The Secret Of The Dark Room

 “I wish I could turn back the clock and bring the wheels of time to stop,” grandfather said dreamily as he was recalling his childhood days while sipping his hot tea. It is common for him; he dreams a lot not because he did not want to live in reality but because of isolation and loneness which he suffers in such a big house. His wife he recalls my lovely wife, she left me breaking her promise to be with me whole life and his son stays in America with his family. His son visits him rarely as he has no time for him, even an hour to converse with him. His only companion is his granddaughter Tanu but only when she comes. He receives call from his son on weekdays and sometimes many weeks passes no one calls or comes to look whether he is good or not, but grandfather did not give a thought to these useless things because there are many friends of him who are more friendliest and caring to him than his son and granddaughter. They include his lovely puppy Lucy and rabbits who govern his whole garden with pride and honor.

In spite of so many friends he uses to spend around 4-5 hours in the dark room daily which is located in the corner of the house. As seen from outside it seems to be the store room of the house but till now no one has been able to guess that ,why he spent hours in that dusky and dark room where sunlight also does not dare to enter. Perhaps her wife knows it but she took away the dark secret of that room with her. People in the neighborhood have rumors that there is the presence of some black magic and grandfather is master of all those black magic and perhaps that is the reason why most of the people did not talk to him and no one visits him including his son. But grandfather did not care a bit of what people think he always carries his routine and never revealed the secret of that dark room to anyone. And since his most of the day’s hours are being used by his friends and garden and remaining left hours goes in dreaming and cooking food.

He got only night time to visit that dark room which gives air to the thoughts of the people. Often people in India have the most common habit of thinking about others rather than themselves so the people in his neighborhood without breaking their ancestral heritage going on from long years, brought grandfather in nearly each and every conversation. whenever there is some discussion of bad or evil, they didn’t forget to add grandfather and this they do more loudly and harshly when they saw grandfather nearby but the grandfather did not give a least thought to their useless chit chat though it hurts him. He always keep himself busy so that his thoughts did not go around what his neighbors say though Lucy, his puppy feels very bad for him sometimes it jumps over the person who insults grandfather. Lucy is a very loyal and sensible puppy who understands the emotion of the grandfather fairly if only god would have provided him with the mouth he would be more intelligent and advanced than these selfish humans.

One day when grandfather was coming out of the store room he was bitten by a snake in his leg. Since it was very poisonous snake the pain became unbearable for him he tried to call the family doctor but he was not responding he called several of his so-called relatives but no one came for his help. He thought now his end was near, even Lucy couldn’t do anything she was helpless she tried to call some people from neighborhood for help but no one came. Lucy ran here and there in and out of the house but it was of no use.

At last when grandfather thought that his end was near he wished to visit the storeroom last time before his death but he was not able to even stand on his own feet he tried to sit but he collapsed. His heart began to slow down, his body turned blue, his eyes began to close but then only Lucy hears the rushing of cars outside.

As soon as she hears the cars rushing she went out to seek help. She saw a beautiful girl coming out of the car towards the house as soon as the girl saw grandfather in such condition she ran to him calling him papa.

In the mean time many people were gathered around grandfather’s house as they never saw such a big lines of car outside his house. So, when the girl called the old man “papa”, for a while their mind stopped thinking for cars and started weaving thread of relationship. But the girl wasn’t interested in their mind blogger relation building skill, so she without even looking at them took grandrather to the hospital.

The girl was waiting eagerly outside the ICU to know what has happened, when the doctor told him about the health of the grandfather tears rolled down his eyes which said she was never excited before as she is today. After some treatment doctor allowed her to see grandfather. She goes and sits beside grandfather and cried for hours but grandfather did not notice because he wasn’t conscious at that time. She waited for another hour but grandfather was still in unconscious state so she ran out of the ward crying. Since it was not so serious and grandfather recovered well doctor told the girl to take him home and let him rest but the girl intervened saying how can she take him home when he was not in conscious state. Doctor answered, since the poison spread throughout the body he need some time to be in conscious state.

The girl after getting satisfactory explanation took grandfather home. There Lucy welcomed her with tears of hope in her eyes the girl took him to his bed and waited for him to be in conscious state but an urgent phone call from somewhere forced her to leave.

Lucy in gratefulness followed her outside the house and then with grateful eyes Lucy leapt over her and licked his face and waved her goodbye, girl understanding his sign too waved goodbye. Lucy came inside the house and waited for the grandfather to open his eyes. After an eager wait of half an hour grandfather opened his eyes and founding himself on bed was surprised as if someone has woke him up from his biggest nightmare. Grandfather said, said to himself, “I was died, na”. Where am I? Lucy came over him and licked him in joy and told him everything in his sign language that how a girl took him to hospital and how he came home. Grandfather asked where that kind girl is, he wants to thank him for saving his life but Lucy told him that she was gone due to an urgent phone call.

Grandfather then decided to visit the hospital and asked for some information about her and her address to offer her his grateful thanks, thinking this he cooked his dinner ate and slept.

In the morning after completing all his work he visited the hospital and asked the receptionist, about who admitted him? But what is this? In place of the name of the girl who admitted him, his name was written. He couldn’t believe his own eyes, he asks the receptionist to read it once again. she read in a loud clear voice, Mr. Ravishankar Pandit but it was his own name how this girl knows his name and the phone number was also of him now he sat down thinking who she is who knows everything about her, he scrolled down his mind but could not remember anything but suddenly his memory flashback to the year 1999, she was 20 year old at that time and she was his daughter to whom he forced to stop studying and marry but the little girl who was passionate to study after many scolding and warnings continued to attend her college secretly but one day he found out about this mischievousness of her and break all relationship with her and left her to die on street.

He began crying and could not think of any way to meet her daughter. Suddenly he chuckled up and asked for the process of payment the girl at reception answered that it was through credit card. A sweet smile spread on his face, he asks for the copy of the slip and branch of the bank. The girl replied that it was Axis bank but was hesitant to offer the slip but finally she gave up after seeing the pitiful face of the grandfather now he went to the nearest branch and asked for the information about the owner of that account number fortunately he got every information including the address of her house.

He returns back to his home with the address and went into the dark room and after an hour he came up with the red eyes and tears all over. The remaining hour of his days and nights were gone in thinking how he is going to his daughter house after committing such an act he is so shameful to show even his face to his daughter thinking all this he didn’t even noticed when the sun came up, it was Lucy who woke him out of his thoughts. He left his bed, bathed, prayed and decided to visit her daughter. while going there he took Lucy with him, whose mother was very close to her daughter, He thought now he will show his daughter the cute baby of her beloved sherry, mother of Lucy.

Thinking all this he reached the house of her daughter there the watchman stopped him and asked his name, grandfather replied Mr. Ravishankar Pandit. After hearing his name the watchman could not control his tears and asked him, ‘where were you for these days? Why didn’t you come before?’ Grandfather could not understand anything and asked what he meant? The watchmen told him to go inside and watch for himself.

He was surprised to see many high rank military officers and police officers bowing their head in respect, while the one in white bowing their head in tears and in front of their rows of men and women there in the center stand a big photo frame of girl in her thirties between several hundred flowers and candles and her corpse between the tricolors. When grandfather saw the girl in frame, he couldn’t move, he froze there, someone from the gathering said she was killed in the war, the famous Kargil war which was going on due to repeated ceasefire violation by Pakistan. But grandfather didn’t respond, he fell down on the floor, with eyes opened but stopped heart, ceased heartbeat.

And thus the secret of the secret dark room remained a secret as no one came, came for years. Probably his son forgot that he has a father……