Mental Hospital

 

May be this is the darkest night outside. But in the house, from his bed, Gera could clearly see the curtain of the window waving. It may be due to breeze. Or is someone trying to shake the curtain to stare at him? When the curtain gives full way, Gera could see a vacuum occupying the space outside window in a cloudy smoky patch. He could also see the superimposition of the image of a girl in the cloud. The image - or is it a real girl face? – cries with tears running out of the eyes like a flood. Suddenly the tear gets drained and the face expresses the anger. Suddenly the face converts the anger into fear, as if a director behind, directs to do so. The black eye balls go up and get hidden behind the eye lids. Only 'conjunctiva' (the white surface) of the eyes was appearing.

Gera was in a terrific clutch of scare. But still he wanted to go nearer to the window and see who it was! He has put all his efforts to get up. But he couldn't. Someone was tightening the rope with which his legs and hands appear to have tied. Even his head could not be tilted. He wanted to shout to convey his fear - but in vain. He could feel his struggle but he couldn't do anything.

'Oh the anonymous – kill me. I am dying out of fear. Please kill me. ' he expressed his need but there is no medium to carry his words.

However he could receive the response through the same unidentifiable medium which says: 'No.. you cannot die like that.. You cannot have such a simple death Gera. You must die the death after facing the fullest cruelty that I faced. You will suffer as I suffered. Wait for your 'BlankNights' Gera. Yes.. wait for that 100th night dear young man! I will give you the same 'reward' as I received. Until then you have to wait. You have to be scary. You have to be surrounded by fearful ghosts.'

'Oh.. What is that? Oh no.. no.. no..' screamed Gera. Please stop that smell. Please.. extinguish that very bloody origin of that vomit provoking smell at the base itself. Please.. I will die out of this smell. I beg. Please stop the smell. I prefer to die to smell this smell. Who is killing me every night by spreading this smell. That pungent smell. A smell that emerges from those flowers which were crushed on the road and left by the gigantic tyres of the dead body carrying ambulances and vans. The synthesised synthetic dead smell, that is smouldered from the horribly flavoured incense sticks. Please stop it.. please stop.. please st..!!

But Gera could not convey any of his anxieties in reality. He got settled step by step, slowly and finally there was a dead silence. It appeared that he is on his way to sleep.

Gera trespassed his alarm which was set for 6am and woke up at 8.43 am. Slowly he got up and did his minimum morning duties and triggered a number on his mobile. It appeared a ring was going on. Incidentally it sang 'naina barse rim zim..' from 'Woh Koun Thi'!

But no one picked up from the other side.

Gera's thought continued to think: How long will this torture prolong? Is it happening or an illusion? Why every night is a nightmare for me. Why I am always awakened exactly at 3:13am…?

Suddenly Gera's phone rang. He picked and said 'Hi Luda..'

'Hai Gera! What a surprise! I returned from native trip only yesterday. How are you?'

'Hey Luda stop.. stop.. In fact I was waiting for you to return. Luda, I want to talk to your doctor friends Dr. August or Dr. Hary'

'Hey Gera.. what happened.. still the same nightmare problems continue..'

'Yes Luda.. actually I was waiting for you. Can we meet any of them?'

'Gera both of them are in Itali for a conference. They may return after a week. Any way there is an equally brilliant psychologist Dr. Wilso. He has returned from Vienna only yesterday. We will talk to him'

'Yes Luda! When shall we meet him?'

'I will talk to him. I know your entire case history. I will appraise him about your case. I will also take an appointment from him. And we will meet him. OK?'

'Yes sure'

In the evening Luda called. 'Gera, I have appraised the in-and-out of your case to the doctor. We also had some discussions. He has given appointment tomorrow morning 10am sharp. Anyway, I will come and meet you today and give you some information that doctor discussed with me. OK?'

'Sure Luda.. I am waiting..'

Luda got out of his car and entered into Gera's house. Gera received him. Gera was a lonely but a well-to-do bachelor.

After usual enquiries, their talk turned towards Gera's nightmares. They went around the house. The window, the curtain, and for that matter, the entire house was reviewed by both of them. They sat in two bamboo chairs provided in the garden area attached to the house. Two cups of tea and a plate of high quality biscuits, were lying on the bamboo table.

'Gera.. the psychologist, whom I talked to is a very good friend of mine. I had the privilege of having an informal discussion on your problems when I talked to him through phone. And just for your knowledge I would like to share it with you.'

'Oh IC. Carry on..' – Gera encouraged

'The doctor feels that it may be a problem of hallucination' – Luda conveyed.

'What does it mean?' – Gera asked.

'It means a psychological problem. It may be attributed to hallucinations. Hallucinations are sensory experiences that appear real but are caused by the mind. Seeing or hearing something that is not really there. To be more vivid there are five types of hallucinations being called as Visual hallucinations, Olfactory hallucinations, Gustatory hallucinations, Auditory hallucinations, Tactile hallucinations'

'Hey Luda stop.. stop.. I am already scared to the core. Don't scare me further with medical terminologies'

'No Gera.. When my brother had similar problems I came across..'

'Ok leave it and forget it' Gera stopped.

After about half-an-hour Luda left.

Gera prepared himself for yet another horrible night. But then, he had some plans to be executed on that night. It was 12 midnight. His thought ran like this: Today I have decided not to sleep until 3:13am is crossed. Why didn't I do this in the last scary nights? I do not know. But today I have decided to do. I pulled a book from the book shelf. Came to the bed. Leant with the pillows support. Opened the book.

It was titled 'the anonymous '. A smooth reading was going on. After a few minutes the book fell aside. And a mild snore was heard. Then that too was replaced with a deep silence.

Then a drama began in Gera: It was a game of hide-n-seek. Boys and Girls of around 10 years age were playing the game. A girl was hiding in a dungeon room. A boy approaches the room with a  snake. Opens the door. Throws the  snake into the room and bolt it from outside. A lot of scream of the girl explodes from the room. Slowly the voice goes down. A pin-drop silence. Then started a laughter! It was like a thunder from her. 'Hey snake.. hey snake… my dear snake.. ' she sang like a tune and talked and talked and talked. She has become mad! Gera slightly opened the door. The girl stood with the TOY snake which he has thrown inside.

There was a pungent smell. A smell that emerges from those flowers which were crushed on the road and left by the gigantic tyres of the dead body carrying ambulances and vans. The synthesised synthetic dead smell, that is smouldered from the horribly flavoured incense sticks.

The boy's image distorts and gets converted into another image and it appear to be.. to be.. as that of Gera. And the image of the girl gets converted in to that of.. yes that of.. hey.. who is it.. yes this is….

All of a sudden Gera slipped out of bed. He looked at the clock. It was 3:13am. He looked at the window. Yes. The curtain was waving. In one wave of open he could see the image of Luda. Gera slowly went near the window and tried to touch the curtain.

At the same time a rolled card board sheet fell down, somewhere from the window.  Gera unrolled it. It was an art. There were three characters! One was that of a girl, the other was that of a boy (Gera!) and third was that of  another boy (yes - Luda). The face of the third boy's image exactly resembled the face of the image of the girl, as if they were brother and sister.

Next day, Luda and friends admitted Gera in a mental hospital.

Luda recollected his childhood days, when his sister was admitted and discharged from the mental hospital after about a month,  for something called 'Arachnophobia'