Vigyani-Part 8

Episode 8:

The accusation of Mr. Krishnan, who is a close friend of Raman shocks Raman and he feels as if Mr. Krishnan has stabbed him in the back. He recollects how in his naivity he had described his discovery in detail to Mr. Krishnan. What Mr. Raman does not know is that Mr. Krishnan and some of the seniors who support him have been bought by a private firm. The firm's director realised the commercial value of the discovery when during a party one of the seniors had confided in him about the developments in the laboratory. Recovering from the shock, Mr. Raman shouts,' no, it is lie. Mr. Krishnan has not worked on it. It is me who has shed my blood and sweat, taxed my brains, spent sleepless nights over the project'. The chief of the laboratory who knows about Mr. Raman, realises the truth in his words. But, at the same time he feels helpless as Mr. Krishnan is supported by some of the senior members present there. He says, ' It is O.K, Mr. Raman, what you do is you still write the reaserch paper and put Mr.Krishnan's name also as one of the authors and send it for publication to an International journal'. Mr. Raman is dumbfounded and he has no words to speak. Mr. Krishnan, although not really happy satisfies himself that atleast he is one of the persons credited for the discovery.

Coming out of the meeting, Mr. Raman starts walking towards his house. Although his house is very close to the laboratory and although Mr. Krishnan offers lift in his car ( presented by the director of the private firm to him), he continues to walk as if in sleep. He is heart-broken and his senses have numbed. Without his knowledge he walks in the middle of the road and all the drivers of cars abuse him, 'hey, paagal hogaya kya?' ('hey, have you gone mad?'). Somehow, Mr. Raman reaches his house and mechanically presses the calling bell. Normally, immediately after hearing the calling bell either Mrs. Raman or his young daughter will open the door for him. But, today there is no answer to the bell and after some wait Mr. Raman lets himself in with the key in his possession. The house is in dark which further surprises Mr. Raman. As he switches on the lights, his attention is drawn to a piece of paper kept on the center table. He takes it and opens it. Mrs. Raman has written, ' My dear, I am compelled to take this drastic action. For the last few months you are not yourself. You have totally ignored not only me, but also our daugther. She was telling me that she is scared to see that you were talking to yourself in the middle of night and you were scribbling equations and drawings all over the place, including her school note book for which she got scoldings from her teacher. So, I have decided to leave you in your own world of scientific fantasies and I am taking our daughter and going to my parents' place. When you feel alright and you can be like in old days, please call us and we will be back'. Reading the letter, Mr. Raman felt the whole world collapsing around him. Not able to steady himself, he swoons and falls down.

Waking up much later, Mr. Raman leaves the house and walks back to the laboratory. It is mid-night and the security watchman is half asleep at the gate. Mr. Raman slips himself silently without waking up the watchman through the gate and reaches his laboratory. As he has a key to the laboratory being a senior scientist, he opens the lab. and switches on the light. Seated in the middle of the lab. on a table is the machine which is his dream, life line and everything. He goes near it, touches it passionately and cries.

The half-asleep watchman is shaken out of his sleep by the loud noise coming from one of the labs. He runs and reaches the lab. where Mr. Raman had gone. What he saw made him shiver with fear.


To be continued.....