Neha’s Confession
(A Short Story by M. Menonimus)
Neha’s Confession
Mr. Avishesh has been lying on his sickbed for more than six months. He has taken voluntary retirement before time from his post of Directorship in the State Health Department because of his illness. He has seen many reputed doctors but he gets no remedy. Now all day he keeps lying in the bed. The last prescription from the doctor was that he must keep a rest. His robust body has gone emaciated and he can hardly stand up. Moreover, for the last three years, he has been suffering from dyspepsia. The little morsel that he eats gets out of the throat through vomiting. He knows his last is near. His wife Neha has been attending to him like his shadow. Neha is fifteen years younger to him. She looks very beautiful but melancholic in nature. From the very first day that he got her in marriage she has been serving him very obediently. But with the passing of time, he grew harsher to her. First, he got his employment as an Assistant Director but after only three years he got the chair of the Chief Director and hence his attitudes toward things and people began to get a drastic change. It seemed that the proverb that says “Power corrupts a dishonest man very pathetically” holds good to him. During his Directorship, he enjoyed almost boundless power and in collaboration with the Departmental Minister he filled up many vacant posts taking a huge amount of bribery. Since then wine and women became his sole sources of entertainment. He, in his sickbed, remembered all these past misdeeds and became restless. His wife Neha came to know all his debauchery but she bore all these with closed eyes and a dumb mouth.
Neha’s careful waiting makes him ashamed of her presence. What an injustice had he not done to Neha, the poor woman! He never thought that one day he would be as helpless as he is now. It is unbearable to him that he is now an object of sympathy.
His two sons are well established and they have been abroad for a decade. Once his first son who is an engineer in the U. S. A. visited him but returned after only seeing him.
Day by day his condition has been deteriorating. It is not that he was not admitted to the hospital but the doctors suggested that it is better for him to stay at home as he has little hope of getting recovery from his fatal illness. He also realizes that his end is imminent.
One evening he calls his wife Neha and says to her in a faint voice, “Neha, it seems that I would depart the mortal earth very soon. I had done much injustice to you, Neha. Please forgive me.”
Saying so, he casts his eyes to the garden through the window and feels the smell of the bloomed roses that he planted himself some years ago. The sun is heading towards the west. The bright light of the sun falls on the basement of the window and he feels hot. Then he gaps up his mouth and Neha gives him a glass of cold water and he drinks it with labour. Then he asks Neha, “Would you forgive me?”
Neha replies, “Why do you say so? God would forgive you.”
“I had been very cruel to you. Please forget all this. Have you any demand over me?”
Neha replies, “I have no demand over you. But….”
“What is your ‘but’?”
Neha resumes, “I have something to confess to you that has been eating away my peace of mind for the last twenty-five years.”
Avishesh looks at her eyes and asks with anxiety, “What is that Neha?”
Neha says, “I hesitate to reveal but I must confess. Hope that after hearing my secret you would forgive me.”
Avishesh with a low voice replies, “Have your saying, Neha. You would get my forgiveness.”
Then Neha begins to tell: Our religion teaches that the bond between husband and wife is a holy one. After marriage, both should remain faithful to each other throughout life. Likewise, I tried my utmost to love you from the very beginning of our conjugal life. The first two years ran on happily, but when you got a promotion from an assistant to the chair of the chief boss you seemed to become indifferent to my demand. You became addicted to women other than me. What can be more insulting than this for a wife? I wept bitterly. But with the passing of time, your attitude also grew harsher toward me. Then I lost all my hope to be happy with you. Thence I determined to take revenge on you for this. I thought, “If a husband can have sexual relations with women other than his wife then why a wife would not?”
Then only for taking retaliation on you, I, one day, gave away my flesh to a man other than you, and consequently, I got pregnant by him and gave birth to our second child.
Saying so she looks at her husband and asks, “Would you forgive me? I committed the sin only once in my life as I found no other way to console myself for being betrayed by you. But now this sense of sin has been taking away my inner peace of mind. I hope that this confession would light my agony. Please forgive me as I have forgiven your betrayal of me.”
Then she looks at her husband’s face to feel his reaction. She sees his eyes to be half shut, and his face emotionless as if he is in deep sleep. Then she comes out of the room and looks at the sky and sees that the Sun has already reached the extreme west scattering its yellowish light to the long horizon. 0 0 0
Neha’s Confession
N.B. The short story ‘Neha’s Confession’ originally belongs to the book ‘Neha’s Confession and Other Stories’ by Menonim Menonimus.
Neha’s Confession
Books of Composition by M. Menonimus:
- Advertisement Writing
- Amplification Writing
- Note Making
- Paragraph Writing
- Notice Writing
- Passage Comprehension
- The Art of Poster Writing
- The Art of Letter Writing
- Report Writing
- Story Writing
- Substance Writing
- School Essays Part-I
- School Essays Part-II
- School English Grammar Part-I
- School English Grammar Part-II..
Books of S. Story by M. Menonimus:
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