I've been writing short stories for quite sometime and they have been lying around on my computer...just thought of publishing it on my blog (well! until publisher contacts me :). Well, till then the entire copyright rests with me!
The neem tree swayed in the autum breeze. Rahul stood on the balcony of their apartment situated on the third floor. It was just two more weeks for spring season and for Rahul to marry his childhood sweetheart Reena. They grew up together in a small town of Uttaranchal as best friends all the way till their schooling got over in the English school. Then they went their own way to pursue their college education. Rahul went to Bangalore and graduated with a degree in Computers and was working there for a software company, while Reena moved north to Delhi to take up a course in Journalism. They still kept in touch and as days grew so did their love for each other. It was during one summer vacation when they happened to meet at their town did they realize that their feelings for each other were more than just good friends.
Their families were only too eager to agree to their proposal. The weeding was fixed for the spring of that following year. Never did the time move so slowly in their entire life. Both were eagerly waiting for the wonderful day when they would be pronounced husband and wife.
Rahul’s father was a rich landlord and he had one son and a daughter Maureen. Rahul’s mother had died when he was very young and was since brought up by his grandmother. Reena was the only daughter of a very rich cloth merchant who was Rahul’s fathers close friend. Rahul’s sis Maureen and Reena were good friends; they were often seen together in town fairs and at social gatherings. So the bond was perfect.
Rahul was lost in thought, the neem tree below their balcony swayed as if nodding to his intentions. The spot above the neem tree was Rahul’s favorite in his two bedroom apartment. A few moments above the neem tree helped him relieve the days’ tension.
The sun came up and went down and it was time for the gala event. It was a splendid ceremony, the biggest, the small town had ever seen. Rahul was wearing the traditional sherwani and Reena was dressed in her favorite red color gaghra choli decked with a diamond studded necklace and matching pearl earnings. They looked so lovely together. All their childhood friends were there to wish them a lifetime of happiness. The entire town was in a festive spirit…a rich sumptuous lunch was followed by a wonderful display of folk dance.
In the evening both were tired and waited to get to bed. Maureen was worrying Reena not to go to sleep and forget the important thing. Everyone was happy. The entire town went to sleep blessing the cutest couple it had ever seen.
The sun rose and the sun set and it was time for the young couple to say good bye to their near and dear ones. The train bound for Bangalore was slowly rolling into the town station. Reena’s mother’s eyes were filled with tears as they boarded the train and the train slowly rolled away into the darkness of the night. The tiring train journey ended the next day evening. They hired a taxi and drove straight to their apartment.
To their surprise the entire apartment was out, eagerly waiting to welcome the couple with the traditional ‘aarthi’ which is believed to ward off evil eyes. This couple needed a hundred aarthi as every ones eyes were on Reena. At 23 she didn’t exactly have an hour-glass figure; she was fair, tall almost 5’7” and had a slender figure a well sculptured face lovely long eyes and her lips were as if sketched by a top artist. Her new tops and jeans outlined a voluptuous small town girl figure, the kind to die for. The eyes of all the men were transfixed on Reena and obviously she was the target of jealous female eyes. There was even a comment from one of the bachelors saying “Lucky bastard!”
When Reena opened the door to Rahul’s apartment, the one from that moment was to become their happy home she was surprised to see that it was well maintained. No traces of empty beer bottles or ash trays anywhere. No poster of Madonna or Pamela in the bedrooms. She was pleased although she teased him about having led a boring bachelor life. The apartment was perfect, the balcony on the living room opened onto a playground and there was greenery everywhere a contrasting scene to Reena’s apartment in Delhi. The bedroom well maintained and Reena instantly fell in love with the neem tree below their balcony. She was still exploring the apartment when suddenly Rahul scoped her into his arms and took her to the bed and she knew instantly his intensions. They made passionate love for the first time. The trance from best friends to soul mates and life partners had begun. The romantic atmosphere was disturbed by the creaking of the ceiling fan in the living room. “I’ll ask the house owner to send an electrician tomorrow” said Rahul, the thought of complaining to the house owner about the faulty fan and the switches had often slipped his mind.
The door bell rang and Rahul answered it with Reena close behind. It was the apartment watchman bringing them a pot of drinking water as the drinking water supply was only from seven to eight in the morning. As Rahul thanked him and picked up the pot he noticed that the watchman was lecherously eyeing Reena who was still recovering from her first love making and was standing there with her hair all tossed up. She was trying to be nice to him by asking his name and details about the vegetable market. Rahul immediately emptied the pot in his water purifier and waved the watchman away. He knew that Reena was the kind of women who would make a man weak in the knees.
The sun rose and the sun set, they spent many lovely moments on their bedroom balcony, the neem tree being a silent spectator to their sweet nothing talks. The watchman, the paper boy, the milk man all were enthralled by the beauty of Reena. Although, Rahul was proud of his pretty wife, he was greatly disturbed by the pervert looks that Reena got from people around him. Reena being still a village girl at heart could not see much beyond the friendly smiles of these people. The neem tree kept swaying and the fan keep creaking ‘Vroop-vroop-vroop’ it was irritating and Rahul promised Reena that he would remind the landlord to send an electrician at the earliest.
One day Rahul came home early to surprise Reena, the reason – he had got a promotion as a senior project manager. Reena had just finished her bath and opened the door wearing a black tee with the words “Happiness” written and stretched across her bosom and a cotton pant with a towel wrapped around her devilishly black bun of hair. It was welcome site indeed to the already excited Rahul. Seeing Rahul standing there Reena was overjoyed and threw herself on him hugging and kissing him. More kisses and more hugs followed after Rahul told her about the promotion. They decided to go out for some shopping and to have dinner at their favorite restaurant “The Maurya” at cantonment junction. Although it was around 3 months since their wedding they both still felt as if they were married just last week. A romantic evening it was, they held hands the whole time exchanged loving glances and Reena often nibbling lovingly on Rahul shoulder when he would tell her something to make her feel shy. Everything was going perfectly when suddenly a person in his early 30s groped Reena’s left breast as she was about to enter the crowded readymade shop. Rahul lost his temper and wanted to thrash the living daylight out of him but the guy slipped away quickly into the crowded street. Reena asked him to calm down and not to let this incident spoil their otherwise wonderful evening.
They spent the next 1 hour picking up a pant; she wanted a light blue jean with a slim fit. She selected a few that she liked and went to the trial room to try it on. She came out a few minutes later to model what she had selected to Rahul wearing a light blue low waist ‘live-in’ jean that looked as if it was stitched on and was showing an ample amount of midriff as her tops were not quite long enough. Immediately, many lecherous eyes darted straight to those milky white mounds of flesh. Reena lifted her hands ‘a-la’ model style and did a turn for Rahul to see how well the jeans fitted her. Rahul was not able to appreciate it as he was very conscious of the eyes that were feasting on her youthful body. ‘It looks great Reena’ take it snapped Rahul. She picked up a few more tops and a trouser for Rahul. They then had dinner at “The Maurya’ – Reena had Kashmiri pulao with chilly chicken while Rahul had his favorite dum biriyani with roasted lamb curry. It was great and it was almost 10:30 when they returned home. They threw their baggage on the chair and sank into the sofa tired.
The sun rose and the sun set and many passionate nights later, the result was the obvious – Reena was pregnant. It was the news the parents of Rahul and Reena were eagerly expecting for the past five months. Doctor’s visits were scheduled, dietary specifications were noted and they both were excited to enter the next phase of their lives – parenthood.
It was a bright Monday morning and Rahul was standing sipping his morning coffee standing on the balcony above the neem tree. He always hated Monday mornings since school and more so now as it was really difficult to leave Reena after two days of love and cuddling all through the day. Reena walked up and hugged him from behind making it even more difficult to leave for work. “Shall I take leave today?” he asked. She smiled and planted a loving kiss on his cheek and told him his water was ready and pushed him all the way to the bathroom. By the time he came out from his bath his clothes were neatly ironed and laid out on the bed. He got dressed had his breakfast and dragged himself to office still contemplating the idea of bunking office that day.
It was an unusually dull day at office; he had a minor disagreement with his team members and felt unhappy about the way the project was progressing. He left office feeling really dull and just waited to get home. The traffic, the pollution of Bangalore everything was irritating today. He reached home to find it locked, perhaps Reena had gone to the market he thought and opened the door and just slumped into the sofa. There was lots of sand like dust in the living room. Perhaps Reena was playing with some kids from next door he thought. With cool breeze from the fan caressing his tired body he dozed off immediately to be woken half-hour later because of the sound from the children running along the corridor. It was 6:30 already and Reena had not returned where would she be he wondered as he went to the bedroom to undress.
On opening the bedroom door he was shocked to see that the sheets were all tossed away, things thrown all over and a bottle of ‘J-Lo’ perfume on the ground broken to pieces. He was terrified wondering what had happened to Reena. He ran around the whole apartment searching for her but was not able to find her. He ran next door to enquire only to find it locked as it was occupied by a bunch of bachelors who always returned home late in the evening. He knocked on the doors of the other apartments in his floor but no one knew where Reena was. He came back home again eyeing the chaotic scene in the bedroom and went to the balcony flicked out his mobile to call a few friends where Reena might have gone. He dialed the number of Sheela with eyes filled with tears, the neem tree below swayed a bed sheet caught between its thick and dense branches. “Hello” said Sheela at the other end. “Hi, it’s Rahul. Have you seen Reena?” queried Rahul still looking at the neem tree below. Then the whole truth dawned on him and it was like as if a huge boulder had struck him on his head. The bed sheet on top of the neem tree was actually Reena in her night dress caught and hanging precariously from the branches of the huge neem tree. Rahul let out an ear piercing shriek, immediately the whole apartment complex bore a crowded look. People were lowered and Reena brought down with great difficulty and carried up to her apartment. Rahul was shattered on seeing his pregnant and beautiful wife torn to pieces by the branches of the neem tree. Her stomach was ruptured and one of her eye had been gorged by the branches. Her dress was torn and her body scrapped badly. The women folk immediately covered her with a saree and the police was summoned.
Rahul lay down on the sofa thinking this is not supposed to happen – Hope I am dreaming. Please God! Let it be a dream. The police arrived shortly and a burly man introduced himself as inspector Rao and tried to console a visibly shaken Rahul was still finding it difficult to come to term with what had happened. He then surveyed the house searching and ordered Reena’s body to be taken for post mortem. He knew immediately that it was a clear case of rape and murder; he stayed for a while more with Rahul enquiring if he suspected anyone but Rahul was too shaken up to think of anyone. Was it the watchman? Was it the bachelors next door who were also eyeing Reena? The inspector called for the watchman but he was nowhere to be seen.
The inspector left the apartment after questioning a few more residents. Neighbors stayed back with Rahul trying to console him and helping him convey the message to their families. The watchman was picked up the next day and he swore innocence saying that he went to his village for the weekend and returned only in the morning. Interrogations followed the whole day…suspects were picked up for questioning but the doubt was on the watchman. Later in the afternoon the body of Reena wrapped in a cotton cloth was brought home after the post mortem and laid out in the living room. Rahul who had been holding back his tears since last evening broke down and cried on seeing Reena’s lifeless body. He could still feel the wetness of the kiss she had given him last morning before he left reluctantly to work. His world came crashing down. The whole apartment complex was there to console him, candles were lit garlands thrown over Reena’s body. The whole atmosphere was in sharp contrast to what it was a day before.
The candles flickered in the breeze from the fans and kept going off, “Switch off the fan” suggested someone. Then a sudden realization dawned on Rahul – the fan was not making any screeching noise. He looked up to see a new white fan in the place where the noisy brown fan was a day earlier. That also explained to him the sand in the living room and reminded him of the call he had made earlier that week to the landlord to send the electrician to fix the fan. His blood froze his started feeling dizzy and fainted besides Reena on the floor. The neem tree swayed as if saying good bye to Reena and wanting to telling the horror story of what happened on that fateful afternoon.
Two hours later the electrician and his assistant was arrested from their dingy shack near a slum when they were getting ready to board a bus to Delhi. The neem tree continued to sway below the bedroom balcony.
Their families were only too eager to agree to their proposal. The weeding was fixed for the spring of that following year. Never did the time move so slowly in their entire life. Both were eagerly waiting for the wonderful day when they would be pronounced husband and wife.
Rahul’s father was a rich landlord and he had one son and a daughter Maureen. Rahul’s mother had died when he was very young and was since brought up by his grandmother. Reena was the only daughter of a very rich cloth merchant who was Rahul’s fathers close friend. Rahul’s sis Maureen and Reena were good friends; they were often seen together in town fairs and at social gatherings. So the bond was perfect.
Rahul was lost in thought, the neem tree below their balcony swayed as if nodding to his intentions. The spot above the neem tree was Rahul’s favorite in his two bedroom apartment. A few moments above the neem tree helped him relieve the days’ tension.
The sun came up and went down and it was time for the gala event. It was a splendid ceremony, the biggest, the small town had ever seen. Rahul was wearing the traditional sherwani and Reena was dressed in her favorite red color gaghra choli decked with a diamond studded necklace and matching pearl earnings. They looked so lovely together. All their childhood friends were there to wish them a lifetime of happiness. The entire town was in a festive spirit…a rich sumptuous lunch was followed by a wonderful display of folk dance.
In the evening both were tired and waited to get to bed. Maureen was worrying Reena not to go to sleep and forget the important thing. Everyone was happy. The entire town went to sleep blessing the cutest couple it had ever seen.
The sun rose and the sun set and it was time for the young couple to say good bye to their near and dear ones. The train bound for Bangalore was slowly rolling into the town station. Reena’s mother’s eyes were filled with tears as they boarded the train and the train slowly rolled away into the darkness of the night. The tiring train journey ended the next day evening. They hired a taxi and drove straight to their apartment.
To their surprise the entire apartment was out, eagerly waiting to welcome the couple with the traditional ‘aarthi’ which is believed to ward off evil eyes. This couple needed a hundred aarthi as every ones eyes were on Reena. At 23 she didn’t exactly have an hour-glass figure; she was fair, tall almost 5’7” and had a slender figure a well sculptured face lovely long eyes and her lips were as if sketched by a top artist. Her new tops and jeans outlined a voluptuous small town girl figure, the kind to die for. The eyes of all the men were transfixed on Reena and obviously she was the target of jealous female eyes. There was even a comment from one of the bachelors saying “Lucky bastard!”
When Reena opened the door to Rahul’s apartment, the one from that moment was to become their happy home she was surprised to see that it was well maintained. No traces of empty beer bottles or ash trays anywhere. No poster of Madonna or Pamela in the bedrooms. She was pleased although she teased him about having led a boring bachelor life. The apartment was perfect, the balcony on the living room opened onto a playground and there was greenery everywhere a contrasting scene to Reena’s apartment in Delhi. The bedroom well maintained and Reena instantly fell in love with the neem tree below their balcony. She was still exploring the apartment when suddenly Rahul scoped her into his arms and took her to the bed and she knew instantly his intensions. They made passionate love for the first time. The trance from best friends to soul mates and life partners had begun. The romantic atmosphere was disturbed by the creaking of the ceiling fan in the living room. “I’ll ask the house owner to send an electrician tomorrow” said Rahul, the thought of complaining to the house owner about the faulty fan and the switches had often slipped his mind.
The door bell rang and Rahul answered it with Reena close behind. It was the apartment watchman bringing them a pot of drinking water as the drinking water supply was only from seven to eight in the morning. As Rahul thanked him and picked up the pot he noticed that the watchman was lecherously eyeing Reena who was still recovering from her first love making and was standing there with her hair all tossed up. She was trying to be nice to him by asking his name and details about the vegetable market. Rahul immediately emptied the pot in his water purifier and waved the watchman away. He knew that Reena was the kind of women who would make a man weak in the knees.
The sun rose and the sun set, they spent many lovely moments on their bedroom balcony, the neem tree being a silent spectator to their sweet nothing talks. The watchman, the paper boy, the milk man all were enthralled by the beauty of Reena. Although, Rahul was proud of his pretty wife, he was greatly disturbed by the pervert looks that Reena got from people around him. Reena being still a village girl at heart could not see much beyond the friendly smiles of these people. The neem tree kept swaying and the fan keep creaking ‘Vroop-vroop-vroop’ it was irritating and Rahul promised Reena that he would remind the landlord to send an electrician at the earliest.
One day Rahul came home early to surprise Reena, the reason – he had got a promotion as a senior project manager. Reena had just finished her bath and opened the door wearing a black tee with the words “Happiness” written and stretched across her bosom and a cotton pant with a towel wrapped around her devilishly black bun of hair. It was welcome site indeed to the already excited Rahul. Seeing Rahul standing there Reena was overjoyed and threw herself on him hugging and kissing him. More kisses and more hugs followed after Rahul told her about the promotion. They decided to go out for some shopping and to have dinner at their favorite restaurant “The Maurya” at cantonment junction. Although it was around 3 months since their wedding they both still felt as if they were married just last week. A romantic evening it was, they held hands the whole time exchanged loving glances and Reena often nibbling lovingly on Rahul shoulder when he would tell her something to make her feel shy. Everything was going perfectly when suddenly a person in his early 30s groped Reena’s left breast as she was about to enter the crowded readymade shop. Rahul lost his temper and wanted to thrash the living daylight out of him but the guy slipped away quickly into the crowded street. Reena asked him to calm down and not to let this incident spoil their otherwise wonderful evening.
They spent the next 1 hour picking up a pant; she wanted a light blue jean with a slim fit. She selected a few that she liked and went to the trial room to try it on. She came out a few minutes later to model what she had selected to Rahul wearing a light blue low waist ‘live-in’ jean that looked as if it was stitched on and was showing an ample amount of midriff as her tops were not quite long enough. Immediately, many lecherous eyes darted straight to those milky white mounds of flesh. Reena lifted her hands ‘a-la’ model style and did a turn for Rahul to see how well the jeans fitted her. Rahul was not able to appreciate it as he was very conscious of the eyes that were feasting on her youthful body. ‘It looks great Reena’ take it snapped Rahul. She picked up a few more tops and a trouser for Rahul. They then had dinner at “The Maurya’ – Reena had Kashmiri pulao with chilly chicken while Rahul had his favorite dum biriyani with roasted lamb curry. It was great and it was almost 10:30 when they returned home. They threw their baggage on the chair and sank into the sofa tired.
The sun rose and the sun set and many passionate nights later, the result was the obvious – Reena was pregnant. It was the news the parents of Rahul and Reena were eagerly expecting for the past five months. Doctor’s visits were scheduled, dietary specifications were noted and they both were excited to enter the next phase of their lives – parenthood.
It was a bright Monday morning and Rahul was standing sipping his morning coffee standing on the balcony above the neem tree. He always hated Monday mornings since school and more so now as it was really difficult to leave Reena after two days of love and cuddling all through the day. Reena walked up and hugged him from behind making it even more difficult to leave for work. “Shall I take leave today?” he asked. She smiled and planted a loving kiss on his cheek and told him his water was ready and pushed him all the way to the bathroom. By the time he came out from his bath his clothes were neatly ironed and laid out on the bed. He got dressed had his breakfast and dragged himself to office still contemplating the idea of bunking office that day.
It was an unusually dull day at office; he had a minor disagreement with his team members and felt unhappy about the way the project was progressing. He left office feeling really dull and just waited to get home. The traffic, the pollution of Bangalore everything was irritating today. He reached home to find it locked, perhaps Reena had gone to the market he thought and opened the door and just slumped into the sofa. There was lots of sand like dust in the living room. Perhaps Reena was playing with some kids from next door he thought. With cool breeze from the fan caressing his tired body he dozed off immediately to be woken half-hour later because of the sound from the children running along the corridor. It was 6:30 already and Reena had not returned where would she be he wondered as he went to the bedroom to undress.
On opening the bedroom door he was shocked to see that the sheets were all tossed away, things thrown all over and a bottle of ‘J-Lo’ perfume on the ground broken to pieces. He was terrified wondering what had happened to Reena. He ran around the whole apartment searching for her but was not able to find her. He ran next door to enquire only to find it locked as it was occupied by a bunch of bachelors who always returned home late in the evening. He knocked on the doors of the other apartments in his floor but no one knew where Reena was. He came back home again eyeing the chaotic scene in the bedroom and went to the balcony flicked out his mobile to call a few friends where Reena might have gone. He dialed the number of Sheela with eyes filled with tears, the neem tree below swayed a bed sheet caught between its thick and dense branches. “Hello” said Sheela at the other end. “Hi, it’s Rahul. Have you seen Reena?” queried Rahul still looking at the neem tree below. Then the whole truth dawned on him and it was like as if a huge boulder had struck him on his head. The bed sheet on top of the neem tree was actually Reena in her night dress caught and hanging precariously from the branches of the huge neem tree. Rahul let out an ear piercing shriek, immediately the whole apartment complex bore a crowded look. People were lowered and Reena brought down with great difficulty and carried up to her apartment. Rahul was shattered on seeing his pregnant and beautiful wife torn to pieces by the branches of the neem tree. Her stomach was ruptured and one of her eye had been gorged by the branches. Her dress was torn and her body scrapped badly. The women folk immediately covered her with a saree and the police was summoned.
Rahul lay down on the sofa thinking this is not supposed to happen – Hope I am dreaming. Please God! Let it be a dream. The police arrived shortly and a burly man introduced himself as inspector Rao and tried to console a visibly shaken Rahul was still finding it difficult to come to term with what had happened. He then surveyed the house searching and ordered Reena’s body to be taken for post mortem. He knew immediately that it was a clear case of rape and murder; he stayed for a while more with Rahul enquiring if he suspected anyone but Rahul was too shaken up to think of anyone. Was it the watchman? Was it the bachelors next door who were also eyeing Reena? The inspector called for the watchman but he was nowhere to be seen.
The inspector left the apartment after questioning a few more residents. Neighbors stayed back with Rahul trying to console him and helping him convey the message to their families. The watchman was picked up the next day and he swore innocence saying that he went to his village for the weekend and returned only in the morning. Interrogations followed the whole day…suspects were picked up for questioning but the doubt was on the watchman. Later in the afternoon the body of Reena wrapped in a cotton cloth was brought home after the post mortem and laid out in the living room. Rahul who had been holding back his tears since last evening broke down and cried on seeing Reena’s lifeless body. He could still feel the wetness of the kiss she had given him last morning before he left reluctantly to work. His world came crashing down. The whole apartment complex was there to console him, candles were lit garlands thrown over Reena’s body. The whole atmosphere was in sharp contrast to what it was a day before.
The candles flickered in the breeze from the fans and kept going off, “Switch off the fan” suggested someone. Then a sudden realization dawned on Rahul – the fan was not making any screeching noise. He looked up to see a new white fan in the place where the noisy brown fan was a day earlier. That also explained to him the sand in the living room and reminded him of the call he had made earlier that week to the landlord to send the electrician to fix the fan. His blood froze his started feeling dizzy and fainted besides Reena on the floor. The neem tree swayed as if saying good bye to Reena and wanting to telling the horror story of what happened on that fateful afternoon.
Two hours later the electrician and his assistant was arrested from their dingy shack near a slum when they were getting ready to board a bus to Delhi. The neem tree continued to sway below the bedroom balcony.
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