Rashmi had been frantically flat hunting in Chennai from the day she landed in the city on her transfer from Bangalore. Rashmi was from Orissa and after graduating in engineering had taken up the offer to work in a software company in Bangalore. Suryan was a tall, dark jovial malayali, with a head full of dark, curly hair who worked in the same company. He had fallen for the shy, reserved, petite girl, who looked charming with her rimless glasses sitting on her small and pretty nose. Their families were not at all keen on the alliance but the couple was very much in love, and had got married without waiting for their consent. A year after their marriage her husband Suryan was sent on a two year assignment to Germany. When Suryan left for Germany, the company had given her the option of moving to Chennai for a project with an interesting rider. If she could complete the project in the given time frame of six months, she was assured of an assignment in Germany, as a continuation of the project. Rashmi had grabbed the offer and had landed in Chennai, which was just another strange city for the girl from Bhubaneswar.
Rashmi soon managed to get a single bedroom, furnished flat in Adayar, with a TV, refrigerator, washing machine, gas connection, and basic electrical kitchen appliances. She did not have any furniture with her as the apartment they had stayed in Bangalore also had been fully furnished. The flat was not very far from her office and she moved into the apartmenton the second floor, with just two large suitcases which contained her dresses along with some curios.Rashmi found this very convenient as she planned to stay in the flat only for about six months by which time she would complete the project and go to Germany as her company had promised.
There were eight flats on each rectangular shaped floor of the four storied Nirupama apartment complex, except the ground floor which had only car parking, Of the eight flats, four were in the middle of the rectangular floor with two each on the sides of the floor. Rashmi’s flat was 15 B, the last but one flat on the second floor. Her flat was located on the eastern side of the floor, where there were only two flats. These two flats which were adjacent to each other were separated by a common wall. Rashmi did not have the time to meet anyonenot even her neighbor, because of the tight schedule she had to follow. She would leave for her office by eight in the morning and be back only by seven in the evening. She rarely made use of her kitchen except for making coffee or boiling milk. She had her breakfast and lunch in the office canteen and brought back something light for her dinner. She had enrolled for Germanclasses which were held on weekends and the time she spent in her flat was used to ‘Skype’ her husband. The only people she knew in her apartment were Rajadurai the watchman, who washed her Nano car once a week and Ms. Philomina the spinster, who was the Secretary of the Nirupama Apartment’s Association. Rashmi had met her the day she moved into her flat when the lady had come to tell her about the monthly subscription for the Association.
Ms. Philomina was a busy body, who as the Secretary spent her time taking care of the problems in the flat which included occasional repairs, collection of subscriptions and taking care of the waste management. She was a sixty something old lady, always impeccably attired in starched cotton saris, her hair tied in a bun, who would remind an Agatha Christie fan of Ms. Marple. She had a hawk’s eye and kept a track of whatever was going on in every flat. She lived alone in her flat with lot of inherited money in the bank. She was inquisitive but bore malice to none except that she loved to gossip and talk nonstop to the residents of the flat, whether they were willing or not. Her ‘assistant’ was Rajadurai, the puny old man, a most unlikely candidate for a ‘watchman’. He stayed in a portion of the car shed in the building and was of a kindly disposition, ever ready to help the residents in the flat. Ms. Philomina however had not been able to have any gossip sessions with Rashmi because she left early and would shut herself up in her flat once she was back.
Rashmi had been in the flat for almost a month and found the flat comfortable. She followed her routine of going to the office every morning and returning to her flat in the evening. The weekends were spent in the Loyola College attending German classes, and she would return tired late in the evening. She avoided mixing with her colleagues socially after office hours and attended get- togethers of office staff only if it was mandatory or absolutely necessary. She would come back in the evening, freshen up, make herself a cup of coffee and watch TV. After some time she would heat the dinner she had brought home, have it and then go on Skype with her husband. She regularly brought her office work home and worked late into the night because she wanted to meet the six month deadline laid down for her project.
Rashmi had not met her immediate neighbor but every morning she would wake to the aromaoffreshly brewed ‘decoction’ coffee which would drift in from the neighboring flat. She only heard the tinkle of anklets when the lady moved around, and at times the sound of the lady humming softly. At times Rashmi heard the lady sing softly, mostly songs in a South Indian language she did not comprehend. She had a sweet voice and occasionally, would sing a few lines from old Hindi songs. Rashmi presumed that the woman stayed alone because she did not hear any conversation or voices from the flat other than that of her neighbor’s when she hummed to herself or sang. The light from her neighbor’s room coming out of her window fell on the wall of the opposite building, which was visible from Rashmi’s flat. When she occasionally looked out of her window in her flat, she would sometimes see her neighbor’s shadow fall on the reflection on the opposite wall momentarily blocking the light, as she moved around in her flat. When Rashmi made her morning coffee, she would hear the sounds of her neighbor cooking– the mixer running, the gush of water from the tap and the occasional ‘whistle’ of the pressure cooker. Rashmi had wanted to meet her neighbor but in the mornings she was busy rushing to office and in the evenings she would return too exhausted for idle chit chat. Moreover, Rashmi could not speak tamil and barely understood the language. She thought it better to keep to herself and only prayed for her project to get over so that she could fly to her husband in Germany. However, Rashmi felt that there was something similar between her neighbor and herself though they had not met. Her neighbor apparently also stayed alone and kept to herself. Rashmi knew that her neighbor would also have realized that she stayed alone and was away from her flat the whole day.
A few days later, Rashmi had to go back to Bangalore in connection with her project and was away from Chennai for more than a week. She stayed in the company’s guest house in Bangalore. When she woke up the morning after she had checked into the guest house in Bangalore, she found something strangely missing. She realized pleasantly that it was the smell of ‘decoction’ coffee prepared by her neighbor in Chennai, which woke her up every day. She smiled to herself and decided that she would definitely meet her neighbor at the earliest opportunity once she returned to Chennai.
A week later, Rashmi returned by the night flight to Chennai and took a cab to the flat from the airport. She was in her flat by ten and did not see the old watchman Rajadurai, who probably was on his rounds or had gone for his dinner. On the nights she returned late, which were rare, he usually accompanied her in the lift and would escort her up to her flat. She had already had dinner in the flight, and feeling thirsty drank some cold water from the bottle she had kept inside her fridge. Rashmi found it unusually quiet and she looked out of her window to see if her neighbor was awake. She did not find the light from her neighbor’s window falling as it usually did at night, on the wall of the building opposite the flat. She thought that her neighbor was already asleep and pulled out her laptop to begin her Skype session with her husband.
She had just switched on her laptop when she heard her neighbor start humming. It was a strange but soothing tune sounding like a lullaby. The humming was accompanied by the soft sound of her anklets as if she was walking around in her flat.
“Probably she is just having an after dinner walk before she goes to sleep. That’s why she has put off the lights,” thought Rashmi. She had half a mind to go up to her neighbor’s flat, ring the bell and introduce herself. She did not have the energy and the long busy day plus the travel had made her dead tired. She decided she would meet her neighbor the next day, possibly the first thing in the morning. Rashmi who was on Skype with her husband disconnected after a few minutes because she was tired. Her neighbor was still walking around and humming the strange song which sounded very soothing. She went to bed listening to the lullaby hummed by her neighbor, lulling her into a dreamless sleep.
The next morning she woke to the smell of fresh coffee and found she had overslept. It was already past seven thirty. She rushed to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. Surprisingly, there were no sounds of cooking coming from the neighboring kitchen. She could however still smell the coffee and hear her neighbor’s anklets from across the wall. She assumed that her neighbor had decided to cook later or had completed her cooking while she was sleeping. She remembered her decision to meet her neighbor the first thing in the morning and went for her bath. Once she was ready, she opened the door of her flat to meet her neighbor, only to find Ms. Philomina standing outside, her hand stretched to ring the bell.
“Oh! Good morning. I was just about to ring the bell. You were out the whole of last week, weren’t you? Can I come in for five minutes? I wanted to tell you about the new subscription charges and change of watchman. Rajadurai left because he fell sick.” The Secretary stepped inside and settled down on the nearest sofa.
“Can I get you a cup of coffee?” asked Rashmi.
“No my child, I already had my usual morning cup. Now sit down here and let’s talk for five minutes unless you are getting late. Were you already on your way to the office? You opened the door even before I rang the bell!”
“No aunty, I was just going to meet my next door neighbor, whom I have still not met. That’s when you came,” replied Rashmi and indicated the next flat, flat No.16 B.
“Oh, you didn’t know what happened last week did you? Did you leave last Friday?” asked Ms. Philomina, a quizzical look on her face. Rashmi was confused and did not know what the problem or issue was which Ms. Philomina was alluding to.
“Yes aunty, I left last Friday by the evening flight. I had gone straight from the office and did not come back to the flat. What did you say had happened in the complex?” she asked fearing that there might have been a robbery in one of the flats.
“You see this girl, your neighbor, was what you IT guys term it, ‘working from home’ for an IT firm located in Hyderabad. She moved in with her husband last year soon after her marriage. Her husband an officer on a merchant ship, had purchased the flat just before he married her. Four months back, he had come on shore leave and the couple was together for a month before he returned to his ship.” She paused and continued. “He wanted her to stay in the flat because there is a harbor in Chennai. When on shore leave from his ship, it was easier for him to come to Chennai than travel all the way to Hyderabad. Her ‘work from home’ arrangement with the IT firm in Hyderabad helped keep her busy, while she stayed alone in the flat.”
“Did her husband meet with an accident or something?” asked Rashmi, silently praying that what she feared had probably happened, should not have occurred.
“Not exactly an accident. Last Friday she received a mail that pirates had attacked the ship on which her husband was an officer. The mail said that he was missing at sea.”
“Oh my God!’ cried Rashmi. “Poor girl! How did she manage? It must have been a terrible shock for her!”
“Yes it was,” said Ms. Philomina. “They said she was carrying. You know girls sometimes become depressed when they are pregnant with nobody for company. Actually, he was supposed to come this month and take her to her parents who stay in some obscure village in Andhra. The tragedy is that her husband was found to be safe and alive but that information came too late.”
She continued, “It was Sunil, that stupid teenager, Mr. Menon’s son who stays in the flat opposite yours who informed us. You know, that guy Sunil is what you call, a voyeur. He hides and peeps into flats where ladies are alone. He has never been caught but our suspicions are not baseless and we have even warned him.”
Rashmi had not known the existence of this Sunil as she had not known of the existence of most of those staying in the complex.
“He had probably been peeping into this girl’s flat when he saw her feet, her body suspended as if in mid-air,” continued Ms.Philomina.“She had hanged herself from the fan. She left a note mentioning the mail, and also that with her husband gone, she did not want to live anymore.”
Ms. Philomina looked at Rashmi, whose face drained of blood due to shock had become deathly pale, and the next moment she heard Rashmi mumbling incoherently before she fainted, falling on to the sofa. It took a few seconds for Ms. Philomina to grasp what Rashmi had been muttering, something about the smell of decoction coffee and the word, ‘anklets’, just before she became unconscious.
***
The author, Capt. Prem G Nath, has published two collections of short stories- ‘Twists and Turns’ and ‘Thrills & Chills’. Both are available on ‘Amazon’.
THE BREW 