It Happened One Night...

The branches waved in the silent moonlight...the golden moon provided the backdrop...a fullmoon night in autumn..somehow since he was a child....Animesh...was fascinated by the same sight..his elder brother Neelesh used to joke that Animesh would be a poet...he couldn't have been farther from the truth...his kid brother became an accountant.... Animesh couldn't really connect why these thoughts came flooding back...all these years back...he continued down the path in silence....one year back he had traversed down the same path...things were different then....his paternal grandparents were there to welcome him...then one missing fishplate was all it took....to wipe out one entire generation.... The gate gave way with a squeal of protest...he was in front of the front door..even before he realised it...."Saab....?" He almost jumped out of his skin...the rasping voice....almost reminded him of sandpaper scrubbing over wood...his grandfather...was an expert craftsman....he turned..... He had turned to face a skeleton....almost...the eyes were buried in their deep sockets....the wide dome like forehead cast a shadow over the glowing orbs..."Tiger, Tiger..." where had he heard or read it before? A hundred different thoughts, a hundred different impressions.....the high cheekbones, the tobacco corroded teeth hardly did much to add to the aesthetics of this creation... "Uhhh...I'm Animesh...Sen..from Kolkata..."....he managed limply...his mouth was dry..he swallowed hard..trying to push back all the ghost stories that he relished since childhood....he didn't really relish them now....almost felt sorry for all the times he had scared his younger sister....."Err..didn't you receive the telegram?" "Sen...???" the figure repeated slowly..as if trying to remember.....some distant memory....."No...no telegram.....no letter....nothing.....are you ..are you Ashim Babu's son?..." "Yes!!"Animesh managed with a gulp of relief...."Where is Shyam?....the caretaker...I mean....He lives....." "Shyam left a couple of days back.....didn't your father tell you...Ashim Babu.....oohhh Ani-mesh Babu?....the figure replied slowly....Animeash was getting used to the voice....."I ....I am his cousin ...Ramu...Ramavatar....Babu...."and then he smiled......only his sense of dignity prevented Animesh from picking up his strolley, and making a beeline or the derelict bus stop. The cobwebs, the dust....made him miss Shyam like anything....the house looked as if It hadn't been cleaned for eaons....most of the lights did not work...why most? The two lights that bore witness to the fact that the house had electricity were the ones in the kitchen, and near the main door...they gave out a dying 'radiance'.....Animesh almost grinned at his thoughts...'uhhh....the wannabe writer'....Neelesh would have joked...after all Neel was a renowned criminal lawyer..somehow poetry had no place in his life....... "Babu..I'll make arrangements....proper arrangements..first thing tomorrow morning...please put up with this for tonight...I'll light a candle in the corner room,...it's clean..err...somewhat ...you see..nobody comes..so...I'll fix you something for dinner..." Animesh felt a little alive at the mention of the word...'dinner'...something positive at last! The thought of steamed rice, and freshly fried fish...he hoped..he was the true, blue 'Bong'....life without fish!!! Impossible!!!....'Sure!' he managed...his voice sounded cheerful for the first time, in ages....in eons....it seemed... They had reached the door..the clock gave up with a shriek...it almost sounded like a banshee screaming in a haunted mansion...'The House Of Ushers'....or something wasn't it....Poe had been one of his eternal favourites. The musty smell hit him...a wave of distaste...is this is clean..WHAT is dirty...his disapproval must have showed...."Babu...I'll open the windows..tomorrow morning...." Animesh, hastily managed to have his bath...he almost felt like Arjuna...finishing his tasks in pitch darkness....the dinner was equally disappointing.....forget about "freshly fried fish"....the lavish affair consisted of a couple of rotis...which could have doubled for papads, and a few slices of fried brinjals....or some new type of vegetable that resembled the afore-mentioned vegetable....he almost felt like tracing the geneology of his 'dinner items'.... Anyway Animesh decided to take an evening, more correctly, a night walk...the room was too depressing....the garden, or rather what had once been a garden....cheered him up.....it was overgrown with weeds, a sweet-smelling lower of some sort...Animesh was the typical...nature-blind 'shehriya'....nature never really interested him...his grandma...was an avid 'gardner'...her hobby....'gardening'....he didn't want to think about them...not any more....it was too painful..... The air was fresh....but the mosquitoes...they were, certainly, glad to have him.....very welcoming in fact....he decided to go back.... Sleep came with its own hassles....returning to his 'suite' was painful enough...finding a comfortable position on that fossilised mattress....was almost like practising yoga with your hands and feet tied.... Then...it happened.... He did not remenber how or why he had woken up...it took some time for his eyes to get adjusted to the ink darkness..."darkness has depth".....were his waking thoughts...then...that sensation...thaaat sensation of someone leaning over, and staring at his face, intently,....the sensation of having a face...a head inside the mosquito net..tangible....yet somehow intangible.... Sweat-soaked Animesh clambered out from under the mosquito net..reaching out for a glass of water....that wasn't there...his bottle...where...WHERE...was it???..why had he decided to come down here..WHY???..panic...that sharp, cold, prickly feeling down his spine....stay calm....STAY CALM...this house was so different, when Shyam was around..... The 'khut' sound....sliced the veil of silence that was gradually, systematically smothering him...a lighter shade of blackness, of darkness, ....'shades have shades/ all the way to Hades....'....was he going crazy..why such odd thoughts now!....realisation dawned that the windows had closed...probably a strong gust of wind..but then shouldn't he have woken up... The lighter shade...he realised....was the door...it had no latch...he had been compelled to leave it open....a silhouette....framed against the lighter shade was a darker shade....a human... Paralysed, petrified...Animesh heard "Who..w-h-o is it?" The sound was unfamiliar, it resembled nothing human...nothing from this world at least.....Animesh felt his mouth drying up...it was HIS voice.... Answer, he received...none....a rasping voive answered him.."Saab....how are you....feeeling alright..I hope?" The chuckle that followed seemed to come from somewhere near him..yet the shadow hadn't moved...it was still there....I came to warn you..Saab...Saab? You are listening, na?...Ramavatar..that bastard...he...he...murdered me....right here....in my bed...in your bed....I'm Shyam....don't you recognise me?....He plans to do the same..now.....can't you hear him comin?".... The sound of silently approaching footsteps...was all too clear...."Run Saab....run....I have served your family for so long....can't let this happen to you....that window...behind you..." Animesh turned back....when he turned towards the door...the figure was missing..he felt someone's breath on his shoulder....a cold touch..."Saaaaab???" almost like the hissing of a snake..... The next thing that he remembered was the 'chai' stall at the bus-stop....the anxious faces...."Babu?..Shhhh.....don't you see he is coming around...ah ha....how else will we know where he has come from?...from your 'sasural....haaanh!'....differnt comments...different voices...the strong tea..revived him..with a lot of difficulty he managed to be coherent...his experiences..of the night before..were too terrifying...even to think of...the onlookers were silent...the faces had one expression...'deadpan'..... Then Badshah, the tea stall owner..swallowed hard....the others looked away..... As the bus move away..Animesh tried to make himself invisible....in the backseat...Badshah had put in a word for him..the conductor, keeping in mind the numerous 'khuris' of free tea...would charge him, nothing.... Shyam had gone on a pilgrimage..leaving a friend's son to guard the property....the man in question was, Akhtar...a ventriloquist...he was, also, a member of a local 'jatra' group...and a rogue by profession . Akhtar had made full use of his 'talents' ...and had reaped the fruits in the form of Animesh's wallet, camera, mobile phone....Animesh closed his eyes...trying to control the shudder....he had been too ahamed to even report the matter to the police...in any case the nearest police 'chowki' was a good ten kilometes away...Neelesh...'O God...'...the laughter of the villagers...continued to ring in his ears.... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------