To Where It All Began ✔

25. Mistakes Of The Present...

The early next morning Amna and Shreekant left for the airport as the flight to Bangalore was scheduled at nine. They were joined by Disha who took a leave stating ill health. Finally arriving at Bangalore airport at around eleven-thirty in the morning, they separated their routes with different cars, Disha driving to Amna's hospital and then meeting Amol's wife while Shreekant and Amna went to meet Keerthana's family and also to inspect the construction site.

4th April, Bangalore

Amna and Shreekant reached the address and waited patiently outside, ringing the bell of the house. The door creaked open, and they saw a thin middle-aged lady standing in front of them. She glanced up at them and waited for them to introduce themselves.

"Hello Ma'am, we came to know about you from the Keerthana Upadhaya Foundation. We decided to meet you personally and offer you any sought of help you need." Amna initiated the conversation and couldn't think of a better excuse than this to gather information about Keerthana.

The lady smiled at them and gestured them to come inside, "Because of a few people like you, I still have some faith left in humanity. But now we don't need any sought of monetary help, three NGO agencies have already helped us. Please be comfortable and sit here, I will bring some tea or coffee for you"

Shreekant stopped her in a gruff voice, "No... No Ma'am, we don't need anything, although it was very kind of you, actually, we needed a little help from you"

"Help from me?", she asked confusingly with widened eyes. Taking his phone out, he rotated the screen towards her and asked, "Her name is Anna Mhatre, did she come any time to visit you or ask you anything?"

The lady observed the photo closely and said, "Yes, she did came to visit me. She told me that she was from some NGO... what was its name? Ahh... NGO Asha. She was a very nice woman, in fact, she was the first one to help us"

"Can you tell us whatever you told her when she came here?", Amna pointed her hand towards Shreekant, "He is her husband" 

"Sure... Please sit down first, I will tell you everything"

The lady sat in front of them while Amna and Shreekant started hearing to her in rapt attention and then she began her narration, "My Keerthana was trying very hard to collect money for her two younger sister's education. My husband was indebted by a huge amount, and after his death, we even had to mortgage the house to pay back the bank."

"I struggled a lot in educating Keerthana and my two other daughters. But, when Keerthana got a good job, she started to share responsibilities with me. But with her sudden death, everything shattered. My small tiffin service would never have been enough for anything. That's when Keerthana's best friend and colleague Kavya Jindal, came up with the idea of the foundation"

The lady by now had started crying her heart out but she continued, "The lady about whom you people are inquiring came to meet me two days after my daughter's death, i.e 28th of February's morning. The real reason for her coming here was not giving me monetary help, instead, she came here to ask me a few questions about Keerthana. It was only after our meeting, she told me that she knew an NGO called Asha and would help us through that"

"Anna came to ask regarding Keerthana's death? What did she want to know exactly?", he leaned himself a little forward.

"Not to ask, but to tell me that she will help me in catching the real culprit. She perhaps suspected someone, but she wasn't sure. When I asked her to inform the police and tell them whatever she knew, she said a very strange thing... The person she suspects is from a very powerful family, she needs to gather proper evidence before she tells anyone anything"