Lyrics Seven

“...paadhachuvadu thedi thedi kaalgal oindhu ponadhey..

naalum azhudhu theerthadhaale kangal yezhai aanadhey....

.... pogum vazhi nooraanadhey,

kanneerinaal seraanadhey....

illaadha uravukku naan seiyum abishegam.....”

I ran into the church. It was deserted. No sign of anyone. Ran to the Altar and quickly looked around. It was completely abandoned. I took my mobile and tried calling Ahmed but I couldn’t reach him.

“Something is not right!?”

I came outside the church and looked around the perimeter from the porch which was at an elevated position. It was still dark and cold.

“Ahmed..” “Ria..” “Anybody there?” I screamed at the top of my voice.

I started to descend down the stairs but suddenly felt a sharp pain at the back of my head. My legs started to buckle, I held my head tight with both my hands and closed my eyes tight in pain.

“Rahul?” heard a feeble voice at the back of my head.

“Rahul? Rahul?” the voice became more prominent and opened my eyes.

“Rahul? Rahul? Are you ok man?” Ahmed was the one who was shouting my name. Karthi, Ravi and few of my classmates were standing beside me. My breathing was little heavy that has made him panic.

“Man, you scared the hell outta us dude. Nightmare? Your eyes were really closed tight and your eye balls went crazy.”

“Is there a problem?” a nurse stepped in.

“No no. Now everything is fine. Just a nightmare.” Ahmed made sure.

“Can you guys please leave now?” she almost pleaded and left.

“Take Care man” “Get Well Soon” “We are here, don’t worry” after all these wishes and greetings everyone left. Just Karthi and Ahmed were there.

“Guys, what happened? What time is it? What happened to me?” I asked Ahmed.

“You should tell us what happened.”

“I don’t know. All I could remember was.....” “ You better say. What happened?”

“You have a fractured right wrist, hairline cracks in two ribs and by luck just skin tear and a Grade II concussion so resulting in amnesia for about 30minutes to 24hours.” Karthi had almost loss of breath once he finished.

“WTF!!”

“Ya..I better call the doc”

_

Ahmed just told my dad about the incident, its better my mom doesn’t know as of now.

“Guys, any news about who was it or something?”

“Nothing so far man. Just take care of yourself. We’ll look into it.”

We rented a home for the rest of the semester and also it would be better for me to recover. Almost 4 weeks have gone by, both my ribs and the wrist have healed but still no news of Ria or about the unknowns.

“He mentioned something like’Where is she?’, did he mention Ria?” I had no clue of what happened or Ria.

Just another week of rest and the final check up and to college again. But it was hard to get back to that place. The last 6 to 8 months was really beautiful. Now, without her, the void was still hurting me.

_

“Where the hell are these guys? No one’s picking the call too. Hell guys!!” I got frustrated and moved to the parking lot and planned to leave.


“They want me to work for the project and no one shows up.”

There was a scooty near my bike, the same red one. But I wanted to make sure so I went closer to it and noticed the plates, now am damn sure, it was her vehicle. With the rush of happiness I raised and turned around when someone hit me hard on my head. My legs trembled and I was on my knees.

It was Ria, “Where am I Rahul?”

“Nooooo” I just screamed and sat up straight on the bed. I was sweating heavily.

“What the happened man? Are you ok?” Ahmed woke up from his sleep and asked in a really concerned tone.

“Ya ya... Just a bad dream.” My phone started to vibrate.

“Who’s calling you at this hour?”

It was 2am and the call was from an unknown number.

“Do you know which districts code is 491?”

“No idea. Just attend before they disconnect it”

“Hello. Rahul?” it was a guy with a deep Kerala accent.

“Ya. Who’s this?”

“Rahul, this is Dhileeban, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Palakkad.”


Now


“Palakkad ah? Are you sure you wanna go?” Ahmed was kinda shocked and surprised.

“Just to invite some of my distant relatives man. I gotta go. I will be back by noon.”

“Hmmm ok. Hope you are not going alone?”

“No, definitely not. Karthi is accompanying me.”

“Be safe. Just a couple of more days for your wedding. Don’t wanna make a big mess out here. Ok”

“Ok man. Enga appa maathiri aayita da.” And I disconnected the line.

_

It was hell from morning.

“Dae, Have you sent the provisions to the marriage hall?”

“What happened to the flowers?”

“Have you sent the mehendi artist to her house?”

“The minibus has been confirmed. It’ll be here at 12 sharp.”

Everyone were running like anything, Ahmed and my uncle almost took of everything at the reception hall. Karthi was roaming around finishing off the last minute purchases. And I was just sitting in the home coordinating everything from home because no one gave me any work.

Once the minibus arrived, everyone left for the hall for lunch.

“Machan, You try to get some sleep, you gotta be fresh for the reception” •