True story

Pritha Sarkar

Class 12 Sec- C

Chapter - 1

The car was standing in a traffic signal at half past five. Rishi, waiting patiently inside, was looking out at the countdown, as the wipers swept off the water from the windscreen. The rain was quite heavy. His eyes were looking across the car, when they fell on the lady, dressed in a sky blue chiffon sari, desperately holding on to her umbrella. She was standing at a distance from his car waiting impatiently. The FM in his car played, “Ami chini go chini tomare, ogo bideshini…”

“Why don’t you come inside the car? Maybe I can help?” shouted Rishi lowering the window. She seemed to hesitate a moment, but probably thinking of the rain, came inside the car. “Thank you so much for the lift, the rain doesn't seem to stop”, she said in a rather husky voice, while adjusting her hair away from her face. Unfortunately they kept on falling. ‘Hmm, quite a heavy one”, murmured Rishi, as he started the car. “Where should I drop you?” “Sealdah Bridge, well actually I’m going to my mother’s place. I don’t live with her although. Oh well, I’m Malini, by the way”, she said with an abstractly familiar smile, and he noticed that her right eye seemed to get shut while she smiled. She had a habit of talking extra. “I’m Rishi, Rishi Gupta” he said, as a picture of Mallika flashed in his mind.

“Well, I think I have seen u somewhere, u seem very much familiar, u know?” said Rishi. “”Ah well, that’s a quite known line u know, haven’t tried on anyone yet?” saying this Malini rolled into a laughter. Embarrassed, Rishi said, “No, I’m quite serious. Anyway Sealdah and Tollygunge are quite far. May be I’m mistaken.” “Well, if u have heard me correctly, my mother’s place is in Sealdah, but I’m from Golfgreen, quite close to yours.” she said with a wink. “I work at a private firm there, and they only provide me flat there. I seriously miss my mother at times u know. Its been a few years my father went away, and that’s the only reason she won’t move out of that house.” She seemed to be very frank and spoke of different things. When her eyes fell on the photograph, placed inside just before the windscreen, she asked, “Your girlfriend?”

“My wife.”

“Oh I see. She is quite pretty you know. And see, we have the same moles!” Malini had a mole on her temple, at the same place as that of Mallika. Her phone started ringing with the caller tune “Bhalobese shokhi  nibhrite jotone amar namti likho….” It was her mother.

For the first time in 2 years, he felt a strong attraction for any other woman. She seemed to like soft music, as when the earlier song ended, and there started a rock song, she turned her face out of the window, and murmured the lyrics of it. Rishi turned down the fm, and took a right turn. It was close to half past six, and he realized that it was already getting dark. He accelerated the car and stopped at another signal. The rain had turned into a drizzle. Malini continued to murmur the song, and said suddenly, “You know, may be I know you after all. You come sometimes to Golfgreen, don’t you?”

“Hmm well I do. It’s my workplace. For business works I often go there.”

“Take a left turn, and then you can drop me below that flyover. It’s a bit deserted, but I don’t mind that. I can easily take a shortcut.”

Taking a sharp left, he brought the car to a halt, below an under construction flyover. She came out of the car, and asked him, “Why don’t you come to my flat with your wife someday? You don’t seem to speak much, but I hope your wife does, and I love to speak a lot. I would seriously love to meet her. I don’t have much of friends there.”

“Ok sure. Probably I can take her, and my daughter as well, if I get a chance” , he smiled.

“Oh, you have a daughter too? Great! Then bring her as well. What’s her name?”

“Roshni”

“Lovely name.  Anyway, bye for now.  My mom must be waiting.”

She disappeared after the heap of stone chips and bricks. Rishi, on reversing the car, felt something beneath his toes. He tried to find it, and it was her umbrella. She had forgotten the umbrella there inside the car itself.

Chapter – 2

In Dr. Majumdar’s chamber Abhi was impatiently waiting for him to finish his routine-check up.  It’s been one and half hours since he has brought his unconscious friend to his chamber, and since that very time he’s been repeating the same names.

Before Dr. Majumdar came and took his place before Abhi, he pushed an injection to Rishi’s hand, who was now lying back behind them, and slowly gaining consciousness.

“Do you know who is Malini, Dr. Majumdar?” asked Abhi.

"Nope, I don’t, but I have a clue about that. Coming to that later, all I know is, he is in a serious trouble. It’s been two years, and he doesn’t seem to have any sign of recovery, rather it’s been increasing,” replied the doctor.

“What….what do you mean?”

“It’s the same what you think. He is in a serious trouble of Schizophrenia. Its been two years since Mallika and Roshni’s death in that car accident, and his development of this problem. He came some 3 weeks back with his sister, who complained that he had been getting hallucinations of a woman, just like Mallika, he doesn’t seem to forget her. Theirs was a love marriage, if I’m not wrong?”

“Yes. He met Mallika quite accidentally. It was raining heavily, and he gave her a lift. He used to work where she lived, and that way they had frequent meetings. He often went to meet her mother as well, who lived alone. It was only a matter of four five months, and they got married.”

“Hmmm…..well where did you find him today?”

“I found him near an under construction flyover near Sealdah. He was franctically searching for something near a heap of stone chips and bricks. When I went closer to him, he was repeating the names Malini and Mallika, and had an umbrella in his hand.”

“Hmmm…..he must get over this you know, The hallucinations are becoming quite frequent now”

As Dr. Majumdar was saying this, Rishi’s voice came up from behind, asking to go to Mallika. He was still holding on to that very umbrella, and his phone rang up with the caller tune “Bhalobese shokhi  nibhrite jotone amar namti likho….”