A Tale with a Twist

“hey, may want to i talk to shubhankar?”

“speakme.”

“bet who it is.”

“i’m sorry, i don’t have any idea.”

“how may want to you forget about my voice so soon?”

“do i understand you?”

the woman on the other side of the telephone giggles.

“of direction, you do and you know me very well.”

shubhankar, a little exasperated with this conceal and are looking for sport can’t cover the frustration in his voice.

“if as a minimum you give me a clue, i will try to remember.”

“k, we have been college buddies. Does it ring a bell?”

“no longer virtually, you’re now not the simplest woman buddy i had in my college days.”

“i recognize, you’re quite a flirtatious boy.”

over again, the sound of that tense laughter, shubhankar muses.

“any particular instance that could refresh my memory of you?

“sure. Do you take into account one love-struck young female who had the nerve to endorse to you?”

relieved, shubhankar replies,

“now i take into account. You need to have noted this incident inside the starting. How could i forget such an episode? Proposals don’t come to our gender that regularly. So, how are you, mouri?”

“mouri? You’ve even forgotten my call?” a whining tone is found in her voice.

“how ought to i overlook your name? I sincerely bear in mind, it’s mouri. Besides, if it isn’t, what’s your call?”

“rimi, silly! You could’t even take into account the call of 1 woman who proposed to you?”

shubhankar keeps quite for a second, a bit flabbergasted. He's hundred percentage sure that she is mouri. However, why is she lying?

“are you there, shubhankar?”

he wakes up from his reflection.

“of route, i'm, however you understand, what a accident! Rimi happens to be my wife’s call. And as a ways as i consider, rimi and you have been pals, can be not near buddies but sincerely i’d visible you collectively so usually. And if both of you've got the same call, i’d actually take into account that. Don’t you think so?”

“shubhankar, you have to go to a psychiatrist and get your head checked. I never had a friend known as rimi. And if i had, don’t you observed, i should be the primary one to take into account?”

now, shubhankar is at a loss. Either he or mouri—one among them should be out of 1’s mind. He hears a lot of noise on the other aspect of the phone. And all of sudden mouri hangs up. No longer even a very good bye or ‘call you later’. A burdened shubhankar sits on his armchair and takes a plunge in his no longer so antique beyond. He especially recalls the day mouri got here to him and proposed. He recalls the day so well due to the fact on that day, he first solid a furtive glance on rimi, his spouse. Although mouri denies any association, he virtually recalls, rimi turned into in her institution and all the ladies together with her have been laughing when the courageous mouri embarrassed shubhankar. He was never an extrovert man despite the fact that simply now mouri complimented him on being amorous. He was a shiny, top searching pupil and no marvel ladies had been interested in him. But he is taking no responsibility for this. Shubhankar now recalls how after that incident he couldn’t have a look at any girl at all without a worry of being mocked at. His buddies, however, commented that he must experience pleased with what had passed off. In truth, a number of them even needed to change their places with shubhankar’s. But shubhankar had no hobby in befriending a lady who become too sticky. Sure, that became the time period he regularly used, at the same time as describing mouri, later when he changed into going out with rimi. Rimi might smile away his remark. She even admonished him for being too harsh on mouri. Shubhankar listened but didn’t budge from his evaluation of mouri. And now after such a lot of years, she calls and pretends to have his wife’s call—the whole thing stays a conundrum. Anyway, he couldn’t care less. He's too busy to be taken with such frivolous issues. He need to wait until his spouse comes lower back from her excursion, and he'll then speak it together with her. Rimi and her ngo– in a month at least twenty days she’s out of station; shubhankar grumbles as although, if rimi had been present today shubhankar might have averted this undesirable call. He still believes that she should have spoke back all the puzzles. In his lifestyles, shubhankar can by no means forget about the influence of his wife. She is more balanced and stage headed than he. Any hard situation, rimi has a solution. Oh! How desperately he longs for his spouse! However he has to watch for at least per week or so. In the meantime, he can most effective desire that there’ll no longer be any extra cellphone calls to place his life in disarray. That night shubhankar has a chat with rimi on the cellphone. He refers back to the phone name but doesn’t expose the details. He shouldn’t unnecessarily disturb her. He is a grown up man; he himself must find a manner out of this present crisis. But at gift he’s too tired to address any mystery. He is going to mattress and right away falls asleep. The next morning is sunday and so, he'll get up overdue. However no longer this sunday; around 8 thirty inside the morning the ringing phone wakes him up. And what he has dreaded comes actual— the same voice and the identical tone.

“did i wake you up, shubhankar?” very sweetly mouri asks.

“as a matter of truth, you did.” shubhankar grumpily replies.

“oh! I’m so sorry. Remaining night time i hung up so that i concept i'd have offended you and this is the motive for such an early name. Please don’t mind.”

“it’s okay, now that i’m extensive awake what else do you've got to say aside from soliciting for an apology?”

shubhankar realises that he has been quite impolite to her. However he’s glad; at the least from the next day there gained’t be any greater smartphone call. Even an annoyingly clingy woman like mouri deserves to have a few self-recognize. But no, mouri belongs to a exceptional genre. She laughs loud at his comment. She doesn’t seem to have minded at all.

“i'm able to see you’re nonetheless angry with me for waking you up so early. By no means mind, now that you are up and approximately, let’s have a talk. Final night i thought approximately this mouri-rimi confusion and still couldn’t come to a rational explanation. While did you get married? And how am i presupposed to realize your wife?”

at this hour, such a lot of years after marriage that he might ought to vindicate his conjugal fame, to a girl he doesn’t like, shubhankar probable never imagined. He gives a dispassionate and curt respond.

“i’m sorry if you’ve amnesia but i’m sane and sound. As in keeping with my understanding, i began courting rimi while we were in our 1/3 year and that i’m more than certain which you belonged to the identical branch as my spouse. So, your not understanding her is out of query. And my marriage befell about five years returned after we completed our publish graduation. Can be, you were out of station at that point in any other case you ought to have were given an invitation card.”

shubhankar feels worn-out after giving such an complex account of his beyond and his courting with rimi. He desires to dangle up as all of sudden as mouri did the preceding night time. But for a few cause he doesn’t. He maintains on pronouncing,

“now i suppose i’ve satisfied you that i’m married to rimi and frankly i don’t care whether or not you’re mouri or rimi. What’s there in a name in spite of everything? I know simplest one rimi who occurs to be my spouse and whom i love very plenty.”

a sob, on the opposite facet of the phone, and shubhankar can’t consider his ears.

“how could you ditch me whilst you promised to be constantly with me, with the aid of my aspect?”

“i encourage your pardon.”

“didn’t you promise to get married to me as soon as we completed our studies?”

shubhankar cries in depression.

“how could you allege that? I'm able to by no means be this imply. You ask my wife. In fact, you may ask any of my friends.”

“why must i visit others after i had this kind of close relationship with you? I know you higher than each person else.”

shubhankar keeps quiet, what else can he say?

“do you don't forget how besotted you have been with my appears? You used to offer me such a lot of compliments.”

shubhankar by no means thought that she turned into stunning. In truth, he constantly seemed her much less than regular not only in brain however also in appearance. That’s possibly one of the many motives why he refused her thought. However nowadays he can’t say that point clean.

“why are you so quiet, shubho?”

listening to this term of endearment that is used simplest with the aid of his wife and very close friends, shubhankar gets furious. He fumes internal however pretends to be calm and attempts to trade the topic.

“through the way, in which are you calling from? Simply after your commencement you left the city and after that nobody appears to realize your whereabouts. Are you married?”

shubhankar at once regrets for bringing up the word marriage. He desires to avoid any unpleasantness but inadvertently he puts himself in a trouble he has so carefully tried to evade. He curses himself for being so silly.

“i’m in ranchi right now. And the way can i am getting married after i’m still anticipating you?”

the right place for this girl, shubhankar concludes. He looks at his watch. It’s past ten; he has been chatting with her for more than an hour. That’s it. He has to cling up now in any other case he will be transported to ranchi too. Shubhankar can’t help smile at his personal funny story.

“i’m sorry, it’s pretty late. I’ve now not yet had my breakfast. Will possibly see you some day.” and he hopes that the day never comes! How he hopes not to get any call the following morning. And happily he doesn’t get any. Sure, the curt respond has labored. The day passes uneventfully. At about eight in the night after he comes lower back home from his office he is taking a glass of beer and relaxes. Cring, cring—the cellphone within the bedroom makes an tense noise. Apprehensively, he selections up the smartphone and fortunately, it’s a person’s voice.

“should i communicate to mr. Shubhankar sen?”

“talking.”

“i’m dr. Mukherjee, calling from ranchi.”

too many friends in ranchi, shubhankar ruminates.

“do i recognize you?”

“no longer clearly.”

thank god. Shubhankar nearly speaks it aloud.

“i’m rimi sen’s doctor.’

shubhankar receives indignant via hearing this name again and again that belongs to his spouse and wife simplest. Still he composes himself.

“how may also i assist you?”

“in a variety of methods.” the doctor appears to have smiled on the other aspect.

“please be extra unique”, shabhankar pleads.

“i’m rimi sen’s psychiatrist. She came to our asylum about more than one years again. A chum of mine saw her in a train, honestly out of balance, whilst he turned into coming to satisfy me here in ranchi. He delivered her to our institute. The very first time i met her, she introduced herself as rimi ; unfortunately she couldn’t take into account some other call. The most effective factor she saved on announcing changed into that she had eloped together with her boyfriend to get married. When i admitted her right here, she was dwelling in a world of hallucinations and imagined that she got married in a temple. She even added her husband to me, an imaginary man or woman. With a number of attempt from our facet she remembered her husband’s name and, that became shubhankar. No surname, no deal with. There has been no manner we could get in contact with you due to the fact we had been as much within the dark approximately your whereabouts as she was. I’ve tried my quality for the closing two years to give her some semblance of sanity. At gift, she can at the least bear in mind your complete call, the call of your college, your face and things like that. And these pieces of facts have helped me song you down. Now, she even knows that you’re not her husband although she still believes that she is rimi sen. May be, sooner or later she aspires to be your spouse.”

after this lengthy speech, shubhankar flops onto his bed and asks faintly,

“so, what’s my position inside the whole tale aside from being dragged alongside by some crazy girl?”

“no longer an excessive amount of, a bit little bit of compassion from your side might also cure this woman who has been stricken by an imaginary betrayal for this sort of long term. In the end, she cherished you and nonetheless loves you very a lot.”

“however what am i able to do if she imagines the not possible? I’ve my spouse and that i’m very happy along with her.”

“i recognize; you don’t must marry anybody. You’ve to pretend to love her and hopefully not for an extended period, however till she receives back her sense.”

“not possible, i’m no longer an actor. Lease a expert. In case you pay properly, there are many who would love to do that activity.”

“i’m sorry, she highly remembers your face; in reality, the other day she showed me a photograph of yours.”

“i assume she’s bipolar because her activities or even her talk seem to be pretty coherent at times.”

“we, docs will decide whether she is bipolar or now not. My request to you as her health practitioner is which you must come to our institute and pay her a visit. She would possibly get lower back her memory simply via seeing you. Can’t i anticipate a touch little bit of humanity out of your side?”

“are you alleging that i’m being inhuman? From the day i met her she’s introduced nothing but misfortune. And now i’m being accused of being merciless! With the aid of the way, she is in ranchi and that i’m in kolkata. How can this sort of lengthy distance treatment work out?”

“again, you may leave that to us.” the doctor smilingly replies. “you don’t should visit her often. Twice a month inside the starting and later even as soon as a month will do. A few assuring and type phrases from you may exchange someone’s existence. Aren’t you excited?”

“sure, very tons so, sir.” shubhankar can’t disguise the scorn at the back of his speech. “provide me some time. My spouse is away. Permit me talk along with her and then i’ll get again to you.”

“expecting a high quality respond”, the doctor as though signing off a activity application provides, “exact night time, sorry for being so much problem.”

“exact night” shubhankar hangs up the telephone and worn-out is going to mattress.

“good morning, mr. Sen, your spouse has come to go to you. Don’t you appearance fresh these days? You need to have had a very good night time sleep.” shubhankar appears blank at the health practitioner and additionally at the woman whom he calls his spouse. He seems around, it doesn’t appear to be his bed room, so many human beings are there developing a large racket. Does he recognize this region? “what do you observed, health practitioner? How lots longer will it take for my husband to get cured?” mrs. Rimi sen enquirers. “see, mrs. Sen, your husband gets returned his old self as quickly as he comes to phrases with mouri’s dying. He nonetheless blames himself for that mishap; he still thinks that mouri committed suicide just because he ditched her and married you.” the doctor reassures mrs. Sen.