Goodbye... Till We Meet Again

GOOD BYE... TILL WE MEET AGAIN

It was 10^th August,, 2013. She was a part of the crowd and he was the reason behind the accumulation of the crowd.

Rohana was an amateur painter. She loved designing clothes,  it was her hobby. People visiting her house, would praise her pieces of work. But little did Rohana care about the appreciations that she gained from her kith and kin. Painting was not her primary interest. Most of her interest lied in necromancy. Muttering mysterious incantations, visiting cemeteries in vicinity, searching for online prices of ouija boards, were her daily activities. She lived in seclusion in order to focus entirely on life after death. She took utmost care of her ouija board and considered it as sacred. Whenever she decided to practice necromancy, she would take her ouija board out of her closet, clean it, place quartz crystals around, light white candles to attract good energy, burn lavender incense to attract good spirits, sprinkle rosewater over the board while uttering a simple protective prayer, “I CLEAR THIS PLACE OF ALL NEGATIVITY, I CLEAR THIS SPACE OF THE ENERGY OF THE PEOPLE OR THINGS THAT HAVE NO PURPOSE IN THIS HOUSEHOLD. I ASK THAT THIS CLEARING BE GENTLE, AND THAT OF ALL OF THIS ENERGY BE RETURNED TO ITS SOURCE.” Apart from her interest in the occult, Rohana took keen interest in dead young men. The reason behind her interest was, she found them charming, who have had divine eyes, pious smile and pacifying personality.

              Rohana was a beautiful girl of 20 years. She was a little fat, with long & straight hair lying up to her waist. Reticent Rohana, analysing her behaviour& nature, decided to take vow of celibacy. She was never attracted to any living boy, but boys, on Facebook, always tried to seek her attention. Many of them would ask her about her marital status, her well-being, also about keeping a rendezvous with them. Least did she care about them. They seemed to be mere nuisance to her. She took keen interest in reading the obituary section of the newspaper, finding out names of dead boys and finding their profiles out on Facebook.But this does not mean that she was a bad person. She had a fragile heart which went out to those who were dead.

              Depressed by her behaviour, her parents decided to admit her in an art institution. In this way, she would remain engaged in a healthy activity, which would keep her away from the occult. This would also help her polish her skills and turn her into an experienced and trained designer.

                  Days passed, she became a student of one of the best art institutes of the city. Days passed; impressed by her skills & physical appearance, a boy named Karna started liking her. Karna was a supercilious, opulent boy of 24 years. He had earned a degree on medicine previously. Studying medical science was absolutely his parents’ decision. He was a great artist and designing was his passion. He attempted to be a designer, but lacked the support of his family. Karna had an impressive physique. He was a tall and fair man with six packs. He would stare at Rohana and also try to impress her, but she bothered least about him. With the passage of time, his love for her grew stronger. He even tried talking to her parents and her parents like him too, but Rohana considered him as a friend and helpful classmate. They successfully completed the first semester & it was time to step into the studies of second semester. New classes, one new subject, one new professor. They had a subject named ‘Fashion Illustration’ and it was told to be taught by a young man called ‘Ruhan Vaid’, popularly known as ‘RV’.

The first class of 2^nd semester started on 10^th January, 2012. All the students gathered in the classroom, much excited to learn the new subject. Bell rang, it was 9.30 A.M., RV entered the class. He was a young man of 24 years of age.An avant grade painter, not only that, but also a good samaritan, eager to help out the poor & pupils. His family consisted of four members- his parents, his sister and he. Belonging from a middle class family, he was a person and painter par excellence. He looked good, a tall man of 5 feet and 11 inches, with beard and moustache on his face. He preferred wearing a pair of rimless spectacles. The debonair personality charmed most of the ladies of the class. Rv was a teetotaller. In spite of being a good looking man, he was not a coquet. He had great teaching skill, and a charming behaviour. Though he was a cynosure of most women of most women in the class, coy Rohana caught his eyes. Though this fact remained hidden from all other pupils of the class, Karna had a hunch that prof. RV had an eye on Rohana. It would be wrong to say that Rohana liked RV, but she admired his charm.

Rv& Karna gradually became friends. 6^th June, 2012, it was time for them to bid goodbye to the college. They had their farewell party in which pupils & professors were all invited. The bond between Rv& Karna became so much strong that they promised to stay in touch with each other till their last breath. Rv, finally, confessed his love for Rohana to Karna, without knowing that Karna was madly in love with her. Karna, however, digested the statement with ease.RV met Rohana &smilingly said, “STAY BLESSED! GOODBYE.... TILL WE MEET AGAIN.” He had a gut feeling that they would meet again. Party came to an end. They departed.

Days passed, Rohana recuperated much. She had almost overcome the habit of reading obituaries , neither did she practice necromancy. The last time that  she practiced it was when she direly wanted to meet a nice spirit. Nothing seemed to happen. Though he felt that occult was no serious subject, she never felt connected to living boys. It might happen that she could leave back her past habits, but could not adapt to the new ones. Karna paid regular visit to their home, but even then she never felt attracted to him. It was because of her parents’ fetish for having a doctor as son-in-law& Karna’s love that she was hauled to Karna’s life.

                              The day was 10^th August, 2012, time was 11.30, she was going through her news feed on Facebook, when she received a friend request from somebody she knew. She clicked on the name of the person. To her shock, she found that it was none other than the popular professor of her institute- RV. She readily accepted it. Also, she felt delighted to get connected to RV.

“HI! I NEVER THOUGH THAT YOU WOULD REMEMBER ME” typed Rohana.

“I CAN NEVER FORGET YOU. YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD ARTIST AFTER ALL. I HAD ALWAYS ADMIRED YOU IN COLLEGE & STILL DO THE SAME.” typed RV. For the first time, Rohana felt a strong attraction for a living boy. They exchanged their phone numbers. RV signed up on Facebook on that very day, rather an hour ago. Out of curiosity, when he was asked about it, he replied that he had deactivated his original account in which he had more than 4000 friends because he wanted to live away from the boisterous crowd and concentrate only on her. The answer mesmerised her. Day after day, they talked their hearts out over the phone. Their bond grew stringer day by day. RV was her secret which she did not share with anyone, neither with parents, nor with Karna. They even went to rendezvous with each other. Every time they met, RV asked her to visit a lonely place for he preferred silence over cacophony. Eliot beach , near Chennai, was their trysting place. Whenever she would go out with him, the people in the vicinity would stare at them. Some would even smile. Rohana was never enraged by all those activities. Rather she felt proud that men did smile at her because she was pretty & in the case of women, they would find RV a charming lover. In the meanwhile, Karna started feeling left out. She would never  speak to Karna about RV, but to RV, she would share each and every detail about Karna. On hearing the name of Karna, RV would frown. She thought that it might be because Karna & RV both loved her & so RV considered him as his rival.

              11 months passed,  Rohana & RV were madly in love with each other, she always visualised her life with RV. On the other hand, Karna, feeling left out, decided to fix his engagement with Rohana. He would also pay regular visit to her house to have words with her parents regarding the matter. He went fierce, putting up with ignorance since quite a long time. All he wanted was to capture her & engage in copulation with her.When Rohana came to know about Karna’s decision from her parents, she was left devastated. Her parents were serious about weaving her life into that of Karna’s. She did not know what to say & do. The only person with whom she could share her feelings was RV. The next morning, she rushed to the beach & called RV out there. When RV reached there, Rohana placed her head on his shoulders & cried her heart out. She kept on crying. When asked about the problem, she replied that her engagement would take place and she was helpless. She had tried convincing Karna about the postponement of their engagement, but Karna was stubborn. She also tried telling Karna about the lack of feelings for him, in her heart, but his behaviour was churlish and he was headstrong about their engagement. This time, RV did not frown, rather he grew fierce. Rohana asked RV to accompany her to her house and reveal about their relationship to her parents, but RV turned down the offer. No! Not because he was a coward or had been playing with her feelings, but he had a strong reason to say ‘NO’. When asked about the reason, he replied, “JUST ONCE! LET ME PROVE MY INNOCENCE AND KARNA’S ROUGISHNESS! TRUST ME, I AM INNOCENT WHILE HE IS A DEVIL.” Flabbergasted by his answer, Rohana asked him about the matter. Before leaving college, she knew that both RV and Karna became good friends as they were of the same age. After that, she was oblivious of what took place between them. “HE CALLED ME UP ONE NIGHT & ASKED TO VISIT HIS MANSION. HE TOLD ME THAT HE WAS FEELING LONELY & BADLY NEEDED A COMPANION. I AGREED TO PAY HIM A VISIT. AS I ENTERED HIS MANSION, TO MY UTTER SHOCK, HE WAS STANDING WITH AN IRON ROD IN HIS HAND & BEHAVED LIKE A FOE WITH ME. HE INTOXICATED ME BY FORCEFULLY POURING HARD DRINKS IN MY MOUTH. HE THEN DRAGGED ME TO THE ROOF. I WAS FEELING DROWSY. HE WAS CONSTANTLY ACCUSING ME OF HAVING A CARNAL MIND, WHICH ALWAYS WANTS TO DERIVE SENSUAL PLEASURE FROM YOU, WHICH OBVIOUSLY I DID NOT HAVE. WHEN I TRIED TO STOP HIM FROM TALKING ABSURD, HE GRABBED ME BY THE COLLAR OF MY SHIRT, PUNCHED ME, BROKE MY WRIST WATCH, WHICH I WOULD NEVER KEEP AWAY FROM MY BODY & PARTICULARLY FROM MY WRIST, AND THREW THAT IN AN EARTHEN POT. AS A PROOF, YOU MAY EVEN VISIT HIS ROOF AND FIND MY WATCH LYING IN THE 4^TH POT FROM THE RIGHT HAND SIDE, IN WHICH HE HAS GROWN AN ALOE VERA PLANT. IF YOU DO NOT FIND IT IMMEDIATELY ON THE SURFACE, TRY DIGGING A HOLE IN THE SOIL, YOU CAN EASILY FIND IT & THEN ASK THE RASCAL ABOUT ME. THAT NIGHT, I SOMEHOW MANAGED TO ESCAPE”,  saying this, RV left. He seemed to be wheezing.

                    As directed by him, Rohana, the next afternoon, pursued Karna to take him to his home. “I want to explore my future residence.” Said she to Karna. Delighted by her curiosity in him, he took her to his home. There, after spending an hour with him, she asked him to allow her to go to the roof. “I want to feel the fresh air, I want to see how much compatible shall I be in this mansion. I need to spend a little time with myself. I want to enjoy my own company”, she said. Without doubting her & Karna let her go to the roof. As soon as she reached the roof, she began to search for RV’s watch. As told by RV, she went to the 4^th pot from the right hand side, on which aloe vera was grown, and started digging a hole in the soil, till she found out the watch. No sooner than she found out the watch, than she found RV and Karna standing before her. She called them out by their names, but, shockingly, both could not hear her. Then the incident that took place before her, made her doubt her own eyes. She could see Karna dragging her love, RV, to one corner of the roof. “YOU HAVE CARNAL DESIRE. YOU WANT TO MAKE OUT WITH ROHANA”, Shouted Karna to RV while punching his face. Rohana trued to prevent Karna from hitting RV, but they could neither feel nor hear her. “NO, I AM NOT. I LOVE HER FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY SOUL AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO EVEN AFTER DEATH”, replied RV while panting.“DEATH? A GOOD REMINDER FROM YOUR END. YESTERDAY, I WAS THINKING OF KILLING YOU. LET ME EXECUTE MY PLAN TODAY”, shouted Karna with a heinous smile on his face. RV’s nose was bleeding. He could hardly get up. Karna caught him by the collar of his jacket & picked him up from the floor. He punched him again, took off his wrist watch, which he inherited from his grandfather, broke it down & threw it into an earthen pot. Grabbed his neck & pushed him on the floor of the roof. RV felt helpless. Karna then picked up an iron rod from another corner of the roof& battered on RV’s head. He continued to beat him, till he breathed his last.

                         Rohana shouted out loud, screamed out of fear, she was shattered. She wanted to rescue RV, but she could not. She ran down the stairs. To her shock, she found Karna sitting peacefully on the couch in his drawing room. Karna was shocked to find her in a devastated state. When he went forward to soothe her, she thrashed him hardly on his face. “YOU ARE A BLOODY MURDERER! YOU HAVE KILLED RV. DO NOT EVEN TRY TO BREAK INTO MY LIFE. RV, MY RV.... I SHALL FILE A COMPLAINT AGAINST YOU, FILTHY MAN”, cried Rohana. Karna, shocked by her behaviour, and doubting that something must have happened on the roof, dragged her to the roof. Surprisingly, nothing was there! Rohana was in utter shock, “I FOUND HIS WATCH, OUT HERE. I FOUND YOU MURDERING HIM, OUT HERE. LOOK, I HAVE HIS WATCH WITH ME, I TALKED TO HIM YESTERDAY, HE TOLD ME HOW HEINOUS YOU ARE”, Rohana screamed while crying. “HOW CAN HE TALK TO YOU YESTERDAY? HE HAS LEFT US A YEAR BACK, ON 10^TH AUGUST, 2012!”, exclaimed Karna. “NO! I HAVE HIS PHONE NUMBER.HE IS EVEN MY FACEBOOK FRIEND. WAIT, I SHALL CALL HIM UP”, said Rohana, while dialling hisphone number. A voice from the other end said, “THE NUMBER YOU ARE TRYING TO CALL, IS CURRENTLY SWITCHED OFF.” Desperately trying to prove RV’s existence, she signed in her Facebook account. Alas! There she could not find any message of RV. “RUHAN VAID, UNDER THE PSEUDONYM OF RV HAD SENT ME FRIEND REQUEST ON 10^TH OF AUGUST, 2012. I REMEMBER THE TIME, IT WAS 11.30 P.M”, cried Rohana. “HOW CAN HE SEND YOU FRIEND REQUEST ON 11.30 WHEN THE POLICE DECLARED THAT THEY RECOVERED HIS BODY FROM THE HIGHWAY AT 11.30 P.M. AND ACCORDING TO THEM, HE PASSED AWAY AN HOUR BEFORE, NEAR 10.30 !” Exclaimed Karna. Rohana was now left numb. “MOREOVER, HE IS STILL MY FACEBOOK FRIEND, AND ON FACEBOOK, HIS NAME IS RUHAN VAID, WHICH WAS HIS ACTUAL NAME. HE DID NOT CREATE ANY ACCOUNT USING THE INITIALS OF HIS NAME & SURNAME. LET ME SHOW YOU HIS PROFILE”, Karna continued to speak while signing in Facebook. He showed her Ruhan’s timeline, on which his friends had posted several condolence messages, on 11^th& 12^th August, 2012, “HEARTFELT CONDOLENCES TO YOUR FAMILY, REST IN PEACE, RV.” For a moment, she stood still; a pouch of cold blood ran down her spine. After regaining her consciousness, she could visualise each & every detail like a slide show. Rohana remembered that the last time she tried necromancy, she seriously tried to talk to a nice spirit, but the process was left incomplete. Then she received a friend request from RV, just after his death. She realised the reason behind RV fixing rendezvous with her by the side of a lonely sea-shore. She realised that people who giggled at her, did not find her beautiful but lunatic, who went on talking to herself, as RV was visible only to her. She realised the reason behind RV’s turning down her offer to visit her parents. She could then comprehend the entire incident. She left Karna’s mansion without saying a single word. Karna was in awe. He could not understand how she got to know the entire incident.He, after murdering Ruhan, lifted his cadaver from the floor, put him inside the boot of his car, drove to a highway, and threw his body away in a dark forest, back in 2012.

Rohana walked away from his house. After an hour or two, Karna realised that the secret which he kept aside from the world, might get disclosed if he failed to stop Rohana from opening up. Even the police could get no trace of the murdered of Ruhan. Karna decided to chase Rohana & even kill her, but could not find her on the way in which she went.

Rohana could not sleep the entire night. In the morning, when she was about to leave for the market, the telephone in her drawing room, rang up. Her father took up the call& after putting the receiver down,, cried aloud, “KARNA’S PARENTS ARE SAYING THAT HE IS NO MORE. THE POLICE RECOVERED HIS BODY FROM THE DARK FOREST BY THE SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY, AROUND 7.30P.M. THEY COULD FIND A DEEP CUTON HIS HEAD AS IF SOMEONE HAS HIT HIM VIGOROUSLY WITH AN IRON ROD. REPORT SAYS THAT HE WAS INTOXICATED.” Rohana was awestruck. Last evening when she left his house, he was not drunk, and moreover who would beat him to death just like he had beat Ruhan to death? Also, Karna’s body was found in exactly the same location from where, according to him, the police recovered Ruhan’s cadaver.  Several questions showed up in her mind to which she could not answer logically.

They rushed to the police station, then to the morgue, then to Karna’s house where his body was brought & his relatives gathered. From there, his cadaver was taken to the nearest crematorium, where his last rites were being performed. Rohana felt extremely bad for both Karna & Ruhan.

                        The next morning she got a call from Ruhan’s number. She dared to pick up the call after it rang for a few seconds. She expected a ghostly voice from the other end, but no, it was Ruhan’s mother. “HELLO ROHANA! RUHAN’S MOTHER HERE. RUHAN ALWAYS LOVED YOU, MY CHILD. ON 10^THOF AUGUST, ON THE COMPLETION OF A YEAR OF HIS DEATH, WE HAVE ORGANISED HIS REMEMBERANCE EVENT. WE WANT TO INVITE YOU. YOU CAN READ THE OBITUARY SECTION OF TODAY’S NEWSPAPER”, said Ruhan’s mother. Rohana confirmed that she would attend the ceremony. Ruhan’s mother, thanking her, put down the receiver. After a long, Rohana turned over the obituary page of the newspaper. The words on the newspaper seemed to swim before her wet eyes.

                        It was 10^th of August, 2013. She was a part of the crowd & he was the reason behind the accumulation of the crowd. Many of Ruhan’s relatives gathered in the ceremony. She was left into tears. After the ceremony, she decided to stay at Ruhan’s place.Her life went through a number of vicissitudes in just a few days. At night, she felt sleepless. Disturbed by her mental state, she decided to visit the drawing room where a large portrait of Ruhan hung on the wall. To feel light, she kept on crying & talking her heart out to the portrait. She continued to talk for hours, till suddenly, she found a shadow on the portrait of Ruhan. She turned back in fear. It was Ruhan himself. “YOU HAVE LIBERATED ME FROM THIS WORLD.THEY HAD BURNT MY BODY BUT I REMAINED....I WAS SHACKLED TILL I AVENGED MY MURDER, CONVEYED MY LOVE TO YOU& SAVED YOUR LIFE FROM BEING TORTURED BY A ROGUE. NOW IT IS TIME FOR ME TO EXPLORE A NEW WORLD, WHICH IS MILES AWAY FROM THIS WORLD. IT IS THE WORLD OF THE LORD. STAY BLESSED, GOODBYE... TILL WE MEET AGGAIN”, saying this, Ruhan travelled his last journey from the world to Heaven.