Aatma

Wedding Night Part 1

Wedding Night

Vinod Nair arrived in Mumbai in the morning and straight headed to his house in Kurla.When he reached there after half an hour ,he met all his relatives who were waiting for him ,he entered his small flat and saw all arrangements made for his mothers last rites .He as a son and only child of Madhu had to perform the last ritual on the thirteenth day of her death. Madhu

Had died due to covid in the hospital as Vinod stays in Canada his relatives cremated her as per the hospital rules for covid death. Vinod could not believe his mother is no more last when he had seen her was five years back ,when he was a 20 years old guy he left for Canada for further studies and then for better opportunity , and got so busy with getting settled in Canada that he forgot his mother was alone and lonely ,he would regularly make a video call so Madhu was happy for her son ,she wanted his happiness more then her happiness.He remembered how his mother would pamper him when he came from college she would be showering her love asking him to freshen up make hot meal and make him eat all the while wanting to know what happened in the college,he had to tell her everything right from the time he got into a train how crowded it was then how he went to his college and whether he likes any girl she wanted to know everything about the outside world through him she knew about all his friends and lecturers..Vinod had lost his father when he 15 years of age , so he and his mother were very close ,when Vinod decided to go to Canada his mother had agreed with a heavy heart .She knew once a child goes away to a far land then the umbilical cord does not take long to break. Though after  a few years Vinod had planned to take his mother ,she was not interested to leave her country and go to a new country.Vinod is brought back to  reality by his Aunt who tells him now the rituals will begin as the priest has done the arrangement .After the rituals and the lunch served to all the relatives and friend who had come to pay condolence V inod was alone in the house in the night he freshened up and was about to sleep when he gets a call from his college friend he apologies to him saying he could not attend the ceremony as he was busy,but he would like to meet him before he goes back .Vinod tells him he has come for one month as he has to do lot of official work regarding the sale of his mothers flat and after he does a;; that he will meet every body and go back to Canada for good.He looks around the house and feels sad as this is the very house he grew up and stayed for 18 years of his life every corner of the house had memories of his growing up hi father and mother  , but as he will not be coming back to India he wanted to sell the flat and go .

Next day in the morning he gets up freshen  up and closes the flat and goes to the mall  to buy a  few necessary grocery items ,as the kitchen was empty as his mother was suffering from covid and hospitalised he had to stock  his kitchen for few days as he will be staying there .he does the shopping and then goes to his old restaurant where he used to frequent with friend when he was in college .He orders his favourite wada sambhar ( a savoury like doughnut but salty to be eaten with lentil soup called sambar with lots of vegetables in it ) a old Hindi song is also being played it makes him nostalgic he remembers his college days his friend and his mother’s interest in his life , his eyes become moist with the thought and he finishes the meal and orders for coffee and also takes few items packed to eat latter in the day as he did not want to cook today he just wanted to be in the house and relax and think about his past . After reaching home he keeps the milk in the fridge and the vegetables also .and then goes and falls asleep again after a very satisfying breakfast . He gets up in the evening .he takes shower and makes .a cup of tea  and mentally makes notes of the pending work he has to finish before leaving.He decides he will start packing up all his mothers clothes and vessels and then the furniture disposing He thought of giving away all the clothes and vessels to a charity and asks his relatives if they need any furniture so that everything will be disposed off quickly and then after making the necessary property documents he will tell a agent to look out for a customer and place  an  advertisement in the news papers. In the night he starts going through the cupboard of his mother which he had never touched in his life it had only her clothes so he was never bothered to see it he sits and goes through her clothes and smells the clothes and can feel the presence of her he cries out for his mother he apologises to her for not being with her when she needed him the most , he tells her she was the best mother who allowed him to pursue his dream and didn’t stop him from going away to a far land from where he could not come immediately when she needed him, It was brave of her to decide to live on her own, with no friends he wiped his tears and starters packing the clothes ina bundle after a long time when he felt he had emptied the cupboard of all the clothes and stalked it in the room to be given to the charity, he feels there are some  files which is neatly places under the papers  on the shelf of the cupboard he removes all the old news papers from the shelf of the cupboard and neatly makes a bundle and then picks up the file he got from one of the shelf ,he had never known about this file he took it switched off the lights of the room and came and sat in the hall .He thought it might be some certificates of his  school days his birth certificate all such documents when he opened it he got two black and white photographs of his parents holding him he might have been one year old and in another his mother and a lady both were of same age and he was in that lady.s arms ,he had never seen this photos ,so he did not know who the lady was he turned the photo and saw his mother had written my dearest friend Shama . He looked at the pic to see whether he remembers that lady but no he did not remember and neither did his mother ever mention about her in all these years she never spoke about her past .he kept it aside , then started reading the documents which was in the file one by one after going through  all the  papers he was restless he started pacing the room ,he was shocked and very angry that his parents never shared with him about this house which belonged to them located  in Kerala a state in India he was surprised when they had a huge farmland and a house they still struggled for money in Mumbai after his father’s death ,he failed to understand why his mother never spoke about this property  with him even when he needed money to go abroad he could have easily sold such a huge property and could have used the money to do some business in India itself he need not have gone for better opportunity abroad he could have or else shifted to kerala with his mother and given the Mumbai house on rent .He was not understanding why his mother kept such a big property a secret from him and preferred to live a humble life a hard life , he went through the documents again and again his father had purchased the property the farm land and in its midst a huge traditional house after he got married to Madhu and had named the house as ‘ Madhura.’  Rama  was his fathers name . and its mentioned that after the death of both the parents their son Vinod Nair was to be the heir of the property.Now Vnood was having mixed feelings he had two property to  dispose but how will he go about the property in Kerala as he had never visited that state he does not remember any relatives living there ,as all his extended family lived in Mumbai . When he went through the papers again he saw a small chit of paper and in tht his mother had written her friends name Shama and her contact number .he took it and felt may be she is the link for this property ,but will she be available on this number is she alive .He checks his mothers mobile phone and goes through all the numbers most of the numbers where their relatives and common friends but one number which matched with Shama’s number was used every month at least three to four times in a month his mother made a call on this number .Now Vnod had a hope may be Shama was alive and he could after all take her help regarding the property in Kerala she may be knowing something regarding this matter. Suddenly his tension was released and he started whistling and hopped on to the bed ,, he saw the time it was very late in the night  .He decided first thing in the morning he would call up Shama and talk to her. And then went to sleep after a hard day’s work..Next day after breakfast he lit a lamp in front of their God and also prayed to his parents and dialled Shama’s number after a long ring there was no response Vinod was heartbroken ,t he again called after some time his heart was now beating very loudly he could hear it more then the ring but again no response .he threw the phone on the bed and started crying ,when suddenly his mothers phone rang he ran to pick it up and was overjoyed to see the same number calling he immediately received the call and said hello ,a very soft voice spoke from the other side may be a girl in her teens ,she wanted to know who was calling.  Vinod tells her she does not know him but his mother used to call on this number regularly from Mumbai ,she immediately recognised and said was he speaking about Madhu Aunt .He was relaxed now he very excitedly said yes he was her son and wanted to talk to Shama Aunt ,the  girl tells him she is Shama’s daughter and her mother has gone out and not taken her phone with her ,as soon as she returns she will make her talk to her mother.And she also asks him why hasn’t his mother spoken to them for over a month ,Vinod tells her he will talk to her mother in detail latter and she should let him know as soon as possible as he has very urgent work with her mother she says ok and the line gets disconnected .Vinod now realises that Shama has a young daughter and his mother used to talk to them every month and could not keep in touch in the last month of her life as she was hospitalised ,they might have tried her number but because of no response might have given up. In the evening after a long wait Vinod gets a call from Shama ,she is very happy to talk to Vinod and wants to know why her friend has stopped calling her ,when Vinodd tells her about his mother and the reason for his calling her up she is shocked she cries a lot and also tells her daughter about Madhur death, they sob a lot Vinod can feel their pain.  He feels their loss in the  same way as he felt .Shama tells him to come to their place their village Tekkadi she tells she is the one who was given the responsibility of getting the house cleaned which  she does twice a month , she has the key to the house and he should visit them and she will take him to his house .she tells him to come as early as possible so that she can give the responsibility of the house to him ,she has been taking care of the house for ages now ,Vnod agrees to reach her place after a week , he  will  tells her when he reaches kerala he will talk to her and give the details . He thanks god and his parents and starts to complete the work pertaining to his Mumbai flat as after a week he will go to kerala and he does not know how many days it will take him to finish work there .In a week’s time Vinod finishes his all pending work and given away the furnitures to his relatives and disposed off all the other item he has packed his bag and also sold his flat to a family and had transferred the flat to them and was very happy with the deal ,he got good amount and felt very confident .He booked a air ticket to kerala .He called up Shama and told about his visit she was excited to meet him..In few days Vinod reached Kerala he called up Shama from the Airport and told her he might reach her house in the village by 5 pm ..Then he books a cab from the airportthe cab would drop him in the outskirts of the village as they dont go to the interior ,he agrees and sits in the cab  it would take him five hours to reach the out skirts of the village and from there he would have to take the village bus which runs only two times a day . He falls asleep in the cab and wakes up when the wab stops for lunch after two hours of continuous driving ,when they start again the car breaks down after two hours of  driving  it takes a long time to fix the car  he losses lot of time by the time the cab starts it is already 8 in the night some how he gets dropped in the outskirt of the village he pays the cab and wonders how will he reach in the darkness to Shama’s house he is terrified ,he tries calling her but his battery is low and there is no network .he hits a stone and curses his luck , he starts walking towards the village hoping he will find some one to guide him but he can not see any body he fishes out a torch from his bg and uses it to navigate his way ,he see a small stall  and goes there he sees an old man just about to close the shop he keeps his luggage down and shouts at that man for help , the man says the last bus to the village has already left now only tomorrow he has reached the place very late .Vinod asks him whether he can sleep in his shop as he is new to the place and will not be able to find his house in this darkness .The old man refuses he tells him he should start walking fast towards the interior of the village and ask some family to help him out and asks him where is his house when Vinod tells him he wants to reach Madhura house he is the owner the old man acts as if he did not hear him,  and hops onto his cycle and rides away without saying a word leaving Vinod all alone .Now he is really petrified with no human being around and he all alone and the way the old man behaved as if he saw a ghost he is very scared .But still he has to reach some place to rest for the night ,  before the moon light also starts playing truant by hiding behind the tall trees ,he starts walking very fast he has already been walking for an hour now and not seen any sign of human settlement he is about to give up and sit under some tree for some time as he is very exhausted walking in the darkness aimlessly he sees a light he feels happy he starts walking towards the light he decides who ever stays there he will offer them good money and rest for the night he drags his feet fast towards the source of light at last he reaches the place it is a huge house very well illuminate at that late hour of the night he feels very happy he goes and stands near the compound gate and calls out is anybody in listening to his voice a huge black tall hunting dog comes barking aggressively towards him he goes back with the sight of the ferocious dog barking at him. He is standing frozen when he sees a beautiful tall lady with a sing song voice calling out to the dog and tellin him to stop barking she comes towards the gate all the while talking to the dog and telling him to be quiet .Seeing her Vinod feels as if an angel has come down to help him , she asks him what he wants he tells her that he has come from Mumbai to meet his aunt he does not mention his house name remembering the shop owners reaction ,he instead tells her he has come from Mumbai first time to this village in search of his aunt but now he is very tired he would like to sleep for the night in her house and leave tomorrow morning as he is very tired .She smiles at him adn opens the gate and gestures him to come in ,he sees the garden is in full bloom there is a very big well under a huge tree ,the garden is very well maintained ,she tells him to go inside and he enter the hall of the house he is mesmerised she seems to belong to some royal family the house was decorated with all that is expensive ,the furniture was very expensive ones the walls where decorated with the head of wild animals which were hunted by the owner,he was awed byt he interior of the house she looked at him with lot of interest she was staring directly into his eyes as if trying to search answers helooked at her gaze and felt uncomfortable ,she asked him whether he would like to have some food ,he tells her he is very tired and just wants a place to sleep , she chuckles and tells him to follow her he follows her like a puppy he is also admiring her beauty ,he realises in that huge house no one else is present so he asks her about other people she says her whole family has gone to another village to attend the wedding of sme relatives and she is all alone with the dog for company and while says that she turns back to look at him and gives a wicked smile a drop of warm sweat slides down his spine and he feels little uncomfortable. .She open a viry big door which was locked he feels he could have slept anywhere in that huge house it was so spacious why was she opening a room which is locked for him to sleep .She throws the door open and calls him in he follows her and is shocked to see the room with a huge wooden cot it looked like it belonged to some warrior or a ruler he was awed by the beauty of the room and of course the lady who was continuously seeing his reaction .she tells hilton sleep there and she will come in the morning to wake him up ..He realises he has not asked her name she turns back and tells him she had told him in the beginning itself her name was Rosy . and swirls her long jet black hair and walks away closing the door behind her . Vinod goes fast and locks the nuge door tightly and checks it properly and the he starts inspecting the beauty of the room it was so clean and well maintained and so many artifact there was a copper jug with fresh water in it as if waiting for its master , he pours a glass of water and drinks it as he was very thirsty he keeps thinking when  did she tell her name and why did she smile and looked at him ,anyways he was too tired he changes his clothe and wears his fresh pajama and shirt and feels fresh ,before going to the bed he hear her voice below calling out to the dog he goes towards the huge glass window which was open and hides and see down he sees her closing the front gate nd then petting the dog he slowly and quietly closes the window so as to not make noise and comes tipping to the bed and slept in the soft bed and covers himself with the blanket for first few minutes he does not get sleep but as he had walked so much when he falls asleep he only knows .