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

"I just cannot bear seeing my wife so. Why don't you do something for it?" looking pathetically at Niranjan, Ranganath asked him.

"What do you want to be done by me?" Niranjan asked.

Niranjan and Ranganath both were sat facing each other in Ranganath's home.

"You are a psychologist Niranjan. You know what to do. Still you are asking me what should be done about her?" Ranganath frowned.

"If you are worrying about her imagination... don't worry about it much. She knows that she is just imagining her daughter alive. Deep inside of her she knows the truth"

"That Smaran as well has said the same thing."

"Clever guy he is." Niranjan said. "But I don't like much what you are doing. What would be the use in digging up that so?"

Ranganath breathed deep and said. "I just cannot bear thinking that my daughter committed suicide for a silly reason. I must know the true reason that caused her death."

"I can understand your anguish Ranga" Niranjan said. "I just don't know what to say" he remained silent.

"Who is that girl staying in your home now?" after few seconds Niranjan himself broken that silence.

"That Smaran's niece. He put her here."

"For what purpose?" there were deep frowns on the face of Niranjan.

"I don't know. For some investigation purpose I think. But her staying in our home is giving me a sort of pleasure." Ranganath said.

"I can understand." Niranjan said. "There is no danger. How Nirmala is feeling with her?"

"Comfortable. In fact it is she who encouraged her staying in this house."

Niranjan frowned. "But she is also not going to stay here forever. Be prepared to that."

"I do keep it in my mind." Ranganath nodded his head.

"Where is that girl now? Is she is in her room?"

"She went to her uncle's place. Come back at any moment." Ranganath said.

"Alright" Niranjan nodded his head.

"Did he meet you? He said that he wanted to ask you some questions." Ranganath asked.

"He met me. We talked for some time. He asked several questions and I answered them. Not very much useful information for him." Niranjan said. "He told me that he would meet me again. He is appearing quite optimistic."

"Detectives are like that." Ranganath smiled. "Otherwise they cannot make their livelihood. I think this Smaran sure becomes successful in his mission."

"I hope so." Niranjan hissed out heavily with a sorrowful expression in his face.

***

"Something, may be useful to your investigation, I remembered. If you come I tell you about that." Sukanya phoned to Smaran.

"Is it is so?" Smaran said. "But I have become busy in some other assignment. I will send my assistant to you. Do you have any objection to discuss that matter with her? "

"Why? I cannot say." there was confusion in her voice. "Who is he?"

"Not he. It is she. It is my niece." Smaran laughed. "She is as much aged as you are."

Sukanya also laughed. "Then no problem. Send her." She said.

Then Smaran phoned to Menaka and explained the matter to her.

"Sure I do go. Tell me where she lives?"

She heard with frowns on her forehead and once completed that Smaran asked her "Why did not you phone to your mother? She is very angry that you have not talked with her for the last two days."

"If I phone to her she asks me to come straight to home. Do you want me to go from here now?" Menaka said. "Even she has no objection whatsoever in helping you in your assignments, it is the first time that you made me to stay in some other people home. When I explained this to her, she did not like it much."

Smaran laughed. "I talked with your mother. I made her fears expelled. She would not say like that now. Talk with your mother before you go to that girl Sukanya."

Menaka hissed out heavily. "Alright then. I will talk with mom before leaving to reach Sukanya." She said.

"How do you do mom? Are you O.K?" as soon as she finished talking with her uncle, Menaka phoned to her mother.

"I am alright. Why did not you phone to me for the last two days?" her mother straight asked her.

"Sorry mom. I have become little busy here. Otherwise I never do forget to talk to you."

"If you do want to stay there, you must talk to me everyday. If it has not happened like that, I do come there to fetch you home."

"No mom. Please. Everyday I phone to you in the evening." Menaka pleaded with her. She knew very well that her mother sure could do something like that.

"Alright then. What else? What you and your uncle are doing there?"

"He said that he talked with you."

"He did, of course." She heard her mother's sighing in the phone. Menaka clipped her lower lip between her teeth frames and listened with irritation while her mother was saying to her what care she needed to take. Menaka used all her strength not to blurt out and cut off the call. After giving her all the precautions, Menaka's mother has chosen to say bye and cut off the call.

Menaka breathed deeply and hissed out heavily. Trying to keep the address told by her uncle in her memory, she came out.

***

"Your uncle said that you are as much aged as I am. But he did not say one important thing." Once invited Menaka into her home and made her sit in the chair there, Sukanya said. She sat in the sofa opposite to that chair.

"What that is?" it caused an immediate frown on the forehead of Menaka

"He did not say you are this much beautiful!" Sukanya said.

"It is exaggeration. Anyhow he is a liar. He just asked me to come to you but did not say the samething that you are also this much beautiful" Menaka laughed.

They both laughed for some time and then Menaka said again "Alright tell me now. What that you want to say? Is it is something that you remembered suddenly?"

"Yes, you are right." Sukanya nodded her head. "But I cannot say it will be useful."

"Don't worry. We are not going to lose anything by your saying that. Fire away."

"I think it happened fifteen or twenty days before of her committing suicide. I cannot say exactly. More than six months have passed after her death." Sukanya was saying.

Menaka was listening intently.

"Nirupama came to my home at twelve or twelve thirty on that day. My mom went out on some work telling me that she would be late and I was also going out. My dad has been doing a job in a faraway place and I was alone in the home at that time. In fact I was not feeling well, suffering with little fever and was going to a doctor. I did not go to the college because of that reason. She said to me that she wanted to stay in my home. Then I left her in my home and went out. It took me lot of time on that day as the doctor was not available readily in the clinic. After I returned to home, after we talked half an hour or so together, Nirupama left."

Sukanya stopped. Menaka did not say anything. She just wanted to hear if Sukanya wanted to say anything more.

"That was the last time I have met her in my home before she committed suiside." Sukanya said.

"Was it usual that she came to your home like that?"

While they both were talking so Sukanya's mother Latha came there and handed them coffee cups. Sukanya introduced Menaka to her mother and Sukanya's mother greeted her before retiring into the kitchen again.

"My father is doing a job in a faraway place, I already said. Only my mother and I reside in this house. I am the only daughter to my parents." Sukanya said.

Menaka nodded her head.

"I think you have asked a question. What that is?"

"Was it usual that she came to your home at such time?"

"No. We usually met in the evenings either in my home or her home. She said some boycott or so was going on that day and college was closed."

"I see." Menaka nodded her head. "What really odd in this, I cannot understand." she said

"I tell you." Sukanya paused for a moment before saying. "Before moving out of the house, just for few seconds I looked into the face of her. Then the expression in her face........" Sukanya again paused.

"What's the expression in her face?" Menaka asked her curiously.

Sukanya nodded her head helplessly "I don't know whether it is important or not or I just imagined like that." Once again there was a pause.

"Just tell me whatever you are trying to say." While trying to contain her irritation, Menaka said.

"Her expression was very odd! I just cannot say what exactly the expression was but it was not because of some good reason."

"I see" Menaka nodded her head with a meaningful expression.

"I must say it was only for few seconds. But after my return from the doctor, everything was as usual. In the usual way she talked with me for half an hour or so before leaving."

"In my opinion expressions are two types. One type of expression do happen by happy feelings and the other type of expression do happen by sad feelings. Can you say by what type of feeling that expression has taken place in her?" Menaka asked her.

"Certaily by some sad feeling, that much I can say." With a meaningful expression Sukanya said.

There was some silence before Sukanya herself broke it. "It was little unusual. She used to come always smiling and laughing and go smiling and laughing. Even it was just for few seconds, I cannot understand why she was so."

"After that day she did not come to your home again. You are sure about that?"

"I am sure, of course." Sukanya nodded her head. "In fact there was no chance to meet me then. I went to my relatives' home and held up there. Just one or two days before her committing suiside, I came to my home but in those two days she did not meet me and I did not go to her home either. We talked over phone only."

"Was she her usual self while talking with you over phone? Could not you trace any distress in her?"

"It was more than six months' back issue and I cannot remember with all detail now. If I have tried to find out any difference, I rather would have but I did not. But......" after few seconds pause she said with gathered frowns. "I must say I did not find any difference in her voice. Or Nirupama all the time tried not to show any of her inner feelings and distress in her voice."

"There was such a chance." Menaka nodded her head. Some silence ensued after she said that.

"I am thinking something might have happened to her on that day. Was there really a boycott in the college on that day? Are you also studying in the same college?"

"I have been also studying in the same college but with different subject. The next day itself I went to the college as I was cured off the fear and what she has said was true. There was no college on that day."

Menaka hissed out heavily. "It is something that we need to concentrate a little more. You said that she came to your home at twelve thirty on that day." Menaka said looking into the face of Sukanya.

"Yes, of course." Sukanya nodded her head.

"If she started from her college straight when she came to know that there was no college, how much time it would take to her to reach her home?"

"College begins at ten. Everyday we will be there by that time and if there is no college and we started back from there at least by ten fifteen we reach homes even before eleven. That college is not very far from here."

(..........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