Final Word

Final word – part I

I was falling uncontrollably. I could feel the gravity sucking me to the ground. The rate at which I was falling was increasing with the time. All I could see was frames of trees, farms and all other greenery in the area, which revolved around at a crazy speed. Suddenly I felt a scratch between my stomach and rib cage. And soon there were scratches all over my body. The pain was spreading like wild fire as the rough leaves and branches of a tree brushed past me as I fell into it. Then I felt a little twig passing right through my left eye and hitting the bottom of the eye cavity. Before I could scream in pain there was huge blow to my right shoulder as it hit a strong branch of the tree.



I woke up shivering.
God!!
What a nightmare. I knew dreams can be realistic but can you even feel the pain???
The sights, the smell, the feeling, the butterflies in the stomach, everything was so very real.

I looked at the clock. It was 10.13 am. There goes my sleep for the day.
I had returned home after a strenuous night shift and was trying to get some shuteye. I have been getting such dreams lately.
Weird dreams
Wild dreams
Crazy dreams
Haunting nightmares!!!!

I felt a burning sensation in my eyes and there was a searing headache. I felt as if thousand men beat me up. I was extremely extremely tired (the repetition of the word extremely is intentional).
I lazily brushed my teeth and climbed down the stairs to the hall. The breakfast tasted strange, as I had just brushed my teeth. I switched on the TV. The eyes were very sore and I walked up to the mirror to find that they were red. I slowly remembered the tough time I had at work, the previous night. I closed my eyes as I tried to take it off my mind.

Just then, the telephone rang.

“Hello”
“Hi vivek, its me da”, it was my friend Praveen.

“Oops,sorry da!! I just realized you are having night shift,did I wake you up??” he added.

“Its Ok, I myself woke up just now. You know I can’t sleep in daytime.”
“Nothing da, I just called to tell you buy one extra roll of film for me. I will be coming directly from office and I don’t think I will have the time”
“Sure boss, will do that”
“And….…..that’s it man!!! I am really excited!! And take good rest, you will need all your energy”, I could hear him smile.
“Sure man”, I replied tiredly.
“Chalo Bye then”
“Bye”

The placed the receiver back in its place. We were planning for a trip to Yercaud for a long time. And after a lot of postponing we finally got it right and we had planned to leave that evening. I was fairly excited myself. It would be a welcome break from my tight work schedule. Also I had an uncontrollable desire to visit Yercaud, brewing up in my mind lately.

We all met in the railway station that evening.
We had planned to take a train to Salem and then will reach Yercaud by road.
There were three of us.
Myself, Ravi and Tamizhchelvan(called as Selva).

Praveen joined us late, as usual.

As the train started chugging along, the reality of a vacation dawned upon me and my heart was filled with joy triggered by the expectations.

I realized the hope of happiness and fun is the biggest contributor of happiness. In reality, there is no such thing as happiness. It’s just the hope of better things to come that gives us the happiness most of the times.

“When shall we reach Salem da”,I enquired.
“Dunno boss,think around 5.00 am”,replied Ravi.
“Good”, I replied.

I was still feeling fairly tired. I was thinking whether I should sleep. I was afraid of getting one those weird dreams again.


To be continued…………

Final Word – part II

“Ok guys,think I will have a bit of a shut eye” I declared as I was got up from my seat.
Praveen laughed out loud.
There was a chuckle from Selva and Ravi didn’t seem like he understood what I said.
“Don’t try to funny Vivek,you don’t have the talent to be funny.”,that was Ravi.
“I am not trying to be!!!I really want to sleep.” I replied.

The guys were not in a mood to hear any of it.
“Don’t be silly Vivek” Ravi advised as he took out the pack of cards from his bag.

The whole night we were playing various games with the cards. Soon we got bored with one and jumped to another and finally settled to the game of “7 cards”. We were playing late into the night and soon we chatted and Praveen even started singing much to the discomfort of the other passengers in the coach. Luckily he was singing in a fairly unobtrusive volume so nobody bothered to complain.
Finally when we felt like we should sleep, we were very closer to Salem and in no time at all we had to wake up as the train had reached Salem.

We liked the peaceful station with no bugging porters. Once we were out of the station we booked a cab and set out to Yercaud.
I found the scenery changing quite smoothly as the car started climbing up the hilly region. I found the place to be beautiful in its own way. It was not a cultured beauty as in Ooty but it had the charm of wild and uncontrolled youth.
We got dropped in the TTDC hotel and found our way to the cottages. After a brief rest we went out for sight seeing and visited a few places, which were different vantage points from where we got breathtaking view of the hills. In the evening we went for boating in the lake, which was very close to our hotel. The day was amazingly enjoyable. But all through the day I felt as if somebody was monitoring me and I even felt I saw a girl clad in red salwar everywhere I went. She wouldn’t be there when I would want to have a good look but I felt she was always there in the vicinity.
After a long day we chatted for sometime and settled to the beds at 11.15pm.I slowly fell asleep.

The air was very cold. I was not shivering but I was not comfortable with the coldness around. I rubbed my palms and hugged myself. I wasn’t sure where I was but the place was strangely familiar. Since it was just one night after the full moon night everything around me was very clearly visible in spite of the darkness of the night. I wandered a while between the greenery and trees and then I saw her.
She was sitting with her back towards me. The breeze lightly disarranged her long hair every now and then .It looked as if she was wearing a red salwar although it looked a lot darker in moonlight. I suddenly remembered that the height and weight of this girl was the same as the one whom I noticed in quite a few places I went during the day.
I went near her.
“Hello” I called out as I walked towards her.
She didn’t respond.
“Hello madam!! Can you hear me??” by this time I was very close to her.
I touched her shoulder as if to beckon her.

She turned around very slowly.
My God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her eyes were huge and ghastly. I could see the lines of the arteries very very clearly in one of the eyes. The other eye was half closed. But it looked very very dark, like it was fully red due to some injury,just that I couldn’t see the colour due to the darkness.
There was a deep cut extending right from the bottom-left corner of the nose to her right temple passing right between her right-eye, which had this injury. It didn’t look like anybody could have survived such an injury or rather sit calmly in a park with such injuries. The skin of her face was ghostly white and it even looked like it had decayed a little. The hair was badly disarranged and the strands wildly strung across everywhere adding to the goriness.
The left eye, which was the only operational eye, showed some emotion as she looked at me.
My heart had forgotten to beat. After a few seconds I realized I had stopped breathing and started taking short gasps. I was terrified more than I can ever put in words. I wanted to run away from the place as soon as possible but I was paralyzed.

“Why????” she coldly asked me. Her voice had a metal tinge to it and a lightning of fright ran through my body.
“I……………….I ……………….Iam…………………” there was just air coming out of my mouth. I stopped as my lungs ran out of air after a few seconds.

“Why?????? Why did you kill my baby??I trusted you so much and I gave up so much for you but how could you do this to me????????????why????????????????”

She suddenly got violent and caught hold of my shirt collars with her over grown nails and started shaking me violently.
That was the point when I jerked back to reality!!!!!!!!
It took me a while to realize that I was not in a dream. The realization added up some more fear to the already frightened mind. I forcefully removed her hands from my shirt. I felt as if her hands were a little sticky!!!

Then I screamed like hell and started running away from her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As I ran away I can hear that spine chilling voice in the back.
“Where are you running????You can never escape from me shankar!!!!!!!!!!!!I will have my revenge!!!!!!!!!”
After running for a while I was into the main road and I could see the lake where we went boating that evening. I realized I was just out of “Anna Park” which was near the lake. I could quickly visualize where my hotel would be. I have to cover a few meters on the road along the lake and I shall reach the hotel. I started running wildly on the lonely road. I didn’t know what time was it but I figured it should be well past midnight. I turned back to see a “lady in salwar” some 50 meters away, inching towards me.
My heart skipped a beat. I started running faster even though I was struggling to breath. When I entered the hotel I turned back again only to see the same shadowy figure taking a turn to the street !!!!!!!!!!!
I rushed past the reception and straight to our cottage. I knocked at the door frantically.
“Praveen!!!!!!!!!!Ravi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!somebody get up !!!!!!!!!!!!” I shouted at the top of my voice.
I turned back with my heart beating at the fastest rate. I half expected to see the red salwar lady approaching towards me but there was none.
Just then I heard the door being opened.
It was Praveen with his eyes half open without able to withstand the light.
I almost knocked him off as I rushed past him into the room!!!!!!!!

“Quick!! Quick!!!!!!!!!! Bolt the door!! Bolt the door da! Please!!!!!!!!!!!!”
I was shivering and was sweating profusely and was gasping for air.

“Hey Idiot!! What the hell are you doing in the middle of the night???” that was Praveen as he came back to the bed after bolting the door. The other two were busy sleeping.

“No da!!!I … I ………I just went for a walk” I didn’t know what else to tell him!!
“And what??? You saw a ghost???? What a wimp!!!!! Go get some sleep “ he was dismissive as he wanted to catch up with his sleep.

“Noooooooooo”I cried as he tried to switch off the lights.
“What?? I want to sleep” Praveen was clearly irritated.

“No……. I mean…….I am gonna stay awake for a while…..”
He looked at me confused and then retired to bed, as he was too sleepy to argue.

I tried very hard to remember how I found myself in Anna Park But I could not remember anything. I was half expecting the lady to come past the bolted door and strangle me!
I was too frightened to sleep. The ghastly face flashed in my mind whenever I closed my eyes.

To be continued……………..
Final Word – part III

I entered the home.
“Gowri I am home”, I declared as I removed my shoes.

“Iam a little busy here,could you please see how vinodh is doing??”
Vinodh was sleeping in the cradle and was making some weird noises.
It looked as if he was on the verge of crying.

I stared at the baby for a while and entered the kitchen.
Gowri was preparing chapatthis. I hugged her from the back.
“Hey leave me,what are you doing in the kitchen???”
“Iam just hugging my wife in my home, why should it matter whether its hall or kitchen??”
so saying I kissed on her left shoulder.
“hey!!!! Your moustache is pricking” she said with her girlish voice as she wriggled in my grasp.
Just then there was a noise from the hall.
The baby had started crying.
“Ohohohooooooo,what has happened to my sweet vinodh!!!!!!!” so saying Gowri rushed to the hall after forcefully removing herself from my arms.
I felt so cheated. The baby was bugging me big time!!!!!!!!!!!

“Hey Vivek,wake up!!!!!” it was Praveen.
I woke up with a jerk.so it was all a dream???
how real!!
I remembered all the occurrence of last night!!! I involuntarily shivered a moment. What an terrifying experience. I should have fallen asleep sometime after coming back.
“Hey did you go outside sometime last night??? I vaguely remember opening the door for you but don’t remember anything more!“ Praveen was enquiring.
Good he doesn’t remember much.
“Hmmm.……yes da. I went out for a short walk”
I didn’t tell him anything more.He didn’t bothered to ask.

That day we had planned to visit “Killiyoor falls”.We took an auto and the auto wallah dropped us in a place and said the remaining distance need to covered only by trekking. The way looked very remote steep.
“I think this would be quite an adventure” Ravi remarked.
“It’s a lot better now Sir,they are laying railings of some kind.Earlier there was nothing.The visitors were few and the path was not very well identified. It used to be quite a bit risky.”

I was not talking. Even though this is my first visit to Yercaud, I felt that I had been to this place before.
My mind was not in my control. I felt as if it was taken over by some entity, which was deciding what to think and what to do. And slowly I remembered everything.

I was called Shankar in my previous birth and I was born and brought up in Coimbatore. I was the only son of the owner of a very famous cotton mill. I had never tasted failure. I didnt know the meaning of the word misery and I can never relate with the term “try again” as I used to get everything the moment I asked. I met Gowri in college.It was love at first sight and after a bit of hesitation Gowri agreed. We roamed around Coimbatore and I can bet that we had visited most of the cinema theatres in the place.
Soon our parents got to know about it and there was trouble and our parents were very very adamant. My parents relented after a while but her parents never seemed to budge. And they made a huge mistake. They secretly arranged for her marriage and before I knew it she was married to some guy in Madurai.
I was totally broke.I was roaming around dejected trying to wash away my memories but I couldn’t. That was when I decided that I will have her back. I went to Madurai and met Gowri privately in a retaurant.
She was startled at my suggestion. She gave me a lecture about Indian tradition and all that crap. But I was unconvinced. And then she told me that she is pregnant. I was unruffled. “Just get a divorce from that guy”I said “and marry me”. She walked out.

But I never relented. I used to meet her whenever possible and push her to take the decision. And soon her husband got to know about me and life became hellish for her.
Her husband used to come home drunk and would beat her; abuse her even though she was pregnant. What a sick guy!!!!!!
Gowri couldn’t take the abuse and harsh words and one fine day she agreed to get a divorce and marry me.
I had enough money and power to silence anybody but Gowri’s parents were totally taken aback. They totally washed their hands off their daughter and Gowri became my wife with the infant. The baby was mentally disabled, all due to the mental torture Gowri had to go through during her pregnancy.

The next few months were perfect. But celebrating my honeymoon with some guy’s baby was not something I enjoyed a lot. Also the baby reminded me of that guy all the time. I realized that the baby is the only thing in the world that prevents Gowri’s full attention towards me.

A male lion would kill all the cubs when it takes over the territory of another lion. This is to make sure that the lioness is dependant on him to sustain the species.

I had made my decision.

I meticulously planned for our trip to Yercaud. I vividly remember the visit to Killiyoor falls.

Inspite of Gowri’s concerns I took her to the falls and volunteered to carry the baby.
And when she was little away from me I threw the baby away with my very own hands.

Gowri came running towards me on seeing me without the baby.
“What happened?? Where is the baby? What happened to my vinodh”
I didn’t say anything and was looking to the drop with confusion.

“Oh no!!!!!!!!!! my vinodh……….. my baby……………oh my god!!!!!!!!! Somebody help!!!!somebody get my baby!!!!!!!!!!!! VINODH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
She was getting very very restless and was losing her balance .
I caught hold of her!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Hey , cool down,the baby is gone . there is nothing we can do about it!!! You have got me!!! Its just an accident”

“You killer !!!!!! you always hated the baby and now you have dared to cold bloodedly murder my baby!!!!!!!!!! You demon!!!!! You are pure evil!! I will never forgive you!!!!”

She was getting more and more uncontrollable.
“Yes I did!!!! I killed the baby ,so what?? We can have any number of kids we want. Don’t you see why I did this?? I did this for us!!!!!!!!! I did it for our love!!!!!!! I thought the baby would compromise our love!!!!!”

She stopped suddenly and looked at me with confusion.
“Is that it??? Is it why you killed the baby?? You killed the baby because you doubted my love?? You killed the baby because you lost confidence in out love???
I don’t want to talk to you ever in my life. Leave me. Don’t touch me”

So saying she forced herself away from me and started running on the steep tracks.

“Gowri!!!!!!!wait!!!!!! Gowri it is a dangerous place” I ran after her.

After running a few paces she lost balance and she fell!!!!!!
“Gowri!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
I screamed and watched her tumbling down the hills on the way to certain death.
I wanted to do a thousand things at that time but all my body was numb.

I quietly went back to the hotel. Took my car. Went back to Coimbatore and shot myself.


I was sitting right on the tracks and my friends were nowhere in sight. Think they didn’t notice that I had stayed behind.
Gowri appeared before me with the red salwar and the injured eye.

“You killer!!!!!!!!! You killed my baby!!!!!!!!!” so saying she started strangling me violently.
I was gasping and was trying to free myself from her clutches. As I tried doing that my weight shifted to my left and I tried to catch hold of a plant. It snapped and my foot slipped on the muddy surface. I fell down and started tumbling down the hill.

Soon I was falling uncontrollably. I could feel the gravity sucking me to the ground. The rate at which I was falling was increasing with the time. All I could see was frames of trees, farms and all other greenery in the area, which revolved around at a crazy speed. Suddenly I felt a scratch between my stomach and rib cage. And soon there were scratches all over my body. The pain was spreading like wild fire as the rough leaves and branches of a tree brushed past me as I fell into it. Then I felt a little twig passing right through my left eye and hitting the bottom of the eye cavity. Before I could scream in pain there was huge blow to my right shoulder as it hit a strong branch of the tree.

That was the last sensation I ever felt. And then there was peace.

The End