Suhaag Raat

 

Note: I've included many Hindi words here in this work to add the Indian feeling. Their meaning is as follows:

Suhaag Raat : It is a significant ritual in the life of a newly wed couple in the Indian subcontinent as it refers to the maiden night after marriage between the husband and wife when they go for Consummation for the first time with acceptance of the society.

Fattu : Slang for coward

Sagai, tilak, gathbandhan, phere : rituals which are part of marriage in Hindu tradition.

Almirah : Wardrobe

Maahaul: Ambiance/ Environment

Note: This work is free for your own interpretations

Suhaag Raat, the night of which everybody waits for, was also a special one for Abhay. Each of Abhay's friends knew that Abhay was a peace loving, not so much talkative boy and they were waiting eagerly to know about the story of Abhay's Suhaag raat. But they were not aware, at least they had not expected of such Kaand on Suhaag raat of Abhay.

Yeah, that's true. No member of Das family can forget that night...It all began during the summer of 2014, just a year ago. May 22nd was decided for the wedding night of Abhay. Everyone seemed to be happy; after all it was the wedding of the only son of Das Family. Abhay, 25 years old was a simple looking, with no distinct feature than any other average Indian men, had been called, 'fattu' by his friends since his first day of school when he jumped off on watching a dummy cockroach near his leg. Anyway, all rituals like sagai, tilak, gathbandhan, phere etc. were performed with ease. Now it was time for Suhaag raat. Maahaul was already set, bedroom was well decorated with Rajani Gandha flowers and its sweet aromatic scent brought a pleasant experience in the room. Apart from that, a king size bed was bought specially for the couple, just a few days before the wedding and was set in Abhay's room. A big Almirah with a full size mirror mounted on it was facing the bed, swift and cool air from the cooler was providing some relief from the hot and humid environment. And the moment came, Abhay entered the room and closed the latch just afterwards and stood there for a few seconds looking at the bride. For Abhay, she was looking no less than a princess in red saree who had to descend from heaven only for him. On the wall, behind the bride, 'ABHAY weds Niharika' was well inscribed by glitters on a heart shaped thermocol. Suddenly the emotions of Abhay changed. He started sweating when he stepped towards the bed. His body was shaking of anxiety. On watching this entire scenario, Niharika started blushing.

"So have you planned to spend the whole night coming towards me," Taunted Niharika. Abhay could not reply because his full attention had diverted to a glass of milk sitting on the bedside table.

"That's for you, Abhay ji"

"Hmm" was the only words came out of Abhay's mouth. After drinking milk as he sat on the bed, he felt something hard on his butt. As he touched his back pocket, he recalled the moment when he had to keep the packet of condom reluctantly because Ajay, his best friend insisted and said," Bro, don't say no today..."

It was 4 o'clock in the morning when indistinct chatter started coming from Das family. The electricity had been out and a loud, unfamiliar sound had made to wake up everybody in the house. When everyone came and gathered at the aangan, they noticed that Abhay and Niharika were missing. Ajay, who stayed at Das House after Abhay's request on that night, ran towards the bedroom of Abhay. When no reply came back after shouting few times outside the room, Ajay thought that something wrong was there. After four to five attempts, he broke the door. Smell of Rajani Gandha was still coming very briskly and the back window of the room was open. Blood had spattered on the floor with broken glass pieces under the table. As Ajay came closer to the bed, his legs froze on the floor. Niharika's neck was brutally split with a glass piece and the glass piece was left in the neck. The eyes of the dead body had turned white and a line of blood was coming down her mouth. As Ajay headed towards the door his heart beats stopped. What he saw was gruesome. A body was badly burnt and hanging on the back wall's boundary. It might have burnt when it fell on the boundary wall which had a part of live current passing naked wire hanging and to everyone's surprise nobody had noticed this wire before. The wire might fell on the boundary just on the day of wedding and being the backward side of the house nobody noticed it earlier. Whatever may be the case, as Murphy's Law states, "What can go wrong, will go wrong".

One year has been passed. Nobody lives in the house of Das family because it is considered to be 'haunted'. There is a reason for this also. Soon after the death of newlywed couple, death of the biological parents of Abhay was reported which was declared "homicide" by police. A few days ago, when the uncles and aunts of Abhay planned to leave the house and settle in the nearby town, they died in a road accident. The building has been sealed for police inspection and for CBI inquiry Ajay is called to the main office of CBI. After one hour of inquiry the CBI officer permitted Ajay to go home. In a few days, the officer tried his best to solve the case and wrote what Ajay had told him in different pieces of paper and kept all the pieces on a big cardboard. He starts from the scratch, from the death of the newly wed couple because it was not made clear in the previous investigation. Today the officer started looking at the details and tried to connect the dots.

#1.) Abhay was not allowed to speak frankly in his home.

#2.) Abhay's father never wanted his only son to interact with other boys and girls because he was afraid that, if he plays with other boys he and his career might get spoiled.

#3.) Abhay's mother always instructed his son to stay away from girls in school.

#4.) Abhay avoided to go near women in Melas (public fairs ) because he doubted ( he was told so by his own father as well) every old lady to be Daayan whose main motive is to affect the quality of life of others by black magic.

#5.) Abhay, during his teenage years, used to ask Ajay, "Is kissing bad?" "Is the act of sex bad?", "Does your parents also switch to another channel when any kissing scene appears on television?", "If sex is not bad, then why my ma or baba always ignore the question about making love, every time?","My dad scolds me, he even beat me if I sneak peek into his magazines".

In a few hours the officer prepared a rough sketch of what might have happened on that night of wedding. He submitted his file to his senior. According to him, on Suhaag raat, Abhay was very nervous because he had never seen any girl from so close distance. For an instance, he thought that the girl could be a Daayan, so he planned of nothing but to kill her before she does any harm to him or his family. He had already lost his sanity the moment he saw Niharika. During drinking milk, his hands were shaking due to anxiety and the glass fell on the floor and broke into pieces. Abhay took one sharp piece and slit the throat of Niharika by keeping his other hand on her mouth so that she could not scream loudly. When Abhay saw the blood he got frightened and tried to escape through the window, but he was not aware of the electric wire on which electric current was still passing in high voltage behind the back window. He directly jumped off and fell on the wall which resulted in the burning of the body.