His Last Wish - 4

               Chapter 4

                           The Sadhu

Satish stared at his brother for 5 minutes. The silence broke when bhabi came with a plate full of 'puri and sabzi'. "Here.. please help yourselves", said bhabi. "Look bhaiya.. dad sent me a letter before he died. I got it around a month back. It had took me a long time to make myself ready to come back here. However, in the letter he had mentioned about this girl , Bimla and told me she knows his last wish. Bhaiya I have to talk to her. May be dad wanted me to help her", stopped Satish with a sigh.

                             " Wait .. what did you just say .. you received dad s letter 1 month back? ", asked his brother and looked confused. Satish only nodded his head as a reply to his brother's question. Suresh said, " Well then some one must have played a prank on you . Look Satish .. you had left all of a sudden .. and .. we did not look for you after that. Dad used to read your articles in the newspaper. We all knew that you have achieved your aim but .. I did not have your address. So, when dad died there was no way I could communicate with you".

                       Satish did not say anything else. He understood that there was something wrong. If Suresh did not know about the letter and his address then how did he happen to get it? Who posted the letter to him? He decided to find out himself. He left his house and went to the nearby shop. "Give me a cup of tea", said Satish. The shopkeeper saw him and started talking to him. Birju was working in this tea stall from his childhood. He told a lot of things to Satish. The village has changed a lot and now there is electricity, water lines in the houses, toilets, etc. However, some things haven't changed. Champa s death was very mysterious. No one knew why she committed suicide.

                   "What happened to Champa s family? ", asked Satish. Birju told him that her mother could not take the trauma and died from fever few days after champa and her father was missing since that day. Their house was later occupied by his brother who s son had married Bimla s mother. " That means Bimla belongs to Champa s family", said Satish.

                         He took Bimla s address from Birju and headed home. On the way he had to cross the river.When he came to the river bank he felt someone was looking at him. When he looked back he saw him for the first time. Long knotted hair till knees, shabby dhoti and bare hairy body and most importantly his eyes were fiery red and had a fierce look. He was smiling sarcastically at Satish.

                          He almost ran into a boatman while looking at that sadhu. Anyway, he came back home and spent the rest of the day thinking about Bimla. Today he realised how much his father loved him. He was such a great man. It was so unfortunate that he never kept in contact with him just because of his ego but still at the time of crisis his father had remembered him.

                            He saw that night may be in a dream .. his father.. so calm and vibrant face.. he was smiling and telling him, " Satish, please save Bimla. Son, I have always loved you. You were always missed by me". He was looking at his father and went and tried to run into his arms but before that he vanished in thin air. " Father.. where are you.. please tell me what to do? Show me way..", he started crying aloud.

                             Suddenly, he heard noise of someone walking over dry leaves. He looked out through the window and could hear a soft growl. Satish went out of his room very slowly and opened the front door. His heart was racing .. he started looking here and there."Hooooooohoooo .. ahhhhhha ..uuuuummmmummm.. ummm.. hooo hooo... ", the sound was clear.

                               Somewhere nearby a dog was howling and screaching owl was lurking around a bush. Satish gathered all his courage and shouted, " Bi.... Bimla.. come here .. where are you? Why are you not facing me? I want to talk to you .. please let me help you.. I know that you are sick..".

                         "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........ you fool! I want revenge .. I want revenge.. ahhhhhhhhh...haaahaah.. I .. I am not Bimla.. ha ..ha..ahhhhhhhhaaaaahhhhhhaaaaahhaaa", she kept on howling and threw a stone at him. Satish moved back to protect himself. As she stepped forward he saw her face. Her face was dusty, lips were cracked, forehead was bleeding and .. and.. her eyes.. they were white.. they seemed empty and pitch white. Satish was extremely nervous and last thing he heard before he fainted was, "Go .. tell them .. tell them that .. Champa is back! haaaaa.. haaaaa.. haaaaa..haa.."

                        " Oh my my .. Satish bhaiya.. o bhaiya .. o .. get up ..", said the man. Satish felt a little pain in his head. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by a crowd. " How did you come here?", said Birju. He was not in a position to talk. " Am fine.. please take me inside", he said.

                          Suresh came into the room and closed the door, " Are you ok? Have you lost it? Do you think this is your city where you can go wherever whenever.. I told you already! Do you not understand my warning? She is mentally sick .. ok! You can do nothing! This time because of you she will be in trouble." " Bhaiya .. please.. I have been told by dad to help her .. I have to help Bimla .. you are not understanding that she knows dad s last wish.. you dont know how important this is for me.. besides.. I .. I went out.. to see the beauty of night and stumbled across a stone and fell. I .. I dint see anyone", lied Satish.

                       " Fine.. lets talk now.. look Satish.. I am going to book your tickets now.. your going to leave today in the evening .. enough of dad thing now.. I know you loved him and God knows who had sent you that letter. A person has died 8 months ago then you receive a letter from him , like around one month back is ridiculous! Please Satish that girl has to be taken to the hospital. We are trying to help her parents as well. Dont complicate things.. as it is.. she is lot troubled!", his brother stopped.

                         " No.. no.. dont treat me like a kid! I have told you what I want .. you dont want me to look into this staying at your place.. then fine.. Il leave the house today and find refuge somewhere else.. You have never supported me. This protective nature is something I hate! Something is terribly wrong with all this. I promise you that I will make sure Bimla leads a normal life soon. A thirteen year old girl needs to have a life. She must be in so much pain. Have you ever tried to find out what was going on with her. You say she s ill! Then take her to the hospital now.. what are you waiting for.. You know what .. you can only give fake assurances thats what you have been doing all the time. You said you didnot know my address right! Then .. you haven't ever read any of my articles carefully. I think that there is a personal computer in your house in your room and my email id is always mentioned below my writings. In my books too I have the back page printed with my email in bold letters. Plus I have facebook account and fan page too. I think that you have a facebook account or atleast could have contacted via email. You actually never wanted me to see him for the last time. You hated me always and were jealous! ".

                            Satish got up from bed packed his bag and said, " goodbye big brother .. hope we never meet again!" and left. Suresh was in a shock and did not say anything. That was a bad fight but now Satish had to think where to go. He went to Birju and told that he wanted to stay with him for a few days. He had previously thought of Kunal but he could not remember his address.

                            Anyway, as soon as he checked into Birju s place he kept his bag and went out. He had got Bimla s address from Birju already so he went to meet her. It was a small house with two rooms and an open coridoor. They treated him very well. He asked about the matter with Bimla. They told him that she was a normal girl who used to play around and do house work. They had even sent her to school and was a very lively child. When she was born they had shown her to some astrologer as the custom of knowing the kundali of a new born goes. " Pandit ji had said .. she was a blessed child.. she would be the cause of destruction of all evil", sighed her mother and started weeping.

                       " What to do Satish? Who knew she would get possessed? I dont know who she has wronged so much? Oneday, when she returned from school and went to play .. she did not come back. We went looking for her everywhere. Then at the morning around four found her near the river bank. She was covered with mud. We took her home and gave her food. She told she wanted to sleep. Then at night she would get up and go out.. then again someone would find her near the river bank. The night she goes out an animal is lost from the village. Cows, goats, chicken, cats, dogs .. it can be anything. The next day only some bones are found lying here and there.

                       She stopped to breathe, " This has been going on frequently.. initially people didn't notice but last month, an old wise man in village had seen her eating raw animal flesh near the river bank at night. He was horrified by the sight and came with some people to threaten us. We then started to tie an animal near the house, maybe a goat or chicken so that she does not feed on the animals of the village and people don't complain. But all in vain". Satish asked her, " why?". " Since last week she stopped eating the animals that were tied near our house. In the morning we would wake up and see that she has not eaten it. She would be found eating random animals maybe she was not satisfied with goat or chicken meat", said Bimla's mother.

                      " Why didn't you all lock her up in the room and tie her up or do something to prevent her from going out at night", said Satish. " No .. she is very strong .. last time her father and I tried to stop her but she pushed us aside in one go. We are afraid of her. Plus we had even tried to lock her up but the door would open no matter how well we have locked it", ended Sarju.

                          " Did you take her to the doctor? What did he say? ", asked Satish. " Daktar babu said we have to take her to the city and get her treated. We tried to do that but every time we planned to take her she would start throwing everything in the house and shout. No one wants to help. She has become very weak. They have boycotted her. Her friends don't play with her, she has been thrown out of school, wherever she goes people come to beat her. They have made our lives hell".

                             "Hmm.. ok .. can I just talk to her?", said Satish. " No .. she is sleeping.. don't ask her anything please.. I don't know what is written in her fate but she is very traumatized by all this", she folded her hands infront of him. " Dont worry didi .. I will see what I could do.. I promise you that I won't let anything happen to her", as Satish spoke he saw through the window the little girl sleeping.. her face was pale, huge dark circles around those two beautiful big eyes. He felt pain and sorrow for the first time for her. He has to do something quickly or else she would die. He finally decided to confront the sadhu. Let's see what he had to tell him.