The Storm

Two cyclones hit our coasts, recently. Dr. Priyamita’s evocative short story tells us about another storm, raging within. An exclusive for Different Truths.

Abhi (Abhishek) looked fondly at the house before entering. He still remembered the first time he had set foot in this house, almost 10 years ago….

Abhi and his mother had moved into the Ganguly household as tenants when Abhi was just 14 years old. Abhi’s father had just expired, and his mother wanted a change of place…

The Gangulys’ lived in a three-storied house but only the top floor was occupied by their family, viz. Mr and Mrs Ganguly and their son, Pradip and daughter, Prantika. Pradip was the same age as Abhi, while Prantika was three years older.

The Gangulys took an instant liking to Abhi and his mother and treated them like family. Many a happy evening were spent together by both the families…Pradip and Abhi flying kites on the terrace, while Prantika egged them on, their mothers sitting leisurely and gossiping over steaming cups of tea, Mr Ganguly returning home in the evenings with hot samosas and jalebis for the children…

Prantika was a complete tomboy and a born prankster, always upto some mischief or the other. Abhi just adored her. He still remembered that eventful day of Holi, when Prantika had added some bhaang to the thandaai, prepared by her mother. The entire household, including the servants, were unaware of it. How the kids had burst into peals of laughter at the hilarious antics of everyone! After the frenzied euphoria had died down, Prantika’s father was furious! Looking at Prantika’s terror-stricken face, Abhi had immediately taken the blame for the misdeed. What a thrashing he had got from his mother that day! Prantika had given him some chocolates as a peace-offering that evening but she didn’t have to… Abhi would have gladly taken the blame for her again… any day!

Prantika was a born artist. Her funny caricatures of her parents or teachers would crack Abhi up every time! Abhi used to write poetry and wrote several poems on Prantika, but he never had the courage to hand her even one of his poems!

One day, Prantika was returning home from school and some local boys were following her… leering and wolf-whistling. Abhi was walking down to the grocery-shop that very minute and he chanced upon those boys following her. Now, Abhi had always been an introvert…an extremely well-behaved child and had never gotten into any brawls before. However, that day he didn’t know what came over him! He got into a huge scuffle and was beaten black and blue by the boys (who were almost twice his size)! He got a fat lip and a black eye…and bruises all over! Abhi’s mother had wanted to take him to the hospital but Abhi had refused flatly, even though he was wincing in pain! Prantika had rushed to the drugstore to buy some painkillers and betadine…

Abhi was still in college when Prantika got married. The groom was an NRI and Prantika was so excited to start her life abroad. Abhi still remembered her gleefully prancing around the house, caught up with the wedding-preparations! The day before the wedding, Abhi got to know that the groom’s family was not satisfied with the jewellery that Prantika’s father had bought! Prantika never found out how Abhi had spent the entire day changing the jewellery even though he himself was running a fever that day!

After her marriage, they lost touch. Abhi had finished college and bagged a job in Bangalore. Soon enough, he purchased a small flat over there and decided to shift permanently to Bangalore. He returned to the Ganguly-house, now, after years, to take his mother and leave Kolkata, once and for all…

To his surprise, he saw that Prantika had also returned to the Ganguly-house! She greeted him wordlessly at the door and ushered him in, without even looking at him. This was not the Prantika that he remembered! Her face was withdrawn, and she had dark circles under her eyes. Her once twinkling, effervescent eyes were now hollow and distant!

Later that night, Abhi’s mother told him that Prantika had been subjected to terrible domestic violence. Her husband would return home, drunk, every night and beat her up mercilessly. Prantika had tried extremely hard to make her marriage work, but in vain. After several years, she had finally found the courage to leave her husband and return to Kolkata, for good.

However, things were not the same for Prantika in the Ganguly household either! She was not the pampered princess of the family anymore! Her father had died two years back and her brother, Pradip and his wife were not too happy to have her back. Abhi’s mother told him, unwillingly, that Prantika was frequently subjected to taunts from her sister-in-law who despised her sudden and unwelcome return. Prantika spent almost all her time cooped up in her room and Abhi’s mother was her only visitor and she, too, had stopped going there now… because she could hardly squeeze a word out of Prantika anymore. Prantika had been reduced to a silent ghost… a far cry from her talkative, boisterous, and mischievous days!

Abhi’s blood was boiling! He could not fathom how the delicate, cheerful angel of a girl had been abused for so long! He wanted to tear the monster from limb to limb. He didn’t sleep at all that night… he kept on tossing and turning in his bed. He finally looked at his watch…it was almost 5am. He went to the terrace to grab a smoke. To his surprise, he saw Prantika sitting and painting there!

Prantika looked up as she saw Abhi but quickly averted her eyes. She had lost a lot of weight since the last time he had seen her. She looked pale and listless. Her night-gown hung loosely from her fragile frame and her collarbones stuck out at sharp angles.

Abhi didn’t know what to say! He said, softly, at last…

“Hey, you are up! What are you painting?”

Prantika said, her voice hoarse, “Well, it’s an image of a sunset…. The final rays of the sun dimming and disappearing into the sky… and everything being engulfed by absolute darkness…” Her voice trailed off.

Abhi said, “Well, from where I am standing, it appears like sunrise…. The darkness slowly fading away and the sky being embraced, once again, by the golden rays of hope…”

Prantika looked up and after several years, their eyes met…

There was a terrible storm that night. The thunder and incessant rain made it impossible for anyone to sleep at all. It was almost as if years of drought were being washed away by the Rain-Gods! Abhi wrote a poem that night, The Storm, and gifted it to Prantika the next morning. It was the most beautiful poem that she had read in her life!

Later that year, Abhi and Prantika got married and shifted to Bangalore with his mother to start a new life. Abhi painted his room white so that the colourful and arresting painting of the Sunrise (by Prantika) stood out on his wall in all its glory…  

The Storm 

Abhi 

The truth, finally, hit her like a storm,
Unrelenting, brutal… it was not the norm…
She felt the tempest arise from within
Tried to stop it, but finally gave in!
 
Was it really thunder or a figment of her imagination?
The sky was ignited, without any justification...
She felt alive in years… dancing to the beats of thunder!
She tried to fight it but succumbed to its sweet surrender…
 
‘It was at once sheer agony but pure bliss;
It was something she wouldn’t ever want to miss...
Her long-suppressed fears finally perished!
She now knew what it was to feel cherished.
 
As she faced the wind, drenched in the rain…
She knew she would never feel the same again!
Lost though she was in the mercurial cyclone…
She knew she would never again be alone.
 
The storm had finally passed, and all were vandalised…
Yet she wanted it to remain a dream...never be realised!
Like a phoenix that was reborn from the ashes,
She finally found herself...amidst the thunder and the flashes...

Visuals by Different Truths