We went to Ishana's funeral and it was being held in the graveyard. I recalled my own death in my previous birth but everyone has to die one or the other day. I walked forward with Ragini and they all were crying badly. I prayed for Ishana that all her sins are forgiven and she is sent to heaven. All the last rites were done according to Muslims. Shantanu took the spade and dug the grave and when he was done, he buried her. He squeezed his eyes shut while crying. "Beta, please you don't be sad," Ashwin uncle said.
"From ashes to ashes, from dust to dust. You'll rise again, in this I'll trust. You're in our hearts, 'till the end. We will meet again, depart my friend. You may be gone, but I know you're near. In my heart, I hold you dear. My only hope, in peace you'll rest. I still miss you, I bet you guessed. I'll see you soon, it's a must. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," Shantanu said the poem for Ishana as he put the soil on her and watered the grave. He came to me sadly and cryingly but thankfully too.
"Thank you Gauri, you got her body freed else she would've never got peace," he said. "No no, humans help humans, and if I freed her body, I didn't do any big work, a human's responsibility is to love other humans around, I did the same," I said and smiled slightly at him and he too smiled at me slightly and went. We all were about to leave from the graveyard but suddenly, a sand storm occurred over there, strong winds started to blow and all of us found it difficult to stand straight. Everyone were shielding their eyes, when my gaze went on the grass, my jaw dropped open in surprise.
All the soil was getting removed from above the dead body slowly revealing it. Everyone else too saw it and rushed to the grave. To our shock, Ishana's dead body began to glow and lifted on it's own in the air and was soon placed on the floor carefully. We all were amazed. Ishana jerked and moved a little shaking her head creasing her eyebrows. She started to cough because of dust and slowly opened her eyes. She began to look around and stood up all of a sudden. She herself looked too shocked looking at everyone's crying faces.
"Papa? Mumma? Tamanna? Shantanu? Why we all are here and how? I remember we were coming back from club and riding back home, right?" she said and Shantanu broke into tears and pulled her into a hug. "It's a miracle that you came out of the dead," he said. "Out of the dead?" she asked hugging back. "Yes, we all were so sad, Ashwin uncle was in a hope that you will come back one day for sure, Tamanna was living in denial and she used to see you everywhere, Tanusha, our daughter, just kept on asking us to find you."
Shantanu kept on saying. "Janvi aunty got mentally disturbed, most importantly, Gauri, she was tortured by some evil soul who possessed your body while your soul was away," he told her still in the hug. "I remember that I really did appear in front of Tamanna, she wasn't living in a denial, I tried to appear in front of you all but failed," Ishana said shocking everyone.
{Flashback:
Ishana's lost soul came to Shantanu and tried talking to him. "Shantanu? Shani look I m here," she said but he couldn't hear her and she was shocked to see him passing through her.
She disappeared from there disappointedly. Then she appeared in front of Tanusha. "Tanu? Baby look, mumma is here, mumma is here, look," she said to her and cupped her cheeks but her hands passed through her face and she was shocked as she too passed through Ishana. Poor soul then went to Janvi. "Mumma?" she said placing her hand on her shoulder but her hand passed through her as well. She got tears in her eyes and saw Ashwin entering the room. She ran to him. "Papa?" she said but he too passed through her. She began to cry in disappointment.
She fell on her knees while crying but then remembered about Tamanna. She was her last hope, she stood up and went to her room, Tamanna was talking to her photo. "I miss you di," she said cryingly looking at her and Ishana's photo. Ishana cried seeing her state. "Tamanna?" she spoke softly and to her shock, Tamanna turned to her and smiled. "Di?" she said happily and called her for a hug opening her arms, Ishana smiled and walked to her and passed through her, Tamanna tried to hug her but her hands interacted herself only.
She turned in a shock and saw Ishana standing behind her. "Now you can understand very well, I have gone far away from you, I met with an accident but my body isn't found yet, till it's found, I will be here you only," Ishana told her and they both looked at each other cryingly. A raindrop fell in Ishana's eyes and her soul turned solid for the time being, Ishana came forward and hugged Tamanna. "Di I missed you," she said cryingly. "I missed you too," Ishana told her shedding tears.
Flashback end}
"Oh, so this happened, well now God has returned you to us and now nothing can take you away," Shantanu said and hugged her again, whole family joined the hug. I smiled and everyone started to leave from there but suddenly I felt a little hand grab my hand, I looked down to see who's it. She looked like Ishana's daughter. "Are you Gauri aunty?" she asked and I smiled at her and nodded, she gave me a yellow flower and asked me to bend down. I did and she kissed my cheek. "This is for finding mumma," she said happily.
I stood back and smiled. "Hmm, and this yellow rose?" I asked. "For friendship, because whoever is there for my mumma, he or she is my friend as well for sure," she said and I smiled and kissed her cheek and went outside the graveyard with Ragini, I sat on the front seat with Ragini and drove off. "So was it really your sister who possessed her?" Ragini asked. "Yes it was her, only she can react that way and of course it was the only way for her to get back to me, she wanted revenge for what happened by me unknowingly," I replied and told her everything. "What? But what would've you done? It was done unknowingly."
"Exactly, even I am a human," I said and the rest of the drive was silent. We arrived at the house and I stepped down the car and we went inside, I was going downstairs when suddenly I was pulled in the triplets bedroom. It was Kriya who had pulled me. "Where are you going? Don't think that by being outside the house for a long period, you can be away from me, your sister, do you remember me, Kriya Agnihotri, baby?"
"Of course I remember you, and I know I did a mistake, did you even try telling me? Did you? Then how can you expect me to read your mind?" I said. "I refused you, didn't I? You couldn't get your love so what could I do?" she asked. "You couldn't do but one thing is there which I can do," I said. "What is that?" she asked. "Neil! Shlok! Priya!" I called out and she pulled my wrist and twisted it behind my back and shut my mouth while I kept struggling to get free of her grip. She looked around.
I could see it as I was looking back at her. She pulled me towards her cupboard and opened it and pushed me inside making me sit inside and got her dupatta and tied me up. Slowly she started to close the cupboard darkening the cupboard. "No Kriya, no please, I have claustrophobia, I won't be able to breathe, don't close me, give me some other punishment but not this, please," I pleaded and she stopped and untied me and pulled me out. "Fine! I pity on you, but..," she was cut in between. "Gauri, why are you doing so much late?" Ragini said.
She came in the room and seeing Kriya, she ran to me and took my hand pulling me out of the room but Kriya held my other hand and pulled me inside, well Ragini won pulling me outside and closed the door locking it. We ran downstairs and saw Omkara waiting for us. "Omkara had come and so I came to call you," Ragini clarified. "Gauri, you look so stressed, everything fine?" he asked. "Kriya came back, she said that in previous birth, Kavya wasn't your daughter, but Shlok's daughter," I told him, he got shocked.
"But why were we sleeping like that the next day I got drunk?" he asked. I got shocked that he never knew. What might've Kriya done to make him believe that they really made love? Why Shlok never knew that the baby will be of him and why Kriya never tried to tell him? "Wait, I will go and talk to Kriya," I said and he pulled me back. "Don't you dare," he said and took a paper in hand.
He wrote something and gave to me. It said "I m writing to you because souls can't read.. She keeps attacking you, we will go from here back from where we came, let's pack our bags, before going we will burn the house so that Kriya leaves us and goes." I nodded at him. Later at night, I packed every bag and kept them aside. I went to the house temple and prayed. "God, I m leaving every question behind, my sister behind, this memory filled house behind, everything, give me strength to move on, every memory will be in my heart forever, I will take pics of every corner of this house before going, goodbye old house, goodbye Kriya."
[Do you like Ragini's entry in this ff?]