It was a foggy night. I was on my way to home from my friend. The road was hardly visible but for the moonlight; the street lamps were not lit. A dead silence prevailed there. As I moved on, I expected the ghosts to appear any moment, from across the fences, above the branches of trees or grabbed me from behind. I felt as if my head was becoming bigger and bigger in size and my hair straightened up.
I tried my magic formula. I usually use my magic formula whenever I found myself alone in dark and fearful thought haunts me: SING AS LOUD AS I COULD. I sang very loudly and my voice was echoing into my ears. Singing broke the stillness but the dread of ghosts was still there. The stories of ghosts and evil spirits that I had heard from my grand mother were haunting me.
The stories I had heard were coming alive in my head, my song was echoing and I was walking in the middle of the road with my eyes looking straight. Now I could see my house not far away, still the dread was there.
Suddenly, I heard someone yelling after me, “Aye boy, listen!” Then after a pause, “Come here. Look what I have? I’ll give it to you just sing a song for me.”
When I heard the voice, I stopped trembled of fear. But I gathered up my courage and turned towards the direction of the voice. What did I see? I saw a monstrous creature, holding a long wooden log, coming towards me. There was no doubt that he was a ghost. “This seems too big for an ordinary ghost”, I told myself. “He must be the king of ghosts.”
I showered at the king of ghosts with stones and rock pieces- whatever I could gather from the ground, and then sped off –running and tumbling- till finally I sensed that I was home. I was frightened and breathing rapidly. I couldn’t say anything for quite sometime. “What’s the matter? Why are you looking so frightened? Obing, what’s the wrong?” Mama was asking me. She looked very worried. I told her what I had seen.
“This is because you don’t return home in time and put your Mama and me in trouble.” Said Papa without even turning his face towards me; he was watching news channel on TV. I encountered the king of ghosts. I was dead frightened. But Papa thought it was some kind of joke and very funny. I hated him for that.
An argument started between Mama and Papa after dinner.
“From last couple of days” said Mama knowing very well that Papa would not take seriously what she was going to say, “I’m seeing bad dreams. I already told you this morning. Now Obing has also seen a ghost. This is not a good omen. We must consult our family priest. You know…”
“I don’t know” said Papa interrupting her. He looked little upset. This was not the first time Mama made up her mind to argue with him about bad omen, bad dreams and things like that. “I don’t know anything about your bad dreams, bad omen –modern women talking about such stupid things. As for what Obing has seen, it could be just an illusion. The other day you open the window under moonlight and a cloth hanging on the rope appears to you a lady in white rag in first sight. These things happen and …” He picked up the telephone without completing his sentence and asked the priest to come the next morning. He knew he can not convince Mama come what may.
The next day, early in the morning, I was woken up by the chanting of sacred hymns by the priest. He was holding an egg each in the both hands. The egg in the left hand was marked with black carbon soot. The chanting continued for few minutes. In this way the priest made enquiries of two groups of spirits in the world of spirits which he suspect was causing the trouble. After the chanting was over, the eggs were boiled in water. The priest took out the eggs after sometime, cut eggs in middle and started looking for signs in the yolk which give him the idea what was causing the trouble.
The priest lit up and smiled after seeing the sign in the egg marked with carbon soot.. “Just as I had suspected” he said. “Now everything is going to be alright” he continued. “Two full grown hens and a cock are required for the rite.” Then he asked Papa to arrange some bamboo for the preparation of altar. Announcing that the rite will be started by 10 this morning, he left the house.
Papa too left for bamboo garden. Just as Mama and I were sitting by the fireplace an old man entered the room. He was Aku Tani, a nice old man –he was very fond children. I could see he had fallen somewhere or had a fight with his wife the last night for a bandage was tied round his head and there were some wounds on his face as well. Mama made him sit by the other side of the fireplace. She offered him a mug of rice beer. “What happened to your head and face? Fallen somewhere or what?” she asked him.
“No. It was that rascal boy” he said. “Last night there was no power supply, so I went out in the moonlight wearing black woolen shawl of mine. I walked around for a while and sat down in the roadside, leaning against a lamp post. Just then I saw a young boy passing by me, singing loudly. I yelled out to him and asked him to sing a song for me. Do you know what he did? He showered at me with stones and rock pieces and ran away.” Now he took a long sip of the rice beer and looked at me suspiciously. “He was of his age -8, 9 years may be.”
“You don’t mean it was Obing?” Mama said interrupting him in middle.
“No,” he said, still looking at me –looking up and down. “It was dark and foggy out there. I could not see the face clearly. If I find him, that rascal boy, I’ll break his hands and cut his ears and put them into his mouth.”
As the old man went away, Mama looked at my blushed face and smiled. It was so embarrassing; I had mistaken that good old man to be the king of ghosts and wounded him so badly. “What about the rite, the hens and the cock?” I asked Mama.
“It’s alright.” She patted on my back and said. “We can’t do anything now.”
□□
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
The Prettiest Girl
I knew for sure that the world has never been short of pretty girls, so much so that I wondered if there could be a girl - the prettiest. From my earliest recollection, when I was in the first standard, I thought one girl of my class to be the prettiest. But the very next year she was not for a new girl had joined my class who looked prettier. It so happened naturally: prettier and prettier girls have been presented before me by the time. And it was not surprising, a month or two ago I saw a girl prettier than I had seen so far – the prettiest. Was it love, lust or mere attraction, I longed to see her again.
I did not know her name and her whereabouts, but I was determined to find her. However, the sad point in it was that I did not have the courage to ask for an elderly advice from some elderly man regarding this matter. I asked myself, “How shall I find her?”
“You fool,” said my inner voice, “Use your head. What was she holding in her hand when you saw her? Remember.”
“Book,” I said.
“What kind of book?”
“Novel, I think.” I said.
“That’s the point,” said my inner voice. “That means she must be fond of reading - she may come to library or bookshop.”
So, I lingered around the bookshops for couple of days. Then I went to library. I would stay there all day long, hopefully, for several days. But there was no news of her. On the seventh day, the librarian who had been watching me suspiciously all these days came close by me and said, “Boy you read nothing – walking about the bookshelves all the day, what you are up to?”
“Nothing Sir,” I replied. “I simply watch the books. ?>Reading doesn’t interest me. Watching the book is my hobby you know. It gives me so much pleasure.”
I returned home tired and hopeless. “Nothing to discourage,” said my inner voice. “Try another method. You say she is in slimmer side and has got good physique?”
“Yes,” I said.
“This type of girls are fond of fresh air – may be you see her going for morning walk.”
It was not a bad idea. On the following mornings, although I happened to be a late riser, I would manage to get up very early and set out for morning walk sometimes around Para-Line, sometimes Gurudwara Colony, sometimes Hilltop colony, sometimes Pai Gate and so on. But I could not find her anywhere.
I was going to turn my deaf ear to the adviser inside me. But, now it gave me such a brilliant suggestion that I was tempted to try once more. “Nothing can stop you from seeing her,” said my inner voice. “She is a student she will go to school.”
There were two schools (those days) where she could study – one was Government Secondary School and the other Government Higher Secondary School. I planned my strategy and chose to try it at Government Secondary School, first. I would stand by the gate of the school like a gatekeeper and kept my eyes on every person who passed through it. When I did not see her in spite of standing there for three successive days, every morning and afternoon, I tried at Government Higher Secondary School.
The time went so soon. My vacation had ended and I was sitting on the bus waiting for it to leave. Now I realised how dull my summer vacation would have been had it not for that pretty girl! How grateful I felt for her! She had turned me into an early riser and turned my dull vacation into an exciting one. However, deep inside me I was frustrated. Longing for her grew stronger; I climbed the bus with heavy heart.
I thought it was the end of the world. Unless I find her out, my life seemed to be full of darkness. But I was wrong. The wheel of fate does turn. Surprisingly this time it turned for me rather quickly. At the end of the journey, when train stopped at New Delhi railway station, I saw someone and with that very sight, my moment of frustration was over. I saw a girl prettier than the one I saw in vacation waiting for me. She came there to say good-bye to one of her friend. I just thought she was waiting for me because we became friend that very minute at that very place. I knew she was everything to me. I liked her from toes to hairs. I thanked God for hiding that girl of vacation from me. Who knows what silly promises I might have made to her had I found her out. It would have caused unending misery to find my dream girl waiting for me.
Now by the grace of God, the moment of frustration was over, I was happy and my life was full of sunshine. Of course, I did not expect to see any prettier girl. I was praying in my heart of hearts “God, no prettier girl, please.”
I did not know her name and her whereabouts, but I was determined to find her. However, the sad point in it was that I did not have the courage to ask for an elderly advice from some elderly man regarding this matter. I asked myself, “How shall I find her?”
“You fool,” said my inner voice, “Use your head. What was she holding in her hand when you saw her? Remember.”
“Book,” I said.
“What kind of book?”
“Novel, I think.” I said.
“That’s the point,” said my inner voice. “That means she must be fond of reading - she may come to library or bookshop.”
So, I lingered around the bookshops for couple of days. Then I went to library. I would stay there all day long, hopefully, for several days. But there was no news of her. On the seventh day, the librarian who had been watching me suspiciously all these days came close by me and said, “Boy you read nothing – walking about the bookshelves all the day, what you are up to?”
“Nothing Sir,” I replied. “I simply watch the books. ?>Reading doesn’t interest me. Watching the book is my hobby you know. It gives me so much pleasure.”
I returned home tired and hopeless. “Nothing to discourage,” said my inner voice. “Try another method. You say she is in slimmer side and has got good physique?”
“Yes,” I said.
“This type of girls are fond of fresh air – may be you see her going for morning walk.”
It was not a bad idea. On the following mornings, although I happened to be a late riser, I would manage to get up very early and set out for morning walk sometimes around Para-Line, sometimes Gurudwara Colony, sometimes Hilltop colony, sometimes Pai Gate and so on. But I could not find her anywhere.
I was going to turn my deaf ear to the adviser inside me. But, now it gave me such a brilliant suggestion that I was tempted to try once more. “Nothing can stop you from seeing her,” said my inner voice. “She is a student she will go to school.”
There were two schools (those days) where she could study – one was Government Secondary School and the other Government Higher Secondary School. I planned my strategy and chose to try it at Government Secondary School, first. I would stand by the gate of the school like a gatekeeper and kept my eyes on every person who passed through it. When I did not see her in spite of standing there for three successive days, every morning and afternoon, I tried at Government Higher Secondary School.
The time went so soon. My vacation had ended and I was sitting on the bus waiting for it to leave. Now I realised how dull my summer vacation would have been had it not for that pretty girl! How grateful I felt for her! She had turned me into an early riser and turned my dull vacation into an exciting one. However, deep inside me I was frustrated. Longing for her grew stronger; I climbed the bus with heavy heart.
I thought it was the end of the world. Unless I find her out, my life seemed to be full of darkness. But I was wrong. The wheel of fate does turn. Surprisingly this time it turned for me rather quickly. At the end of the journey, when train stopped at New Delhi railway station, I saw someone and with that very sight, my moment of frustration was over. I saw a girl prettier than the one I saw in vacation waiting for me. She came there to say good-bye to one of her friend. I just thought she was waiting for me because we became friend that very minute at that very place. I knew she was everything to me. I liked her from toes to hairs. I thanked God for hiding that girl of vacation from me. Who knows what silly promises I might have made to her had I found her out. It would have caused unending misery to find my dream girl waiting for me.
Now by the grace of God, the moment of frustration was over, I was happy and my life was full of sunshine. Of course, I did not expect to see any prettier girl. I was praying in my heart of hearts “God, no prettier girl, please.”
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