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

"Now tell me what those thoughts you want to share with me." Sukanya said.

Then Menaka told Sukanya about her reading Nirupama's dairy and the matter she read about someone praising her eyes. "Then Nirupama indeed felt happy. There is never an occasion that she had to feel bad about her eyes."

"Not just that new friend, many other people also used to praise her eyes. It is not only her eyes that are attractive in her face. She is a dazzling beauty. But her eyes were quite attractive and appeared intelligent." Sukanya said

"It is very much puzzling." Menaka said. "I just could not make any guess why that she wanted to pluck her eyes out."

"We have said that point many times in ourselves. Do we need to worry about it now also?"

"Of course no. One more important thing here is" then she explained to her about her thinking that Nirupama's mother knew the reason why her daughter committed suicide.

"Preposterous! How her mother could have been known about that?"

Then Sukanya explained to her why she was thinking like that.

"Alright, Nirmala did not show any surprise or try to know what that led her daughter to commit suicide. But she turned mad. Mad people don't behave logically or rationally."

"Her madness is only partly and it is not complete. Deep inside her she knows the truth."

"What if her madness is complete? How you and I can say that it is only a partly madness?"

"Except thinking that Nirupama is still alive she is behaving normally in all other matters. She is cooking, she is cleaning the utensils and she is keeping the house clean in a usual way. Unless, otherwise, one knows about this Nirupama episode, one cannot say that she is mad."

Sukanya did not say anything immediately. After few seconds she said. "But I cannot think that she knows about it. Alright what we can do if she knows the truth?"

"We have to especially I and my uncle should see that she tells the truth."

"What!" Sukanya said with surprise. "How you people are going to get the truth out from her?"

"That depends on my uncle. He makes some plan to get the truth out from Nirmala."

"My god!" Sukanya hissed out heavily. "You detectives are dangerous things! You do anything to get the truth out."

"We are not adamant on that in fact." Menaka said. "But her father Ranganath is stubborn to know the truth. There is an agreement also between him and my uncle."

"What he would do if the agreement terms are not honoured? What he would do if you people stop all this completely?"

"Hey, what you are talking? Why we should stop what we are doing? What would be the problem if the truth comes out through Nirmala?"

Sukanya got off the bed and went to the middle of the room and from there looked into the face of Menaka.

"You are feeling bad for something. Why don't you tell me what made you feeling uneasiness like this." observing carefully Sukanya's face Menaka said.

Then Sukanya explained to her about her dream. "Nirupama not at all interested that truth to come out. She made that clear to me."

Menaka laughed and said "You have seen that Nirupama in your dream. That Nirupama is nothing else but a part of your mind. Then how do you think that it is the wish of that Nirupama?"

"I am not thinking it is just my dream." Sukanya said and she tried to say something more but then Latha came there.

"What else it is then? You heard what Niranjan said when we met him. What that Niranjan and Menaka are saying is true. You are getting obsessed with your thoughts and making small issues into big ones."

"But mom, that is not my thinking but my dream. I just cannot agree that Nirupama in my dream is only a part of my mind. In my firm opinion Nirupama appeared to me in my dream like that and expressed herself so." Menaka irritatingly said.

"If you are thinking like that I cannot do anything." Latha also irritatingly said.

"You people go to Niranjan also for this?" Menaka asked Sukanya surprisingly.

"Yes, my mother took me to Niranjan. There he said what exactly you have said to me." Sukanya said.

"What else he said?" Menaka said.

"We talked many a thing. We have talked how to control our thoughts"....Sukanya was about to say something more.

Then Menaka interrupted her and said "Just wait.....I have almost forgotten.......You have asked Niranjan what is going to happen in the near future and he said that you would come to him with your mother just in one or two days."

"Yes. You are right." Sukanya nodded her head.

"Then it happened just like that is it is not?" Menaka asked her surprisingly "Really he has some capacity in him to know about the future."

"I too must agree with you." Sukanya said.

"That Niranjan is really a wonderful guy. If you follow whatever he said, in letter and spirit, there would be no problem whatsoever to you." Latha said again

"I am following it mom and it is working also." Sukanya said to her mother. "But I cannot when it comes to my this particular dream."

"What that Niranjan said to you and what you are following?" Menaka asked her with a frown.

Then Menaka explained to her what that went between her, her mother and Niranjan and what he said her to control her thoughts.

"Indeed wise! Excellent! What he said is absolutely true. We sure can control our mind by simply following that."

Sukanya yawned heavily. "You are not a psychologist and you are not interested in psychology. Then how you are talking about mind and mind related matters like that?" she asked her.

"I am not a psychologist alright. But I never said that I am not interested in psychology. Psychology and mind are most important and interesting things to me." Menaka said.

"If it is so, why don't you study psychology?"

"No I am interested in it but I cannot bother that much to study it in my degree or post graduation."

As they both were talking like that Latha went into the kitchen from there.

"What else you have found in that diary? Did only that piece in it create interest in you?"

Menaka nodded her head. "Many a time I went through that diary. But there was no clue whatsoever in that. In fact......... " she paused for a moment and looked into the eyes of Sukanya and said "..........she might not come to know or come into touch with that dreadful thing by that time."

"You are right. If she came know about that while she was writing the dairy, she might have mentioned it."

"I doubt that" Menaka said "She did not write her dairy regularly. Moreover she wrote only those things which made her happy."

"Of course." Sukanya nodded her head and said. "I too went through that dairy many a time but could not find anything useful in it. What else you have found interesting in that room?" she asked Menaka

'Nothing more in fact. I have searched that room thoroughly again and again in vain." Menaka said "What we can do since that Nirupama took all the care not to let the truth out?"

"You are right." Sukanya nodded her head. "In how many days you can make the truth out?"

"Just two or three days at the most. My uncle is quite confident about that. He is just making some plan in himself to implement."

"I see." Sukanya said and remained silent. It became obvious to Menaka that Sukanya did not like the truth out. But Menaka did not say anything at all. Just because Sukanya was opposing, it could not be stopped. Her uncle promised to that Ranganath that somehow or other that they do get the truth out. No matter whoever might oppose it, they would get the truth out.

"You are thinking so furiously about something. Why don't you tell me about that?" Sukanya said.

"It is not at all an important matter. I am just thinking in a regular and routine manner." Menaka said and got off from the chair, went near to the bed and sat beside Sukanya.

Menaka really did not notice how much time passed by the time she finished talking with Sukanya.

***

"Oh, Menaka, will you please come into our house for once."

Hearing that Menaka stopped and looked at that direction. It was Bittoo's mother standing at the entrance of her house and looking at Menaka.

"Why not?" Menaka said and went to that house. That woman led Menaka into her house.

"Just make comfortable yourself in that chair there."

With a smile Menaka sat in it.

"Where is Bittoo? Did he go to school?"

"Yes, Bittoo went to school. And my husband went to the shop. I am all alone in the house now."

"I see." Menaka nodded her head.

"You are feeling surprise why I have invited you like this into my home." That woman said.

Menaka smiled. She did not know what to say to that.

"You may not know but that Nirupama often used to come into our home. We used to talk a lot in between ourselves. She was like an own sister to me. After her death it is like a part of me went off."

"Is it is so? She is that much intimated with you?" Menaka frowned.

"Yes. She is a girl of very friendly nature. It is difficult not to love and like her. Her presence is enjoyable to each and everyone."

"I too have heard so about her." Menaka said.

"You are also appearing just like her to me. I think I do have a feeling that I am talking with Nirupama while I am talking with you." She paused for a moment and said "I really am having such a feeling."

"I am flattered. I am really feeling very happy that you have given me such importance and feeling like that with me."

There was silence between them both.

"How far you have come in your investigation? How long it takes to know about the truth?" Bittoo's mother asked Nirupama.

"In two or three days I think that we can know about the truth for sure. My uncle and I are very furiously trying to finish the job as fast as possible but that Nirupama did not leave any clue to us." Menaka paused for a moment and then said "Except two sentences."

"Except two sentences? What are they?" Bittoo's mother asked surprisingly.

Then Menaka explained to her the two sentences written by Nirupama.

"Very strange! I just cannot make either tail or head to it." After thinking some time Bittoo's mother said.

"We are all feeling just like that in fact." Menaka said. "Just like we have been tied with a rope." Menaka did not want to say to that woman how near she and her uncle came to the truth.

That woman did not say anything. Menaka herself asked again. "You said that Nirupama used to be so intimate with you. Did not she say anything at all about her troubling or suffering?"

"No, she did not." Bittoo's mother nodded her head in negation.

"Is it is not a surprise that she did not say anything about her suffering even to those who are so close and intimate to her?"

Bittoo's mother said "Yes. She did not say anything even to her parents and to that Niranjan either. I was quite intimate to her but not as much intimate as those people. So there is no surprise that she did not tell about that to me."

"Are you thinking that Niranjan used to be so intimate to Nirupama?"

"I must say yes." That woman said. "He used to show special love and affection towards her as if she were his own daughter."

Menaka did not say why but startled on hearing that.

(..........to be continued)

(I hope you enjoyed it so far. Please don't forget to rate and review it. I update the next chapter as early as possible.)

#investigation #detection #psychology #hypnosis#hypnotism #love #romance #romantic #suspense #thriller #sentiment #family#suicide #psychology #hypnosis #self-hypnosis #psychiatry #psychiatrist