THE RING- PART 3 - Story Brunch

Image by Brigitte is always pleased to get a coffee from Pixabay

So, there I was staring at Nilofar, standing at the hall gate, with doubts in my mind which Nilofar was Farah talking about, my Nilofar was standing right in front of my eyes, after cooking dinner for me, with a smile on her face reflecting her inner happiness of meeting me after ages.

I told Nilofar that I would follow her in another five minutes, and she went inside.I roamed around the courtyard with observant eyes and a doubtful mind.

Farah Nazmi was too confident about her claim and source of news. The condition of the haveli made things just worse for me mentally. It seemed as if no one had lived there for years, with dry tree leaves all around, bat colonies in one corner, and spider webs spread all across the courtyard. The haveli was too large to be managed by a family of 3, and there were no servants for upkeep. I tried to explain in my mind why and how the haveli looked so, it gets difficult to maintain big properties across generations, especially when financial condition deteriorates. I decided to keep my suspicions aside and convinced my mind that Farah was misinformed which might be because Nilofar didn’t want to know the outside world about her.

I stepped towards the hall gate, and as soon as I stepped into the hall, I noticed a large ant mound. Such ant mounds are never formed near the gate as ants get crushed due to people walking in and out. The ant mound was big enough to be months old. My mind started taking u-turns from there. It clearly meant the hall gate had not been used for many past months. Anyway, I stepped inside the hall and saw Nilofar doing her prayers on a carpet, facing the wall opposite.

I didn’t disturb her, simply went and sat on the reclining chair on which Nilofar had sat just an hour ago, and was moving to and fro.

I too tried to move it, but it didn’t, it was a fixed chair. Then how come Nilofar swung on the chair? I couldn’t get it, doubts had started engulfing my mind. Not to forget, her parents were not around, and in conservative Muslim families, parents don’t leave their daughters alone for a day when visiting relatives. She completed her prayers within ten minutes and came back to the dining table.

Nilofar- ‘ Long journeys may be for the heart, but its stomach which feels the pain, you need to eat ‘.

And she removed the covers from dishes, mutton and chicken curries with some tandur baked rotis. Half an hour was too less time to cook so much. Mutton takes time. She asked me to eat first, that she would have it later. I sat at the dining table, Nilofar to the opposite end. Meanwhile, I was also trying to cross-check if she had curved ankles, that’s the only sign I had heard of ghosts. I bent down to check her ankles across the dining table, they were as normal as mine, perhaps better. I was sure then that all my suspicions were just my false assumptions.

She interrupted me while eating-

‘ Do you remember Farah, the one with whom I used to spend time in school, I wish I could meet her too one last time’.

I interrupted her-

‘Why last time, You can meet her as many times as You wish, I have her contact no.’

Nilofar, staring at the ceiling fan- ‘ I guess no’.

I didn’t try to explain, assuming some personal reason of hers.

Nilofar-

‘So how did you find my address, I knew only you would try to reach me, not even Farah, I knew it since school times.‘

It reminded me of Farah’s words-

‘Nilofar was probably closer to you than me’.

She was right. I told Nilofar about the whole journey starting from Delhi to Chennai to Varanasi, skipping the haunting voice and Shakuntla Devi part. Shakuntala was right that the voice was Nilofar’s, her claim was that it could not be the voice of anyone alive as it was a spirit. So I didn’t share the exact reason behind my visit.

She asked- ‘ Why did u visit so late Arjun? You are just too late.’

I didn’t have a reply, and the reason I had I didn’t want to tell her. In fact, I had forgotten those haunting voices and terrifying nights after seeing Nilofar. Nilofar was roaming across the hall with small steps, I had just finished my dinner, it was as delicious as that could be cooked in some heavenly kiln. She was walking towards the opposite wall when I interrupted-

‘My love brought me here’.

She stopped, turned back, and replied in a thundering voice-

‘You are lying Arjun’.

I was taken aback, once again. I didn’t utter a word as I knew the truth behind my visit.

She continued-

‘It is me who brought you here, it is my love for you’.

I nodded in agreement, after a pause, trying to steal my gaze from her. My sight fell on a photo frame in which the schoolgirl Nilofar was standing by her mother’s side. The frame was covered with dust, I picked it up and blew the dust. That was my class 8 Nilofar.

I asked her why was her father missing from the frame.

She replied-

‘Abbu the hi kab hamari zindagi me’.

(When was there a father in our lives?)

Seeing my eyes full of questions, she started-

” The physical pain inflicted on my mother manifested itself into my mental trauma, the loss of interest in the world, but we were pulling our lives somehow, despite my father beating my mother like hell, the mother being silent and bearing only because of the financial security he provided which could get me some decent education, We bore everything to a point of no return, his abusive behavior increased with time, to a point that we realized that there was no hope left. He gave triple talaq to Ammy when I was in class 10th, my maternal uncles bore my education till 12th, and some ornaments sold by Ammy could fetch me 2 semesters of education in SIST, Chennai.

Do you know Arjun, you were the only guy who had come to gift me something, without expecting anything in return, even if it was a fake gold ring. I knew you would preserve the ring better than me, I had accepted it as mine that moment itself,

Wo meri amant thi tumhare pas. “

I interrupted-

‘Aah, so that’s the reason behind your reserve silent nature’.

She replied-

” Hope is what pulls us out of bed every morning, we had been losing that hope like a silken curtain slipping out of weak hands gradually, month by month, week by week, moment by moment. My mother had become too fragile to carry my burden. Maternal uncles too pulled back their support with time, and we were left with no hope of redemption. Against my Ammi’s wishes, I pulled out of my college and boarded the train to Varanasi, I wanted to take care of my ailing Ammy, and meet you in the future someday when things get back to normal. But as soon as I entered the haveli, I found my Ammy hanging by the ceiling fan.’

Nilofar’s dupatta slipped from her neck at that point and I could clearly see red marks all around her neck. I asked her the reason behind her neck injury.

Nilofar- ‘ My life was my Ammi, do you think I could have survived without her’.

My mind started running faster, thoughts started leap-jumping and Farah’s message started hitting my brain. I stood up from the dining table, went near Nilofar, and wanted to hug her once, but as soon as I approached her I could see no image of her on the mirror placed on the wall.

Land slipped from beneath my feet.

She was a ghost talking to me, feeding me, entertaining me in a haveli in some distant part of the town. Fear, anxiety, and all emotions engulfed me, but I can ensure that the tears which dropped out of my eyes were out of the sheer loss of someone I had loved the most. I had realized that she was no more, it was her image, my hallucinations and I was in a delusional world. The red mark around her neck was the one due to hanging by a ceiling fan. Nilofar had no clue about my realization. She stepped back to avoid the hug, I knew the reason. She insisted that I should go to sleep in the guestroom in the courtyard and we shall meet the next morning.

She went back inside her room.

I retired to the courtyard. Mind not working, I dialed Shakuntala Devi and explained everything in detail in the shortest possible time.

Shakuntala Devi-

‘Throw away the ring as distant as you can from her, just throw it and run away Arjun, spirits can take lives, she is in a constant urge to get you in her own world, so just throw away the ring’.

Nilofar had kept the ring on a table in the hall covered with red cloth, and as per Shakuntala, it was one thing of hers that I had in my possession and I had to dispose of the ring as soon as possible.

I walked inside the hall as silently as I could and walked to the table. Unwrapped the red cloth, but the ring was missing. Sensing complete silence I thought of entering Niolfar’s room to find the ring.

As soon as i approached her room, the door opened with a thud on its own, it was Nilofar sitting on the reclining chair, observing the ring in her palm.

Without turning towards me, she uttered-

‘So you want the ring so that you can get far away from me, and do you think I don’t know about Farah’s call or the call you made just now to Shakuntala? It’s not the ring Arjun, it’s you whose love had been pulling me to your doors every night. Spirits are not as evil as astrologers tell you.

But then, I had a life bereft of love and hope, but still had a ray that there is someone in blood and flesh who loved me, I was wrong.”

I didn’t utter a word and moved ahead to take the ring, Shakuntala had warned me of distractions by evil spirits and how they could try to change my mind. I picked the ring from her palm, which enlarged to almost a foot size as soon as I took the ring from her hands, her body flew with jet speed to the ceiling fan, and I saw her hanging draped in pure white clothes.

I didn’t want to lose her, but I had already lost her. I didn’t have enough time to get a good glimpse of her one last time, she had vanished to the heights of the haveli.

I ran out of the haveli crying, fear had disappeared, it was sheer sadness that had been energizing my speed, the sight of her hanging by the ceiling fan, images of me gifting her the ring in class 8, the images of the beautiful silent Nilofar who used to sit beside Farah, who would intermittently smile at me. I kept running for about 30 minutes with all these images flashing in front of my eyes, till I reached the main road.

I took a bus to the Ganga ghats. After all, what could have been a more sacred place to dispose of the ring than the holy depths of Ganga? I reached the Tulsi Ghat by around 2 AM, the time she used to knock on my door.

I sat on the stairs of the Ghat, observing the Ring in my hand. I wanted to hear Nilofar one last time, so I didn’t throw the ring right away and decided to drop it in the waters early morning. I waited the whole night, but no voice addressed me.

Nilofar’s words during the farewell party started ringing in my head-

‘The ring is mine, Arjun, keep it nicely’.

I was going to betray her finally. I dropped the ring from a boat in mid-Ganga. The ring spiraled down to the depths,and I felt that I had lost Nilofar forever.

I returned to Delhi the same night, by Shivkashi express once again. Didn’t share anything with anyone. No one would believe it anyway and I wanted to keep it between myself and Nilofar.

I handed back the locket to Shakuntala Devi and she said- ‘ You don’t need to worry now, you have thrown away the only possession of hers you had with yourself.’

Days, months, and years have passed and I didn’t hear Nilofar ever again. She had left me forever. With a belief that even I didn’t love her.

But do you know that Nilofar will return to me once again one day?

I had picked up her Dupatta with which she had covered her face, before leaving her haveli, it is lying in my cupboard right now, and I know that wherever she is, she knows that I wish to meet her again, I didn’t want to leave my love hopeless.

I am still waiting for that 2 AM knock on my door and Nilofar Reyaza Khan’s words–