Well that was unexpectedA Chapter by Oindrila DasThe introductory chapter to this bookMy mother had named me
after her best friend .‘Rahul’, I don’t think she is obsessed with anything more
than the utterance of this one word. Unfortunately, the person in question proceeded for the abode of divinity before my birth
leaving me with no chance of a rendezvous with him. Not that I complain for my
mother’s routine accounts of his life was enough to make me feel a cosmic
connection with him. Every night of my childhood
was filled with the adventurous journeys and tales of Rahul and Rai or as I like
to call them ‘The Two musketeers’. Oh, my sincere apologies,
I forgot to introduce myself. I am Rahul, Rahul Chatterjee. Two years have passed
since I officially stepped into adulthood and right now am pursuing the field
of medicine in a reputed college in Mumbai. It’s quite a decent place here but I
miss my mother very much, or rather shall I say those daily narratives of the
mysteries which according to my mother she had “a chance meeting with”. Though
medicine interests me very much, I can’t really compare my passion for writing with
it. It is something which runs in my veins I guess, my biological mother being
an author herself. However, this passion of mine couldn’t have been ignited without
the initiative of my adoptive mother- Dr Rai Chatterjee who sowed the seeds of literature
in me. Anyways, this is one of
the first stories which ma told me during my formative years. Many events of
that age are blurred except the words pronounced by my mother every night. It was the year 1994 and ma
was fresh out of NIMHANS after having completed her Ph.D. Life was going all too
well for her and she had already received an offer to serve as an assistant
professor in one of the reputed colleges under University of Delhi. Her tenure started
in two months and in that break, she had decided to spend some time with an aunt
of hers in Calcutta. Her aunt, my grandmother lived in the heart of Calcutta possessing
a huge bungalow. A widow then and now deceased,
she had rented out many rooms of her dwelling which ensured her a sustained
income along with the wealth she already owned. She herself lived in the ground
floor, age and arthritis being the shackles of her curiosity to probe more about
the lives of her tenants. The place where grandma
stayed however had its own dark secret. During the daytime the, her neighbourhood
was as pleasant as a rose garden but every rose has its thorns and these thorns
morphed into tentacles of a monster as soon as the sun went down the horizon. Every
now and then someone from her neighbourhood or from the area around it was found
attacked or murdered. Grandma however used to remain unfazed by these incidents,
having being habituated with them for more than a decade. My mother also strangely
wasn’t much bothered with the condition of the neighbourhood and with utmost
zeal enjoyed the company of her aunt. Within a few days’ time ma
had made herself acquainted with and had won the hearts of all the tenants of who
lived in the house. The tenants lived in harmony with one another and every evening
sat down to chit chat and play Ludo or chess. One of them was Ashwin babu who
considered himself a champion of chess but oddly every day lost to ma in a game
of the same. However, ma liked spending a lot of her time with the homeopathic doctor-
Naren Biswas who with his knowledge and wit always kept her engaged. He had a
long queue of patients everyday waiting to be treated with the miracles of homeopathy
and ma sort of became his assistant for a while. However, this routine of
hers was pleasantly interrupted with the coming of a certain person whom she had
not seen in the last two years and surely didn’t expect to see then.As usual ma
was having a nice chat with grandma accompanied by Naren Biswas when one of the
servants informed of a visitor. Grandma told him to usher the visitor in the room
and soon enough a tall man with a quite handsome face and equally impressive
physique entered the room. “Rahul” was all what ma
could say widening her eyes. The person in question gave “his endearing smile”
as ma always told me and went ahead and touched the feet of grandma. Grandma was nearly in
tears. It had been a while since she had seen this boy whom she considered no
less than her own. But he was no longer a boy but rather now was a well-qualified
neuro surgeon .Dr Naren was the only one who sat there with an uncertain smile
on his face and after a few moments of contemplation left the scene , for the family
to have some time alone. As ma had recalled there was
pin drop silence in the room as she refused to look at her childhood best friend
while he resolutely eyed her. The silence was broken by grandma. “Rahul, you wretched boy.
For two years not a single letter or a phone call did I receive from you. Is
this how much I meant to you??” she complained with a hint of light mock in her
voice. “Well mausi, you know how
busy I was with my studies and career. I …. Rahul started but ma cut him in
between “Yes so much busy that we all had paled into the oblivion” she taunted him. “Its not completely my mistake
now is it?? Even you could have written to me first but there wasn’t an
initiative from your side also” Rahul replied back calmly. Ma heaved a sigh,
got up and left the room. Grandma stifled a laugh and asked the one of her servants
to show dad his room. It came as a surprise to both
of themwhen they found their rooms were adjoining each other with a small door
connecting them. How and when mom and Rahul reconciled, I have no clue for ma had
left out that detail ,but from the next morning they both started acting the
way they were for nearly the past 20 years, obviously excluding those two years
when her best friend was away. Rahul
like ma also gained the warmth of all the tenants , however our homeopathic
doctor did have some reservations with him. Rahul didn’t mind it at all,
attributing the cold vibes to the natural enmity between allopathy and homeopathy. A
few days later unfortunately things took turn for the worse, not in the house
but rather outside it, on the road. A man was found murdered right opposite to grandma’s
house. © 2020 Oindrila DasAuthor's Note
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StatsAuthorOindrila DasGurugram, Haryana, IndiaAboutI am passionate about psychology and literature. more..Writing
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