“I see. What happened after that?” Rajiv asked.
“One day Poonam came home and told us that she wanted to marry some Prem Gupta who worked at the bank with her. Her father was livid and refused outright on learning that the boy was from another caste. She was carrying that boy's child in her womb. There was a huge confrontation between father and daughter and in the end Poonam ran out of the house. I told her father to go after her and bring her back but he was adamant on his stand. Poonam did not come home the whole night. I could not sleep a wink and cried that night but I needed to save my tears for... for her body was found floating in the PHC well. She had chosen to end her life rather than listen to us. Poonam's father refused to get her body or perform her funeral rites. He even refused to look at his dead daughter. In the end, a distant relative had to do the job. Masterji has declared that nobody should even take her name in his presence. Even I have talked about her after months. But tell me Doctor Sahib, why do you want to know about all this?” the woman looked at him with puffy eyes.
Rajiv did not want to tell her about his strange encounters. He said, “I have just taken charge of the PHC. The staff was talking about a girl committing suicide in the PHC. I thought that I'd meet you people and verify the facts.”
The CMO was pleased with the progress PHC Jhinjhana had made ever since Rajiv had joined and surprised him by accepting his request for additional staff as well as an ambulance. That pleased Rajiv no end and he walked out of CMO's office with the feeling of a job well done. He glanced at his watch and realised that there was enough time to catch the bus back to the PHC. He hailed a rickshaw and set off towards the Bus stand. The rickshaw trundled through the traffic as Rajiv took in the sights and sounds of Muzaffarnagar. Suddenly, he saw the signboard of ICICI bank towards his left behind some vegetable vendors. Acting on an impulse, he got off from his perch and walked in. The airconditioned comfort of the bank offered a huge contrast to the heat and grime of the street. He walked up to the girl sitting on the 'May I help you' counter and said, “Will it be possible for me to talk to Prem?”
“Prem? As far as I know there is no one named Prem in this branch. Could you tell me his full name please, sir?”
“Prem Gupta! He used to work in this branch with a girl named Poonam.”
The girl gave him a blank look, “Sir, I have been in this branch for just three months. You'd better talk to the manager. He has been here for a long time.”
Rajiv approached the manager, who was a dapper young man in his early thirties, introduced himself and said that he wanted some information about Poonam and Prem. The manager heard the names and sighed, “Poonam was the life of this branch, a bright and vivacious girl. She was in love with Prem Gupta, a boy from Meerut who worked in this branch. But there was some problem with her family. Poonam went home and never came back. She is said to have committed suicide. Some say her kin murdered her. We don't know what actually happened. As for Prem, he went into severe depression, resigned from the job and went back home. I don't know what happened to him after that.”
“Could you give me his address and contact number please?” Rajiv requested.
The manager searched around in his desktop and copied out the information on a sheet of paper.
“I am not supposed to be doing this. But as you are a doctor and from Poonam's village, I am helping you with this information,” he said, handing over the sheet.
Rajiv checked the address and the contact number on his way back. The address was of Shastri Nagar, Meerut. He dialed the number but the irritating voice of the operator told him that the number was no longer in use. He tried the number a few more times but gave up when the same message repeated again and again.
There seemed to be no other lead to follow except trying the Meerut address. “I will contact Prem Gupta and talk to him the next time I am in Meerut,” he promised himself.
The nightmares started that night. He had weird dreams, which he could recollect only vaguely. In his dreams, there was a shadowy form of a young woman who kept asking him for help. There were other dreams that were extremely disturbing but he could never recall them on waking up. At night, he could sense someone circling his bed but when he would suddenly wake up and switch on the lights, there would be no one in the room. He worked hard the whole day and kept himself busy with patients and administrative work but his nights became increasingly morose. He kept looking over his shoulder all the time as if he expected Poonam to materialize any moment but he never saw or heard anything abnormal. He lost his appetite and started looking haggard much to the consternation of his subordinate staff. “Doctor sahib par churail ka saaya hai!” They whispered to each