Nirupama

Nirupama-29

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

"Did you talk with Niru on this day?" a chill ran through his spine.

"We have been talking everyday over phone Ranga. Many a time she asked for you to talk. But you are not around at all at that time."

"Why did not she call to my cell phone?" he asked her and waited eagerly to hear her answer.

"I don't know. I ask her about this. Yes, she is having your phone number with her and she knows very well how much you are interested to talk with her. But still...." She paused for a moment before continuing. "......why she is phoning only to me I cannot understand!"

"Alright. Now don't strain yourself much. Take rest. Do you want any help? May I call Menaka down?"

"No, Ranga dear. No. That Menaka is a guest in our house. We should not disturb or trouble her unnecessarily."

"Did Nirupama came to our house in the last one or two days?" remembering his wife's strange behavior with the imagined Nirupama, Ranganath asked her.

"No. How she could come? You know now she is very far from us. Aunt Srividya's house is not near to come here for once and then go there again. Once she comes to home I don't let her to go anywhere else."

Ranganath did not say anything at all. He still could remember how she talked with imagined Nirupama in the home. Now she was saying that Nirupama did not come to home at all in the last one or two days. 'From what she is really suffering?' Ranganath surprised.

Then he suddenly remembered Smaran's words. "Your wife knows why your daughter committed suicide."

"I do take you into your room. Take some rest there. After you wake up again, we discuss all the matters. First get out of this sofa and walk with me into your room." Getting off from the sofa holding her right hand Ranganath said.

Without any argument or resistance Nirmala took that hand into hers. Ranganath slowly led her into her bedroom and gently laid her on the bed there.

'Anyhow I am going to know the truth on tomorrow' while his wife was slowly and slowly dropping herself into sleep, he thought.

***

"I just cannot understand my wife at all. What might have happened to her?" Ranganath asked. He was in the office of Smaran. Smaran sat in the opposite chair to him. Sukanya and Menaka also were present in that room at that time.

"We discussed this thing many a time before. You are asking the same thing again. Your wife saw her daughter hanging from the ceiling. Does she need anything else than that to become mad?"

"You are absolutely right." Ranganath nodded his head. "Anyhow we are going to know that secret on tomorrow. Are you positive that this would work out?" he said.

"Yes, I am confident. I can manage the truth out from your wife once she is under hypnosis."

"However many number of us can present in that room along with Menaka and Nirmala?" Ranganath asked him again.