Page 92 - Musings 2022
P. 92
The Session
Akshat Bhatnagar
2018B3PS1156P
“Where were we?” asked the therapist
“I was telling you about Narayandev’s death” he replied
“Ah yes” she scanned the yellow-paged notepad with a sharp gaze “The servant from your
childhood home. You said you couldn’t sleep because of it”
“For a time, I couldn’t” he shifted uncomfortably in the overstuffed club chair. The
overwhelming fruity aroma in the stuffy office made him feel queasy.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” she scribbled a last note and set down her pen, staring
expectedly at him.
The man sighed in defeat. They had been over this incident a little less than three times without
any revelation (like that was a surprise) and yet she was convinced that the story was more
meaningful than it actually was. He massaged his aching leg; the bones had healed after the
accident but sharp spikes of pain still pierced it from time to time. Realising that he had no
option but to humour her, he began.
“I moved to my grandparent’s place in the summer of 1960. “My father was in his third
marriage and like his last wife, the new one didn’t want anything to do with me either.”
“How did it make you feel, your father pushing you away?” she inquired
“Ecstatic!” the man replied with a sarcastic smile which faded as he caught the reproving look
that she gave him.
“No really!” he clarified “The only time that wasn’t beating me was when he passed out after
drinking too much. I was just happy that he had another person to wail on while I got a much-
deserved rest”
She scribbled down something yet again, the smooth paper wrinkling under her pressured, rapid
writing.
“Anyway” he continued “It was a grand place, cradled below the royal palace in the old part of
the city. My grandfather had been a minister to the King and when the British ousted him, the
place fell into his hands. It was about a 100-metre steep climb up from the lakeshore and
expanded backwards into the hillside that it had been carved into.”
“Did you like it there?”
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