The hunt continues

Sometimes nature cheats us with the mirage on the road resembling a river flow. Sometimes we are fooled by a question paper which has totally eliminated the expected questions. Sometimes an illusion unanswered…

It was usual for the three of the full time day scholars obviously including me, to finish our lunch and go around the college to find where we got some if not ‘safe’ but at least ‘not dangerous water in the ultra gargantuan louring haunting enigmatic construction of the 1940’s- in simple words my College Main Building.

We would start from our place going around, having a fresh lot of gossips to distribute and collect all around. Before anything we would first check out if someone is actually waiting to bore us with his boring g.f. stories or someone waiting to gain sympathy by reciting the rich fauna found in his food last night for samples say cockroaches to flies to flees. If no, let’s move… there the third year seniors enjoying their group lunch unaware of the surprise check of observations and records in the labs afternoon sessions, something I overheard pre-lunch. Someone said observation? Yes we had ours too, but would complete it after our daily raids were over within 10 minutes. At 100m stands our most reliable BEST WATER DOCTOR which guarantees you three options of – Hot, Normal and Cold, only a 0.1 degree difference among them. There we would take a close look at the couple hiding behind the pillar so that no one disturbs them and discussing, no doubt- what else? ENGINEERING. Then walk straight after the two water bottles overflew with the fetchers tracing someone walk through the common quadrilateral until she turned back. Then a CLOSE right turn lest you dash into a group of girls of the first classroom and commit the biggest crime in the college. Three classrooms later you find a set of junior girls announcing their Friend’s name syllable-by-syllable only when we pass by. Take the second WIDE turn avoiding dash into some seniors otherwise evoking a dept. fight.

February 13…

Feb 13 was not like any other date. Everything was normal to my senses (even the water gave my hand a good sense of the temperatures) but only till the close right turn? What happened? Without much ado...         

The ominous date ‘13’ (but a Monday) had left us bewildered in that scary gargantuan louring enigmatic corridor. Everyhting else had vanished but a crystal clear noise of Chal... chal… chal… followed by an impromptu howling of a limping dog.

“What!!! You did you hear that?”

“No”, both echoed.

Chal… chal… “ Yes !!! again they corrected themselves.”

“Don’t tell me there’s a new Chandramukhi into this place. Anyway I know how to deal Laka… Laka… Laka…” *laugh*

But the sound was intensifying and the other two resisted from moving further. And thanks to kollywood, the only portion visible, the white dupatta had taken an immediate right, something that would urge anybody to pass out.

“Wait it is just some sappae* figure of the college.” (* for those who don’t know what this means it is GOOD)

“Yes you know of every girl” one remarked.

“The vice-versa is true as well “the other jumped in.

“Funny”.

We followed upto the turn but four ways diverged and she( hopefully she ghost) had vanished. Leaving behind a question that if ghosts were feetless then where they wore their Payals?

And then was the usual syllable practice and the wide right turn but the sound kept reverberating in my ears. The ghost or whoever had stolen, obviously NOT my heart but my 10 minutes extra. I just had an max of 5 revolutions of the minute hand for an untidy circuit diagram and rushed to the lab to be boomeranged by a powercut. I came back and checked for the hovering spirit. No. It wasn’t found anywhere. Then why did a debate in the house ended with the fact ( I lost) that ghosts do exist efter watching a show on the idiot box. When the whole of the college knew how my lab shoes sounded, how can this sound overtake? This is not the time to think. Chuck it and RUN>>>

February 14…

                The day had been a much awaited day for many for their cupid-gifted senses but for a few others, like me, to watch a movie for free out of the window in the quadrangle at the comfort of sitting in a boring class and judge pairs on their shyness and boldness. And constantly peeping into the mobile, hid under the desk, waiting for the reply from a ‘known’ number for a question asked four months back.

The lunch raid was usual and again today she or whoever that was, had returned with the sound, starting from a distance and the sound intensified directly proportional to the nth power of my soaring heart beat. Not out of fear but some person to make it my day on that significant date. The graph reached it’s peak on the immediate right and PAUSE!!!!

“Time evalo aachi saami?” 32 red teeth of a dark plump granny must be in her fifties glared at me and she was holding not a rose but the broom. Scaring the hell out of me… I replied “What the??? I mean rendu maniku pathu nimisham.( ten to two)” . Gosh was it for this I sent my BP to the hills? Horrified, I gathered some courage to open my whistle blowing pressure ears and walked away embarrassed but as usual something in me said both the sound frequencies did not match. Consoling myself there is always a tomorrow and tomorrow in my case should come. And surprisingly the syllable practice that day was “Gow- tham”. or whoever WT*.

                Hence the ten minute raid became a routine for us but with fingers crossed and chanting mantras but she or whoever it was, was never found.But even today we three or at least me, walk the way to solve the mystery of the sound and the white dupatta. The hunt continues…

On the Go
Gowtham