The Scream

The silence of the night was broken by a scream. It sounded like a cry for help. Again there was silence. While going through the familiar roads after these many years a lot of memories came flooding back. He used to play in these fields which now have turned into concrete roads with his friends in the hot sultry afternoons of UP. They would get up the mango trees in Sharma uncle’s orchard and pluck the ripest of the mangoes. Sharma uncle would never say anything to them. “Little kids want mangoes, they eat mangoes. I have a lot of mangoes”, he would always say. The way to their school was also along this route. He remembered those quiet evenings beside the pond with Nirja during his high school days. Oh, what beautiful days they were! Shiraj’s reverie was cut short by a cry for help. He had just crossed the mango orchard. He asked his driver to get down and look for the source of the voice. It seemed to come from somewhere nearby. The driver looked throughout the entire area but couldn’t find anyone or anything related to that voice. He returned and started the car.

Shiraj was going back home after 10 years. He missed his train due to the delay of his flight from New York. He took the next available train from New Delhi station to Faizabad. Home! After 10 long years finally, he was returning home today. He still clearly remembers the look on his mother’s face when he received his scholarship letter from New York. “Couldn’t you study the same thing in India? Why do you need to go that far away?” was the only thing his mother said. The entire 2 months of preparation she didn’t utter a single word. On the other hand, Abbu told every person he met on the road that his eldest son was going to the USA to study engineering at the finest college in the country. “I’ll visit every year Amma don’t worry. We’ll talk every day. As soon as I finish the degree I’ll come back home.” Well, none of this happened. As soon as Shiraj reached the USA he fell in love with the country he tried hard to adapt himself to their culture so much so that after a point of time his own identity had changed. In the third year of his degree, he got an offer from the leading IT companies in San Francisco. He took up the job and then 7 years passed in a flash. Last week he got a call from his youngest brother Ehsaan saying that Ammi wasn’t well and she wanted to see Shiraj for the last time. But that week he had an important international conference to attend. He couldn’t come that week and now he was going back home finally but Ammi wouldn’t be there. Ammi waited till the last breath looking at the door waiting for Shiraj to come. But he never came and she couldn’t wait any longer.

Shiraj and his driver continued on their way, but the cry for help kept ringing in Shiraj’s ears. He couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was not right. His home didn’t feel like home without his mother. Everything was there but then there was nothing. He felt guilty for not being there for her when she needed him the most. At night after dinner, as he was going through his mother’s belongings, he found an old diary that belonged to her. He started reading it and was surprised to learn about his mother’s life before she got married. She had dreams and aspirations of her own, but she had to give them up to take care of her family. Shiraj realized that he didn’t know much about his mother’s life before he was born. He felt like he had missed out on so much. But there was something else too. Something about the cry he heard today. According to his mother’s diary people along the route have been hearing this cry for help for many years but no one could find out the source of it. He now remembered how the kids were always told to return home early before sunset. But this cry didn’t sound scary to him rather it sounded like a cry for help from someone who was in immense pain. Burdened with the guilt that he couldn’t do anything for his mother during her last days. He decided to help whoever this was crying for help.

On asking the elders of the family no one was able to help him out. Whenever he used to pass by that route at night, that voice came to haunt him. It had become intolerable for him. He asked everyone around if anyone knew anything. One day while he was having tea at Akram’s tea shop his friend Rajesh told him to go and ask Rashid Chacha. He was the oldest person in the town. If anybody knew anything it would him. “Excited and nervous they both went to Rashid Chacha’s house. “Why do you want to know anything about the cry? It has been there since forever. Let it be. Some souls are meant to be tormented for eternity”, he said when Shiraj asked him about the cry. Shiraj was also adamant. He wanted to help that person or the soul behind the voice. “Please chacha you must know something. I want to help that person. I couldn’t be of any help to my mother please let me be of help to this stranger. Maybe Ammi will forgive me then”. After a lot of probing and pleading finally Rashid Chacha agreed to share the story with them. “I don’t know if it is true or not but this is what my great grandfather had told me”. Then he started with the story.

“Edward Stuart was a Captain in the Faizabad Cantonment. He had recently been transferred here from the Barrackpore Cantonment with a promotion. He loved his stay in Barrackpore. He was sent to India from England just after a few months of enrolling in the army. With a zeal to prove himself, he worked diligently and within 8 years he rose through the ranks to become a captain. He was a jovial man with an understanding of his fellow Indians. People liked him wherever he went. He was called “Acche Babu” by the natives. He was a single man with no wish to settle down shortly. But he couldn’t keep Saeeda Begum out of his mind for long. He started to find excuses to visit the zamindar’s house – ranging from going on a hunt to taking a look over the functioning of the zamindar’s zamindari. Saeeda Begum also seemed to be happy to see him now and then.

A few years later Mr. Stuart was returning from the house of the zamindar humming a tune sung by Saeeda Begum during her performance. Saeeda Begum the most famous performer in Sadar was called to perform at the zamindar’s birthday party. Her voice – It was magical! It was the kind of voice that was dripped in honey and each note was as precious as a rare diamond not be found again once lost. He could sit there listening to her the whole night. Not only did her voice her face had an ethereal beauty too. She had the grace of a goddess matching the fluid movement of her hands. She seemed like someone just out of his dreams.

But Saeeda Begum was not just a performer, but also a spy for the Indian rebels who were plotting against the British rule. She had been sent to the zamindar’s house to gather information and influence his decisions. She had also been instructed to seduce Mr. Stuart and extract his secrets. But as she spent more time with him, she realized that he was not like the other British officers. He was kind, respectful, and genuinely interested in her culture and history. She began to develop feelings for him and felt conflicted about her mission. Mr. Stuart, on the other hand, was unaware of her true identity and motives. He was smitten by her beauty and talent and wanted to make her his wife. He proposed to her one night, under the starry sky, and she accepted. He was overjoyed and decided to take her to England with him. He arranged for their marriage at the local church and bought her a wedding dress and a ring. He also wrote a letter to his parents, informing them of his decision and asking for their blessing.

But fate had other plans. The night before their wedding, the rebels launched a surprise attack on the cantonment. They set fire to the buildings, killed the soldiers, and freed the prisoners. Saeeda Begum was among them, dressed in a black cloak and armed with a dagger. She had received a message from her leader, telling her to join the attack and kill Mr. Stuart. She hesitated but felt obliged to follow the orders. She made her way to his quarters, where he was sleeping peacefully. She entered the room and saw him lying on the bed, with a smile on his face. She felt a surge of emotion, and tears welled up in her eyes. She raised her dagger and prepared to strike. But before she could do anything, he opened his eyes and saw her. He recognized her and called out her name. She dropped the dagger and ran into his arms. They hugged each other and confessed their love. They decided to escape together and start a new life somewhere else. They packed their bags and sneaked out of the cantonment. They boarded a carriage and drove away. But they did not get far. As soon as they reached the orchards they were spotted by a patrol of British soldiers, who recognized Mr. Stuart and ordered them to stop. They refused, and the soldiers opened fire. They were hit by several bullets and fell to the ground. They held each other’s hands and looked into each other’s eyes. They whispered their last words and died in each other’s arms. The British soldiers separated them after they died and buried Stuart at the church cemetery. But Saeeda was left dead there in the fields. “

Years passed, but the legend of Saeeda Begum and Mr. Stuart lived on. People say that Saeeda’s voice can still be heard calling out to her lover, asking him to come and meet her. Some say that they have seen her ghost wandering in the fields, searching for him. Others say that they have seen her sitting by his grave, weeping silently. But no one knows for sure what happened to them after they died. Their love story remains a mystery, shrouded in the mists of time. “Now how can you help the soul of Saeeda?” Shiraj was moved to tears on hearing the story. He didn’t know what to do but he was sure he’ll find some way to help her. The next day Shiraj and his friend Rajesh went to the orchard and started to search for something that would give them a clue. They searched for the entire day nothing happened. In the meantime, Shiraj kept praying to the Lord for any kind of help. Rashid then remembered the zamindar in whose house Saeeda Begum used to stay. Upon asking he found that the house of Zamindar had been turned into a hotel for people coming to stay in the town. He went to the hotel in hopes of getting any clue about Saeeda or anything that belonged to her. There in the main hall was a collection of the things used by the zamindar and his people. He saw a trinket labeled as worn by one Saeeda Begum during her stay in the palace. He planned to bring Rajesh along with him so that he could take that trinket from there. “Stealing you mean! Are you out of your mind!! We’ll steal for a person dead 100 years ago to give her peace! If we get caught our peace of life will be lost. Do you understand? You have your flight the day after tomorrow, if anything untoward happens what will happen?”. Rajesh went to with his outburst for the next 15 minutes. But Shiraj was adamant. He has to help Saeeda. Somehow he convinced Rajesh to go along with the plan. The next day they went to the hotel. Rajesh distracted the butler stationed in the main hall while Shiraj stealthily managed to get the trinket out. Once outside they heaved a sigh of relief. Now the only thing remaining to be done was to place the trinket beside the tomb of Mr.Stuart at the old cemetery. On his way back the next day Shiraj ardently hoped that Saeeda begum would finally have been reunited with the love of her life and that would provide a little peace to her soul.