If you are continuously beaten up like this how will you survive? Tomorrow I will come to your office and we will go to an NGO which helps women suffering from domestic violence.” Radha could see a bleak smile on her Tai’s face.
They reached their destination with Radha promising to see her at her office after lunch. Tai nodded her head.
Next day, sharp at one o'clock, Radha reached Tai’s office, a sales office of a famous builder of Mumbai.
She reached the reception and enquired about Madhvi Apte. To her big surprise she came to know that there is no employee of this name. Confused, Radha called the number of the office that Tai gave to her. The office land line number was of the same office where Radha was standing, now Radha had no option than to leave.
That night again she couldn't see Tai, and then for continuous fifteen days she wasn’t able to see her.
Radha felt something wrong must have happened to her tai but she was helpless.
She was wondering why that lady gave her a fake office address and felt foolish too, as she hadn’t asked for her mobile number.
One fine night, two sweet girls came to her and asked about her health. Quite puzzled, Radha answered that she is fine and asked them the purpose of asking this. They said, “We use to observe you and saw you chatting and giggling by yourself and we felt you suffer from some disorder.”
“No, no, I don't talk to myself. There must have been some kind of misunderstanding girls.”
The girls said its ok and then left.
After two days, again the same incident happened. This time a railway employee asked her health and told her that it was good that she was feeling normal now, “I see you almost every day getting down from the train but last month I observed you talking to yourself.”
Radha was shocked to hear this and she wanted to say that she used to talk to her tai, but why was tai not visible to them?
Next day she took a leave and went straight to that builder’s office and enquired whether a Madhvi named lady was their employee ever and to her horror they said yes, 26years back! She was an accountant but all of a sudden she disappeared and after seven years of her disappearance she was declared to be dead.
“Oh can I get her house address?” “Yeah,” came the reply.
The address was of Borivali. Tai's full name was Madhvi Apte Jain.
Seems to be a love marriage she realised.
Next day was Saturday; after her half day of job Radha reached Tai’s building. It was a proper Gujarati building.
She rang the doorbell of flat 201 of second floor and found a mature man standing in front of her.
Radha told him that she is Madhvi's niece which the man found very strange and told her that he doesn't wish to keep any ties with Madhvi's family  as Madhvi ran away with someone twenty five years back. Radha was reeling under the shock, when a lady entered the hall. The man introduced her as his wife.
“How are the kids?” Radha asked the man. 
“They are fine. They are of your age and well settled.”
“Can I meet them?” “That won’t be possible as they are not here. My daughter is married and settled in Vapi, while my son is in thane. I have two more sons from this marriage.”
“Can you please give me their phone number as I really wish to talk to them.” The man gave the phone number to Radha.
Radha came back and told the whole incident to her mother-in-law, her mother-in-law told her, “The lady must be alive, and must have wanted to know about her family. And when you showed some interest she found you the right person.” “But Aayee why was she not visible to others and how could be she so young like 26 years instead of fifty if she is that Madhvi?” For all these queries even her aayee had no answer.
Next day Sunday she called the daughter of Tai who kept the phone rudely as she felt she should not talk to a family whose girl ran away leaving her husband and kids behind.
Now Radha called the boy who was also not very eager to talk but on insisting he listened the whole story. First the boy felt that Radha is cooking up the story but when Radha told him very personal incidents of his mom and him, he believed her. She then asked what she wanted from the boy, “Your mother is dead and at least instead of cursing her you guys should cry for her.”
“How can you say that and who will believe you?” Radha said, “Then give me the details with whom she ran away.” “No idea. We heard it’s someone from her office.”
“Any police report?” “No idea,” said the boy, “we were too small.”
Monday, along with her husband Radha went to the Churchgate police station and lodged a complaint which the police men found very weird and were reluctant to do. But her husband showing them his media card somehow made them register a missing case but told them it was of no use.
Then Radha went to Tai’s office and took the number of the employees who worked at that period.
Luckily Radha met an old chap who knew Madhvi very well, on enquiring about her that chap told, “Madhvi would come to office almost every alternate day full of bruises and scars. But whenever we would ask something she would say she is too hasty and keeps falling.”
“Oh,” was Radha's reply.
She was now damn sure that something really bad had happened to Tai.

Radha gave a leave application for ten days as she really wanted to see justice prevail.
Next morning she reached the police station and as expected the cops were not interested in finding a lady who went missing twenty five years back.
She went straight to Malad, to her husband's office, a leading daily Newspaper.
She along with her husband met their boss and narrated the incident, which he laughed off as story of a Bollywood movie.
But on requesting he agreed to help in finding that lady who went missing twenty five years back by pressurizing cops using his contacts.
That was a big relief for Radha.
After that she left for Thane and met Tai's son who was a little surprised to see her as he never expected a stranger doing so much for her mother.
Seeing her efforts, he was ready to help her in finding her mom.
And there was also a good news coming from South Mumbai police station, who wanted a proper photograph of Tai and other information.
Luckily Radha was with Tai's son and he gave all information.
Radha came back and ten days passed like that without any fruitful result. Radha joined her hospital and got involved when she was called at the reception. She was surprised to see Tai's husband who came to threaten her to keep herself away from Madhvi and them, as the police had enquired him for Tai's disappearance.
Radha was bold enough to give him a strong and stern reply, and after leaving him immediately called the police about this chap threatening him.
Now the police had started keeping an eye on his daily routine.
Radha on the other side was searching other employees who worked with Tai and finally she got a number of an employee who was the resident of Borivali and used to board the same train with tai from Churchgate. Radha called the lady who on giving an introduction as a niece of Madhvi at once recalled Madhvi and gave a very important information that Madhvi's husband was having an affair and wanted to divorce her, but as Madhvi was not ready for divorce they must have killed her. Radha was suspecting exactly the same, but who was this other lady? How did she come into tai's husband's life?
The employee was clueless. Radha wanted to share this information with tai's son who agreed that his father knew his step mom before marrying him.
Now even the son started suspecting his father and came to Mumbai that night to ask why the missing complain was not lodged.
His father replied, “To save the name of my family we didn't want to do that.” “How come you were so sure that she ran away and with whom?” asked his son. With all these questions, Tai's husband got angry and asked his son to leave immediately.
Finally, the day came when police got a proper proof against Tai's husband of poisoning and dumping her body in the jungles of Ghoti near Nashik. As the day when Madhvi went missing even her husband was not present in the office and on enquiring a lot police came to know that night he had hired a taxi to Shirdi.
On applying a bit of force her husband accepted this and that was a big day for Radha as the real culprit was caught and Tai's name was cleared from the allegations made by her husband.
That night Radha slept well and next day she was awakened by the loud door bell. Opening the door she saw Madhvi Tai in front of her. She was about to faint when she saw the railway employee, the two girls who met her in the compartment and a matured lady who resembled Tai too much.
Radha could not believe her eyes and finally they all started revealing their plan to Radha.
Tai was poisoned and dumped into the jungles of Ghoti where she was then revived to life by the villagers. That time she was pregnant and then delivered a girl.
To make her ends meet she started teaching tuitions to college and school students as she was a charted accountant.
She couldn't take any permanent job as she was without her certificates.
After her girl completed her education she moved to Mumbai for her job.
Coming to Mumbai even Madhvi Tai started having an urge to meet her other two kids and when she tried she came to know that her kids hate her as they were informed that she has run away with someone.
To prove that she is not characterless they made this plan with the help of these villagers who are settled here in Mumbai for employment. “Now you will ask why we chose you. It was because your location of boarding the train was same as tai's and tai's office is nearby to your hospital.
And one more reason we knew you would definitely help us as we have seen you helping the poor while we were doing the reiki of the station.”
“But why didn't you approach the police directly?” asked Radha.
“Are you serious? Who will believe this fact when it has already been established that Tai had run away. And that to coming after so many years along with a daughter, even the police will shoo us. To top it off, we didn’t have any big connection also.”
“One more question,” asked Radha, “Who was the assaulted girl? The one who showed so many bruises and scars?” Listening to this they all laughed and one of the girl answered that being a helper of a makeup artist of Bollywood really helped her to do this. “Oh!” said Radha, “You guys are really smart.” “We all are sorry for the inconvenience we caused you, but you are a great soul. God Bless you Radha. With your help a mother could meet her kids and her name got cleared from all the false allegations.” Listening this Radha felt good to help a lady who genuinely was in need.