Laughter in Darkness
A suspense, romantic and psychological thriller
By
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
Ratnam’s forehead was creased with frowns while Vinod was asking him like that. Everyone there was looking eagerly into the face of Ratnam.
“It happened after the death of grandma. On one day they came to me and asked me.” Ratnam said and paused.
“Who came to you and asked you?”
Before Ratnam answered that question old woman’s room was opened and Rajesh, Tanuja and Sameera came out of it. Ratnam got off from the chair as soon as he looked at Rajesh.
“Oh, it is you!” looking into the face of Ratnam with a surprising expression Rajesh asked him. There were equal surprising expressions in the faces of Tanuja and Sameera also.
“Ratnam came here to apologize to you. He is feeling very much bad for the way he talked with you in the afternoon.” Looking into the face of Rajesh, Vinod said.
“Its alright. I can excuse you for that.” Rajesh sat in the chair near to Ratnam’s chair and Tanuja and Sameera also sat in the side by side chairs to him. “But I became very much upset with what you have said. I just could not digest that. How I do put fire to my grandma’s body while she was alive?” with gathered frowns, Rajesh asked him.
“There was no fault in you sir. Grandma was in all respects just like a dead woman at that time. I also thought about her so even I could not believe she was dead.” Ratnam said.
“That means grandma was not dead then in your opinion?” Rajesh knitted his brows together.
“I don’t want to say anything on that sir, I just don’t want to.” Ratnam said once again with a troubling expression in his face. “Don’t ask me anything about it.”
“Its alright Rajesh. Don’t press him about that. Ratnam is telling us one more important thing to us now.” Then Vinod explained to him what Ratnam and he talked until that moment. Rajesh eyes became wide with surprise on hearing that.
“Now tell us Ratnam, who came to you and what they asked?” Vinod asked him again once he finished saying to Rajesh.
“That Semanthakam and Nagaraju came to me and they asked me why I let grandma’s body to be cremated while she was alive.”
All the people there felt as if a live cobra was dropped among them then.
“Semanthakam and Nagaraju came to you? Did they came as spirits?” while her heart beat was increasing even more, Sameera asked him.
“They are spirits now of course. But they entered into their dead bodies. They are once again in their own bodies.” Ratnam said.
Once again they heard an ear deafening thunderstorm nearby and a small drizzle started once again.
“Absurd! Just absurd! I cannot believe it even a little.” With an angry expression in his face, Rajesh said.
“I am helpless if you cannot believe what I have said. But they came to me and asked me like that. From that moment itself I am not feeling well. Occasionally I just don’t know what I am doing. People are calling me mad.” With a worrying expression in his face, Ratnam said.
“You are really stare mad, there is no doubt at all.” with the same angry expression in his face, Rajesh said to him.
“Dr.Rajesh, please don’t take it seriously and don’t upset him more.” Cautioning Rajesh with her eyes, Rose said.
“Yes, Rajesh, we are trying to know about the reason for his madness. You just remain calm. Whatever he is saying is not true and we all know about it. Don’t become anxious. ” Vinod said with a small voice only to be heard to Rajesh.
“Alright” Rajesh nodded his head and remained silent.
“Where that Semanthakam and Nagaraju are now?” Vinod asked him again.
“I don’t know. They may be anywhere. They are having supernatural powers with them now. They can even fly in the air also.” With a surprising expression in his face Ratnam said.
There was silence and the sound of the drizzle was quite ominous to them all then.
“Do you know one thing? On one day my dad accidentally entered into the room where their dead bodies were kept. From that moment itself he became mad and could not become normal again. Ultimately he died with that madness itself.” Ratnam said.
“We have asked you many a time about the reason for your dad’s madness. You never told us about it before.” Looking accusingly into the face of Ratnam, Rajesh said.
“I too could not know about it until the very last days of my father.” With an apologetic expression in his face, Ratnam said. “I heard him mumbling in himself and came to know about it only in his very last days.”
“Anyhow you know one thing? We opened the doors of that upstairs room and could not find anything in it at all.” Vinod said suddenly.
At once there came a shocking expression into the face of Ratnam. “You opened the doors of that room? Why did you do so? It is quite dangerous!”
“Why it is dangerous? We have not found any dead bodies in that room. It is all empty.” With an irritating expression in his face, Rajesh said.
“Whatever in that room cannot be known to our five senses just because they are not normal things.” Ratnam said.
“But those dead bodies are out from that room as the respective spirits of them entered into them and moved out. What other paranormal can be in that room now?” Vinod asked him.
“That Semanthakam and Nagaraju are not staying all the time in their dead bodies. Sometimes they are leaving the bodies somewhere and entering into the room. That room is specified for them both by grandmother to take rest.” Ratnam said.
“I don’t think that grandma would ever bother about that Nagaraju. He is a rogue.” Rajesh could not contain his irritation at all.
“I already told you before and tell you again. That Nagaraju and grandma were lovers. No one knows how grandma’s marriage with Semanthakam took place but grandma indeed loved Nagaraju. This was what I have known through my father. There is no one else anywhere who knows more about grandma than my father.” Ratnam said.
There was once again silence among them until it was broken by Rose. “Are you hearing sounds or seeing visions? Are you feeling like someone is trying to talk with you?”
“Yes, that is the main problem.” Ratnam turned and looked into the face of Rose. “Sometimes I am hearing sounds. They are cursing me and scolding me. Sometimes I am seeing that Semanthakam and Nagaraju are flying in the air.”
Rose looked into the face of Vinod and hissed out heavily.
“If we give treatment to your problem to cure it, would you agree to it?” Vinod asked him.
“What type of treatment? Do you people going to join me in a mental hospital?” with a fearful expression in his face, Ratnam asked him.
“It is not so. You never even need to see a mental hospital. We give some medicines to cure you from this problem if you want.” Vinod first of all wanted to know whether Ratnam would agree that he was suffering from a psychological disorder.
“I…I have to think about it.” with a low voice Ratnam said.
“Then think carefully and tell. If you agree there is no problem to us to give you the best treatment and cure you. We are psychiatrists.” Rose said.
“What psychiatrists mean?” looking confusingly into her face, Ratnam asked her.
“Psychiatrist is a doctor who cures the problems associated with mind.” Rose said again.
“But I am not suffering from any psychological disorder.” With a little irritating expression in his face Ratnam said. “Now I want to go” he got off from the chair.
“Would you arrange breakfast to us in the morning? We all do want to leave this place at eight in the morning.” Looking at him Rajesh asked.
“I sure do arrange, that is not a problem.” Ratnam said. “But I don’t come in the morning. I just don’t know how I behave at sometimes. I only want to apologize to you for the way of my talking in the afternoon so I have come now.”
“There would be no problem whatsoever and you may please come.” Rajesh said. “I don’t feel offensive even you behave oddly.”
“I think about it.” saying so Ratnam abruptly turned and went away from that place.
&&&
“There is no doubt now to say that Ratnam is suffering from a psychological disorder. As it has been discussed before it is shared psychotic disorder. His father’s madness influenced him and made him also mad.” Neeraja said.
“That Semanthakam and Nagaraju came to him and from that moment he became like that. I think that was the reason for his madness.” Tanuja said.
“Are you really believing that? He just imagined that so. Neither Semanthakam nor Nagaraju nor any zombie made him so.” Neeraja said again.
“I just cannot believe that he has become mad just because his father turned mad in his old age.” Tanuja asked her.
“His father’s madness is not the only reason for his madness. He is very much influenced by the stories he heard about grandma, Semanthakam and that Nagaraju. His obsessive thinking about Semanthakam and Nagaraju made him imagine like that. It is nothing more than that.” Neeraja said with firm voice.
“Is it is your opinion also?” looking into the face of Rose, Rajesh asked her.
“Not just me, any person with sanity just thinks like that. How you can believe in zombies, spirits like things?” with a smile on her lips, Rose said.
“Are you thinking that his madness is curable?” Sunanda asked her.
“It has to be seen” Rose said thoughtfully. “His madness may not be entirely caused by some external incident. If it is not shared psychotic disorder, considering his father’s matter also, this madness in him is appearing like hereditary. Whole of their family members may be suffering from sort of madness like this.”
“But neither his father nor he suffered madness until a long time in their lives.” Rajesh said.
“We discussed about this also, have you forgotten? Sometimes madness surfaces in people only in their later ages. It is called as paraphrenia. Moreover we did not do any research how that Ratnakar or this Ratnam behaved from the very beginning of their lives. It might be in them from scratch but in an unnoticeable degree for a long time.”
“But hereditary madness is difficult to cure. My mom’s madness was hereditary. Doctors have tried in several ways to cure her but it has not become possible.” Neeraja said. “The point Rose said is also noteworthy. For a long time this inherited madness might be in these patients in slightest and unnoticeable degree. It may time to it to be exposed completely in them. My mom also started suffering with heavy madness only after her marriage. Before her marriage she did a job in a bank also. She started suffering from it severally only after I entered into my fifteen years age.”
“It is indeed very much pathetic that your mother had suffered from madness like that.” Sameera said.
“Alright. She is no more now and I have made terms with my life.” Neeraja smiled.
“On another count also it may be difficult to cure Ratnam’s madness. He is not ready to agree that he is suffering from a psychological disorder. In such situations where patients don’t agree that they have been suffering from a psychological disorder, they need to be considered as wild and be treated by psychiatrists.”
“What is the best thing to do now?” Rajesh asked.
(I hope that you enjoyed upto here. I shall publish the next chapter as soon as possible. Please don’t forget to rate and review.)
