M I D N I G H T
G
H O S
T S
( C O M E D Y )
Nothing
human in this world can frighten Sakthivelu. A gigantic decimal tonne swarthy
man. Almost everyone in the Dairy never dared to get into physical
confrontation with him due to fear of
being thrashed. He worked in the Dairy as an Electrician and was also a
proud owner of four dead old junk lorries which brought milk to the Dairy from
far off places. Though fierce looking, due to his amiable nature he had lot of
friends, most of them being villagers.
He was also
a villager. His village was a very remote one and did not have even bus stand,
post office, stationery shops and the like. Only a small Muniappan temple and a
school were the prestigious concrete buildings of that village. Thatched houses were very
sparsely distributed. In some places, there won’t be any houses for miles.
Buses frequented the village in long hours.
Though
basically a villager, he was fond of wearing jeans pants and sport shoes. He
was a running champion at his school for five consequetive years. At that time,
he was of average weight and figure. Now, he was very heavy and even had a
little sumo wrestler belly. The free milk and butter of the Dairy made him so.
And he won’t take ordinary looking bags to the Dairy. Only good looking ones.
Though swarthy, everything of him would be clean.
Everyday, he
would board a certain bus and come to the Dairy. As he ran four milk lorries on
contract basis inside the Dairy, he would often be seen completely
pre-occupied. Never, could he concentrate in his electrician work totally. One
of the lorries will always be in trouble. If the third becomes O.K., the fourth
won’t run properly. And if the fourth becomes alright, the second would go out
of order. Initially, he had a tough time with their maintenance but as years
passed by, the breakdown of lorries became normal for him. He seldom had human
problems – only ‘iron’ic problems.
One day at
sundown, the fourth lorry did not come on its usual time. Sakthivelu feared a
breakdown. As he was waiting impatiently, his friends got into conversation
with him. At first, he was bit reluctant but later on he could not avoid
joining them. They started to talk about the people in the Dairy, various
problems occuring in the machines and thenafter about various actors,
actresses, movies, songs, TV serials, cricket and finally somehow they got into
the topic of the ghosts.
Our man felt
very uncomfortable. He did not want to tell others that he was afraid of
ghosts. As far as they were concerned he was a very brave man with no fear of
fighting. The thought of missing the last bus to his village, walking on the
road sighting the ghostly trees and going miles by foot to his village began to
bother him. He tried to ignore their talk and kept his eyes focussed on the
main gate and nervously waited for the last lorry. But still he could not avoid
listening them.
One of them
was talking about the experiences of ghosts which his relative had during his
works in his farm. Another told that ghosts do not like people turning their
heads back all of a sudden. If somebody does so, they would slap them “nicely”.
One man seriously informed the others that ghosts are very scared of “ beedis
and bromsticks”. The watchman agreed with him and told that they are afraid of
iron nails and old slippers too. For his share, he told that a lady did not like
her neighbour. One day, the lady died and the very next day, the neighbour was
found dead.
One denied
the existence of ghosts and told that he has never encountered any ghost in his
lifetime and that he had only heard people telling stories about them. The man
opposite to him did not agree with him and told that on one dark night, his
grandfather had seen a white figure with no legs which passed near him. He also
told that his grandfather never told lies. Another who had been sitting quietly
all the time remembered something and told others that some ghosts sit on top
of trees and wait for someone to come underneath the tree. When somebody comes
underneath for a pee, they will get into their body.
It seemed
that this topic interested the lot, a lot and they did not deviate from the
topic any further. Almost everyone seemed happy with their conversation.
In the
increasing darkness, two flashing headlights became visible in the road which
led to the Dairy. A lorry turned and drove towards the main gate and made it
very bright. The watchman took leave of
others and rushed to his gateroom. After recording the lorry’s time, he
opened the gate and there came his lorry roaring into the compound.
Sakthivelu
felt relieved. The driver informed him that there was tyre puncture and that
was the reason for being late. Sakthivelu then took leave of the driver and his
friends and walked hurriedly to the bus stop. The time was 10:50 P.M. He had to get another bus after
roughly one hour bus journey from there. He sent his prayers above to make the
last bus to his village to come a little late on its scheduled time. A half
empty bus slowly stopped near him. He got into it, sat near a window, bought
the ticket and after sometime started to sleep.
His fear for
ghosts was well known by his family members. Only other outside people could be
kept in the dark by him. Smalls and littles in his big family many a times have
frightened him to the fullest possible whenever they came to his village on
holidays. At midnight, they
would frighten the dog and make it to howl. And sometimes slowly walk over the
thatched roofing. They were so efficient and skillful in their tricks that he
really had a feeling that during some nights of the year, the ghosts really
walk and roam about their house. The smalls and littles administered by a
clever teenage boy never told him of their various versatile tricks which they
employed on him due to the chance of losing their next oppurtunity to frighten
him.
Sakthivelu
woke up when the conductor pronounced the name of his bus stop and got down
from the bus. The bus after dropping him, sped up and the two red tail lights
became fainter and fainter and thenafter disappeared. He seriously inquired in
a small shop whether the last bus has gone or not. The shop keeper gave him the
startling information that the bus has passed by before few minutes. The shop
keeper made arrangements to close his shop. Our man waited to see if any
passing vehicle would lift him off to his village. The shop keeper after
closing his shop, got on his bicycle and quietly left the place. There came a
two wheeler but there were already 3 occupants on it. He looked around to find
somebody to keep him company. There were none.
The complete
stillness of the night and utter solitude made things to look both ghostly and
ghastly to him. The midnight
was very black and the trees around the entire surroundings stood up ghost-like
against the sky. As he was waiting underneath the huge deadly looking
tamarind tree, a white haired lady with bent posture was walking with a stick
and towards him. He stood aghast at the sight of the old lady, wide eyed
with fear – his body fully prepared to start the running. Could she be a ghost
– thought he. No! She had legs. What a relief !! The old lady crossed him and walked in another road.
He decided to
walk rather than stay for staying underneath the huge deadly looking tamarind
tree was even more ghastly than walking through the road surrounded by ghostly
trees. As he was walking, he could even hear sound of his shoes and leg rubbing
of pants distinctly. Around him, the insects were screetching and the frog were
croacking. Apart from this, everything human was silent.
He tried to
remember the “handling procedure” of the ghosts and dared not turn back his
head. The mantras which his grandma told to keep the ghosts away came instantly
to his mind. He began to chant them hoping that as long as he continues
chanting, he would not get caught by anything.
The wind
blew stronger, the mantras came out faster. The leaves and branches of the
trees began to move violently as if they were trying to inform him about the
arrival of something. Up in the sky, the clouds covered the moon and made the
Earth around him a little more darker. From a faraway place, a dog began to
howl and sent a shudder up his spine. Fear Maximus made the entire hair of his
body – porcupined.
Now the
mantras were not coming out from his mouth. Instead they went reverberating
inside his skull. His heartbeat continued to increase and so did the pace of
walking. He really felt that something was coming behind him and began to walk
still faster. But alas! a coconut fell from its tree right over a place of stagnant
water with a loud ‘splash’.
Perspiring,
Trembling, Nervous he began to run as fast as his legs could carry him. So fast
that a Carl Lewis would have envied his speed. When he was at his top gear, a
little faraway there laid a human body exactly perpendicular to the middle of
the road. Before the retina and the optic nerve could send their impulses to
the brain, he stepped over the body. To his horror, the body neither moved nor
made any sound. Panic blasted his speed much further.
At yonder,
the drowsy members of his family in
their house had a strange feeling that something very heavy was coming towards
them. As if a baby tyrannosaurus – rex dinosaur was dashing towards their house
at high speed. Later on they saw him running towards their house at zero
gravity. After sighting the thatched
house and others, his pace slowed down and came to a sudden halt. His face
appeared to have been struck by a Vethal. He was fully shortwinded and could
not even talk. All of them laughed knowing well what had happened to him. They
asked if he had missed the last bus. Our man nodded his head. His youngest
sister was full of smile.
After
sometime, things started to become normal for him. He narrated others about the
road journey in full. Food was served to him and he began to eat. After his
eating, all engaged in a chit-chat. They began to talk about the various
problems which their family faced and things that must be done to remove the
problems. As minutes passed by, one by one broke off to sleep. In the end, only
he and his mother were talking. After a long tittle-tattle his mother felt
sleepy too and told him that they can talk about the things that has to be done
the next day.
There was one
room in their thatched house which had no windows and electric light. Even in
daytime, it will be dark. In night time, it will be very dark. The room was
intentionally built less airy to store inside fresh cotton from farmland. Our
man changed his clothes to a lungi. When about to enter inside the dark room
for sleeping his mother asked him not to sleep over there as he might get
frightened.
Wanting to
establish the fact that he is a brave man, he ignored his mother and went
inside to sleep. As it was dark, he could not search his blanket. One by one,
he brought the clothes outside and checked them in a small light. Thenafter
having found his blanket, he went inside and spread it over the bed. He then
kept a pillow and stretched himself on the cot. As it was bit warm, he did not
want to cover himself with a blanket.
Everything
was silent in their house. Almost everyone outside the room were beginning to
start their sleep. Sakthivelu closed his eyes.
…………………………..
……………………………
“Meeaaaawww”
mewed the cat from the top of the attali.
……………………………
“ Maa “ came
out a very inquisitive tone to check out whether others are present outside or
not.
……………………………
“ennada
sathi” replied the fat mother
……………………………
The thin
grandfather whose cot was laid near the front of the entrance to the dark room,
immediately got up from his bed and sat on the extreme corner of the cot
farthest away from the dark room entrance. He always had a subconscious fear that
one day the heavy body would fall on his lean body and break his thin bones.
The cat in
complete darkness inside the room perhaps didn’t know that a dark body was
lying underneath it and made a soft landing on his little sumo bare belly. The
cot inside the room screeched and there came Sakthivelu, running for dear life,
piercing out of the room and fell right over the cot.
The thin
grandfather appeared pleased having “effectively” saved his body of wreckage.
The crashing of Sakthivelu woke every
body up and the merry laughter continued again inside the house. Our bewildered
man wrapped his loose lungi to his hip and not willing to take any dire chances
brought his belongings outside and started to sleep.
The next day,
the grandfather who had left the house before sunrise to attend an important
matter with a person, came back with the news that he had seen a drunkard lying
exactly perpendicular to the middle of the road. And that before the first
morning bus to their village could ‘wake him’ up, he did so and to the
satisfaction of our man told that he had scolded the drunkard for having
frightened his grandson last night.
Written by Gokula Anand Year: 2000
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