Memory- Uncovering The Picture

Charu is relaxing and having a cup of coffee. She loves to read books. While going through the books she purchased from the bookshop, she found it interesting on the cover of the fifth book. The picture seems very mysterious and also somewhere in her mind, it's been stored. She was trying to find it out. She tried to go back to her old memories. While doing this she was just unfolding the pages of books and on sixty-seventh page a photo had come to her notice. That was the picture of a villa and the alphanumeric code with the map in its back.

Then she was thrilled and could able to get a glimpse of her old memories. By this time she had finished her coffee and put the cup on the table near to her bed. She stretched herself on the bed and closed her eyes to concentrate more on her memories to find out the clue of the picture. And she started getting the old days memory. That was the real happening about which she got to know from the mother and grandmother.

Now Charu could able to recall.... When she was four or five years old, she was playing with her toys and on that evening somebody came to their house. Both her mother and grandmother took him to the corner of the hall and had him to be sitting there. Her grandmother was very tensed and her mother was standing just besides her. Both of them were listening to that man. That man was an old person and used to come to their house, and her grandmother used to talk to him. Once her grandmother told her that he was from her parent's house.

Now Charu started getting her memories a bit more clear and she could now recall that her grandmother told her that this old man was the most trusted servant of her parents. Her grandmother was from a very rich and educated family. Her grandmother's father though was rich, but always fought for the social causes. His wife used to support him.

Charu remembered she had seen both of them two to three times. Actually they stay in Ernakulam and used to come to Cochin for different works. That time there was a big problem on abolishing the torture on the widows of Hindu priests was going on. Both of them were fighting for that. They were very well known family in Ernakulam. They were from a zamindar family and were having lots of agricultural land and properties. Even both the parents of her grandmither were very generous to helo the needy persons. Charu's grandmother was the only child, she was married and settled with her grandfather in Cochin. Even they always kept her grandmother away from their agitations for the social causes. Their agitations had created various problems for the influential people of the society. All the politicians were facing problems for the agitations. Even those politicians used to utilise their power and tried various methods to teach lessons to both parents of her grandmother. But as her grandmother told her that her parents were very headstrong persons.

They were very kind to all. Even they had opened a big house to give shelter to the tortured widows, poor and minorities. All the expenses were been made by them. They used to teach the people not to spoil their life for the sake of any blind faith. They used to tell that if anybody had left this world is definitely a big loss to the family, but for his death the widow of that person shouldn't suffer. Everybody has the right to live in this world. The life is a precious gift by God. This has to be utilised in the right way with a purpose.. Even the priests were making multiple marriages. They never match their age with the bride. They marry young girls to satisfy their ego and hunger. Even at the age of seventy and eighty they were marrying twenty years old girls. After their death these poor young girls has to suffer and used to be tortured. They were not allowed to go to the open places on their own. They can't meet the people. They can't have their friends. They can't see the beautiful things of the nature. Everything was to be done at the mercy of their old priest husbands. They were leading the life of a prisoner in their house. Sometimes out of frustrations many such young girls committed suicide. Some even had gone mad and were left by their socalled husbands in the mental hospitals carelessly. After the death of the old husband, their lives become worst. They used to have restrictions on wearing of clothes, eating foods, worshiping God and even completing their routine minimum daily works required for any human being.

These were the things which had very badly hurt the sentiments of Charu's grandmother's parents. They were very much against this and always wanted to bring changes among the thoughts of people. That was not easy. The entire society was been influenced by this system and all had reacted very badly. Even various time the goons were hired to attack them, they survived.

After a very long tiresome trials they could able to get some widows together and given them shelter. They started teaching these widows and trying to make them able to stand on their own feet. They wanted to make them independent and free to enjoy their life to fulfill the purpose of God.

Charu now could visualise the talk between her grandmother and mother. Where her grandmother used to say the relatives of her parents were always after the properties of her parents. But they wanted to donate it to the Trust,which they wanted to make for the poor and needy persons. Also the social work and fight against the blindfaiths had created many enemies in the society. The politicians were not at all in favour of them. The administration was under control of the politicians and they wanted to get rid of this old couple.

Now that evening picture is getting more and more clear to Charu. She could now recall the talks between the old servant and her grandmother. Also she could remember the tears were rolling down from her grandmother's eyes and her mother was consoling her. Charu was bit nervous and wanted to see from the corner of the room being behind the screen.

Charu now recalled that evening discussion. The old servant, whose name Charu is forgetting. He was crying and narrating the tragedy that happened to the parents of her grandmother.

Before that day the incident took place. With the help of some politicians and influential people, the goons came to the shelter home. They were been asked to leave, but they didn't go. They rushed in to the Hall, where the young widows were sitting and taking the lessons from the mother of her grandmother. Those goons started misbehaving with the ladies. Some even tried to raoe two young ladies. This was been objected to very seriously by the father of Charu's grandmother. Then they attacked him with knives and killed him on the spot. They tied tge hands of her grandmother's mother. Then went on abusing and raping the poor innocent widows, who wanted to have a good, independent, and free life. When her grandmother's mother told, "I can't see all these my God, please leave then."

She was crying, begging, and saying this. She saw her husband been killed infront of her. They were merciless fellows. They were not having any heart and just trying to finish off the hope of living a free life of these poor helpless women. When they heard all these from the heloless tied mother of her grandmother, one of them came to her and taken away her two eyes with knife and saying, "now you can't see anything. Now be happy and thankful to God". They were realy monsters and been hired to do so. The relatives of them were also having hands in that. They killed grandmother's father, they tortured her mother and killed her and lastly raped the poor women and taken them from that place. Also servants were left with fear. And this old man came to give the news to Charu's grandmother.

Now Charu could clearly visualise that after that evening fir some days her grandmother was crying with pains. In her bedroom Charu had seen her doing a painting on canvas, which was exactly the same as on the cover page of this book. Actually she was trying to picturise the last moments of her mother. That was the picture without eyes and with tears and hands.

Then Charu opened her eyes. Her anxiety had increased. The photo of sixtysevent page must be of the villa, where the shelter home was been then and all these meciless, cruel murder torture and crime took place.

After so long years she could see the same picture of her grandmother's painting on the cover page of this book. This book must be having some more details about about her grandmother's parents. She thought about the writer of this book, who is that? Why she hadno idea about this book for such a long time? What happened to the case of thst terrified brutal murder? What happened to those poor widowed women?

Like these, somany questions started knocking her brain. Now she thought if exploring all these.......

Charu thanked her grandmother for Uncovering The Picture from her pretty old memories. Now she will have to get all her questions answered, may be she can get from this book or she has to take it out through sources. She will fight for it. To do so let her first complete her Law. She will then get justice for the parents of her grandmother and their fight for social justice....

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