Honour

A man named Rumandu Ramshaa is lying on the bare floor of a room while holding his forehead tightly. A thing which comes to notice immediately about Rumandu is that he is bald on the left side of his head while he has a good patch of hair on the right.

Anyway, there’s a woman in the room too. She is sitting beside the room’s door and is crying uncontrollably. She is Rumandu’s wife, Maanya.

Maanya says to Rumandu without looking at him, ‘I am leaving then.’

Rumandu straightway remarks, ‘Gom, Goma, Gom, Goma Gam Spider, Nom, Noma, Nom, Noma Nam Spider.’

This reaction prompts Maanya to sob with even further fervour. She’s not hiding her screams now. She cries like she wants the earth to open up and subsume her. After minutes of this, she gets up, goes up to Rumandu, gets down on her knees and slaps him as hard as she can. Rumandu begins his screaming now.

Maanya picks up her bag and leaves. Rumandu screams her name and begs her to come back but it’s clear to him that his wife is not returning now.

---

The next day, Rumandu Ramshaa receives a letter. The letter is from the Indian Army’s human resources division.

The letter says that Rumandu’s pension is being decreased by 30% from Rs. 10,000 per month to Rs. 7,000 per month. The reason quoted is that the Indian government is courting heavy losses due to the war they fought with Nepal and so they are now forced to reduce pensions of veterans and make similar cuts to keep the country going.

Upon reading this, Rumandu’s eyes turn red with blood and he crumbles the letter and eats it.

---

It’s been five months since the letter came. Rumandu is lying flat on the floor of a flat in Dariya Ganj, Delhi. Rumandu is lost in his thoughts, staring at the air with his eyes spread wide apart.

In the canvas of the air, Rumandu is remembering scenes of the war - Worn-torn bodies of soldiers, body parts lying on the ground, rivers of blood flowing, mountains of dead bodies…

And then, Rumandu spots an enemy soldier having forced intercourse with a half-dead soldier of his army. Upon seeing this, Rumandu runs as fast as he can.

He keeps on running while his fellow soldiers calls his name, asks him for help, pleads to him for his life. Rumandu keeps on running and running and running…

Rumandu wakes up from his memories and goes to another room of his flat. There’s a girl there, Komal who is tied and taped. Komal is young, in her early twenties. Rumandu unbuckles his pants quickly.

Komal is almost unconscious when Rumandu rapes her. Throughout the entire episode, Komal just blankly stares at the room’s ceiling.

After the rape, Rumandu exits and locks the apartment. He calls upon an auto and heads towards Barfkhana.

---

At the Barfkhana, thousands of tonne of water is plying, up to down and down to up. Rumandu meets a man, Kaalim behind the Barfkhana premises. Kaalim hands over a packet of money to Rumandu.

Rumandu asks Kaalim, ‘What happened to your face?’

Kaalim says, ‘Nothing, sir. I fell on ice.’

Rumandu is meanwhile counting the money, ‘Anything unusual?’

Kaalim replies, ‘Just one. Everything’s getting costly but my pay’s the same for quite some time.’

Rumandu is finished. He says, ‘Ok. Will talk about that...’

Rumandu leaves. A man, Parshu starts following Rumandu. Kaalim notices this but doesn’t alert Rumandu.

Rumandu then catches an auto back to his apartment. He enters the apartment and then Komal’s room. Rumandu finds Komal sleeping and stares at her.

Suddenly then the flat’s main door is knocked off with a bang. Rumandu runs out to check. It’s Parshu. Rumandu reaches the common room and is greeted by a bullet from Parshu’s gun.

Rumandu escapes the shot and runs and reaches Parshu before he fires again. Rumandu pushes Parshu; Parshu loses his balance and hits his head on the table’s corner.

---

When Parshu wakes up, he sees that Rumandu is using a saw to cut Komal’s right hand into two. Blood shoots into Parshu’s eyes and he tries to get up but finds he is tied up.

While sawing Komal’s hand Rumandu is humming, ‘Som Sama Som Soma Sam Spider, Dom, Doma Dom, Doma Dam Spider.’

Parshu tries but struggles to get out of his ropes. Slowly from one of his knot-tied hands, Parshu reaches his right ankle. There’s a pistol there hidden in his sock. He extracts the pistol, takes aim and shoots Rumandu.

This time the bullet hits its target and Rumandu is dead within seconds.

---

Komal is lying on the floor of a dispensary. In front of her is Parshu. Komal recognises him and says, ‘Brother, my brother.’

Komal begins to cry uncontrollably. Parshu says to her, ‘Just tell me this Komal, how many times did he rape you?’

Komal is unable to stop her tears. She looks around and says to Parshu, ‘Brother, is this a hospital? Please take me to a hospital!’

Parshu replies, ‘Have you lost it? You’ve been raped and destroyed. I can’t take you to the hospital and announce to the world that our home’s honour has been ripped apart!’

‘They won’t be able to treat me here’, Komal pleads, ‘I am severely injured. Please take me to a hospital.’

Parshu replies, ‘You should be thankful that I saved you. Father thinks you are dead. When I got to know that mother is talking to that bastard, agreeing to his demands, sending him money, I couldn’t control myself. I killed the bastard.’

Komal says, ‘Brother, leave that… Get the doctor please. My pain’s uncontrollable.’

Parshu replies, ‘The Vaidya has fed you potion. You will be alright.’

Komal stops crying and is now looking blankly at her brother.

Parshu continues, ‘It’s better you die actually. I’m not sure what father will do to you when he finds out.’

Komal begins to speak when Parshu interjects, ‘Why didn’t you kill yourself when he was raping you? Didn’t the thought of saving your honour and your family’s honour ever crossed your mind? Why did you kept on getting raped? What will now happen to our family’s name?’

Parshu leaves with this thought. Komal requests her brother again but he walks away. After a while, the tears in Komal’s eyes dry up while she looks at the dispensary’s ceiling.

The End