Nirupama

Nirupama-6

Nirupama

(Some Secrets May Better Remain Secrets Forever)

'I cannot bear this', 'I want to pluck my eyes out' only these two sentences were the clues which the late girl Nirupama left in writing one on a wall and one in a book quite unintentionally and involuntarily to know about the reason for her committing suicide. Her father Ranganath, detective Smaran and his niece Menaka along with Nirupama's friend Sukanya pretty well understood that Nirupama did not want the said secret to be known to anyone else. But since her father Ranganath hell bent upon knowing about the said secret, detective Smaran and his niece Menaka ruthlessly investigated the matter only to unearth the said ghastly, shocking and astounding secret which the dead girl terribly wished to keep only with her in her grave forever.

x x x x x

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.