“ I know papa, but I’m not feeling well,how can you send me back in such a condition? Maa..., what should I do?”
Anji looked at her mother with very kind , innocent and sympathetic eyes. Papa knew why Anji wanted to stay longer . So before Maa would start her emotional drama, Papa declared,
“Fine. You are staying! But not here. There’s too much dust here, besides there’s no Air conditioning. You should probably stay at our flat which is 2 hours drive from here. You can definitely travel for 2 hours Anji!”
“I’m staying here papa.” She declared in a firm, unemotional tone with a straight look at her father. Her tone was so stoic and dry, that it shocked everyone present in the room as to how a girl looking as sweet as Anji talk in a voice like that. The voice did not sound as if it belonged to her, it came from somewhere else.
“What did you say?” Papa thought he was mistaken about what he just heard.
“I said I’m staying. I’m staying in my house and my village till I want to. Nobody can force me out of here.”
The father and the daughter kept looking at each other for several moments. Shanker realized for the very 1st time that his daughter had changed...and it wasn’t the kind of change that comes with normal ageing....it was different, it was that which he feared, always. It was the growth that was predicted of his daughter....but how? He wondered!
“Nobody can change the destiny Mr.Shankar!” Shankar remembered the words of the wise man.
“No.” Shankar had declared, “I will not let this happen to my daughter!”
“Mr. Shankar, why do you feel something wrong or bad will happen to your daughter?? Her stars nowhere predict pain or suffering to her! Your daughter will be fine.”
Shankar shook himself out of his reverie. He looked harder at Anji who was still looking at him, who was challenging him- head front. Shankar turned to look at his wife, “Pack her bags, I've had enough of her already! we are leaving right now. And I want to see who can stop me.” He left the room in a fury, Anjali heard him calling out to their driver, giving instructions to prepare for departure immediately.
Next moment, Anji got out of bed swiftly,
“What are you doing Anji?” Aunt Sarita asked worried, as just a couple of minutes back Anji could hardly stand on her feet.
“I’m getting ready, you must have heard what father said. His word is final for us, isn’t it maa?”
The stress on “Father” was prominent. Anji had never called her father anything other than papa.
“I need to change. Can I have some privacy?”
“Maybe I should stay. You are not well anyway.” Maa offered help.
“Do I look like I need help?”
Maa left the room. She had no say in the house. Not that the other’s in the house ever stopped her from speaking, but she could never understand what the ego and the attitude was for? Why exercise control over another being? Why act like a king? Why the aggression? These questions were beyond her understanding. She let her husband and her daughter live the way they wanted as long as she got to live the way she wanted.
15 minutes later when maa knocked on the door, the room was empty. Anji was gone. All her colourful clothes lay on the bed. There was no note, only the room window stood open.
Maa could hardly breathe at the site, she weakly ran to the window which was on the 1st floor of the haveli. Right down from the window was rocky ground that stretched back into the thick dark forest. There was absolutely no sign of her...
( To be continued......)
The Village Witch Part 6
Hey wow!! ..I loved the way story is going...the ending of this part has raised too much of interest …. Looking forward of next part …Ending reminds of Twilight movie where vampire always go in deep forest for hunting!!
ReplyDeleteI really want to appreciate the way you portray women characters in your stories...They always are powerful ...doesn’t matter if they on good or bad side…All of them have fire in them which makes them extraordinary.:)
Hey thanx Mukta.
ReplyDeleteI believe in writing about women who have fire in them, rest are not worth my mention ;-)
The story's getting so interesting with each and every part. But one sincere request: Please try to finish it soon coz as much as I enjoy reading them, all these scary thoughts haunt me when I go to bed every night :-)!
ReplyDeleteConsider this: I sleep alone in my room, and the heat makes it impossible to sleep peacefully, and the storyline keeps making rounds in my head through d day and d night......Sharvani told me d other day that I screamed in my sleep...
ReplyDeleteI think the story is devouring me!! Yikes!!:-(
Goa is the best place to write this story. Our house is huge like the haveli and almost every night there is no current for an hour or two, that's when I start writing the parts, the darkness and the eerie silence helps in building up the ambience and for the past 2 nights, there wasn't anybody at home to give me company, I heard voices calling me and I actually responded thinking it's my dad or mom but there was no-one.
ReplyDelete