An untellable secret
(Some secrets may better remain secrets for ever)
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
“But you are a relative to his wife and more intimated with her than Ranganath also.”
“I am a cousin to her. Elders on our both sides wished very much to perform her marriage with me and Nirmala also was very much interested in it. But Mr.Smaran I have no good opinion on cousin’ marriages. In my opinion there should be no sort of blood relationship between wife and husband so I did not agree to that marriage.” Niranjan paused for a second before saying again. “Even he was not a relative to our families, Ranganath also used to live in the same village. He was working as a government teacher by that time and after me he appeared as a most eligible candidate for Nirmala to her parents. So they proposed her to him and they became the couple.” Niranjan laughed.
“I see” Smaran nodded his head thinking what to ask next. Before Smaran was saying anything Niranjan said again. “Ten years, after ten long years, when they both lost all their hope to have children, Nirmala became pregnant and gave birth to Nirupama. I need not explain to you how they both have looked after her. Nirupama, not only intelligent, clever with lot of will power but very beautiful also just like her mother. I just can’t…..I just can’t……” his forehead creased and his voice became solemn “….why she has committed suiside like that!”
“When her own dad cannot understand it, I don’t think you can.” Smaran said.
“Then how do you think talking with me in any way would be helpful for your investigation?” Niranjan knitted his brows together.
“I am not thinking that you provide with me any information on that Mr.Niranjan but you don’t know much about this detection work.” Smaran laughed. “We should try to get the clues from the information available to us. Most of the times the information which means nothing to the ordinary people would give valuable clues to us detectives.”
“Then I have no objection whatsoever in answering your questions.” Niranjan also smiled and nodded his head.
“Did Nirupama quite often come to you?”
“Twise in a week. Mostly accompanied by her close friend Sukanya.”
“You know about that Sukanya also a lot?”
“Of course, yes.” Niranjan nodded his head. “Even she did not prefer to study psychology in her post graduation as Nirupama did, she is also very much friendly with me and discuss about everything.”
“Now also that Sukanya has been coming to you?”
“Not as she used to do while Nirupama was alive. Hardly two or so times she came to me after Nirupama’s death.”
“Did Nirupama meet you on the day of her commtting suicide or before that day?”
“No of course.” Niranjan nodded his head in negation. “I did not see her at all for fifteen days or so before her committing suiside.”
“Why so?” Smaran knitted his brows together.
“I have to go out of station on some urgent work and held up there. By the time I came home, she committed suicide.”
“When the last time you have seen her then?”
“Two days or so before my going away from here. That means some eighteen days or so before her committing suiside.”
“How she appeared to you then? Distraught, worried, sorrowful?”
“Quite the opposite.” Immediately said Niranjan. “Her usual self. Cheerful, active and joyous.”
“Can we suppose after eighteen days or so to that day, she committed suicide?”
“It is like that.” Niranjan nodded his head.
“If it is so” Smaran got off from the chair and went to the middle of the room. “Whatever troubled her that much and led her to commit suicide was not even as a trace in her then.”
“You are absolutely right.” Niranjan leaned back in his chair and said.
Smaran came to the table and put his two palms on it and looked into the face of Niranjan. “Then what that much disturbing brewed up just in those few days to make her commit suicide?
Niranajan nodded his head helplessly. “Very difficult to say.”
“Where did she meet you for the last time?”
“In my home itself. She used to come to my house for every two or three days. Almost all the times along with her close friend Sukanya”
“Any other friends of her came along with her to see you?”
“One or two of her other friends also visited me with her. But I don’t remember them much.”
Smaran sat in his chair again. “What type of girl that Sukanya is?”
“Just like Nirupama. Active, intelligent and beautiful.” Niranjan said leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. As Smaran was thinking what to do ask next, Niranjan said again. “I can understand Ranganath. I cannot stop pitying him. But what good it would do knowing the reason why Nirupama committed suicide?”
“Are not you feeling surprise that Nirupama ended her life so?” Smaran asked him as if he did not hear what he said.
“How can I remain without feeling surprise?” there was surprise and hurt in the face of Niranjan “In fact I was dumbfounded! Who does not feel surprise if a healthy and active girl ended her life suddenly so? Moreover we intimated with each other like that.”
“So you are not having even a vaguest idea why she committed suicide.”
“You are right. Not just me no one else also has known anything about it. She did not leave even a hint of it either to anyone else even to her closest relatives and friends including her parents.”
There was some silence ensued and Niranjan broke it himself. “Why she wanted to keep it a secret like this I cannot understand.”
After few seconds of Niranjan’s saying so, Smaran said “Thank you very much. I may have to meet you again.”
“Its my pleasure. You can meet me especially in the evenings in my home. I look forward to it.”
Smaran came out of that house
***
Suddenly Menaka started feeling odd and she expected a feeling like this and in fact she prepared to that. It was the room where a twenty two year old girl committed suicide with no obvious reason. To that very ceiling fan hook she hanged herself with her chunni. Until she was compelled by the thought to commit suicide, she lied on this bed itself.
It was the night of the first day of her staying in that room. However much she prepared for the odd feeling in that room when she was alone especially in the night time, still it was troubling, uneasy and creating fear in her. It was just like someone else also was with her and however much hard she tried, she could not get rid of that feeling. For a moment she desperately wanted to go away from that room. While trying to control her feelings, she turned around and looked the room. On the eastern side wall she found the photo of Nirupama. Then involuntarily she remembered the old woman who became mad. Then she remembered the old man who was in even more worse situation than the old woman. ‘Was this girl could not think of what would happen to her parents if she ends her life so’ she raged in herself. She slowly went near to the photo, stood just before it and looked into the eyes of that girl.
‘Did not you know how much your parents would be affected if you die?’ she asked with a small voice. She forgot that it was just a photo and has no life. The bubbling anger in her seeing the pathetic situation of her parents because of this girl’s suiside killed all the logic and reason in her.
‘Have you seen how your mother has been turned out?’ Menaka asked again.
She paused for some seconds as if to hear the answer.
‘Why you did such a thing? Why did not you think about your parents even for few seconds before committing such a horrendous thing? If you did, you would not have committed suicide.’
The whole environment was with unbearable silence. Unknowingly Menaka’s heart filled with uncontrollable and unexplainable rage. Suddenly and surprisingly she lost sympathy on the girl she was looking at and her heart filled with only her mad mother and saddened father.
‘Your father is breaking his head to know about the reason for your suicide. He just wants to prove to the world that you have not committed suiside for a simple and silly reaon. It seems you are so happy giving an end to your problem by committing suicide. I don’t know why you wanted to keep that bloody reason which compelled you to commit suicide a secret but I do know about it and make it known to your father.’
‘I never let you do that.’
Menaka at once froze. She heard it so clear and it could not be her hallucination. Suddenly she started feeling someone breathing on her neck. Slowly and slowly she turned around.
Only to find nothing, empty space.
***
“Have you slept peacefully on yesterday?” as soon as Menaka came down Nirmala asked her.
Menaka hugged her and kissed on her right cheek. “Yes. I slept peacefully.” She smiled. Then she looked into the face of that old woman. Deep in her eyes were the traces of sorrow. ‘Yes, what uncle said is right. She knows that her daughter is no more. She is just forcing herself to imagine like that.’ She thought.
Ranganath came there and surprisingly there was some colour in his face. “I am happy that you are feeling comfortable here.” He said. “Don’t hesitate to ask anything.”
“In fact” Menaka said. “You are not giving me a chance to ask anything. You are providing it before I ask.”
Nirmala silently turned back and walked away from there.
It took half an hour or so to Menaka to finish her morning routine. She thought that it would be better to talk with her uncle. She said to Nirmala that she would come back in an hour and went out.
***
“I am glad that you are not feeling odd there. May I hope that you do continue in that home for this one month or so.” Smaran asked Menaka.
“It is not so that I did not feel odd.” Menaka explained to him the previous night’s experience.
Smaran laughed loud and said “I am feeling surprise that you too subjected to hallucinations.”
Menaka’s cheeks were blushed on hearing that. “I did not subject to anything like that.”
“What it is then? Really there is Nirupama now?”
Menaka did not say anything but breathed deeply.
“There is no surprise. Anyone in your place may have such hallucinations in that room as that is the room in which that girl committed suicide like that and we know very well that she did not want at all the reason for her suicide to be known to anyone. Anyhow…..” he paused for a second before saying again. “………….if you don’t like to stay there you may go your home. I am confident that I can complete this assignment without your help also.”
“I do stay in that house and in that very room.” There was sudden firmness in her voice. “There will be no change in it.”
“Alright. We talk business now. What is your opinion on whole of this? Can we get what that Ranganath wants?”
“Just one or two days have passed after we have started it. It is too sooner to express an opinion on this.” she leaned back in the chair and said. “But I am not too happy to do this. It is not like other assignments. I am still angry with that Nirupama that she did such a thing.”
“You are right. I am also not feeling too happy for doing this.” Smaran sighed heavily. “But I have accepted the assignment. I need to do this. You need to help me.”
“Don’t doubt it even for a moment.” Menaka smiled. “Whether I like it or not I help you in all respects in completing this assignment.”
Smaran nodded his head with a smile.
(I hope that you enjoyed upto here. I shall publish the next chapter as soon as possible. Please don’t forget to rate and review.)
