FICTION
U think we'll go further. Adil queried. I wanted to say "no". But i suddenly realised that i had uttered "yes". Abdul and arshad werefive yards ahead. It was tenebrous. The only sources of light were the two torches that adil and arshad were carrying. I think I should rephrase the previous sentence to one and a quarter torches. The second torch instead of making us comfortable was infact scaring us. The feeble beam of light from that was one of the many things that weren't right that evening.
We were new entrants of the VEDANTA group, Orissa. Ther’s always been a scarce of water at tis part of the world though it had all necessary resources our company needs. The unique feature of the company’s location s that it has been constructed 8kms away frm a dense forest wid a bundle of mysteries… The only reason being the presence of a perennial stream close to it and also due to some environmental reasons. It has been a dream for us to get a placement here and we somehow made it. We stayed in mansion-like building nearly 5kms away from the place of work. We landed in Orissa jus two days before everything happened. It was sankranti holidays that point of the yr. All other workers have gone to their respective natives. We guys felt it wud be better to stay up in the room since we had to settle ourselves in the new atmosphere, also the other 3 xecpt me doesn’t hav anything to do with sankrathi. Whic means we 4 wer the only souls residing at that time. Mind u, animals in the nearby forest didn’t cum under my census.
We had just finished unpacking our bags and necessary items v had brought in for the temporary stay and v felt it was enough for the day. We then had the most digusting food which abdul had bought frm a motel. That day I felt like I was tiredest person in Orissa. I settled myself in a 7ft gap these mansions provide. I was all set 4 a slumber. Memories abt my mom and of course the days in ambattur were going deep inside my head. Cant say it was disturbing. Tat sakranthi, I felt like I was missing lot of priceless things jus for d sake of money. Not only me, but also other ppl working here do have the same feeling sumwher running inside them. Money shu hav been the winner in that race lik in my case and we wer all in orissa coz of that. UNITED by MONEY! Nd for the MONEY!!!
I had no other go… adil was able to comprehend my situation like he always does, but he was not able 2 say no to the other two who wer already getting down the stairs.
‘va da chumma poyitu varlaam’, he said with his rough voice.. but even his rough voice fell sweet to my ears tat time..
A narrow road from the mansion led to the main road. If at all that can be christened a main road.. Some ppl said tat d forest authorities used to take the visitors for a nit safari along the dense forest, earlier. But they hav stopped doing that for the past 2yrs or so. This place was more lik tourist spot before,but now it has transformed into a complete industrial place. " Too dangerous " was the reason given. An evening jaunt on that road is the last thing that the mansion owner encouraged. But still v were four people. And it was only gonna be a short walk. These were the only two factors encouraging us to take it up.
Abdul was the first one to talk comparing this walk to the tamil flick "saroja" where four guys get caught after venturing into some isolated area. We laughed it away. Everyone turned into a raconteur trying to come up wit weird stories to freak out the others. It was really dark and unusually silent for a forest. Generally, u would expect atleast the insects to make their presence felt. But it was so so silent . The decibel factor arose only bcoz of us . All four of us talkin. To the reader’s surprise nd also to d other 3’s surprise I was started feeling very fresh. May be it was abdul’s talk wic really brought me 2 the scene..i increased my pace, asusual adil did nd all 4 were walkin more or less at d same speed. None had the idea of returning, though I had it in d corner of my mind. I even said, y cant we jus go bac… but the other three were pretending as if nothing was uttered by me.
each of the other three too felt the same way deep inside but just wern't ready to say it outside. But i cudn't see that ambivalent feeling of staying back in them. And so, call it shyness to resist , call it rush of blood , call it the quest for adventure in life , I joined
them.
The narrow road leading to the main road slowly came to an end. The scene turned completely different. The whole aura seemed to have changed atleast to me. But soon, did i realise it was the same for the others too. All four of us were waking up the forest with our decibel levels and laughter throughout the narrow road. But this main road got all four of us silent,atleast for some time. The light was slightly better but dunno how, definitely more scary. The road was definitely wider than i one we had trotted by all this while. It could easily accommodate two cars in opposite directions. There was thick vegetation on either side. . Looking forward in thedirection we were walking in, we could figure out a U-turn some 300 -.400 metres away. None of us knew wat lay after tat. It was a blind u turn. We continued walkin but i can assure you that all four of us were hundred times more cautious than five mins back.
Wat if v suddenly hav a rendezvous with a beast ?? someone asked. Running away is the only option the rest replied .V were at a good decent distance now from the mansion and any god damn slow animal wit some 2% killer instinct cud easily hunt us down. Few workers d other day said that elephants were the main source of danger.
All this was running at the back of my head. Wat if something shows up seriusly.. It surely had to be a run for my life, Given my BMI (body mass index) I knew I can never become a usain bolt. Lost in thoughts , another burst of laughter from someone's joke brought me back to reality.The talk kept us going. The U turn was clearly seen now. A perfect U curve but stil none of us knew were the road on the other side lead us to. But v ver sure that there was a road there bcoz v had spotted vehicles taking that route earlier i the evening.
As everyone came up wit sometin or the other to chat about i found a chance to say one of my favourite dialogues from a kamalhassan movie "Bayam illatha mari nadikarathu than dhairyam". Tis comes in kuruthi punal. I thought it was so true. There's no one on earth who doesnt experience fear. It jus how well they conceal that. That classifies them brave .Everyone acknowledged it. But to them there was totally a different guy standin alongside. Jus an hour bac they were about 2 leave me but now they were acknowlegdin my words tat I threw accordin 2 the situation. Tats typical uday 4 the ones reading this blog…:P:P
We were now very close to the U turn. This is where things changed . This is where adil asked me the first sentence of this blog..
Fresh from narrating kamal hassan's dialogue we ventured further. V were on the other side of the U now. It was the same road again. No major change from wat v had been walking thru all this while. Abdul and arshad were five yards ahead. It was pitch dark. And then adil whispered " dont u see something movin there. " I asked adil to come again as i cudn hear him properly. He said it again . Dont u see somethin movin tere pointing in the opposite direction? Abdul and arshad heard that too and they used their awesome sources of light to figure out wat tat was. It was definitely 20-25 yards away. It was a hazy black figure. and ya Adil was right. It was movin . and to add to the crisis it was movin in our direction, towards us.
All four of us stopped. Stopped right where v were. We cud have turned bac and ran but v dint, Cant answer why just bcoz i don’t have an answer. We were stil there trying to figure out what that was. It didn’t stop though. It kept movin towards us and at a decent pace too. All four of us huddled together and then v started to wait. The wait lasted some four to five secs. I can assure you that those four to five secs wer one of the most terrifying of my life. My heart raced. Why are v stil standing here and waiting to say hi to mr.X. , whatever it was. Lets jus go back . My heart urged me to run but i wasnt. infact none of us were. We jus waited.
The sixth second passed and with tat sighs of relief accompanied too. The torches turned useful now. X was only ten yards away and to our relief we spotted only two legs. it confirmed two things. It wasnt a wild beast. The second thing , if you have a penchant for my dear liza, 13 no, veedu and the like, it wasnt a ghost either. Atleast indian ghosts dint have legs. :-). Slowly X began to show itself. It was just a man. A local inhabitant. He wore nothin on top , somethin at the bottom and was carrying somethin. wood, I presumed. He crossed us , looked at us and gave us a weird look. A look which said “wat on earth are u ppl doin here at this time of the nit????
I am pretty sure v scared him too. Or alteas give him ideas. :P:P
That was so dam exciting. someone blurted. EXCITING.!!!! now that it wasnt something else and was just a man everyone had the license to use this word. Shall v go back, I asked . But now that this one turned EXCITING , v continued. Alteas for some distance
more. v continued. the next five mins went in each of us recounting the xperience of the past five mins r so, How each of us felt and wat cud v hav done if it really was a beast . Soon v cud spot a house approaching on the rite hand side. The road started growing narrower and vegetation on either side grew so dense encroaching the road by a good amount. We also cud hear the sound of water flowing somewhere nearby. A river ran through the whole forest and v encountered her many times in various forms at various places.
Another two mins and the sound of water grew very clear. The house was fast approaching too. The origin of the water flowing noise was uncovered. V found a stream of water running through by the side of the road at some distance. Even with the darkness around the fresh froth of flowing water was clearly seen. The house was only ten steps away and it was not late before v found ourselves crossing t. Who on earth found a place in the middle of the forest and built a decent sized house. It was dark. No one seemed to live in it. Seemed as though it had been locked for years. But i guess given the nature of environment any house would look as though t was locked for years. And soon arshad tranlasted my thoughts to a speech form.
He said " indha yedathula yevan da veedu katirukkan". Believ it or not. The instant he said tat a light got switched on inside the
house. A tube light i guess. And it was bright now.
All four of us dint know how to comprehend it. Is tat a ghost. R else is someone living there. We cudn see anyone movin inside. But tere must be someone or atleas somethin which turned the light on. This time automatically v turned. Too high a risk to take, we felt. Even if someone had lived inside and it was someone good , it wasnt worth it having a friend in one of the interior forests of Orissa.
Aftr uttering the above lines I took a step bac 4rm wher I was. It was wen I landed my foot on sum unknown specimen. Adil swiftly brought in the torch light seein me slippin over sumthin… but to our awe, it wasn’t jus a specimen, but a DEAD homo sapien in a blood bath! We all stood speechless wid mouths wide open nd heart beat racin a hundred times more than it normally does…………. And the very next minute we were besieged by atleast ten armed men.
Start music…………………………………..
"Bayam illatha mari nadikarathu than dhairyam"
(To be continued…………………………………)
