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.

"Four or five. It is better as few people as possible present in the place where hypnotism is going on. It is only to ensure that there would be no disturbance."

"I too want to present while Menaka and you do hypnotize and ask questions to aunty." Sukanya said.

"I have no objection whatsoever if Ranganath agrees to it." Looking into the face of Ranganath, Smaran said.

"I have no objection. Sukanya is also like a daughter to me. She and Nurupama used to be great friends. I sure like Sukanya present at the place."

"Alright then." Smaran nodded his head. "All set for final step."

"What about Niranjan? Why should not we invite him also?" Suddenly Ranganath asked him.

"I did not get this idea until now. You are right, why should not we invite Niranjan also? He is a psychologist and he can be useful in extracting information from Nirmala." Smaran said.

"But are you hundred percent positive that it works? What if Nirmala would be unnecessarily disturbed by all this?" Ranganath diverted from Niranjan's topic.

"No, Nirmala is not going to be disturbed. It is not going to have any negative effect on her. I do see to that. I am hundred percent positive that we can get the necessary information by using this technique. If we cannot then we shall think what to do." Smaran said.

"Hypnotism. My daughter used to hypnotize my wife. I thought it was just for fun. Everyday seeing my wife being hypnotized by this girl, I am really feeling that this is something useful. In fact I am also confident that we can get the information we want by using this if my wife knows the truth as you are suspecting." Ranganath said.

"I am not suspecting anything Ranganath, I am confirmed. Unless I am confirmed I would not have asked you to permit us to get the information from your wife under hypnosis."

"How did you have confirmed that my wife knows that secret?" Ranganath asked surprisingly.

"We have our methods and manners to know about truths." Smaran said. "We are not going to reveal them out. We just let our customers know what they want."

There was few seconds silence in between them then.

"I have forgotten to tell." Then Ranganath explained to them his recent episode with his wife.

"Strange! Why she has asked such a question?" Sukanya said.

"Why people feel fear to death? I too want to know the answer to this question. Uncle can you tell me?" Looking at Smaran, Menaka asked him.

"In our opinion and firm belief we are the body. There is no existence to us, as per our consideration, if there is no body. After death our body would be taken to burial ground and buried deep into the earth or incinerated into ashes. So we do feel fear to death." Smaran explained.

"Are we really not the body? Then what we are?" Menaka asked him.

"You are not the body. Just stop there. But don't ask the question what you really are. This question never can be answered."

"How it is? If I am not the body what I am then? How it is possible without any identification to me?" Menaka was persistent.

"This is a very big philosophical question and could not be answered completely by anyone till now. It is easy to prove that you are not the body. But it is not easy to show you what you really are."

"How it is easy to prove to me I am not the body? I am thinking myself I am the body. Prove to me I am not the body." Menaka asked again

Smaran smiled and said "You are seeing many bodies taking birth and turning themselves into fistful of ashes after death. Your body also is not different from other bodies. Whenever you say about your body, you do say my body but not I am the body. At the same time if you are the body itself why don't you know completely about it? Why don't you know how your heart is working, how your kidneys are working and how your whole body mechanism is working?"

"Who said I don't know about these? I very well know how my heart is working, how my kidneys are working and how my whole body mechanism....."

"Wait." Smaran stopped her. "How do you come to know all about this? By reading in your science subject. Or by hearing to your science teacher. How your science teacher knows about this and how it has been put into your science books? Because of the scientists who did research for years on the bodies and came to know about. They too themselves know nothing about it. Only because of their research and prying into the other bodies they made themselves knowledgeable about this. If we are the bodies, as we often claim ourselves, why we don't know each and everything about our body? Why body is such a foreign and alien thing to us? This simple thing is enough to prove to us that we are not the bodies."

"You are so convincingly proved that I am not the body. Excellent! Really I am amazed. I am feeling thrilled thinking about it deeply." There was a thrilling expression on the face of Menaka.

"Not just you anyone feels thrill if he thinks about it deeply." Smaran said.

"I am also never thought about it in this way. You are enlightened me also besides your niece." Ranganath smiled and said.

"Me too. Amazing explanation! There is no surprise that we do feel fear to death." Sukanya said.

"Moreover, it is a complete blank wall after death. No one knows what happens then. We don't know whether we do take another birth or everything stops there. Nothing has been scientifically known what happens after this life. It cannot be said what really is dying there, is it is the body or you or something else. Therefore, people feel fear to death."

There was heavy silence then and none of them think of anything to say.

***

"You are all that much confident that Nirmala knows the truth which compelled her daughter to commit suicide?" looking at them Niranjan asked.

"Yes, we are." With a confidence filled tone Smaran said.

Niranjan remained silent for a few moments. Then he nodded his head and said. "If it is so, this is the only way to know about it from her."

"I want you also present there Niranjan. You know a lot about hypnotism and related things."Ranganath said.

"Sorry Ranga. I have to go out of station on urgent work and I cannot be there." He said and smiled. "But I am hundred percent sure that you people get what you want."

"Sometimes I am getting a betrayal feeling. It is like cheating my wife. But ....." Ranganath paused for a moment and then said "..........I must know the truth and there is no way to us except this."

"There is no betrayal and there is no cheating. Don't think like that." Niranjan said. "I do wish you people all the best."

There was silence again and it was Niranjan again who broke it. "But I want to warn you for one thing, Ranga."

"Tell me what it is?" Ranganath frowned.

"The secret that compelled your daughter to commit suicide which is that much unpleasant to her.........." he paused for a moment as if to accentuate what he was going to say ".........is not going to be pleasant to you either. Why don't you let it rest like that? Some secrets may better remain secrets forever."

"I cannot rest myself in peace if I do let that secret rest like that. However may be it is to me, I must know about that."

Niranjan breathed deeply and hissed out heavily "Then the only option I got is wish you people good luck."

(..........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