I will call him Ravi as I cannot identify him to public. His father is retired Editor of a well known newspaper and his mother house-wife. Both divine souls live in temple and prayers for their boy to have a bright future. Ravi was madly in love with his neighbour Meena. Meena who had migrated to the place with her parents some years ago was richer than Ravi. Moreover she was well educated and employed with State bank of India. Ravi was jobless then. Ravi tried proposing Meena, but had to face a rule out in public.
Meena led a straight forward life and was close to her parents. A couple of years ago she got married with a guy who was a family friend of theirs. After her marriage Ravi got mentally upset. His parents persuaded him to a marriage and he married Swapna. Swapna was a nice girl from a moderate family. The marriage did good for Ravi. He recovered from his situation and did a good job in getting recruited as Manager in a retailing company. Ravi and Swapna moved to the city where he got the job.
Swapna was a very understanding and loving wife. This made life happy and smooth for the couple. But the happiness didn't last long. A year after their marriage, one day Ravi came back from work very early. He seemed very much disturbed. The man who usually comes back as formally dressed as he leaves in the morning came very weird that day. His shirts outside, tie loosened, hair distorted and worried look on his face. Swapna tried to console him but she was driven away. She had never seen Ravi like this. She tried again to talk with him and calm him down. This increased his fury. This was the first time Ravi raised his hand on Swapna. He left the house in fury and didn't return the whole night.
Ravi's routine got disturbed from that day. Everyday, for everything he found mistakes in Swapna. He started coming home drunk and bet her. Started torturing her using knives and even burned her skin. She was hospitalised once after she got a fatal blow to her lower abdomen. None of these events reached Ravi's parents' ears as Swapna remained silent. Until one day suddenly Ravi decided that they should go to his home.
Ravi after reaching home always locked himself up in his room. He was gazing through the windows all the time. He continued torturing Swapna in all possible ways. Ravi's parents were terrified to see all these. They also tried consoling Ravi but in vain. He was already out of his senses. He behaved violently with everybody whom he encountered.
Finally Swapna found out the reason behind all these. She followed the same thing what Ravi was doing everyday. Looking out through the window. The window looked to the bedroom of the nearby house. The bedroom of Meena. And Swapna could hear the cry of a baby from that room. From Ravi's parents she came to know that Meena delivered a baby boy a week ago. Swapna realised Ravi's problems started around eight months ago. His mind actually couldn't survive the fact that Meena is married to another guy and is now the mother of that guys child.
The torture continued. Ravi's parents had nothing else to do other than helplessly watch this. They continued visiting all temples praying for Ravi for his recovery from this mental stress. But the neighbours saw these as violence related to dowry as there was a discussion and negotiation on dowry matters during their marriage. In that part of the state dowry was not unusual.
One day when Ravi's parents were away in a temple, Swapna interrogated Ravi and tried to convince him that Meena was never there in his life. This ended up in terrible violence and it was the maximum that she could tolerate. She finally came into a conclusion that Ravi can never be brought back as a normal person. She was really tired of this torture and was not willing to endure it any more. She set herself to fire.
Police took case on alleged torture on dowry. Along with Ravi, his poor parents were also mentioned in the charge sheet as per the statements of their neighbours. Meena was the prime witness on the case. The mental stress suffered after this incident made Ravi's mother paralysed and fatally ill. His father broke down. His wife was the last person with whom he could share his problems. The same popular newspaper in which Ravi's father worked for his lifetime reported the case as a murder for dowry without even investigating the truth behind it. The family was humiliated and quarantined from society.
It finally ended with Ravi landing up in a mental asylum. It is said that he use to imagine that everybody wants to set themselves to fire. Recent incidents being pouring a bucket of water on the doctor in his cabin and pushing a co-patient into the well. Thanks Ravi was the only child his parents had. What if they had an unmarried girl child younger to Ravi. What would be her future after all these incidents?
The half-burnt house in our neighbourhood, still lies unoccupied and has this story to tell to everybody which passes that way. Can i hear Swapna's cries in the sleepless nights i have? Yes, I do...
