WORM OF CURIOSITY THATS EATING UP MY SANITY!!

Crazy ,Psycho ,Stupid, Idiot is all I can think of right now! I’ve no clue wassup with me. I’m running behind sealed, solved mysteries that have died out years-decades ago. I’m digging the graves. It may sound funny but I have become a grave digger ,rather I am trying very hard to connect dots. I’ve gone completely nuts and this small story that my father told me months back is not only haunting me but has been the main reason for my absent-mindedness and my foul moods. The answer lies only with almighty as to what is wrong with me or what is hidden in that case that I’m pursuing that case of all the cases!

This case I’m researching on took place way back in early 1960’s (probably 1964 as per my calculations).It’s a murder case wherein a lady traveler was raped and later murdered. Internet gives no links to this case. But it’s funny that it has all necessary details about the Raman-Raghav case that happened around the same time ! I’ve heard there is a book written by the investigative officer of that case Detective cop Mr.Vakatkar. Vakatkar did a splendid job of investigation disguising himself as the waiter and getting to the core of the matter and hence the culprits. But this book is amongst the rarest of the rare and lord alone knows will I get hold of it! I’ve been googling the names since past 4 months ,emailing and calling up bloggers, journalist, libraries who might know about the case or may have any little detail about the case may be a small newspaper clipping or books or whatever else .

It all began in July…Its still so fresh ,soft and tender as the rabbit meat that my dad and bro were chewing on on that day. It was probably a Wednesday or a Sunday since they ordered meat .We were on our way to attend the funeral of my grandma. It’s very nauseating experience for me while travelling by car and when it comes to the twist & turns of Ghats it makes me all the more conscious. But the reason to visit the native was important and couldn’t be avoided. It was 10.30 or so in the night and we had 1 more hour to go so we took a halt to have our dinner. The place where we thought of dinning is a small yet famous hotel called as Ruchira in Khed’s Bharnaka junction however it was a sorry thing they did not have non-veg. available then. OK there are enough substitute for everything in today’s market-Coke nahi toh pepsi chalega ! So we entered small dhaba adjacent to Ruchira. As we entered, to change our sober mood ,Dad said, 'O,Siddhi …do you know this place was very once famous ! My grandpa would bring me here to have delicious chicken !They cooked really well' I merely smiled at his attempts and without thinking about any of what he had just said we headed towards the dining table. Dad and bro while gnawed at the rabbits meat, I and ma munched on the veg.thali. As dad continued to nibble at the piece of meat he spoke in matter-of-fact manner mentioning about a rape-murder case that had taken place in the very same place where we were sitting and chewing on the delicious food. This small mention and then he went into the flashback describing the story in his own short sweet style. Hearing the facts , I bit my tongue..aww that hurt! As he went on into the details of the story he spoke about the manager and my eyes immediately glided towards the manager’s desk ..Whoa that guy at the counter.. he was staring at me ,giving me weird looks or maybe I had that silly feeling creeping into me along with the story. Suddenly bells started ringing in my head ..no I guess that was like a gong banging in my head and within minutes I stood up and without finishing my meal walked out of that dreadful place. As I looked back to see my Dad’s reaction ,well of course he was confused as to why had I done that but more than him I was confused.Rage was burning inside me with my head aching, heart reaching out to that poor soul and eyes filled with tears of grief..But this time the grief was not for my close one’s but for the woman I hardly knew !I knew then my hunger for food had vanquished but there was something else that was stimulated and the thirst for which would bring me on the threshold of losing my sanity. Since then the connecting dots has been difficult yet gathering bits& pieces continues.

I don’t know why am I researching o this case in the first place. There are many other intriguing inspiring cases but I guess it was the time, the mood, the situation from the minute I heard about the case ,that has me acting .And not just acting but acting lunatic. It seems that it all happened yesterday and that justice is not yet been done to the unfortunate spirit that was killed. However, that is just not it, the case has been solved and the justice has been done. But I still crave for every detail about the case. I don’t know how sane is it to be this curious about a case that has been solved and closed for more than 50 years now but….All my logical reasoning comes to this word ‘But’ and ceases the matter. All that is going through my mind right now is that ‘I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE MEGHA PATANKAR MURDER CASE’

It feels like what happened to her could have happened to me if I am a lone lady traveler amongst gawky group of men. While you think of relaxing and having your meal ,to get rid of the fatigue generated due to your journey; before you could even bite into a morsel you are surrounded by those goons from your bus…your fellow passengers. You look into their eyes which speak the language of lust ..your naïve..you hesitate, you threaten them ,try to shoo them away and when they don’t budge you call the manager of the hotel. But ‘OH NO !’ even he has teamed up with those bad bad guys…And then they pick her up ,the hotel is shut down and the rest is all gruesome and brutal.

Dad says justice was done and that it took lot of time to investigate but truth found its way. And yet this does not satisfy me and I still go surf the net for any thread that seams the story together and satisfies my long provoked hunger….