From The Pages Of HALF-SCROLL

 

 

PROLOGUE

A NIGHT OF LOSS

 

Suvasini had decided. Tears drenched her ivory face as she dashed towards the chasm. Heartache had over-taken her senses. Her world, devastated. Her grief, beyond consolation. Her loss couldn’t be reclaimed. Her soon-to-be husband was no more. Every dream she had woven about their life now lay in tatters.

            Shattered from within, she was oblivious about the spikes that had prickled her bare feet all the way. The sorrow she was bearing was much immense than the pain from those injections. Her blood left a trail.

A man was tracing those blooded-foot prints.              

            At last, she reached the edge of chasm. Darkness vague it’s true depth.

            “Please, don’t!” pleaded the man.

            She halted and turned to see her pursuer.

“Father, you lied! You betrayed me!” she screamed, heart-breaking sobs followed her words.

A man in saffron dhoti– a loin cloth wrapped around his waist -stood few feet away. His bare-chest was enveloped with sweat. One could easily mistake his age by his appearance. He looked as young as a person of thirty, a little older than Suvasini. Factually, he was her father. Time didn’t affect him as he was blessed by The Creator himself.

            'Please allow me to explain,' he pleaded with moist eyes. 'I did everything to save him.'

            “Save him? Weren’t you aware about the conspiracy against him?” she demanded.

            An uneasy silence prolonged between them. Finally he broke it, “Try to understand me, Suvasini. I am bound with an oath. Even if I want, I can’t tell you the complete truth.”

            “So you knew their plot. You knew that they were going to kill him tonight, weren’t you?”

            “Yes,” he admitted, “and I was a part of it.” Even though it was a half-truth, his eyes didn’t meet hers. He had already deduced the conclusion of their conversation.

            Her almond-like brown eyes widened from the revelation, Suvasini took a step near to her doom. Her own father’s involvement in the plan had left her no choice.

            “Please don’t. You are my only family,” he begged.

            She gulped down her sorrow and said with stern voice, “You have always chosen duties over your emotions. Righteousness over self-interest. I am fortunate to be your daughter. I have always followed your principles. I forgive you for your deeds and in-return I want you to forgive me about my decision. I have no reason to survive. Good-bye, father.”

            She closed her eyes and lost her footing.

            The man leaped in a foolish attempt to save his dearly loved daughter. But, he tasted sand.

            Suvasini was indeed a brave woman. Not a single word of agony escaped from lips when death cloaked in darkness embraced her.

            “He’s not dead,” the man muttered under his thick moustache. The barrier of tears exploded. He wailed in anguish, alone with a cursed long-life and a secret. Some secrets demands great sacrifices; her daughter’s suicide was his greatest one. His heart was crushed.

            His moanings was ebbed as thunder clapped in the clouds above. The drizzling tears of heaven washed away his.

            Neither Suvasini nor his father was aware that her restless soul would play a vital role in the conclusion of the mayhem; chaos which were destined to occur half and a century after her departure.