Chapter - 1

Preface

Developing a flesh on skeleton is next to impossible, but for us it’s a matter of daily practice. We get an idea of a story; we work on it. We write the integral part of it, then intricate it and then probably give it some scenes and editing and that’s what I call developing a flesh on skeleton. We writers do it every now and then. focusing on our stories, experimenting on it and sometimes living it too. Usually, a script writer’s job is to write an interesting script, narrate it to the prospective stars, production house or people who would then work on the script. But unlike every time, this time Mr. Menon the not so famous director, whom you can still better elucidate as a struggler came to me with a unique offer.

One beautiful evening when I was relaxing on with a cup of cappuccino lost in the thoughts, enjoying the colours of nature and thinking about my next skeleton (the rough draft of upcoming story) in the front yard of my house.. I suddenly noticed a car stopping by at the gate. Felt annoyed and curious to know, who it was to disturb my usually lonely palace of dreams, where lived a writer and her few skeletons. It was a black colour luxurious Audi car with an unknown number plate and tinted glasses, which made it hard to make out who it was. In my mind, I thought this could be a real lazy person who is taking such a long time to step out of the car. Well, what to say a writer’s mind can’t stop pretending and making a story of the situation, you see! After about 5 minutes of long pause, a long average looking person, dressed in black suite stepped out with two mobile phones in left hand, cigar half burned and still smoking fumes of health hazard in his mouth, car keys in the right hand and struggling with the car door. As soon as he stepped out, he glanced at my palace of dreams (my house) and may be thought that he has reached the wrong destination. Just after a minute of taking a gaze at it, he opened the gate and entered the yard, had a look on me and asked ‘Can I meet the writer Ritu Roy’. I greeted him with a smile and offered hand shake and introduced myself ‘Yes, I am Ritu and how can I help you?’ The expressions on his faced totally turned up, where there was a little of frown and confusion on his face, now I was able to see a unbiased smile and eagerly he too shook hands with me saying ‘Glad to meet you Ritu, I am Menon the debut director of 2013’.  <br /> To my surprise, usually I have been running around with scripts to production houses and stars up till now, how come a director himself is approaching my place I wondered. Stopping the thoughts to take over me, I offered him to seat and served him with cappuccino. Putting my curiosity to work again, I asked Mr. Menon the reason for his visit. With few sips of the cappuccino in a slow voice he mentioned ‘I want you to write a script based on scenario that I want my next movie to be shot at’. A bit confused and after taking a minute of thought I asked him ‘You mean to say that I need to write a script based on the location?’ and without wasting a second he responded ‘Exactly!’ 

It was a confusing part to play and whereas this was different then creating a flesh out of skeleton. But yet thoughts started pondering over and I said myself that usually it takes lot of trouble in presenting the script to many different people, then finally getting approval with few changes to be done; instead of that entire struggle this was kind of an easy job as no after-work is involved. It was just about writing a story. Still I had to clear few of my doubts before finalizing anything. So I further moved to the detailed conversation about what kind of story it would be and where the location is, as well what kind of budget movie it is? After clearing all my possible doubts I agreed to write the script on his terms and also finalized the deal. At the end of the conversation Mr. Menon looked gratified and overjoyed, as if his long-awaited mission was complete. The deal that came walking to my home by itself, made me pleased too. 

Next day, I received an email with the address of the location, Map and few pictures of the place, where Mr. Menon was planning to shoot most of the parts of his movie. I started creating the skeleton now, as it was not about creating the story out of an idea. It was about creating a workable script based on the location, I had to first create a story base and then decorate it will all the flesh of words that I could put into. Just so you know, writing and developing a story is not a child’s play and it requires immense efforts, thoughts, collaboration, knowledge and time to be blended properly. But I was receiving emails and calls from Mr. Menon just after 3 days of our meeting, asking me about how far I have developed the script. It looked like, either he is over concerned with his project or may be too eager to work on it. For a moment, I felt irritated about it all, but then I calmed my mind and explained that this story or location-based script is a brain child of Mr. Menon and he could be eager to see the outcome of it. 

Approximately one week had passed since I met Mr. Menon and skeleton of the story was kind of ready but nowhere near complete. Seeing the curiosity of him, I told him that I had almost completed the picture of a story in my mind and also explained to him the base on what I was working. He sounded happy with it and congratulated me. Three days later, Mr. Menon’s secretary, Jagdish appeared at my place to inform me that we would be leaving for the shoot by next week. I said to myself in my mind ‘WTH’, I was definitely surprised and shocked to know that. I had not yet finished writing the script, there needs some little last-minute editing and the decoration after completing and overall, it would take me a minimum of forty to forty-five days. I explained the situation to Mr. Jagdish regarding the same and the time that I would need to complete the script. But he was not ready to understand a word of mine and insisted on me travelling along with them to the location and keep writing it further there itself. It meant to me like taking an infant to school and let him learn to walk therein. 

Confused, I asked Mr. Jagdish to give me time to think about it. He left my place looking unhappy with my answer and I thought Mr. Menon would not be happy to know about it. I took my usual cup of cappuccino and relaxed at the steps of the yard, lost in the thought and confused on what Mr. Menon’s reaction would be. Suddenly my phone rang and as expected it was Mr. Menon explaining his eagerness in completing the project as early as possible. I also explained my points to Mr. Menon that rushing the script would compromise with the quality. But he insisted and placed immense trust on me saying ‘I believe in you and I am sure if the location has inspired a director so much, it surely will inspire a writer too. You do not worry Ritu, I would not blame you for anything. Just pack your bags and be ready to travel on Monday morning.’ I had no option but to say yes to Mr. Menon seeing his unexpected eagerness. 

But my answer to him left me thinking and I was already feeling the pressure of completing the script in a time frame shorter than expected. Next two days gave me an odd existence, it felt like wherever I was or whatever I was doing, all I could see was calendars and clocks. The tick-tock sound of the clock was becoming an irritation and I felt like throwing away all the clocks from the house. Irritated, frustrated and pressurized I had started having sleepless nights & restless days. Monday was not very far; Wednesday had passed and it was Thursday afternoon. After sipping a cup of tea, I laid on my bed thinking more about the script and giving it a good story. As I closed my eyes and started imagining the scenario of pictures sent by Mr. Menon, I felt something unusual. Shocked, as I opened my eyes, I noticed that my room was turning dark it wasn’t the natural darkness in my room, in the day hours it was appearing as if it was midnight. I stood up a little confused and suddenly felt some noise beside me, kind of murmuring sound which scared me to hell. 

 Well DUH!! It wasn’t unusual actually. A writer’s mind was playing games with herself. It was those thoughts that dragged me into sleep and I never noticed it was already 10:00 Pm and murmuring sound was my phone’s idiotic alarm reminding me to have dinner. Yeah, well writers are a type of creature who can need reminder for food too, if they are too lost in their thoughts, they might forget their own existence or time of the day. So, keeping in mind the reality of myself, I had to offer me all those reminders of the day. The pressure of writing this script before time had made me go insane; I even forgot to cook something for me. 

As it was already late, I thought to drive to a nearby restaurant and get a take away rather than cooking at late hours. I took my car out, reached the restaurant within 10 minutes. Feeling lazy to walk out, I called a waiter and narrated what I wanted. He smilingly asked to wait for 20 minutes and offered me to have a seat in the restaurant. But I did not want to enter a place stuffed with people disturbing my thoughtful mind. I requested him to let me be in car and get the take away as early as possible. Listening to the music in the car, I relaxed my seat; as if the soothing music and closed eyes were giving spa to my mind. Just 15 minutes passed by and I got my food take away, I paid him and started driving back home. As it was late night hours, the road was empty and I was driving at the speed of around 80 kmph, lost in the music and thoughts. Suddenly a lady came in front of the car, I tried my best to control the car and turned towards left, but it felt like I gave her a good hit and finally my car banged with a huge tree on the left-hand side. 

Oh My God!! It can’t be true; I can’t be so irresponsibly driving to have hurt someone as such. Horrified by the incident, I gathered some strength and stepped out of the car to see the lady. My eyes were filled with tears, I was hurt because of the crash with the tree but was able to walk with a pain in the back bone due to the sudden jerk and the elbow which got a thrust in the crash.   Rubbing my blurred eyes, I started looking on the road; where is that lady? Not at the right, not at the left, nowhere on the road, where did she disappear? Oh No! Not again, it can’t be another illusion of my mind, Darn it…. I recalled for a moment. There was a lady, wearing a black shawl covered from top to bottom and was running so fast to cross the road. Yes, I did see that and within just 2 minutes time the lady has disappeared. It wasn’t an illusion, may be the lady was not hurt, maybe she was in hurry and she went away. I thanked God for it and got back to the car. The car was badly crashed and it was hard to drive it, it sure needs a good repair now. But still I was pleased to know that I did not hurt the lady as I felt. Slowly I reached home back, with now no mood to eat the food that I just brought. I left the take away as it is on the table and went to bed. 

I had planned to stay up for night and work on the script but now; the incident left me weak and also startled me. I gave up the writing for today and straight away went to bed. Friday, Saturday & Sunday went too fast, I surely added some flesh to the skeleton that was now in my mind, but yet was not even half the way on the script and here comes the mighty Monday. I woke up at 4 in the morning; <br /> I also had to pack my bags. Movie shoots don’t usually take the expected time so I need to keep much more stuff in my bag and moreover the schedule already was for about a month at a lonely place away from town. I kept all necessary things, with clothes some emergency medication, laptop, mobile chargers, some cosmetics and all that I could remember. I had to clear the house too before leaving it, pack things and shut all doors and windows. I completed the work at around 7:30 and got ready by 8:00 AM. 

I had a cup of tea and was reading the newspaper with some peace, when at 8:30 Mr. Jagdish called up to inform that car will reach at 9:00 Am to pick me up. I acknowledged it and brought my bags in the front yard. At 9:00 AM sharp, a car stopped by at the gate and driver came inside to announce that Mr. Menon has sent the car for pick up. I locked the house and stepped into the car without waiting any further. And here begins the journey of unique experience. 

Chapter - 2

The Journey Begins

The car soon takes off from my house and picking two more people on the way reached the campus of Mr. Menon’s office. There were many more people from the travelling team waiting, some were known to each other, whereas most of them were unknown. My eyes were travelling face to face to see if there was any face known to me. But was not able to find anybody known, though it was good for me to not be in a company and concentrate more on my script. My eyes then went on to Mr. Menon and Mr. Jagdish who appeared busy in making the travel arrangements and communicating to the cast and crew who may have yet not reached the campus. Mr. Menon looked annoyed by people not reaching on time, he suddenly gave a shout ‘This is the reason I avoid taking known names, they don’t understand the value of time’. Mr. Jagdish pacified him and mentioned that ‘Akshay is just on the way and he will reach soon’. After the situation became calm, I asked Mr. Jagdish, if he was talking about Akshay Raj. Mr. Jagdish said yes it was surely him and he would be taking the lead role in the movie.           

This was my third script on which Akshay Raj would be working. I was happy to know about Akshay, he was very selective about the role he plays and he was also a good friend to me. Both were an advantage for me. The only confusion was that I never expected Akshay to work on a script that he is not satisfied with and as far as this script of mine is concerned, it is still a work in progress. 

After about fifteen minutes time, Akshay appeared in his silver-coloured SUV. There was an excitement around the people in the cast as well as crew after seeing him. Most of the cast in the movie were new faces in the industry and probably this movie would be a debut for them. Whereas, Akshay was now in industry from more than 10 years and had won many distinguished awards too. After shaking hands with Mr. Menon, Mr. Jagdish and few known faces, Akshay turned to me and with a smile on his face mentioned ‘Finally third script from you, isn’t it?’ I returned his smile and said ‘Yes, the third script with you and if you would have not guided me, I would still be writing just the novels’. 

A good height, well built, fair face, bright eyes and killer attitude, Akshay has all it takes to be a successful star, which he already is. Yet he was so friendly and polite, that his endowment or accomplishment never takes over him. 

Mr. Menon finally announced for everyone to get in to the bus. Akshay offered me a seat in the car with him; even I thought that it would be a pleasure to chat around while on the way. The site was approximately 6 hours’ drive from Mumbai, yet in the Maharashtra border itself. On the way we talked about his past few movies as we were meeting after about 6 months. He was a busy person and disturbing someone without a reason in particular was always against my choice. 

I was as always in my thoughts, talking to myself in my own head, when he suddenly asked me about the script and why I hadn’t yet narrated to the star cast, which usually should not happen. I mentioned clearly to Akshay on what the situation is and how deadly the work line-up is. He was surprised and upset to know that the script was not yet ready and it is all a kind of planning going on from the side of Mr. Menon. He clarified that he would have never been ready to take up a role, without going through the script prior but just because Mr. Menon mentioned that I was writing the script he accepted the proposal. 

For a while we both became quiet. I found this attitude of Mr. Menon now a bit suspicious, why was he using my name to convince Akshay? Did he knew about our good friendship? Suddenly, Akshay broke the silence ‘Mr. Menon isn’t so reliable to work with, what’s your thinking?’ By that time even I was in confusion, my point was similar to Akshay but I somehow hesitated to declare it. Controlling my inner instability, I said ‘It looks like he is just very eager for the project to be completed soon and he is not taking the formal time needed for it.’ Akshay nodded with a slight approval ‘Could be’. But it was certain that by this time we both were in misperception and were uncertain about Mr. Menon. 

After a lunch break on the way, the journey and talk continued. We reached the site at around 4:30 Pm. The natural scenery was surely beautiful, hilly area, surrounded by green grass which appeared to be trimmed well for the shoot and the stay. It was a well-planned staying arrangement that was organised by Mr Menon’s team. Few cottages, few tents, few cargo container rooms surrounded by the grills for stopping trespassers or may be animals. The place no way looked like a jungle or suspicious and it was close to the highway, kind of well connected. It was different than my imagination that I developed due to the pictures sent by Mr. Menon.

My eyes were in search of the ruined Mansion that was the main attraction of the story. It felt like Mr. Menon noticed what I was looking for and he suddenly asked me ‘Would you like to see the attraction of your script? May be that will give inspiration to your words..’ I nodded with approval as of course apart from the good-looking scenario around I was more interested in completing the script. Akshay was standing just beside me and he interrupted our conversation asking ‘Can I also come to see the venue?’ Mr Menon soon accepted his offer and invited him to join us. Moving ahead he mentioned Mr. Jagdish to help cast and crew to settle down. An attendant from the crew followed us with few water bottles and holding the mobiles of Mr. Menon. 

After a walk of about 10 minutes thru the hilly side, I noticed the same old ruined mansion kind of an old construction, isolated yet standing tall beside a flowing river. Few trees were surrounding the entrance and there were bushes around the entrance area. Akshay spoke with a mischief in his voice ‘Ghost Castle, Yeah?’ Mr. Menon did not agree to his words and said ‘No Akshay, It’s just the beautiful but ruined place and our script writer can surely make an amazing ghost story out of it.’ With a laugh we entered the place and started looking at each and every corner of it. The way it was looking miraculous outside was not the same inside; we felt like the air was not able to circulate around properly and may be that was giving us a depraved aroma. Just after moving a bit further the atmosphere started getting agonizing. Looking at our faces Mr. Menon decided to not take us further and said ‘I know it needs a little more cleaning up here and don’t worry we will come back once the place is cleaned well’. We agreed to Mr. Menon and got back to our cottages.

The cottages were portable, small but beautiful designed by keeping in mind all the necessity of a person. Medium sized bed, corner table a chair to relax, windows on the two sides giving a good air flow and beautiful colours. As I got into the cottage, my body was carving for rest but mind wanting me to complete the script. Between the fight of two, finally mind won the game and I switched on my laptop to continue creating the story. Within few minutes, someone knocked the door and I was again disturbed on the journey of my thoughts. It was Jagdish, who came in and handed over a file to me, saying ‘Mr. Menon has sent this star cast details for you to have a look. May be giving faces would make your imagination more expedient.’ I accepted the file, but then thought ‘How ridiculous? I have been writing the story ever since without any faces, just with an imagination and then once I present it to production house and they accept it, they search for suitable faces. Instead, this is a different play and I have to write story based on location and now also pre-selected faces?’ 

Suddenly I buzzed my thoughts… No, I cannot be negative about the job that I am doing. I controlled my thoughts and re-convinced my mind to take this as a challenge. I started having a look at the faces on the file, the first was Akshay and based on my narrated skeleton Mr. Menon had given Akshay the role of A Professor. Next on the file was details of ‘Soniya’ she would be given the role of colleague to Akshay, a debut face for the film industry. Giving it a close look, I felt maybe I have seen her somewhere, she could be from advertising industry. Further on the list was ‘Vikram’, ‘Mohit’, ‘Shrungaar’, ‘Tanya’, ‘Julie’, ‘Riya’ & many more. I had to give name to all of them and prepare a suitable character for them or kind of mould the characteristics. 

With a fling, my mind started the journey of imaginations and soon the flesh was gathering on the skeleton. One after another faces, depending on personality of the actor I started giving them a role and script. My script was based on a college tour with few professors & students camping at the site to explore the place and suddenly falling into the unanticipated circumstances.  Akshay & Soniya would be taking up as leading couple, being young professors and also the most preferred by students. There would be two more professors on tour who were not so admired by students. Role of supporting leads would be played by ‘Vikram, Mohit, Shrungaar, Tanya, Julie & Riya’.

One after other, scenes started developing in my mind and the script writing caught up rapidity. Mr. Menon was right that at the sight my imaginations would get realistic. I was happy with the thoughts flowing fast in the mind and script taking the shape with the flesh of words. My thoughts were again disturbed with a knock on the door; I suddenly noticed it was already dark and I checked my clock, it was showing 9:00 PM. I opened the door to check who it was; a crew member was outside the door calling everyone for the dinner. I nodded and closed my laptop as well as doors of the imagination. I washed my face and without a mood to eat, I still went for the dinner gathering. Dinner was served in the good buffet arrangement near to the lined-up cottages. Lots of options to choose from, it was well decorated with all the luxury and mouth-watering dishes. 

Soon after completing the dinner, I was eager to get back to cottage and work further on the script, when Jagdish insisted to stay for musical program that was arranged post-dinner. I wasn’t so willing to stay up for the program as my body was feeling extremely tired, but I thought to not be rude to say that. I took a chair and tried to relax while trying to wait for the program to start. Soon DJ started to play the music and people gathered to dance, everyone started to pick up their choice for partner to dance with. I was stressed, lost in thoughts and was not having the strength to dance, so I preferred to take my chair in the most imperceptible corner.

After about half an hour of music and dance event, I started feeling the back ache seating for long hours in a straight chair. I now thought to move back to the cottage and rest for the night, with a plan to wake up early and get back to the job.

And The Night Begins

As I changed into my night wear and switched of the lights, a shadow passed by near the window. I opened the curtain to see who it was, for a minute it appeared like nothing is much visible outside due to lack of lights. Waiting for few minutes, I felt like someone was around walking with a torch light. It was dark enough to notice who that person could be but it appeared suspicious due to the way he was moving around with the torch light around the cottage. Collecting my thoughts back, I assumed it could be the security guard or someone responsible to keep a watch around.  Not willing to stay up longer, I got on my bed and felt asleep within a fraction of minute.

In the mid-night I suddenly heard a very unusual sound or better clarified as scary scream. The sound disturbed my peaceful sleep and I suddenly rouse up, seeing here and there I noticed it was very dark. I wasn’t even able to see the clock, I looked for my mobile to check the time but to my surprise, I was not able to find it. I left it just beside the pillow before sleeping and now I can’t find it. What’s happening? I headed to switch on the lights, found the switch board but was yet unable to switch it on, as if it was a power failure. My heart beats were going high now, hearing the scream and not finding the mobile was just not enough, lights were even not working. It wasn’t really normal. I tried to look out of the window on the entrance side, it appeared isolated. I wasn’t able to see anyone around and most of the cottages appeared dark from out. I was able to see a very small night light at the middle of ground space near the cottages. The light was so dim that I could hardly see much around. It appeared like a night lamp in the room. Looking around carefully, far away I noticed a lady standing, but it was so dark that I wasn’t again able to make out who it was. For a while, I thought maybe she was the one to scream in the mid of the night. But why? Why would she have to scream? Maybe she is in need of some help or is scared of the darkness? 

I collected some strength and thought to go out and talk to her. On the one side, I was a bit scared myself to move out at the middle of the night in a dark lonely place which was totally unknown to me. But my curiosity helped me gather some strength and finally with slow moving steps I decided to move out of the cottage. Slowly I opened the door and with even slower steps I moved ahead towards that lady. But as soon as I reached middle of the ground the small light in the middle of the ground started blinking and finally got turned off. This was the scariest moment; I was all alone standing in the middle of dark ground with almost no visibility at all and that lady standing away was even not visible. I was blankly looking around here and there with not the slightest vision or feeling of the movement. I thought to get back to the cottage, but it was hard to find the cottage in the darkness. I shouted for help, ‘Is anybody around? Can someone help me please? Hello?’ but it felt like my voice was not able to reach any ears. Probably everyone was sleeping and I was the only one to be awake. I thought to go and find any cottage from around and wake up someone, I started walking in the dark on the same direction from where I came here in the middle of the ground. I walked, walked and walked but my hands were not able to touch anything or find any cottage around. Was I heading to wrong direction? Even if was in wrong direction, with few more steps I might reach the security fences and follow them. I kept walking a little more, but yet no luck and by this time I was feeling confused & petrified. I kept shouting and crying for help while walking, when gradually my walking had turned to running and yet there was no luck to touch anything in this darkness. 

It suddenly felt as if something touched my feet and due to imbalanced running, I fell down and started rolling. My leg was hurt and body was aching due to the roll on the uneven flooring. I was not able to move up from the ground, I had no choice but to stand up on my own and find the way back to cottage or I might get lost in the middle of night at the unknown place. I stood up all in pain and hardly able to move, exhausted, scared, confused and feeling all the body ache. 

Few more steps I walked here and there in the dark and had no more guts to move ahead, my legs were not having any more strength to walk and I had to seat on the ground. I was cursing myself for coming out of the cottage and making myself fall in all the unexpected trouble. Tears started rolling down from my eyes and I was yet shouting for the help, when suddenly I noticed a sound of ‘Truuuumm’ ‘Truuuumm’ beside me. I started looking here and there to find the source of the sound and suddenly I noticed a small light blinking beside me. As I reached for the light, I noticed it was my mobile phone. Oh My God! I never brought my phone out of my cottage, how can it be here? No more questions to go thru, I reached up to the phone and wiped my tears off and as I opened my eyes, I could see a little shadow of light in the total darkness. And it was the light of my night lamp, but how could it be? I was not in my cottage; I was lost outside in the dark and was not even able to find the way. I looked around and I noticed I was back again in my cottage!!! Oh was that a night mare, or a scary dream? Whatever it was it moved me exhaustively. I was all in sweat and tears, tired and drained. Finally getting my phone in hand and stopping the ring of wake up alarm. I recalled I had planned to wake up early morning at 4:00 Am to work on the script, but too tired I had no courage to wake up now, it felt like I actually went thru the entire trauma. I sipped a glass of water beside my bed and went back to sleep. 

Next morning, when I woke up and checked the clock it was striking 10:15 Am, I was enough late on my schedule and could not delay anymore. I jumped off my bed and as I started walking, I could feel the pain in my feet. Ignoring it, I went up to take shower and get my mind refreshed from the dream of last night, which left mark on my mind. As I completed my shower I heard a knock again on the door, quickly I changed the cloths and opened the door. It was a call for the breakfast; I went out willing to complete the breakfast formality quickly and get back to writing the script again.

As we started having the breakfast, Mr. Menon came to me and asked about the script, I told him that I have given characters to the faces and have proceeded with the initial base and start of the script. He appeared happy to know that and asked if he could give me the first part, so that he can put to crew to work and start the shooting from next day onwards. I nodded in agreement as I never had any choice to object in this particular contract. It was a kind of once in a lifetime challenge for me, which I was heartily willing to complete, with best of what I can give. I mentioned Mr. Menon that within an hour, after giving final touch, I will hand over the first part of script to him. 

I completed my breakfast quickly and went back to my cottage, re-checked the story line that I had created to give the face and background of the character. After a bit of modification I finalized and copied the part in a pen drive and handed over to Mr. Jagdish. Willing to move ahead on my script and complete it as early as possible, I went back to the cottage and started exploring the imagination of my mind. After working on the start of the script for few more hours, I suddenly thought to visit the Ruined Mansion (Site for shoot) and collect all possible details like where are the rooms, how many rooms and what all is in the surrounding. I quickly switched off my laptop, took a small hand bag with diary, pen, a digital camera, water bottle and a face towel. Then I changed myself in a tracking jean, for ease to explore each and every part of the area, with a cap, sunglasses and sports shoes on I moved out of the cottage and started moving towards the Mansion. 

Chapter - 3

Leading To Pratibandhita Villa

Mid way just outside the fences, I noticed Mr. Menon, Mr. Jagdish & Akshay looking over the field and deciding the campaigning place for the shoot, which would not be much far from the Ruined Mansion. Seeing me heading fast towards the mention Akshay commented, in his casually naughty way, ‘Mam are you running away or planning to go for picnic, inspired by the beauty around?’ I stopped by, smiled and responded ‘Can’t run away from the assigned work Akshay and as of picnic is considered, no doubt the place is beautiful but work comes first. I am heading to get some more details of the Mansion and note it down for my script scenario’. Mr. Menon interrupted our just started conversation and mentioned his willingness to accompany me. I accepted his wish and soon Mr. Menon as well Akshay joined me towards the Mansion, while Mr. Jagdish decided to head back to the cottages. 

Soon, after walking for few more minutes, we reached the ruined mansion to which the script of story would be revolving around. Having a careful look on the outside view of the mansion, I noticed a name hardly visible on the mansion. I took out my camera and clicked a picture, tried to zoom it, but still the name wasn’t so clear. Making word out of what I noticed it was ‘Pratibandhita Villa’, a strange unusual name, if that is what I spelled right. We slowly moved ahead inside the huge gate which would have been definitely grand in its time, now broken with just outlines that could be noticed. Just after the entrance was bench of stones, probably the visitor’s area of the mansion and then was a huge open place, with rooms surrounding the area, which gave me idea that this could possibly be the open to air living room for the owners. Surrounding this open to air living room area were several broken rooms and stairs were going upstairs on the first floor. Having a look on the first floor, there were comparatively less rooms as half of the area was left out as an open terrace. 

We slowly started having look over each and every room, some part of the mansion was smelling awful, due to impossibility of air circulation. While other parts that had a better air circulation had not much of smell, but still there was a kind of restlessness in the atmosphere which made it hard for us to stay there for long time. But I had no choice then to have a quick look on all the parts to develop a story about the ruined mansion named ‘Pratibandhita Villa’. I decided to click more pictures quickly and watch them later in a peaceful moment while developing the story. I started clicking 2 – 3 pictures of each and every room, one after another there were 12 rooms and a kitchen in the ground floor. After clicking them all I moved towards the stairs, where Mr. Menon tried to stop me ‘Please wait, this is a ruined mansion we need to be sure about the security and safety. The stairs could not be reliable, be slow and wait for us we will join you’. I nodded in approval and walked ahead towards the first floor with Mr. Menon and Akshay.

On the top floor, the view was actually mesmerizing.. something very pretty with lots of greenery around the mansion and height gave a good view towards the hilly curves of the field beside. Adding to the beauty, not very far was a flowing river with lots of birds flying around. The view brought smile on my face and the flowing air decreased our restlessness that we felt on the ground floor. I quickly took few pictures of the beauty around and then headed towards the rooms. Where ground floor had 12 rooms, first floor had just 5 rooms one after another I started opening them and taking the pictures. On the route as I opened third (middle) room, my eyes were in shock and for a moment I was left blank and scared. OH MY GOD!! Is it the truth that my eyes were seeing? I shouted in fear, ‘Mr. Menon … Mr. Menon, look here’. Mr Menon and Akshay came running, they looked equally shocked. There were number of skeletons lying in front of our eyes, it could be possibly 7 or 8 skeletons, with snakes and spider webs all around the room.

Mr. Menon tried to control the situation and our fear as well. He quickly closed the door of the room and mentioned ‘It’s enough for today; I think we must move towards the cottages and will be back after we clear the area more efficiently’. We were so scared and had no choice to refuse his word of solace; we simply started moving downwards and quickly moved out of the mansion. After coming out of the mansion, I felt like we got our breaths back, for a moment I decided to seat there on a stone. I took my bottle of water and started sipping, Akshay was exhausted as well, I offered him water and he also had few sips. None of us had a word to say, we both seat quietly for few minutes. Suddenly I noticed, it was just two of us and Mr Menon was nowhere, where did he go? I questioned Akshay, controlling my breaths ‘Akshay, where is Mr. Menon?’ he had no clue too, he started looking here and there and we suddenly noticed him coming out of the mansion. Akshay pointed out ‘There he is..’ Mr Menon quickly came to us and tried to handle the situation by saying ‘Hey guys there is nothing to be bothered about, this is a old ruined place and things like this are pretty normal to find here’. We accepted his words and slowly started moving towards our cottages.

As we reached the cottage area, it was almost evening. My watch showed me 5:50 Pm, we had spent almost full afternoon in and around the mansion. Tired, exhausted and horrified we had no strength to think about anything at present. As we entered the security fenced area, in which the cottages were well occupied, Mr. Jagdish greeted us and mentioned ‘Oh you guys took really long having a look at the mansion, should I arrange the late lunch for all of you?’ I was about to deny his proposal when Mr Menon interrupted ‘Sure, why not Jagdish.. We will just wash our hands and I am really hungry.’ We too followed him and after getting a bit fresh joined him on the lunch table. Lunch was served with 3 different types of salad and pastas; we started to have our evening lunch for which I and Akshay both remained quiet.  With what we had seen today, I was quite horrified and Akshay looked in thoughts too, but Mr. Menon looked unaffected with it. He was doing all the talking with us as well as Mr. Jagdish. My mind was so lost that I hardly noticed what he was talking about; I just kept having the lunch slowly.

As we completed our lunch Mr. Menon instructed Jagdish to create the set of camp fire site with surrounding cottage for the shoot. I excused myself and started moving towards my cottage, I wanted some space to come out of what I had seen and also need to get back to story line up. I entered my room and sipped a glass of cold water to control my anxiety. But it looked like even that did not help me; I went for a quick hot shower and got fresh, tried to wash out all those scary thoughts out of my mind. After the shower I decided to get back to work and write the story ahead. Suddenly one thought pondered over me, I always use to call making a story as ‘Developing flesh on Skeleton’; today I actually show some skeletons for the first time in my life and it made me so restless. My thoughts were taking me back to the mansion, when suddenly I heard a knock on the door. As I opened the door I noticed it was Akshay, for a minute I thought to myself; May be he was as horrified as I was. He interrupted my thoughts by saying ‘Hey, where are you lost? If you don’t mind, can I come in?’ I welcomed him in the cottage, offered him a seat. Actually, we both already knew the reason what Akshay wanted to talk and for what purpose he was here at this time. Still, I pretended to be ignorant about it and started the conversation ‘Akshay, looks like you wanted to talk something, am I right?’ Akshay laughed and said ‘Come on; don’t try to be a macho! I thought that those skeletons might still be scaring you, so I came here to give you a company.’ We both tried to laugh over his joke for a while. 

For few minutes, we talked about here and there without any point and then finally Akshay proceeded towards the most awaited conversation ‘Do you think there is something unusual regarding Mr. Menon and this so-called ruined mansion?’ I wanted to ask something or everything? But I stopped myself and with a deep breath, thought to ask Akshay about his actual opinion. I asked ‘what exactly? I mean I know he is different from those usual film makers, but what exactly do you mean?’ He thought for a moment and said ‘Nothing specific, but story without actual preparation and then how can he be so calm after seeing those skeletons? It could actually be his nature but it really confused me.’ To be true I had the similar thoughts about him but didn’t know how to say it out. I still thought over it for a minute and said ‘Akshay, who knows, maybe we are just overthinking about it. He could just be a different person’. He nodded in approval but it was quite clear that he did not agreed on my words, even I wasn’t but I was trying to convince him as well as myself to not be negative about our project.

Within few minutes our conversation was interrupted with a knock on the door, it was tea time and an attender had brought tea for us. We picked up a cup of tea and without a word started having tea, lost in thoughts. As we completed our tea Akshay decided to move, he said ‘You continue your work, I would see you later’, I simply said ‘sure’ and he left the cottage. Again, negative thoughts and doubts were pondering over my mind, yet I had no choice but to get back to work.