Laughter in Darkness
A suspense, romantic and psychological thriller
By
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
“Alright, I think about it.” Tanuja smiled and said.
“Neeraja, she is too young to say. When she has joined in your hospital as a psychiatrist?” Rajesh asked her.
“Two years back. She is young but very much efficient. She was very much acquainted with our mental care even before she joined there as a psychiatrist.” Then Rose told them about Neeraja’s mother’s madness, her being joined in Black Ant Mental Care and the rest.
(Neeraja and her mother’s madness can be known in the book ‘Just Relax!’)
“I cannot think of that there was such a past to Dr.Neeraja!” with a shocking expression on her face, Tanuja said.
“I too did not expect this type of past to that girl.” Rajesh also equally shocked and surprised after hearing that.
“Her mother’s madness and her long suffering gave her more maturity in understanding the insanity in the people. In fact her mother’s madness instigated her to study psychiatry. All of our strong belief is that she would become a reputed and famous psychiatrist in future.” Rose said.
“Interesting! Really very much interesting!” Rajesh nodded his head and said.
“Mom, you are here! I am looking for you everywhere but could not find you.” Emily came like a wind into that room and put her both hands around her mother’s neck.
“As I am here, there is no surprise that you could not find me anywhere.” Looking into her daughter’s face with a smile Rose said. “What’s the matter?”
“I am all alone in my room and cannot have any time-pass. Please come.” Looking pleadingly into her face Emily said.
“Where has gone that psychiatrist Neeraja?”
“The moms of that Madhuri and Arjun took her from me. They said that they talked all the things in between themselves and they wanted some time-pass with our Neeraja. I could not resist their attempts.” With a helpless expression in her face, Emily said.
“Why did not you also go with them?”
“I have talked enough with all the people here. I cannot to do that anymore.”
“Take my smart phone again and read your favorite ebooks in it.” giving her cell phone to Emily, Rose said.
“No mom, I want you so much with me now. Please come.” Dragging her by clutching her right arm with her hands, Emily said.
“Dr.Rajesh and Tanuja, I am sorry. I must go now. We talk again.” Freeing the chair she sat till then, Rose said.
“Alright Rose, no problem.” Rajesh smiled and said.
Tanuja also smiled and came upto the entrance of the door while Rose and Emily were going out of that room.
“Beautiful! Simply beautiful!” slumping herself in the chair in which Rose sat till seconds back, Tanuja said.
“I have to agree with you. She is really very much beautiful!” with an appreciative expression in his face, Rajesh said.
“Not just she, that Neeraja also as much beautiful as this woman. I am thinking that Mental Care recruits only this much beautiful and glamorous psychiatrists there.”
“You may be right” Rajesh smiled and nodded his head.
“I thought till now that Sunanda, my daughter and I are beautiful. I never have thought that we do have to face stringent competition like this.” With an envious expression in her face, Tanuja said.
“You are also beautiful in your own way. Why do you compare yourselves so?”
“Tell me one thing, if you have come across this woman in those days when I was first acquainted with you, you would have preferred her, was it not?” Tanuja said as if she did not hear what Rajesh said.
“Not just that was enough, she also has to prefer me.” With an irritating expression in his face Rajesh said.
“If she also has preferred you, you would have married her instead of me.” With an accusing expression in her face Tanuja said.
“Oh, stop that.” Rajesh got off from the chair, went near to his wife and put his hands around her neck. “It was not just the physical beauty that attracted me towards you Tanu. Something other than physical attraction in you strongly made me attracted towards you. How can I convince you about that?”
“You need not” Tanuja also got off from the chair, put her both hands around the neck of her husband and kissed on his right cheek perfunctorily. “Just like in my case. I also cannot express what exactly made me attracted towards you other than your handsomeness.”
“Alright, alright” Rajesh released his hold around her and gently relieved himself from her hold. “It seems that we have bound ourselves rather long in this room. We move and see what is happening outside.”
Then they both left that room and came out.
&&&
“Until we have kidnapped you like this, you have not got the idea to spend time with us.” Once Sunanda and Sameera retired into the upstairs room with Neeraja, Sameera said to her.
“My god! This is serious accusation.” Mocking fear in her face Neeraja said. “I am always thinking to talk with you but you both were busy in something or the other.”
“We both were busy in something or the other but what? Is there anything to us to do in this house? This is more serious than what we said.” Sameera said.
“Alright, alright. We three are here now. The problem of three of us is the same. How to pass our time here? We both have talked all that we can talk and there is nothing left. Now you tell me about you and other things.” Looking into Neeraja’s face Sunanda said.
“There is not much to tell you people about me to be frank.” Neeraja clipped her lower lip between her teeth frames and released it slowly. “I am one of the psychiatrists in Black Ant Mental Care.”
“Psychiatry is very much interesting to me” Sameera said.
“To me also.” Sunanda said. “My dad’s being a psychologist did not diminish my interest in psychological matters.”
“Then why neither of you preferred to study either psychology or psychiatry?” looking into their faces, Neeraja asked her.
At that time both Sunanda and Sameera sat on the bed side by side and Neerajs in a chair opposite to them.
“It just happened like that and I cannot say any specific reason for it.” Sunanda said. “My dad encouraged me to study psychology but I did not. I have interest on psychology but not that much to make it as a career of me.”
“The same thing applies to me also.” Sameera said.
“Alright, alright” Neeraja laughed and said.
“Now you tell me is there any specific reason for your studying psychology?” looking into her face, Sunanda asked her.
“Yes, there is” there came a troubling expression into the face of Neeraja.
Sunanda and Sameera looked into each other faces.
“If you have any objection to tell it to us you need not.” Sameera said.
“I have no objection whatsoever to tell you both about it.” then Neeraja told them about her mother’s madness, her being joined in Black Ant Mental Care and her decision to study psychiatry because of that.
“Really very much pathetic! I am sorry.” Sunanda said.
“Anyhow your mother’s suffering came to an end like that. I don’t know whether it is something to feel happy or sorrow.” Samera said.
“In fact it is an end to the suffering of my mother, my dad and me also. I am still feeling the loss of my mother but cannot remain without feeling happy that her suffering has come to an end like that.” Neeraja said.
“I just don’t know what to say.” Sunanda said. “Anyhow your decision to become a psychiatrist and getting success in it like this are very much appreciable!”
“Thank you very much” with a smile on her lips Neeraja said.
As they were talking like that Madhuri came into that room running. As they were all watching with fascinating eyes she reached into the lap of her mother Sunanda.
“My daughter Madhuri. She spends most of her time with her grandfather and occasionally prefers me also like this.” Taking her into her lap and kissing on her left cheek Sunanda said.
“My mother’s name also is Madhuri” continuing the smile on her lips, Neeraja said.
“Is it is so?” with a curious expression in her face, Sunanda said.
“Yes, it is just so.” Neeraja nodded her head. “My mother and I used to live in a village named Mummara. Our house is a big one and it has a garden also and it is in the suburbs of that village.” She said.
“You are using present tense. That means you are still having that house there?” Sameera asked her.
“Yes, we are still having that house there. We have got it repaired and renovated and intend to give it on rent if anyone wants to come into it. But that village is in the corner of the country and no one in that village needs houses on rent.”
“Oh, it’s a pity!” Sunanda said.
“Sure it is.” Neeraja once again nodded her head. “As I have been working as a psychiatrist in Black Ant Mental Care, I need to live near to it. Even my dad took voluntary retirement from his job, he cannot all alone live in that house. We both are occasionally going to that village and living in that house. One thing I must say here. That village and our house therein are very much beautiful! That is why we did not prefer to sell that house and are maintaining it so.”
“Interesting!” Sameera smiled and said.
“There are even more interesting things here to say.”
“Tell us what they are. It shall be good time pass to all of us in fact.” With interest in her face, Sameera said.
“There is a strange story associated with that village. People there do still believe that some spirits were buried deep under the earth of that village and spell bounded there.” Then Neeraja explained to them about the spirits’ story of Mummara and how she debunked their false beliefs.
(The story of Mummara can be known in the book ‘Just Relax!)
“Interesting! Very much interesting!” Sunanda said. “I have heard about burying of many a thing under the earth. But never have heard that spirits being buried under the earth.”
“Even more fascinating thing here is, your debunking their false beliefs with concrete proofs.” Sameera said.
“But what is the use? Still most of the villagers there are believing the said story that some spirits were buried under the earth of that village and spell bounded there.” With a depressive expression on her face Neeraja said. “All my hard work did not give much result.”
“But why even after it has been proved all that story is false, the villagers are believing it so?” with a surprising expression on her face, Sameera asked her.
“They are having a sort of thrill in thinking that their village is infested with the spirits. They are thinking that those spirits have been freed from their spells and came out of the earth. Anyone who tries to make them understand that there are no spirits anywhere in the world not just in that village would become an enemy to them.” Neeraja said.
“It may be the mindset of the villagers. They may feel thrill in thinking that there are spirits around. Paranormal matters may create interest in them like that.” Sunanda said.
“That type of interest is not just limited to villagers. Almost all of us do feel thrill by thinking about paranormal. The fear that paranormal creates in us makes us feel thrill! We want that sort of fear because that fear feeling is also enjoyable to us.” Neeraja said.
“I cannot agree with this at all. Why does anyone particularly want to feel fear?” Sameera asked her.
“Think yourself few moments more and said. If fear is not enjoyable to us, why do we see horror movies? With what purpose the movies like Exorcist and Evil Dead have been produced? Why we are paying money and seeing those movies if we don’t want to feel fear? This means we do even pay money also to feel that particular sort of fear.”
(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.)
