Born Again

Mira had entered Nikita's room to chat a little and then take her downstairs to discuss about dinner. She saw that Nikita was looking through photographs which were all over her bed in a hap hazard manner.

Nikita started to show Mira the photos, one by one. There were a few black and white ones and the rest were all coloured ones. There was a black and white one of Nikita and her husband, Fedor, when they had got married.

There was another one in which her father in law and her mother in law were sitting in the middle and her husband and she were sitting on the sides.

The coloured picture of the entire family was shown next which comprised of her in laws, her husband as well as her daughters.

"My in laws had aged by then."

My eldest daughter is Galine, sitting in front of me and that younger girl sitting in front of my husband is Svetlana."

"You must be wondering where is Igor?"

"Well he was born after my father in law expired and he figures in another coloured picture with his sisters." she added.

She found the coloured picture of the three siblings and showed it to Mira.

Just then Mira saw another coloured picture of a little girl with Nikita. It was just behind that of the siblings.

"Who is this little girl with you and carrying a basket of cakes?" Mira asked.

"That is Anastasia, the daughter of the farmer who belonged to our village. His farm was adjacent to ours at Khayenky village near Kiev, Ukraine."

"This little girl, Anastasia, was born in 1981 and an only child. She died at the age of 10 years in a fire along with her parents. The fire was caused by a short circuit in 1991 when USSR split up to form a number of separate countries."

"She was very attached to me. I was a newly wedded bride and she would love to visit me. I would make cakes and give her some."

"My younger daughter, Svetlana, would love to play with her."

"You know, when ever I look at Tania, I am reminded of her. Some of her features and behaviour is quite similar to Anastasia."

"Yes, It could be that she has come back as Tania. In our Hindu philosophy we believe we come back if there is something we did not accomplish or we were too attached to someone and could not see that person before passing away." replied Mira.

"You may be right. My father in law was not a good man. He used to chase this little girl, insult her by calling her a thief. She was never that type of person. Her dying with her parents in that fire really upset me." Nikita replied.

"There was a rumour in the village that my father in law was involved in that fire incident."

"The inquiry did not anything but people had their suspicions and we all lived in the shadow of that suspicion."

"My mother in law was a gem of a person. But my father in law was not a nice man. He was always troubling people."

"He said he could hear screams at night, coming from the ruins of the house. Once he even saw the little girl crying as she walked in the ruins and was saying that she would come back and take revenge on who so ever was responsible for destroying her and her family."

"After that I figured out that my father in law was a murderer and avoided talking to him as much as I could."

"After Igor was a born, I started feeling that my father in law was back. I was not too happy about this."

As Igor grew, he started to have similar qualities as his grandfather. The same quarrelsome nature, the wish to take over the asserts of others. To run down people."

My husband, Fedor, also noticed this and would give Igor a beating for this behaviour.

The perpetual problem with all ladies has always been what to make for dinner.

Nikita, got up on hearing the knock, went over to open the door. Seeing Mira, she asked Mira to come inside.

As Mira entered, she saw a lot of photographs spread out unevenly across the bed. Apparently, Nikita had been refreshing her memories.

"Nikita, you carry all these photographs with you whenever you travel?" Mira asked.

"Yes, some of them, not all." Nikita replied.

"Come sit down," she said while she pulled up a chair.

"You sit on the chair and I will just make some space on the bed to sit opposite you.," she added.