The Curious Case of Mrs Ritu’s Psyche

Ritu Sharma was a simple happily married housewife living in one of the average neighbourhoods in Mumbai with husband Amit Sharma. He was working as an investment banker in one of the investment firms in the city. Ritu herself was practising as a lawyer before marriage, but she chose to give up her profession through her own volition. When asked by people Ritu used to say “that I can get work anytime, but I don’t want to miss the quality time I can get to spend with my family”. They were living a happy and contented life for the past 17 years when one incident suddenly changed all of their lives and led to a complete breakdown of the family. Ritu had everything going for her as she had everything; i.e. a good marriage, a good husband, a career of her own choice. All in all, she was having a contented and well-settled life. But there was a dark side to her life which she had kept hidden from everybody; even her husband. She was suffering from an acute sense of paranoia and this made her undergo mood swings at any given point in time. Ritu had been suffering from this type of disorder since childhood, but she had seemed to have recovered during her adult years and marriage. Though Amit knew of it before marriage knew of her disease but still he had gone forward and married her and they had been living happily for the past so many years with no apparent relapse.

 It suddenly started from the time when one day on a weekend when the couple had gone for a movie and it was after the movie that Ritu had started behaving oddly. It so happened that Ritu started behaving very strangely a couple of days after having seen that movie. Suddenly she used to go into trances and start murmuring. Amit at first did not pay much attention to it but when the murmuring started getting louder and she started acting in a weird sense; it was then that Amit took first to notice and felt very strange as to why she was behaving in such a manner?

For a few days, everything would be okay but then in sudden instances, Ritu would flare up and start screaming at Amit. Things got worse when Ritu accused Amit of adultery and planned to get rid of her.

Ritu “You don’t love me anymore.”

Amit “why do you say that?” He was taken aback at this all of a sudden strange onslaught.

Ritu “I know you have grown irritable and bored with me. That’s why you don’t show your love and affection anymore. The way you used to.”

Amit “Why do you think like that? I still love you the same way as I used to before marriage and I will continue loving you till the last drop of my blood.”

Ritu “I don’t believe you.”

Amit “what do I have to do to make you believe me that I am honest in my love for you?”

Ritu “You can start by taking me out to dinner and buying me that gift which we had seen that day at the showroom.”

Amit knew that he could not afford o antagonise her at this moment and despite a heavy workload, promised to do both.

Amit “Okay, that’s something I can do for my lovely wife.” He said with a genuine smile.

For a few days, everything was again calm and quiet and it seemed that Ritu was getting back to normal. Then one evening she suddenly started going into her zone and the first thing she did was to break the expensive gift which Amit had given her and started throwing household items all around the house. Amit had just then returned from office and was dead tired. Still, he tried to calm her down.

Amit “Darling, what’s wrong now? Why are you again doing this?”

Ritu “You have been lying to me. You gave me this gift just to appease me and you have been interacting with other women outside.

Amit was just flummoxed to answer this. He gave a bewildering look at her and said

“What do you mean by this? I have never talked with anyone. I brought this gift for you because I have always loved you and you wanted this.”

Days passed on with Ritu becoming more and more agitated and Amit just not being able to understand what was wrong with her. A few days later, when Ritu was out shopping she encountered Babloo. Babloo was the self-proclaimed local ruffian, eve-teaser of women, and generally, a trouble maker for everyone. He had been smitten by Ritu’s beauty and her persona. He was falling for her and he had even tried proposing to her.

“I like you madam. Will you be my partner?”

“What......!” “Are you crazy?”

“Don’t you know that I am married? Moreover, aren’t you ashamed of yourself eve-teasing and harassing people like this?” Ritu asked.

“Can’t help it, ma’am. I am smitten with love since the day I have seen you.” Babloo replied.

Ritu did not respond and went quietly from that place. Inside she was furious and seething. “What a cheeky fellow!” She said to herself.

That day she was in an agitated mood but chose to keep quiet about the incident and not disturb Amit.

For a few days, things seemed normal when Ritu again had to go to the market on some errand. This time she chose to go in the latter half of the day as the skies were overcast with dark clouds. As she went out in the market she again encountered Babloo who leered at her. She chose to ignore him and hurry with her task and try to get back as soon as possible. As Lady Luck favours at the unexpected of times, it started raining heavily. Ritu, unfortunately, had forgotten to bring her umbrella and she was getting drenched. Seeing this Babloo quipped “I will get an umbrella for you, ma’am. Please don’t get yourself drenched.”

 Ritu chose to ignore him and walk as fast as she could in this rain.

 Babloo not wanting to lose an opportunity started following her. The more she walked faster he kept on increasing his pace too! He kept on following her. Thus increasing Ritu’s rage which had been building up right till this moment. She saw a dimly lit alley and chose to duck inside to escape both from the rain and Babloo. She was feeling uncomfortable both from the rain and the dingy confines she had hidden in. To exacerbate the situation Babloo was calling out her name.

She looked around and found a heavy iron rod lying there. She now had the chance to get back to her stalker. She peeked outside and saw Babloo standing outside completely drenched. She signalled him to come into the alley. Babloo was elated. No amount of emotion could express his happiness.

“I am lucky tonight”, he thought and went inside the alley. As soon as he entered the alley he was struck violently from behind.

He was completely surprised and not prepared at all for this kind of response. As he turned around he saw Ritu in a completely different form. She was holding the iron rod with such strength and fury in her eyes that it seemed that she was going to do something unimaginable. She again struck with huge force right on Babloo’s forehead. He started bleeding profusely and was dazed. He did not understand what had happened and before he could recollect himself Ritu had struck again for the third time.

Now, Babloo was scared. He started backing away from her. But there was no stopping Ritu. She kept on advancing and hitting him. She only stopped when Babloo was on the ground bleeding out to death. When she realized that Babloo was not showing any kind of movement did she stop. Her rage had also subsided by then. She looked at the lifeless body of Babloo and panicked and got scared. “Oh, God! What have I done?” She thought. She knew that she could not go back to her house in this condition. With blood spatters on her clothes and face. Neither could she afford to go to the police or get caught. She decided to cleanse herself and her clothes in the rain.

Luckily, Amit was late that day due to heavy traffic and Ritu had the chance to clean herself and remove all traces of blood and clean herself again properly. She was very nervous for a few moments but then she decided to block the entire episode from her mind and think that this never happened! By the time Amit had arrived, she was back to normal again.

The next day Amit woke Ritu up by saying that there was a huge commotion in the alley just below their apartment. “Why?” Ritu asked.

They have found a body.” Amit replied.

“What......!” Ritu exclaimed.

“Yes, they say it was of that ruffian Babloo,” Amit said.

“The police are also there now asking around.” Amit continued.

Now Ritu was again terrified and she could not say anything to Amit also. Amit, however, noticed a slight change on Ritu’s face when he said that there was a body and police were asking around. He could see the colour of her face vanish and there was something fearful in her eyes.

“What’s wrong honey?” he asked.

“Nothing........” Ritu said in a hesitant tone.

Amit could make out the discernable change in her behaviour that day.

Meanwhile, Inspector Samad Khan, the officer investigating Babloo’s murder was a man of contrasts. On one hand, he was a very affable, good-humoured and high spirited guy who used to crack jokes with his fellow officers, help his juniors in trouble, and all-around was a jovial kind of a guy. On the other hand, when it came to investigating cases, he was a much-focussed guy, had a very keen sense of observation and could

make out who was genuine or fake. These two characteristics made him one of the most sought after investigating officers, or, IOs for any case. His reputation as a case solver was legendary in police circles, and even his seniors respected his judgements and deductions.

Anyways, the first thing Samad did was to round up all those close to Babloo. He had a large group of followers and yes men who would jump at his command. The foremost among them was Sunny. So Inspector Samad decided to interrogate Sunny first.

“Where were you at the time of Babloo’s death?”

“I was at home looking after my sick mother.” Sunny replied.

“Do you know who was he with at the time of his death?”

“No.”

“When did you think that something was amiss with Babloo?”

“Sahaab, Babloo was the kind of guy who would disappear for days and then suddenly reappear. We never gave it much of a thought.” Sunny ruefully replied.

“Okay. Do you know whether he had an ongoing conflict or fight with anyone?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Okay, you can go for now but you have to come when I call you. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Sahaab.” Sunny replied with a salute and a sarcastic smirk on his face.

Ritu knew from her training as a lawyer that the police will leave no stone unturned in the course of their investigation and was very apprehensive about their arrival at her house. The day came which she dreaded the most and while Amit was at home early one evening when Inspector Samad rang the bell of their house. At first, Amit was a bit surprised but was expecting the inspector’s visit as a routine call.

“Hello Mr &Mrs. Sharma, can I come in?” Samad asked with a polite smile.

“Of course! Please do.” Amit replied.

Officer Samad entered by starting “ I hope you know that Babloo has been murdered?”

Both Amit and Ritu exchanged glances at each

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other and said yes.

Samad then proceeded to ask them whether they knew Babloo or not, had heard about him etc. All this he did just to get a reaction from Ritu as she was nervously fretting and looking all over the place, except at Inspector Samad.

Samad then changed his tack and directly asked Ritu

“Did you know Babloo?”

“No,” Ritu replied.

Samad could make out that Ritu was hiding something even from her husband. He was curious at her fretting and tried to probe her more by asking

“where were you at the time of his murder?”

Ritu was somehow trying to control her rage but could not and exploded by saying

“What do you mean where was I?”

“What are you trying to insinuate here?”

“Thant I had something to do with his death?”

Amit was shocked at this sudden outburst but Samad remained calm and unfazed.

Amit said “Inspector, can I talk to you in private?” Samad nodded.

“Actually inspector, she is not well. She is suffering from some disease and that’s why she has these momentary and sudden outbursts of anger.”

Samad just nodded and said that he was doing his duty and its okay.

The moment he exited their house he asked one of his constables Shakti Singh to keep a close watch on Ritu. Then he asked Sunny to be called again.

Sunny was again called for further questioning. Inspector Samad “ Sunny, everyone knows that you did not like Babloo at all and you were always vying for his position. Isn’t it true?”

Sunny smirked and replied, “Sahaab, if I had to kill Babloo I would have done it a long time ago and also no one would have suspected me.”

“Why are you bragging? I will ensure that you get a lenient sentence. For that confess that you have killed Babloo.” Samad responded getting frustrated with him.

Sunny, however, was smart and he knew who had killed Babloo. But he chose to use that knowledge as a weapon to be used in the future.

 

Meanwhile, there was a drastic worsening of Ritu’s mental state. She used to mumble to herself most of the time. Even while sleeping she used to get up screaming. There were also moments when her fights with Amit used to get ugly and she used to threaten Amit that she is going to kill herself if he stopped loving her ever. Amit, on the other hand, was struggling to understand what had happened o her that she had become such a mental wreck. He even consulted a psychiatrist, Dr Dinesh Gupta regarding her.

Dr Dinesh Gupta was a world-renowned psychiatrist and he had treated many such cases. He patiently heard Amit recounting the whole story from the beginning.

“This is a chronic case of Schizophrenia.” He said after listening to Amit.

He also said that this has resurfaced in a more virulent form after they had seen the movie.

“What was the movie’s name?” Dinesh asked.

Amit rattled off the name of a famous Hollywood movie. Dr Dinesh then said that this movie had reignited the suppressed factors in her mind.

“I will come to your house one day and see Ritu.”

Amit was relieved to hear this.

A few days later, Sunny got the chance he was looking for. Ritu had to go to the market for some errand when Sunny confronted her and said “ Madam, how are you?” He was leering at her. Ritu was taken aback but regaining her composure she asked “ who are you?”

Sunny “So soon you have forgotten me?”

“ I always used to come with Babloo when he tried to befriend you.”

Ritu was getting nervous. She knew when she got nervous she lost her control. Still, she asked, “what do you want from me?”

Sunny “ I know what happened to Babloo.” This was the moment that Ritu was afraid of. That someone might have seen her and might try to intimidate her. She was trying to put up a brave front by saying “What do you mean?”

“You think I killed Babloo?”

“Do you have any proof?”

Sunny was calm and kept leering at her. He just said that “I have a video of the whole incident.”

“If you don’t want me to hand it over to the police, then you have to give me 10 lakh rupees.” Ritu was completely stunned. She did not know what to do. She was again getting enraged but somehow controlled herself. She said, “but I don’t have this much cash.”

Sunny “You arrange it from somewhere. The only thing I can help you with is to ask you to give it to me in instalments. And the first instalment of 50,000 rupees you can give me in 2 days.”

Ritu knew she was trapped but to save herself she agreed. Thus exacerbating her mental state also. All of these events had a deep impact on her and Amit. Amit was the one who was suffering by seeing his wife’s condition and not being able to do anything about it.

Ritu was so trapped in Sunny’s web that she was unable to differentiate between wrong and right. She started stealing money from Amit just to pay Sunny. She was so desperate to get out of his grasp. Amit, on the other hand, was first surprised to find money missing but then he came to know about her stealing. At first, he wanted to confront her but could not because he knew she would again lose control and might harm herself. So he confided to Dr Dinesh about it. Dr Dinesh was also surprised at this and said “very soon I am going to visit her.”

For a few days, this went on when one day Ritu decided that enough was enough. She had to take some serious steps to stop this constant mental torture and harassment at the hands of Sunny. She was also very guilty of hiding the truth of killing Babloo and stealing money from Amit.

Then one day when Ritu had gone to pay another instalment to Sunny, she took a long knife also along with her. As Sunny was about to collect the money, Ritu stabbed him from behind. At first, Sunny was surprised at this sudden assault. As he turned around Ritu kept on stabbing him till he did not drop down dead profusely bleeding. Ritu, again, after regaining her normal self realized what she had done. She again panicked and threw the knife and ran from there.

This time Amit was at home and he was shocked and concerned when he saw Ritu enter the house in a nervous and frantic state. Even Dr Dinesh had come to their place to visit her.

“What happened, dear?” Amit asked in a concerned tone.

“Nothing, I fell on the road,” Ritu replied nervously.

“Are you hurt?” Amit again asked.

“Do you want me to help you?”

Ritu replied in an agitated tone “Don’t bother me. I will be okay. It’s just minor injury.”

Dr Dinesh quietly was observing this conversation between Ritu and Amit. He quietly said “Hello Ritu, how are you?” “I am a friend of Amit and had heard so much about you that I wanted to meet you.” He said further “I hope this doesn’t put you in inconvenience.” He gave the most charming of smiles at her.

Ritu’s mind was somewhere else all this time but when she heard the soothing voice of Dr Dinesh she came back to her present self and said “not at all. The honour is all mine.” She said this with a dazzling smile. Ritu was now completely herself again she even apologized to Amit for her rude behaviour earlier and played the perfect host to Dr Dinesh. Amit was shocked to see this complete transformation but was also pleased that she had become normal again.

For the next few days, Dr Dinesh was a regular visitor to Sharma’s house and continued treating Ritu in a carefully hidden manner that she could not suspect anything. He even hypnotized her once and asked “what is it you are afraid of?”

“They are going to get me,” Ritu replied.

“Who is going to get you?” Dinesh asked.

“The Shadows,” Ritu replied.

“What shadows?”

“The shadows I see most of the time,” Ritu replied.

Then Dr Dinesh brought her back and started conversing with her normally. He also told Amit that she was responding to the treatment positively and would hopefully get well soon. Amit was delighted to hear this news. There was no end to his happiness that his lovely wife would once again be her normal self. Gradually, Ritu was getting better. She started remaining happy most of the time. She even started cooking delicacies for Amit and started going out with him. Amit was also starting to get relieved and believed that she would completely recover and be the person he loved most.

Meanwhile, the police were baffled at Sunny’s murder. Samad Khan was desperately trying to find the killer as pressure was mounting on him. Then one day he got two lucky breaks, or three, I would say. He got an earring on the murder scene. After a thorough investigation and questioning everyone he found that ring did not belong to any of the residents of the area. He also had the fingerprints matched from the two murder weapons and then he found his killer.

Inspector Samad Khan said to his constable “Let’s pay a visit to Mrs Ritu Sharma.”

He went to their place the very same day when Dr Dinesh was also present. As Amit opened the door Samad said “is Mrs Ritu there?” Amit was taken aback at this sudden question and said “yes, she is in the kitchen.”

Inspector Samad then gravely said, “I have to arrest Mrs Ritu Sharma on the suspicion of the murder of Babloo and Sunny.” Both Amit and Dr Dinesh jumped from their seats shocked to hear this.

“What.....!”

“How can you say this? What proof do you have?” Amit demanded in a loud tone.

Inspector Samad then calmly showed them both the evidence and also the forensics report of the fingerprints found on both the murder weapons. Both the matches were that of Ritu.

Amit was aghast and devastated hearing this. “There must be some mistake officer.” Dr Dinesh said.

“I am sorry but the evidence is right in front of you. I have also come to know that Babloo and Sunny were both harassing and mentally torturing Mrs Ritu.” Samad added in a grim tone. Hearing all of this was too much for Amit. He could not believe that Ritu was bearing so much inside. Now he could relate to her stealing. He was deeply saddened and shocked by this tragic turn of events. Meanwhile, Ritu had heard everything from inside the kitchen and something inside her suddenly snapped!

She came out brandishing a knife and crying. She said “I am so sorry Amit that this has come to happen. I have only loved you and did not want to hurt or harm you in any way.”

“But I will relieve you from all this pain, grief and anguish by finishing myself. As I cannot bear to see you in pain because of me.”

Both Amit and Dr Dinesh were taken aback by Ritu. “Please don’t! I cannot live without you.” Amit pleaded.

Dr Dinesh also said “Don’t worry Ritu everything will be alright. You will be given good medical care and treatment.”

When all of this was going Samad had quietly manoeuvred himself Ritu and nabbed her from behind and making the knife fall from her hands. Then he grimly arrested her and while was taking her away to the station, Ritu said “ I am so sorry Amit. Please forgive me. I love you.”

Amit also said, “I love you too sweetheart and I will be waiting for you.”

With that last parting statement, Inspector Samad escorted her away to the waiting police jeep.