'Did you notice the TV Mrs. Ghosh ? Shivangi looked at the broken LED screen in horror. The screen was sunk inwards giving rise to a vent which went deep into the wall behind, yet it didn't bore a hole through it . It looked as if someone had dug a tunnel inside the TV to pull something in. 'Could be a chemical reaction which caused the explosion', Arunava Sarkar murmured to himself. 'Can a TV explode by itself ? Is there some major electrical dysfunctioning in the circuits in this flat ?' He called the constable to collect samples of the wreckage. The forensics would take care of the rest.
'Your sister had placed requisition for a mechanic .. a TV mechanic. The apartment owners' association informed us. She had complained that a particular channel was always showing up whenever she pressed the remote. And then videos would keep playing all by themselves with the remote failing to pause/ stop them. Reporting the cable operator had not helped - there are many users of that net
That was when she had her first nightmare. She found it impossible to move her limbs when she woke up. And things had only worsened further since then. The symptoms came up on her sister about a year later. Her father had consulted a number of doctors but to no avail. Referring to quacks, priests, even occultists had continued unabatedly and it wasn't long before the neighbours and relatives had labelled them as bananas - often sharing a laugh behind their back.Psychological diseases are still considered a taboo in the society in which they had been brought up. It took a great deal of concealing and cajoling on the part of Shivangi's parents to convince her in-laws that their daughter-in-law was perfectly all right. Still the air couldn't be cleared. On their wedding night when she had left him unsatiated at the peak of his desire, Upendra had charged at her directly.'Your father has deliberately married off a sickly daughter'.Shivangi knew there was no
Almost at the same time she let out a scream her hand also got released from her steering. She was approaching the bridge she knew from the sound of a train nearby and was aware that if she failed to stop the car now it would either fly into the railway track running parallely or go crashing into the river below. She tried hard to take her foot off the accelerator but her limbs had gone numb.She knew this was going to last for sometime. And within this time she had to manuovre the vehicle to save it from swerving left or right. Fighting her innermost fears for survival was a trial she had been subjected to many times before, a curse she had been suffering since childhood. But it was not the cosy comforts of her home. Again on second thoughts, where was the difference ?Till her parents were alive, she didn't doubt about her safety. She knew she could always fall back on them in her miseries. But now who bothered whether she lived or died ? With Upendra away from
Dodamarg, Maharashtra. Present Day :Strangely there was no lock on the door, it limped badly to a side on the floor. It was the reason why it didn't swing open inside, otherwise the latch wasn't strong enough to keep it closed. The possibility of someone using the room couldn't be ruled out from such a situation, yet the thick layer of dust on the floor raised doubts over a living soul to have come that way in a while. Dust had settled inside the room too causing the door to sink into it.The light from the torch revealed no other footsteps than her own as she guided it all around the floor. After several attempts the old, wooden panel holding desperately to it's rusty hinges finally creaked open letting out a gust of wind as if captivated for years. The smell of old furniture and furnishings laden with cobwebs immediately rushed out to torture her nostrils. The dampness in the room was sickening. Finding an electrical switch on the wall she pressed it in the hope of light, but in va
Before Arunava could stop his black Tata Innova and get out, Shivangi's red sedan crashed at the metal barriers. His heart seemed to stand still. The fog made visibility very poor and even with the foglights on he had difficulty in locating the car swinging on the left railings. He had screeched to a halt at the sound of the collision, but now while running on the deck, he found the distance to be around twenty paces. Even such a small distance appeared very long now and he knew every moment was costly. The bridge side they were negotiating was from Kolkata towards Howrah. The one carrying traffic from Howrah to Kolkata ran parallely in the opposite direction. A double line railway track separated the up and down routes, confined inside massive steel girders. Upon reaching the location, he tried to look inside the car to ascertain whether Shivangi was still inside. Then without a second thought, he climbed on to the railings. The dark waters was a raging torrent several feet below. He
Dodamarg, Maharashtra. Present Day:Something seemed to move in the dark. The thread of her thoughts snapped. Startled, she looked around her and then out of the window. Only the trees swayed in the distance. The moon light flooded the road outside. She felt a strange beckoning. As she started walking downhill, suddenly she saw something shining in the bushes. The ground sloped from here till it met the forest going down fifty thousand feet below. Coming nearer she found it to be a wrist watch. Her heart leapt recognizing her uncle's radium watch! It had an Om symbol painted inside the dial which glowed in the dark. The police hadn't made much effort in searching the place, otherwise such an evidence wouldn't have escaped their notice. But why had Uncle taken the route towards the forest? Did he find any evidence of the book being hidden inside the forest? There was another question which had been bothering her since she met the Acharya. If he had instructed uncle to find the book for
Just before the wrecked vehicle collapsed on the river bed on that ill-fated night - scraping out earth and turning the waters muddy, pairs of hands pulled Arunava and Shivangi away. When a river patrol boat found a woman's scarf and policeman's cap floating in the waters with a broken railing on the bridge, they immediately sent divers down. What god wills no frost can kill. Despite the harrowing experience, Arunava suffered only a few minor fractures and was released from the hospital in a week. Shivangi's life was saved by a miracle though she suffered multiple injuries and had to go through complex surgeries before she could recover. One of her legs was badly affected by the accident. Doctors had implanted steel plates in it and she'd have to use a stick for the rest of her life now. Her face was badly wounded, her eyes spared by a mere inch. Despite plastic surgery, much of her earlier looks couldn't be restored fully and the trauma of the accident left a black mark in her life.
When Arunava reached the state sponsored home for the mentally retarded in Vasant Bihar, riding straight from New Delhi airport, it was already 8:00 PM. The home had closed for visitors and he had a tough time getting inside, despite his credentials. He knew he won't get any help from his boss, so didn't call him. From the beginning he didn't approve of his getting involved in the case. And now after the terrible accident he had grown more cynical. He knew he had to solve it quickly or he'd be taken out of it soon. His boss didn't say it directly, but his penetrating gaze told him he was aware of the turmoil going on in his heart. And Arunava didn't like that. 'Do your job diligently without getting yourself involved personally. You have to get detached emotionally and look at a case from an impartial angle. Only then will you be able to pick up the loose ends'. 'The way to get close to an offender is by trying to think like him without letting ourselves get carried away. It is much
From the position he was in, he could see the bridge clearly. The car was heading towards the railings. He knew what lay ahead. He didn't want to go through the ordeal again. But what was he seeing now? A girl was standing still on the railway tracks. A goods train was rushing in from the Howrah side, the steel girders reverberating with the noise. Like an arrogant devil sporting his monstrosity before a helpless human, the train was closing in upon the girl - ready to devour her from behind. The headlights of the engine were like glowing embers which went for the devil's eyes - illuminating the serpent like track before it. The girl was holding something close to her heart. A Doll? It was only a matter of moments before the girl would get crushed under the wheels. Arunava wanted to run towards the tracks though he knew the accident was inevitable. But why was he unable to move his limbs? The girl looked at the raging river either side of her and started running on the tracks. If only