Dimension

“Either you obey me or get lost.” Lestin sensed his heart pounding. He found it difficult to breathe. His instinct, which he usually ignored, said that he better get lost. He was not ready anymore to work under that arrogant ba##ard. He could hear his boss shouting his name while he was walking towards the lift.

Lestin walked out of the tallest buildings in Bangalore city. He started his brown Renault Duster. He looked around. He was not sure about the color of the car parked opposite to his car. It was dark in the underground parking area, not the best place to plan the future. He changed the gear, and the car moved slowly. He could hear someone shouting. He ignored it and turned the music system on.

Lestin saw hundreds of cars in front, moving like the group of ants. He saw someone on a motorbike trying to go through the gap between his car and a white Corolla Altis. The motorcyclist was honking like hell. Lestin slowly rolled his window down to find out why. The motorcyclist yelled at Lestin. He wanted Lestin to give him some space. Lestin tried to explain he couldn’t move unless the vehicle, a white Innova, in the front moved, and rolled the window up. He could hear the motorcyclist still swearing. He felt sorry for comparing the traffic with ants.

Lumbini Garden, a park on the banks of Nagwara lake, a beautiful little spot. Lestin parked his car. The big clock in the garden said it was 5.55 pm. He could see the sun disappearing. He saw lovers sitting on the bench talking, they were in their own world.

He sat in one of those benches, looked around. He saw the lake and the large buildings on the other side of the lake. Some floors in the buildings were lit to welcome the dusk and night that followed. Lestin thought about those buildings.

Some of them under construction, some already alive, and some about to fall. Those buildings were actually like the people in the world. The only difference was the building couldn’t decide whether to live or to fall, but people could.

Lestin came back to his senses when the garden lights lightened the area in its second attempt. He looked around. He saw children playing. They were enjoying. He really missed his childhood. He decided to start from the scratch. What he needed was a vacation, from his 16-hour IT job, which no longer exists. He planned a road trip, a road trip from Bangalore to Goa. That felt perfect.

Bangalore city, at night, is a visual treat. The headlights of vehicles moving slowly, buildings fully lit, decorated. It took about 2 hours for him to escape from the city. It was a 10-hour journey from Bangalore to Goa. However, he was excited. Eight more hours, he thought.

The brown Renault Duster passed the construction zone and accelerated to 100kmph. The viper was clearing the raindrops, which created a scattered vision. Lestin loved to watch the sunlight passing through the raindrop and getting scattered to seven different colors, even though he hated the theory. He took a sharp right.

The car passed a lady asking for a lift. Lestin’s instinct was to ignore the lady, but his heart did not listen to his brain. He could not ignore a girl at this time of night in the middle of the road. He stopped the car a little away from where the lady was standing. She came running towards the car. She was wearing a pink salwar, yeah, pink. Lestin still could not figure out why women liked pink so much.

The window slowly rolled down. Lestin looked at the lady, even with a scar on her forehead, she was beautiful. He was still looking at her face, unable to talk. The girl broke the silence, “I have to reach Goa immediately. Can I please come with you?” Lestin nodded. He still could not take his eyes from her face. She opened the door and entered. The car moved forward slowly.

Lestin clearly could sense she was in tension. She was moving her legs vigorously. Her fingers were shivering. “Lisa, I am Lisa,” she said, after a long silence, confused whether to offer a handshake. Lestin wondered why she was confused. Maybe because I am a man? He thought twice and offered his left hand. Her hand was so cold. “Lestin,” he said. “Lestin?” she asked looking even more confused. He nodded and turned the FM on.

The RJ was trying hard, cracking irrelevant jokes to increase his program rating. Lisa was looking out of the window, still tensed. Suddenly, RJ Vinod’s sound became serious. “Dear Bangl… an import.. announcem… “Oh shit, Lestin thought. They were about 30 km’s away from Bangalore city, linear fu**king distortion. “A woman 30…. escap… fro… Bangalore NIMHANS… Dangerous…”.

 

Assistant Commissioner Ranjith was walking, frustrated. An insane lady escaped from NIMHANS, a lunatic asylum in Bangalore city and she was spreading terror all over the city, five murders in different places. From the locations of these murder’s he could guess where she could possibly be heading to.”Goa”, he whispered to himself. Suddenly, his mobile started ringing. It was a subordinate from the commissioner’s office. He picked the call.

“Sir, I am Sekhar. We just got a call from someone saying that she killed that insane lady who escaped from that asylum, but she introduced herself as Lestin, She is clearly tensed from her voice.”

Ranjith asked, confused “A woman introduced herself with a man’s name? Are you sure about that”?

“Yes, we asked her twice. We are sure.”

 

“Dissociative identity disorder, previously known as the multiple personality disorder, is a severe condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in—and alternately take control of—an individual. The person might also experience memory loss that is too extensive and cannot be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.” Dr. Sanjay paused and looked at his students who were staring at him in shock, hearing about such a condition. He continued his lecture.

“When in control, each personality state, or alter, may be experienced as if it has a distinct history, self-image and identity. The alters’ characteristics—including name, reported age and gender, vocabulary, general knowledge, and predominant mood—contrast with those of the primary identity.” Again, he gave a little pause and continued, “Any doubts”?

It was Clara, a girl with big beautiful eyes who asked the question. “Doctor, how many personalities, a person with Multiple personality disorder can have”?

“That is a difficult question to answer even for a person like me who is teaching psychiatry for 20 years and having practice experience for about 30 years.” Dr. Sanjay took a deep breath and continued. “Cases with more than hundred personalities have been recorded.”

“We have a patient in our asylum with 12 known personalities. I would quote that word ‘known’. Her name is Lena. She was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia until she escaped from the asylum and committed six murders five months ago.” Sanjay saw Clara’s eyes becoming even bigger. He continued. ” She had a personality with the name Lestin, who was an IT engineer. She escaped from here, entered an office in Bangalore world trade center killed the manager, whom she assumed as her boss, came out, killed another man, stole his car.” He again took a deep breath and continued. ” She went to Lumbini Gardens, there she murdered a couple and threw them into the lake.”

Dr. Sanjay saw that the students were eager to hear the rest of the story, so he continued. ” Then she planned a road trip to Goa in that stolen car. She gave a lift to a poor lady who wanted to reach Goa urgently. On the way, Lena’s alter Lestin heard about the lady who had escaped from the asylum. She thought the lady sitting next to her was that insane lady, and that she was trying to attack her. Lena killed her.” He again took a deep breath and continued, “After that she called the police, introduced herself as Lestin and said she killed the lady who escaped from the asylum.”

He looked at his student’s face and smiled. “Any doubts”? He asked. This time, it was Niranjan who broke the silence. “Sir, how did she escape?”

“Niranjan, it’s still a mystery how she escaped from here and how she entered that office with such tight security. Ok students, I am a little tired. That’s all for today. Bye.”

Dr. Sanjay walked out of the class. He went directly to the washroom, washed his face and looked at the mirror. The mirror was showing a person at his late fifties, bald head, clean shave, and wrinkles on the face. Sanjay smiled, looking at his face and went for his usual rounds.

 

“Are you sure”? Assistant Commissioner Ranjith’s eyes were glittering. He kept the receiver back, looked at his subordinates and said, “Come let’s go and catch that B######d.”

Dr. Sanjay was relaxing after the class and his usual rounds. He heard someone knocking the door, “Not now”, he said. He was very tired. However, the person on the other side did not seem to hear. A person in his early 30s, well build, entered. Dr. Sanjay was a little surprised about this visitor.

“Sorry for the disturbance doctor.” Assistant Commissioner Ranjith said.

“Not a problem Ranjith, you are always welcome. How can I help you?”

“Doctor, we are going to close the case on that insane lady, so.”

Dr.Sanjay interrupted, “Lena”.

“I am so sorry, Yes, Lena” Ranjith gave a pause. “Can I call you by name? This is a friendly talk, right? ”

“Of course, you can.” Dr.Sanjay seemed happy.

“So Mr. Sanjay B######d”. Ranjith paused again to look at the doctor’s reaction.

“Just Sanjay.” The doctor said angrily.

“I am sorry Mr. B######d.”

“What the f**k. ” The doctor raised from his seat, his face was all red.

“Mind your language, you are talking to an assistant commission Mr.B######d. ” Ranjith said calmly. “Sit down Mr. B######d.”

The doctor was still standing, staring at the assistant commissioner.

“Ass back on the chair, ba####d” Ranjith shouted, hitting the table hard.

Sanjay realised that his ass were back on the chair.

“I was here four months back to ask some questions. I am going to ask them again. Be a good boy b######d”. Ranjith said calmly.

“I have to talk to my advocate.”Sanjay was shivering.

Ranjith started laughing aloud. “This is not United States Of America, A**hole, come on, be a good boy. “, Ranjith was trying hard to control his laughter.

Two minutes of silence.

The assistant commissioner broke the silence. “Now you know why I am here. Don’t you?”

The psychiatrist nodded. “How did you find out?” Sanjay asked.

“It was one of your lies, that trapped you.” Ranjith started, “According to your statement. You were attending a conference in Delhi. However, we found you posing for a CCTV camera near the Bangalore world trade center where the first murder of the Manager of Synop Mr. Sharma took place. It was actually by luck that we found this and your bad luck. We found your car too in those clips. ” Ranjith gave a pause. Sanjay was sitting with his head down.

Ranjith continued, “After that we searched for the connection between you and Mr.Sharma, then it was easy to find that he was screwing your wife. Thanks to WhatsApp.”

Sanjay was still sitting with his head down. Ranjith started again “I don’t want to create a scene here, Mr. B######d. Let’s move. ” Ranjith was trying to control his laughter. “B######d, perfect name, you should be proud of your parents. ”

Office of the city police commissioner Bangalore, the room was crowded.“Let’s untie the mystery, Mr.Sanjay.” The commissioner was curious to hear the story from the doctor. “Sir, the doctor prefers Mr. B######d.” Everyone in the room laughed except the doctor.

Silence.

“Speak,” Sanjay shouted.

Dr. Sanjay tried to speak. The sound was not coming out. He took a deep breath and started, “I came to know the relation between my wife and her boss in her office. So I planned to kill that ba###rd.”

“I thought many ways to kill him, but I was not ready to spend the rest of my life in prison.” Sanjay took a bottle of water and drained it. He continued “It was at that time Lena came to the asylum. I hypnotized her as part of the treatment. I found that she could be hypnotized easily. I created two new personality inside her. ”

The people inside the room started murmuring. Commissioner asked them to keep quiet. “Continue,” the commissioner said. “I created hatred inside her towards Mr. Sharma. It was easy. I rescued her from the asylum with the help of some hospital staffs. I dropped her near the Bangalore world trade center. Using the ID card that I had created she entered. ”

“She killed five people after that F**kwit. What do you have to say about that?”He asked looking at the doctor. There was no reaction.

”And after that, he made sure Lena was not getting decent treatment, pretty excellent for beginners, right sir?” Ranjith asked the commissioner. The commissioner nodded. Ranjith and the commissioner went out of the room, discussing.

Dr.Sanjay was sitting alone in the room. Assistant Commissioner Ranjith suddenly entered, “Sorry to make you wait, B######d.”

Sanjay was smiling this time. “Don’t be over confident Mr. Assistant commissioner. I will walk free. This is India.”

Ranjith smiled. The smile then exploded into a laugh. It took a little time for him to start speaking. “Be*chth, you a** hole. I know this is India. I know the rapist has walked free in this country, but I will definitely make sure that you will be spending the rest of your life in prison.” Ranjith’s sound became serious, “And if I cannot do that. I will kill you. ”

Ranjith smiled and continued, “All the best B######d”.

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Postscript

Assistant Commissioner Ranjith made sure Lena is getting good treatment and she is getting well, slowly. Sanjay is now enjoying his lifetime imprisonment

*B######d is a name similar to a Hindi swear word.

–END–