Laughter in Darkness
A suspense, romantic and psychological thriller
By
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
“Forgetting about everything, sleep peacefully for this night, wake up tomorrow morning and go away from here. That is the best thing in my opinion to do.” Tanuja said.
“But I really like that guy Ratnam. I am really feeling to leave him with his problem like that and go away from here.” Rajesh said with a sad expression in his face.
“But that guy himself is not agreeing that he has been suffering with a psychological disorder. I don’t know what his family members would say.” Vinod said. “Under these circumstances as Tanuja suggested we may better leave this house tomorrow morning without worrying ourselves with anything.”
Rajesh nodded his head and remained silent and the drizzle sound was still ominous to them.
“Is it is equal to come to life again that spirits enter into their own bodies after death?” Sunanda asked suddenly.
“Why do you ask these types of absurd questions dear?” Neeraja said. “There are no spirits anywhere and the question of their entering into their own bodies after death would not arise at all.”
“Mom, what is death?” Emily who was silent all the time asked that question suddenly looking into her mother’s face.
“Why, why do you want to ask this question now?” knitting her brows together, Rose asked her.
“I just want to know what is death and why people feel fear to death that much.” Still looking into her mother’s face, Emily asked her again. “We talked about dead bodies and spirits coming into their bodies after their death. So I want to know first what exactly death is.”
“Your daughter has asked a very valid question Rose. You may better answer it.” Vinod said.
“But Vinod you also very well know this question is not that much easy to answer.” Rose said with a troubling expression in her face. “No one can say what exactly death is. That spirits theory is a religious thing and scientifically it is not believable. The stoppage of the activities of the body is called as death. There are several reasons which cause the stopping of the activities of the body. Non-functioning of the heart, non-functioning of the lungs, non-functioning of some other vital things in the body cause the stoppage of the activities of the body and we are calling it as death.”
“So in your opinion death means the complete stopping of body part activities. Nothing more than that.” Looking into Rose’s face, Aravind asked her.
Even they could not understand, Arjun and Madhuri also were hearing the conversation that was going on then.
“Then you tell me what exactly death is.” looking irritatingly into the face of Aravind, Rose said.
“In your opinion there is nothing in this body except this moss of matter, that is, blood, bones, pus, etc.” leaning back in the chair and adjusting himself to more comfort, Aravind said.
“I did not say it is my opinion.” Rose said. Suddenly interested picked in her also. “But what else in this body except that moss of matter?”
“If this body is nothing but moss of matter what that is thinking, feeling and imagining? Is just a piece of meat called as brain is thinking, feeling and imagining then? Can you identify yourself any of these body parts and say I am that piece of meat called as brain or bones or pus or something like that?” Aravind asked her again looking challengingly into her face.
“No, I cannot.” Rose said. “But it is very difficult to say what else is there other than moss of the matter in our bodies.”
“It is not just difficult to say but it is impossible to say what it is. The thing that exists in our bodies besides that moss of matter is indefinable and unthinkable. But it is there and it is in existence in the bodies. We have to agree with it, we can sense it but we cannot see it or show it.” Aravind said.
“Can we say the absence of that indefinable thing in the bodies causes death? I mean death occurs when that indefinable thing leaves the body?” Rose asked him again.
“We just cannot say like that.” Aravind nodded his head in negation. “There is no place that indefinable thing is not present and it is everywhere. Then how it becomes possible to it to leave the bodies and go away somewhere? In other words how can it become absent in a body when it is everywhere and there is no place it is not present?”
“Then are not you agreeing with the spirits theory? Are not you agreeing that every individual has his own soul and its leaving the body and going away causes death?” Sunanda asked him.
“I cannot say. This spirits theory has been in circulation for a long time and prior lives and post lives were also proved enough times. As per some theory, just like a physical body a spirit body also would be there for sometime. But gradually that spirit body would be mixed with the universal body and there would be no birth or death to it then. But it takes a very long time to a spirit body to mix in the universal body. It has to take several births and do lot of practice to reach that stage.” Aravind said. “And there is no place at that the universal body is not present.”
“We ourselves cannot come to a clear opinion what death is. How we can explain it to this small girl?” Vinod smiled and said.
“That is why I said it is very difficult to say what death is.” Rose said.
“I think I understood to some extent what is death by what you have talked till now. Even it is not completely that, stopping of body activities completely is death.” Emily said. “Anyhow tell me why people feel fear to death. So far I know the only dead certain thing in our lives is only death. Anything may happen or may not happen in our lives but at some time or other death sure does happen. Not just human beings no being on earth can escape from death. Then why people feel fear to death that much?”
“This question is not as much difficult as to define death.” Rose said. “It is just a blank wall after death. No one knows what happens after death. In our opinion and in our feeling there is no existence and identity to us without body. But after death this body is becoming just like any other inanimate thing around us. Death means we are losing our existence, our identity. The thought what would happen to us after death make us feel fear to death.”
“Is there no existence to us at all without bodies? Do we become completely non-existent after death?” Emily asked her mother once again.
“You asked one more difficult question to answer. In fact we have discussed about it till now. Anyhow I tell you about it in the best way possible. But don’t ask anymore questions for the present.” Rose paused a moment and said. “We are in existence without body also. But we shall be in existence like that no one can say how we are and what we are. That thing which is separate from the body or any of its components but in it is completely indefinable. It shall be in existence without body also but in the same indefinable way.” Then she looked into the face of Aravind with a smile. She came to understand it only after his saying so.
“Thank you mom, I think to some extent I understood what you have said.” Emily said and kissed on the right cheek of her mother. “If you don’t mind would you come into our room? I am feeling quite sleepy.”
“Alright dear.” Rose nodded her head and got off from her chair. “If you people don’t mind, I am retiring into my room for sleeping on this night.” Saying so she proceeded towards their room along with Emily.
“I am also feeling in the same way.” Neeraja got off from the chair and followed Rose and Emily.
Then all of them there were realized that they were also feeling sleepy. Rajesh, Tanuja, and Arjun retired into their room when Sameera, Sunanda and Madhuri preferred to go into upstairs first room. Aravind, Anand and Vinod preferred upstairs middle room as the bed there was enough to accommodate them three.
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Sameera made herself place on the floor and laid a blanket and pillow which were on the bed to sleep while Sunanda and Madhuri slept on the bed as the bed in that room was not very much wide. Sunanda said to Sameera to adjust on the bed itself but Sameera did not agree to it as the place would become too much congested.
It was small drizzle when they entered into the room and the climate appeared to them then was quite ominous. For a moment everyone of them felt fear to go into the upstairs rooms as the very thinking itself was creating tremors. But they overcame that feeling and came like this.
Suddenly there was an earsplitting thunder and heavy downpour started once again. With the sound of that thunder both Sunanda, Sameera and Madhuri woke up at once.
“This rain and thunder never leave us.” With a fearful expression on her face Sunanda said. “I think power may go off at any moment. We are not having even a torch light also with us.”
Sameera stood up as she was feeling too much uneasy. The possibility of power might go off at any moment making her feel intense fear. She just could not stay here in that pitch darkness. Then she quite casually looked into the corner of that room and a cry emitted immediately from her mouth.
“What, what happened?” Sunanda immediately came near to her and put her hand around her shoulders. “What you are looking at?” looking at the direction that Sameera was showing with her index finger, she asked her.
“It went off, it went off through the window.” Heavily slumping herself on the floor there, Sameera said.
“What, what that is you looked at and what that went off through the window?” still looking confusingly into the face of Sameera, Sunanda asked her.
“That black snake, I saw that black snake again. But as soon as I yelled, it went off through the window again.” Sameera’s voice shivered while saying that.
“Oh, my god! Why you are imagining things like these?” with a fearful expression in her face, Sunanda asked her.
“It is not my imagination….” Sameera tried to say something
But then Aravind entered into that room. “I felt like that I have been hearing sounds from this room, so I came.” Looking into the faces of Sameera, Sunanda and Madhuri, Aravind said.
“Aunty once again imagined a black snake in this room.” Looking into Aravind’s face, Madhuri said.
“I became easy to you also. I really saw a snake there.” Looking angrily into the face of Madhuri, Sameera said.
“But when we looked at that side she showed to us there was no snake at all.” Madhuri said again.
“Yes, my daughter said it right.” Sunanda nodded her head.
“Mukinni, that bad angel is appearing to my wife like this.” Aravind mumbled.
“Aravind I saw a real snake there. It was not any bad angel. I don’t know how it has come there but it went out through the window.” Sameera got up from the floor and looking into the face of Aravind said.
(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.)
