Friday, May 2, 2008

We found Bhargavi

I did a post on my cousin Bhargavi's abduction three months ago. My mom said that she was hearing all kinds of rumours, somebody mentioned that she had eloped with the local MLA's son, another mentioned that she was abducted by a bunch of thugs, some body else mentioned seeing her in Mumbai. Nevertheless, all this had a terrible effect on Bhargavi's family. I was moved by her family's plight and vowed to do something about it. I sought my husband's help and he wholeheartedly supported me in this effort.

I contacted Capt.J who happens to be the MD of a leading detective agency based in Koramangala - Bangalore, this company was my client when I was involved in marketing e-commerce solutions 9 years ago. I was pleasantly surprised to know that he still remembered me, I explained the entire situation to him and gave him the details of my cousin, my mom gave him Bhargavi's recent pictures. He assured me that he would look into it and asked me for a week's time to investigate this matter. It got very busy on the work front and I was busy traveling and attending training seminars and it missed my mind that I was supposed to follow-up after a week with Capt.J. 2 months ago, I got back from work, finished the necessary drill (cook, put my daughter A to sleep, clean the kitchen) and went to bed. I was woken up by a phone call at 12-45 a.m, it turned out to be from Capt. J, the line was not clear and he hung up twice. Now I started getting worried and had already made up my mind about Bhargavi's fate, I got up and kept praying, sleep just eluded me. Capt. J called me again at 1:30 am, this time the line was clear and he started off by telling me " I have good news for you", I heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing that. He started telling me all about it, Bhargavi was in love with the local MLA's son, he happens to be from a different religion, Bhargavi's parents had come to know about this and had tried their best to dissuade her, no amount of coaxing or emotional blackmailing seemed to work. They even went to the extent of beating her up and keeping her under "house arrest". Fed up of all this, Bhargavi and her boyfriend hatched a plan to elope and make it seem like a kidnapping incident. Their efforts seemed to be paid off as most of them did believe that she was kidnapped. The cops however had their own theories (!), they were right all along (for a change), they just said it was an open and shut case of elopement and they wouldn't and couldn't do anything about it.
I was a bit mad at Bhargavi's parents for not disclosing any info about her affair, at least it would have put my mind to rest. I was also not happy about Bhargavi's irresponsible attitude, but I don't think I have a right to judge her or her parents. I was only concerned about her safety, that is all.

Bhargavi is happily married now and living with her husband's family, she has plans to complete her BA via correspondence. She called me 2 weeks ago and apologized for what she did, she also said that she loved her husband very much and that they both grew up together and she couldn't imagine not being with him. She also mentioned to me that her parents were on the verge of finalizing her marriage with another guy and they were getting ready to whisk her off to the neighboring town and get her married forcibly. She couldn't think of any other options, so she had to take this extreme step.

Any way, I am glad that she is happy and that is what matters to me the most.