The mystery of past life

The mystery of past life

Monami Banerjee

As soon as I entered the palace, a cold wind blew over my face. I stopped for a
second and was watching the dining hall, the paintings on the wall, the beautiful
chairs and tables of the then kings etc. I felt as if I had come to this house earlier, as
if I had known this house for a long time. I got back to my senses when Rajveer
called me.
-“Hey Mitali, did you like your birthday gift?” Rajveer asked me placing his hand on
my shoulder.
-“Yes obviously Raj. You have bought this palace for me with so much love. How is it
possible that I will not like it!” I said to Rajveer with a broad smile on my face.
Rajveer told the guard and the caretaker to bring in our luggage. The whole day was
spent arranging the palace properly with our belongings. It was a huge palace in the
midst of a big field surrounded by various trees. It was located in Umbergaon, 153
km away from Mumbai. This palace was totally in bad condition when Rajveer first
heard about it. His company didn’t let any of its officers stay in this palace as it had
a bad name of being a haunted palace. However, Rajveer was not a believer in these
theories. He liked the palace and the environment very much and thought of buying
it as a gift on my birthday. Therefore, he bought the palace from his company
through legal means. Since it was famously known as a haunted palace, Rajveer
didn’t face so much difficulty in buying it. It was also easier for me to carry out my
current excavation project in Umbergaon.
While arranging the palace, we got a few things which seemed familiar to me. We
got two portraits, one was the oil painting of two young ladies, who seemed to be
princesses and the other was the oil painting of a young man and one of those
young ladies in the previous portrait, might be king and queen. We also got an
inkpot, a diary type thing and a decayed red rose within it. Mostly, the things which
astonished me were one or two ragged red and black coloured sarees which are
particularly worn by tantrists, a torn book containing methods and writings related
to spells and charms and some other such things in one of the rooms in upstairs
which was closed until we arrived. Only that particular room was closed and out of
curiosity, we broke the lock and opened the door. Raj didn’t believe in tantrism,
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ghosts or black magic. He came downstairs carrying all those things but I wondered
about a palace which remained unused and untouched since the time of the British,
how come all these things appear here? My instinct said that there was ‘something
wrong’.
-“Mitali, just see, this beautiful princess resembles you, see her face, her
eyes……..Her eyes are just like yours Mitali.” Raj told me showing me the second
portrait of the king and queen.
-“Hmmm……so, did this beautiful princess capture your heart, my Rajveer?” I asked
Raj, making fun of him.
Raj came close to me, pulled me by my waist and told me looking at my eyes,
“Nobody can capture neither my heart nor my brain except you my love.”
-“I know that very well, baby. I was just joking with you. Even the King seems so
similar to you, I have noticed. This is amazing!”
-“Hmm, I can see that but you need to be punished for your joke.”
-“Punishment for joke?…………” I couldn’t complete my sentence as Rajveer dragged
me in a passionate kiss with him. He tightened his hold on my waist and I put my
arms around his neck. Suddenly, at that moment we heard a tremendous sound of
breaking down glasses from upstairs.
We looked at each other and immediately went upstairs. We saw that the window
glass of ‘that room’ had broken into pieces. Glass pieces were scattered all over the
floor.
-“Ahhhh…….” I whispered aloud when a glass piece pierced through my feet.
-“Mitali….iii…….what happened?” Raj shouted worrying about me.
-“A glass piece cut my skin.”
-“Where did it cut? Let me see. You should have been careful Mitali.”
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I was unable to stand as blood started flowing through my feet. Raj lifted me in his
arms and took me to our bedroom. Then he washed my cut, applied an antiseptic
lotion and bandaged it. Raj then advised me to take rest and not to move from the
bed. It was past 5 pm and we were hungry. Raj went to buy some food items since
the guard and caretaker used to leave everyday after 4 pm in the sense of not living
in the haunted palace after the Sun set off. I was reading a book and probably felt
asleep. I was dreaming something in the sleep. I dreamt of two princesses who were
sisters and lived in this palace. One of them looked like me, she rode on horseback
every morning. She was accompanied by a handsome prince while riding horse who
looked like my husband Rajveer. The other princess wearing black saree uttered
some spells and practised something using skulls…..in ‘that room’!
At this moment, my sleep was breaking hearing some weird noises as if someone
was saying something angrily. I heard a furious female voice saying, “Again you have
come…..in this life also, you are snatching my King?……I won’t leave you…..I will kill
you Didi and will become the wife of my King…..its my vow……..” I felt someone’s
breaths near my face and immediately my sleep broke. I woke up sweating. I heard
somebody’s footsteps coming towards my room and saw that it was Rajveer. He
rushed to me seeing me sweating so much and gave me a glass of water. I told him
everything. Rajveer listened quietly and then what he told astonished me totally.
Rajveer said that when he walked out of the palace for buying food items, he
continuously felt as if someone was following him. From palace to dhaba and dhaba
to palace, he strongly felt that someone was following him but whenever he looked
back, there was no one. Even he heard a female voice saying sweetly, “Maharaj, have
you forgotten me? Why are you with Didi?………She is not good……believe me……she
wants to snatch you from me……..”.
-“I didn’t give any importance to it, Mitali, don’t worry.” Rajveer said.
-“Raj, my instinct said that there is something wrong here. The moment I stepped
into the palace, my subconscious mind told me. Not only that, I feel this palace is
known to me, some memories are flashing in my mind but I am not understanding
what are they.”
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Raj cupped my face in his hands and told me, “Don’t worry my love, nobody can
separate us, nobody can snatch you from me and me from you.” He kissed on my
forehead and embraced me in a warm hug. We ate roti and egg curry and went to
bed at 10 pm since we were quite tired due to long journey. We were unaware that
something dangerous was waiting for us that night! It was most probably in the
midnight when my sleep broke. I clearly heard someone was calling me,
“Didi…..Didi……come here……”. I saw Rajveer was in deep sleep lying beside me.
Don’t know whether some spells ruled my movements or not, I climbed down my
bed, opened the door and started walking across the corridor towards the source of
‘that call’. I stopped near ‘that room’. It’s door was closed. I saw it opening on its
own as if welcoming me inside. I saw an young lady wearing a black saree, open
hair, was chanting some spells with closed eyes. There were some skulls scattered
beside her. As soon as she noticed me, she opened her eyes and gave an angry look
towards me. Most probably, I was being hypnotized. I was standing there like a
stone structure. The lady told me, “I was waiting for you only Didi. Come, let me
free you from this world of living beings.” Saying this, she started marching towards
me with a knife in her hand.
At that exact moment, I heard a male voice, “Rajkumari Sumitra, beware of
Sumana……she wants to harm you…..I am coming……Rajkumari….”. Rajkumari
Sumitra……I thought for a minute and the next moment, the lady was just going to
pierce the knife through my body when I prevented her hand and threw the knife to
other side. I said her angrily, “Stop Sumana, stop your dirty game. You harmed us in
past life and now in this life too? Why?” Sumana shouted, “Because you snatched
away my love from me,” saying this she was going to attack me with her charms
when a sword gave a hard blow to her harshly. I saw Rajveer coming from behind
me. Sumana was lying on the floor. Rajveer said with full rage, “Your behaviour will
never change right Sumana? You tried to kill Sumitra in past life, you killed our
new- born baby, then also your hunger have not been fulfilled?” He was again going
to attack her with the sword when everything in front of us vanished. The room was
totally dark with a ray of moonlight coming through the broken window. Rajveer
held me in his arms, probably I was losing my senses.
The next morning when I woke up, I saw few people inside my room – Dr. Sen, the
guard and the caretaker, two- three old and young men and women. Rajveer was
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sitting beside me. After sometimes, while having coffee, we heard the story of this
haunted palace.
It was the palace of King Rajendra Pratap of Umbergaon who had two daughters,
Princess Sumitra and Sumana. The elder princess Sumitra was not only very
beautiful in look but also in behaviour. She knew horse- riding, sword- fighting etc.
She was a great warrior as described by the citizens. Every morning, Sumitra used
to ride horse as a practise. People loved and respected Princess Sumitra very much.
The younger princess Sumana was jealous of her elder sister and she aimed at
harming her. She learnt black magic and tantrism to fulfill her own desires and to
cause harm to Sumitra. Prince Rathindra Pratap was the prince of neighbouring
state who was very handsome and a great warrior. He was the childhood friend of
Sumitra. Their friendship turned into deep love when they grew up. Sumana who
had her bad eyes on Rathindra Pratap, tried to separate him from Sumitra through
various means but failed. King Rajendra Pratap gave her elder daughter Sumitra in
marriage to Prince Rathindra Pratap and declared him the King of Umbergaon since
his health was not well. Few days after their marriage, Rajendra Prarap died. People
said that he died due to the bad affect of Sumana’s charms. Her jealousy reached
the zenith when Queen Sumitra gave birth to a son. Sumana applied tantric means
to kill the new- born baby and was successful. This time, neither King Rathindra
Pratap nor Queen Sumitra had forgiven her. The people wanted to kill the witch
Princess Sumana. She was burnt alive on the funeral file and while dying she cursed
the whole family of Rathindra Pratap and Sumitra and vowed to take her revenge.
After that, there was the Revolt of 1857 in which the King and Queen died fighting
bravely for their motherland leaving behind no heir. Since then, the palace became
haunted and people avoided it as much as possible.
The old man after completing the story, said to Rajveer and me, “You two are none
other than the past life King Rathindra Pratap and Queen Sumitra, whom destiny
brought again to this palace in Umbergaon.” After that day, we performed certain
rituals so that the bad soul would leave the palace and let us live peacefully and we
became successful. The mystery of our past lives was solved ultimately.
One noon, when I was lying on Rajveer’s chest, he asked me jokingly, “Mitali, if I
would have married your younger sister Sumana, what would you do?”
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-“You won’t do it because you loved me and I won’t let that witch come near you.”
-“Really? I didn’t know that my wife becomes angry of hearing this kind of
joke……..you look so cute Mitali while you become angry,” saying this, Raj pulled me
more towards his chest.
-“Don’t do this kind of jokes, else I will stop talking to you.” I said.
-“No, no, don’t stop talking to me. I am sorry Mitali. I will pay for my deed,” saying
this, Rajveer met his lips with mine passionately.
This time, neither the breaking of window glass nor any tremendous sound reached
our ears.