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A death in the village
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2024-10-29 19:42:56The karate club had flourished to new bounds ever since Fire sir had taken over. Duelling was still on though nobody got hurt. Fire Sir presided every duel with a keen eye. For two weeks now, they had been practising for their first ever belt. Jyotsna had observed Anwar performing extraordinary feats. Fire sir himself had joined in to applause Anwar’s excellent three feet high round kick. Anwar, Jyotsna and Fire sir had become friends ever since he accompanied them to the hospital wing. Jyotsna had learnt that Fire sir was an orphan, and had served the Kolkata police as an Inspector before retiring voluntarily. He lived inside the school in one of the quarters made for the scullery maid when the school was still a royal fort. He had invited them to visit his dwelling. After the class ended, Jyotsna & Anwar started to follow him. He stopped abruptly so that Jyotsna rammed her head straight into his back. She looked around and saw Fire sir staring at Sabu sir who was talking anima
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Mr. Nandy kept marching forward holding Mahadev’s hand followed by the four huddled together. Jyotsna was suddenly aware of all the sounds around her. The crackling of a twig, the crushing of the leaves under their feet and the insects buzzing around in the distance. But there was something else that took her thoughts astray. A low persistent hum, like the scraping of stones with a stone cutter or a hand drill. Like metal on rock. They walked in silence for a minute. Then Anwar spoke, “When I saw ‘IT’, It felt like a gigantic dragon with huge shiny eyes and sharp jaws.” Mr. Nandy stopped abruptly and the kids rammed into him. He turned around and stared at Anwar. “I am a simple village man and value the lessons taught by our elders enormously. Make it a habit not to trivialize warnings given to you. It has been an unspoken rule in the village to avoid the forest to shorten your travels. And at times when the powers of evil are exalted kids have been known to disappea
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Jyotsna felt a sudden curiosity firing her neurons. She stepped out of her bed and went straight to the roof of the building. Anwar was already sitting there with Etan and Brojen, the notorious twins. They were the nosiest boys she had ever know, both in the sixth grade. With a smile she reserved for the worst of crimes, she asked Anwar, “what’s the ghost of Raja Kirshna what’s-it?” The three of them gave her a weak smile. Brojen twirled his right hand and did a sort of a bow and Etan said, “When the factory workers came here ten years ago, when all this was just a huge jungle with an empty factory building and a few huts scattered here and there, the local dwellers, the adivasi’s here talked about a legend. They believed that the ghost of Raja Krishnachandra made travellers lose their way and lured them in.” “Where did he lure them into?” she asked flinging her legs across the thin walls separating the two buildings. “No one knows. Probably deep inside the j
