Manasi – Short Story (3 mins read)

It’s late in the night as Manasi slowly gets up from her bed. She tip-toes out the room and moves out of the main corridor of their huge mansion. Pradip, her lover is waiting for her near the railway station. Her heart skips a bit doing this most ungracious thing but her obstinate parents have left no other option for her than to elope. She loved Pradip and couldn’t think of living without him. Within few days of meeting him she knew that he is the right one for her. But her parents would listen none of it. They would pull out his character certificate and tell her that he isn’t the right guy for her. They just failed to understand how much they loved each other.

She tried to convince them many times over the past few days but to no avail. Her father had been very clear about this guy all through. According to him, she had the full freedom to marry any other guy but not Pradip, as ‘people don’t say good things about him’ .

How many nights Manasi had soe1nt in utter misery hating her father and the words he uttered for her beloved Pradip. Things were so bad that it became almost impossible to breathe in this house after a point. Under such a situation, Manasi had no other option than to move out of this house. With Pradip’s support and insistence, she finally took the decision last evening.

She looked back at the house one last time, her throat began to ache by now. Her heart was aching for all things dear and as she felt the surge coming up to her eyes, she rushed out of the premises and vanished into the darkness of the night, in everybody’s oblivion.

Next day Manasi’s family was woken up early morning by the local people and were sent to the railway station with an urgency. As the men of the house rushed to the station, her mother found out the little note that she had left for them, announcing her wish to marry Pradip.

The Station Master told her father and uncle that a dead body of a female has been found on the tracks and that the locals have recognised it as the daughter of their family. Her father’s heart was thumping in his chest. He rushed to the spot. He couldn’t bear to see the face of his only daughter, it was all smashed. He fainted at the sight. Manasi’s uncle took charge of the situation and collected the small bag which she was carrying with her. There was an utter sense shock regarding the whole situation. Nobody could understand how and why all of this happened. Her uncle quickly made arrangements to send his niece’s body for the post mortem report.

Back in the house, the women of this big joint family wailed and sobbed to no end. It was as if a big thunderbolt has struck the family, unannounced. With Manasi’s father being admitted to the hospital, her uncle gave the small bag that he found near the body of his niece to her mother. The woman was broken completely and with trembling hands pulled out the contains of the bag one after the other. When everything was out, she looked at it in a sudden shock. Her brother-in-law asked, ‘What happened sister, why do you look so strangely at the bag?’

She handed over the letter that she got from Manasi’s room to him. It read.

“Maa,

I am leaving this house, once and forever. Pradip is the right guy for me, alas you all didn’t understand that. Perhaps someday you will. Don’t worry about me, I am going to be fine. Pradip will take good care of me. Don’t search for me either. I am sure I will lead a happy life. I know my going away like this will bring a lot of disgrace to the family. If possible forgive me for this act. I had no other option. And yes, I am taking Rs 25000 with me, I took it fron your locker. This is for our future as Pradip doesn’t have much savings right now. I will return this amount someday for sure

Goodbye.”

Manasi’s bag didn’t have a single penny inside.

This is my Day 13 post for the #BlogchatterAtoZ challenge organized by Blogchatter, where one has to blog for all the 26 days in April, except Sundays, on a particular theme.

My theme for the challenge is ‘Short Stories‘

Please read my most liked story on this challenge so far, if you can spare some more time