The Triumph Over the Devil’s Eye – Part I – A Bit of Wisdom & A Bit of Play!

This story is my response to TOI Write India Campaign.

“Gayatri…. Gayatri…..” Sayed frantically entered the house while screaming at the top of his voice. The maid came running down and replied with concern “Shabji, memshab apne room me hain. Who bohot dari hui hain aur mene aapko phone……” (Sir, madam is in her room. She is very scared and I called you to…..) Sayed didn’t wait for the maid to finish her sentence.

He leapt through the winding staircase that connected drawing room to the bedroom, only to see that the door was bolted.

Gayatri had locked herself in the room, yet again. This was a recurrent occurrence and Sayed was worried.

“Gayatri please open the door!!”

All that Sayed could hear in response were Gayatri’s sobs.

“Darling, look, its me, Sayed! I have come now and nobody is going to harm you. Open the door sweets.”

No response.

Sayed could not wait any longer. He was scared to death for the fact that Gayatri would often hurt herself in such situations. He had no other option but to break open the door. He ran to the store room and returned with a huge hammer. He put all the strength to lift it and strike hard on the latch of the door, but luck! The door remained locked. He persistently hammered the latch and after a few attempts the door flung open.

A chill ran down his spine when Sayed saw what had happened in the bedroom.

Gayatri was seating in the corner of the room with legs pressed against her stomach, her head buried into the legs. She had hugged herself as if she was protecting herself from someone. She was trembling and could barely breathe in between her sobs. There was no piece of cloth left on Gayatri’s body.

Sayed ran towards Gayatri and held her in his arms. He tried to shush her by caressing her hair. While he did so, he took a glance at the room. What a mess was created! Night lamp by the bed post had fallen upside down. The sheets from the bed were pulled out and crumpled. Gayatri’s mobile phone was lying on the floor, in pieces! Wardrobe was opened and emptied, the floor now housing all its content. It looked as if someone had ransacked their bedroom.

Sayed’s head was spinning. He could not comprehend what had happened. Who must have done all of this? Is Gayatri alright? Did someone molest her? Is my house robbed? Countless questions were crowding his mind and he had answer to none. All that he could do was to hope that nothing wrong has happened with Gayatri. All that he knew was he should calm her down. Gayatri could do dangerous things when hysterical.

After Gayatri stopped sobbing Sayed covered her with his shirt, cuped her face with his hands and asked, “Gayu, what happened baby? Why are you so scared?”

Gayatri made an attempt to talk but could not utter a single word. All that she could do in response was to merely point towards the mirror. Tears started flowing down her cheeks again!

There was a big crack on the mirror and Sayed’s heart leaped into his mouth when he read what was written on the mirror in red letters.

“LOVE JIHAD”

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To be continued… do make a guess about what must have happened!