In 1997, on a winter night, S started for a village about 135 km from Hyderabad. The next day was his cousin's wedding. The whole family had left and he was the only one yet to go. One had to get down at a place called Ekhelli and there was a 7 km journey that had to be taken to reach this village. He thought he would get down in the early hours of the next day as the bus usually took 4-5 hours to reach. But that day, he met a friend who was going to Bombay in his car and he offered to drop him. Unexpectedly, his journey time was cut down by 3 hours and he landed in Ekhelli at around 1.30 in the night.
His friend dropped him on the highway and the car zoomed into darkness. He looked around and saw no trace of any life anywhere. He walked into the bus stop and put his bag down. The only light came from the half moon that wandered in the sky. In one corner, he saw a beggar sleeping. That apart, the only sound he heard was cold breeze whizzing past his ears. He knew that it was too late and probably too early to head towards the village, on way to which, as a child, he had seen many a snake. Soon he realized the silence which had trapped him, both from inside and from outside.
He sat in the bus stop and with nothing to do, wanted to sleep. But it was too cold to sleep and he, was too scared as he had some cash and gold on him. He lit up a cigarette and blew out smoke. He realized that it would be a better idea to visit another cousin, who lived in Ekhelli instead of sleeping in the bus stop. His cousin was a government employee in Ekhelli and lived in staff quarters. But the challenge was, he had been there only once and he didn't remember the route too well.
At 1.45, he started walking towards the staff quarters. The only sound he heard was his slippers rustling against cold sand. He speculatively walked through lanes and bylanes and took countless turns. At one point, he realized that he had reached the end of the village and all he could see was only dark melancholic emptiness. For the first time that night, he was scared. He knew there was no point walking any further. His heart beat like a German made automobile piston and he began to sweat. He had walked for about twenty minutes and was extremely tired. He pushed back his bag which hung along his shoulder and unzipped his pants to relieve himself. Once done, he sat down on a rock and cursed himself for agreeing to take that lift which transported him early, but into deep trouble.
As he wiped his sweat, he saw a light approaching towards him. It was a two-wheeler. As they came a bit closer, he also heard a whistle. They were cops. He saw a ray of hope. He stood on the rock put his bag down and waved both his hands and screamed, "Sir, sir, sir, sir, sir...". As they came closer and noticed him, they screamed repeatedly and the driver accelerated like hell and they sped away. S went clueless. He wondered why policemen were scared and they ran away from him. When he got down and picked up his bag, he realized he was standing on the grave of one Mr. Shantaram John. He screamed again and started running towards the village. To his misfortune, three dogs started running behind him. He started screaming as he ran. He stopped in front of a small house that was decorated with lights. The dogs, somehow left him alone. He saw there was a tent put up in front of the house and a few people slept under thick sheets.
An old woman sat at the entrance of the house chewing tobacco. She saw him and said, "Who are you? What do you want?". He told her that his cousin is the Govt. officer and he was looking for his house, the staff quarters. She said, "What are you doing at the graveyard at this hour? Are you a Sorcerer?". He tried to explain that he was not, but that day, he wore a black shirt. And as a habit, he had applied large amounts of vermilion on his forehead. This scared the old woman. She said, "You are lying, wait I'll wake my sons up" and screamed aloud. Her sons woke up and held him. They gave him two minutes to speak. Fortunately, one of them was the peon working in his cousin's office and he understood everything.
At 2.45, the peon escorted him to the staff quarters. His cousin opened the door and welcomed him. He didn't speak much. He drank many glasses of water and as he was about to sleep, his cousin asked, "So, how was your journey?". S looked at him in the dim light and said, "Don't ask".
15 years have passed and even today, S doesn't travel if he has to reach at night.
- Deepak Karamungikar
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