Sruthi Art Studios

After Gopalan Nair’s demise, the entire household activities came under the direct control of Vikraman. Sukumar being very young had absolutely no idea of running a household nor did he have any interest whatsoever in such matters. Therefore Vikraman had the total control – and was not answerable or accountable to anyone.

For some time life went on smoothly. But with his crooked mind, Vikraman was planning. The final words of Gopalan Nair meant nothing to him. He had his own dirty, nefarious programme and he meant to carry them out.

Sukumar had a sweet nature. He never noticed anything other than what was visible. One evening Vikraman suggested to Sukumar – “Let us go for a walk”. They went on an aimless walk for a long while. After the walk Sukumar was totally tired. By the side of the road there was a local bar. Vikraman suggested that they go in and have something cold. Sukumar was not keen on going to a liquor joint but did not say anything.

Vikraman ordered two cold beers. Sukumar was tasting the stuff for the first time in his life. He did not like it but slowly because he was tired he consumed it and gradually appeared to like it. Then Vikraman ordered some other strong drink.

After an hour Sukumar was fully drunk, and with great difficulty reached home.

As per his diabolical plans, Vikraman’s next step was to introduce the boy to some brothels. Absolutely drunk and unaware of what was happening – Vikraman had no difficulty in achieving this.

The long evening outings and returning home totally drunk became a routine. His wife, being from a very good family and of good breeding managed to be quiet for some time. But gradually it came to such a situation that she could not bear it any longer. She informed her parents. Her father came and finding that he could not do much, took her back home – bag and belongings. And Vikraman felt that he had succeeded in his crooked steps admirably.

On the pretext of someone to look after the household he brought his daughter Subadra to the bungalow. So with the joint efforts of Subadra and her father, the control of the bungalow became easy.

With the excessive drinks and other activities Sukumar had major health problems.

The only doctor in the village was Dr.Suresh. Everyone there went to him. Vikraman took Sukumar to him and got the necessary medicines.

On another day Vikraman went to see Dr.Suresh. The doctor – a man of 60 years, with an MBBS, was humble but good in diagnosis and being the only doctor in the village, he had all the patients of the entire area going to him.

Vikraman sat discussing trivial things to the doctor. During the conversation the doctor had to go out to another room. At this point Vikraman got up quickly and pocketed a bottle of arsenic from the doctor’s shelf. When the doctor came back to his room, he was unaware of the missing bottle.

But later the doctor did notice the disappearance of the poison. He was certain that someone had taken it – but who? He kept on thinking about it. Then he realised that he had left Vikraman alone in the room. But it was inconceivable to think that the latter would have taken the poison. Confused, he left the matter there.

For Sukumar’s health problems, medicines prescribed by Dr.Suresh were given by Subadra. Now Vikraman and daughter started adding small quantities of arsenic into it. After a few days they decided to go for the kill. That night they mixed a large quantity of the poison to the boy’s medicine.

Very early in the morning, the crooked pair entered Sukumar’s bedroom. The boy lay in a peculiar posture and was not breathing – there was no heartbeat. Some white stuff was oozing out of his mouth. They cleaned his mouth, crushed the glass containing the remnants of arsenic and threw the bottle away. The medicine bottles were kept   near the bed. Waiting for some time and being confident he was dead they phoned Dr.Suresh.

The doctor came immediately. He made a casual inspection of the body, took out the stethoscope and did the usual check-up. He concluded that Sukumar was dead and at Vikraman’s request, he issued a death certificate.

This is chapter three of a short story written by my father – The Baba who came to stay

All sketches are done in black inks.