TRUTH

WAS THE ARTICLE TRUE?

Without another word I left the house that day...... that day. Then last year Mrs. Roy got killed in an accident although nobody cared as I saw nowhere the news of her death. On the other hand, Sameer lost another person whom he had always loved. Since then, he has become wilder, his attacks have become more frequent. Today, when I saw both these brothers, I really felt sorry for them both of them but we were utterly helpless. Now that I could see that Sameer's death was approaching him day by day. I really wished that I could inform this to Ketan as well, I had always wanted to tell him that his brother's death was inevitable but I feared that even Ketan could have lost his stability at this.

I had to keep the visits to this house a secret, but today I lost my patience as I saw that. When I was walking down the stairs to leave the mansion an irritated Madhu came and stopped me "Go later, wait for some time." "Why?"

"Do what you are told to!" she looked fierce so I considered it best to follow her.

"Okay, calm down I will go back to the room."

"No wait here." She took me to a room that was always locked and closed the door from behind me. I had never seen any other room of the house except Sameer's and the part of the house that was visible in the way from the door to his room, so this room interested me. It looked like someone's study. Probably Mr. Roy's. The room was so unused that it had a thick layer of dust on its tables and chairs hence I considered it best not to sit but examine. There were three chairs, two were grand, put opposite to a table full of magazines and other papers. The third one was placed separately in a corner maybe as an extra. There were five shelves in the room, all stacked with books and covered with dust. I was confused that the five house helps were loyal enough not to leave their master's service but then why don't they even clean their rooms. The antiques kept there were really valuable but I couldn't still get it that why didn't they sell them even in the utter poverty they were living in while I was only thinking of this, I heard a man's voice.

"Sameer baba, o Sameer baba, see I have brought something for you."

"Stop shouting, why are you here at this time?" asked Madhu as she approached the man.

The man must have replied but this time he spoke softly and I couldn't hear anything, as I peeped through the key hole he was showing some sweets to her, he had come to give them to Sameer and probably they didn't want him to know that I was here because treatment of Sameer was a secret to the world.

Knowing that everything was fine I turned back to see the newspapers. I took the topmost one in my hand it was of the date 31st March, 2001 exactly six days after Mr. Roy was lost. Yes! Today is 25th March, Aasha's birthday and that is why Sameer got an attack today. However, the newspaper was not open on the first page but on the fourth page in the business column with the headline:

"FAMOUS BUSINESS TYCOON CHARAN DAS ROY'S STILL STRUGGLING SON KESHAV ROY GOES MISSING SINCE 25TH."

Another newspaper of 3rd April had a shocker for me as again in the business section was the headline:

"WAS KESHAV ROY KILLED BY HIS WIFE?"

I was shocked, I started reading the article

"On 25th of March Keshav Roy had gone out with his daughter but he has not returned yet. Yesterday during the police inspection, inspector Mr. Singh has told the media that the Roys' daughter has confirmed seeing her mother meeting her father when he went out with her. The child has also said that her mother beats her. The police thus suspects Mrs. Roy of hiding or killing her husband as the local people have also confirmed that they had seen Mrs. Roy taking her husband in a car and sending her daughter home with someone unknown. On the other hand, Mrs. Roy denies these allegations and....."