Now, Bhattnagar Ji was fully convinced that some ghost, spirit, or supernatural entity was influencing either his wife or his son. However, he couldn't understand what exactly this force wanted from him.
So far, it hadn't caused any direct harm, but it had certainly given him mental anguish. He didn’t know what to do or whom to ask for a solution. He had once visited a Swamiji, but that didn’t help either. On the contrary, that fraudulent Swami had increased his expenses. Look at how he sent him to a conman's jewelry shop! He must have received a hefty commission from there.
He felt some anger towards his colleague, Vilas Ji, who had led him into the clutches of such a Swami.
At one point, he thought about asking his son directly how he knew that Bhattnagar Ji, his father, had stayed up all night, while just sitting there. But he felt that if this really was a ghost or spirit situation, his son might get scared by the question and become even more disturbed while alone there. Thinking this, he refrained from asking his son anything. But he remained restless.
He still suspected that the beggar woman near the rabri shop had some connection to the confusion, as she was the same old woman he had seen in his first dream at the imaginary rabri shop. He often went there, hoping to find some clue, but always ended up eating rabri and returning without understanding any connection with the beggar woman.
Now that the matter had spread from his wife to his son, he was even more worried. It wasn’t that he didn’t care for his wife, but since she lived with him, he considered her safe. His son, on the other hand, was far away in the hostel, under the burden of his studies.
After much deliberation, he finally made a plan to take a few days off from work and travel with his wife to their son’s hostel to get to the bottom of the matter and resolve it. When they had gone to admit their son, they had stayed for two days at a nice hotel near the hostel. Now he thought that staying at the same hotel would also please his wife, as she was always eager to meet their son.
Today, sensing his boss’s mood at the office, he brought up the topic of taking leave. They say that if a person is troubled by one force, another power doesn’t take long to help. The boss immediately approved his leave.
Bhattnagar Ji walked out of the boss’s cabin feeling as if half his burden had already been lifted. His feet now hurried to get home and share the good news with his wife.
On the way, he stopped the car and bought some rabri. A short distance from the rabri shop, the beggar woman was standing by a fruit cart, eating a banana that had turned black from over-ripening, given to her by the fruit seller.
This time, Bhattnagar Ji stopped his car near her and personally handed her a two-rupee coin. She carelessly slipped the coin into a hidden pocket in her clothing and moved toward a traffic signal where a convoy of cars had stopped.
Bhattnagar Ji had already crossed that intersection.
As soon as he reached home, he prepared to share the news of his leave with his wife. But before he could, she came out holding an envelope and said, "Look, an invitation from our son's college. There's a function there! We’ll have to go."
(To be continued...)
