To Where It All Began ✔

2. The Dangerous Encounter...

12:33 PM, 7th March, St. Agnes Burial Ground

The Mhatre Family had gathered along with a few other relatives to bury Anna as per her religious customs as she was raised in a Christian Household. Just outside the burial ground, the media had surrounded the whole area in enormous numbers. The security guards and police were trying to control them and let the ceremony happen peacefully. It was an utter chaotic situation.

Amidst all this, the whole Mhatre Family stood around the grave, all grieved by the situation with everyone shedding tears except a totally expressionless man wearing a crumpled white shirt, with a grey suit. 

He was sitting on an elevated marble step with a bottle of whisky in his hand. Not a single drop of tear was seen in his eyes as he kept staring blankly at the burial happening from a distance. An unimaginable storm was going on within him, but he was silent. Some of his family members were either crying, rather pretending to cry but there he sat all alone in his pain.

Meanwhile, outside the entrance, the media was busy hovering like hungry eagles for gathering TRPs from the death of a person... Some were even trying to barge inside to get exclusive footage of the live burial. It was a strange irony indeed, how the death of a person could be such a small thing for one while for another it was as if his whole world had shattered into pieces that could never be joined together.

A few meters away from the ground, one of the reporters spoke as the cameraman recorded, "Was Mrs. Anna Mhatre really depressed? If she was, then who was the reason? With her suicide, the barely eight-month-old marriage has ended"

Another male journalist screamed into his microphone, "Was Shreekant Mhatre having an affair? Were his illegitimate relations responsible for his wife's suicide?"

"One of the possibilities could be she was addicted to alcohol or even more dangerous, drugs? Even though she originally belonged to Goa, she was born and brought up in Canada which could have been the reason for her disgraceful behavior. Perhaps she was coping with all these addictions when she committed suicide"

An extra smart journalist had even convinced one of the constables who was handling the case for an interview. The man hurriedly raked his hair to one side as she asked, "Sir, In what condition was she found? What do you think about this case?"

He spoke in an utmost confident manner, "She was found lying in a pool of blood by some construction workers who were going to share some drink near the dilapidated construction site. They saw her moving fingers and immediately called for the ambulance. It is suicide due to depression, all investigation and autopsy reports suggest that"

She nodded and continued, "Mrs. Anna lived in Mumbai... Why did she travel all the way to Bangalore to commit suicide? Isn't that a little strange?"

The man fumbled in his speech while his senior officer intervened, "Madam, suicidal thoughts can come anytime if she was having depression. She perhaps didn't go to Bangalore for the sole purpose of committing suicide, but somehow lost control over her emotions or willpower, finally decided to commit suicide"

"What could have triggered her, according to you?"

He grinned slightly, "You people know better than us"

Shifting the camera to her side, "The reason may be anything, but Mr. Shreekant Mhatre is partly responsible for this tragedy... What could a husband never know, what his wife was going through? He has proved his incapabilities to everyone, and also the fact that any marriage can be toxic anytime"

Various reasons were being speculated for Anna's suicide but the TRP starved media knew to put spice in everything before presenting it. Blaming and targeting Shreekant for Anna's suicide was the best they could do, picturing him as the most uncompassionate unloving husband.