04 September 2007

An Evening of Horrors

"Mama would be angry..." I sure was scared that day, it was already eight-thirty when I took the bus. and I was alone that day. My tution sir lived about a thirty-minute bus ride away and so my parents, always too cautious, sent me there only because one of the kids from my apartment went there too. but that day he had a headache, most probably caused by the thought of missing sachin's batting in the india-england match. so his parents let him a day off from the tution.

However too many things that shouldn't have happened, happened all together. After the class I went to the place of another friend of mine to see his new videogame. the videogame was pretty much addictive, and two hours , or more aptly sixteen levels of that game, passed very swiftly. "time to go back..." first I called up my mum and told her that I went to a friend's place and that I would be back soon.

I was only too nervous from the thrashing I received on phone, and the friend was kind enough to escort me till the bus stop. The bus came in five minutes, it was mostly empty. As it gained momentum, the wind started roaring at my face which I thoroughly enjoyed, especially since it helped me tolerate the smell of diesel present in the bus. Maybe I was tired, and nervous too... the motion of the bus induced me in to a nap.

I woke up, "How long have I been asleep, my stop... I missed it. What is the time? Where's my watch... watch!" I was sure I had worn the watch in the evening, I liked to show it off. Dad had bought it only a week before. it must have been expensive, he asked me to take care of it. Horror after horror, "why didn't I stay back to see sachin bat" maybe I wasn't good enough at feigning headaches. it is odd but till then I did not realise that there was someone sitting beside me. I turned around too see a heavy man with an aging unshaven face smiling at me. I looked around again to find that the bus was still nearly empty... lots of window seats were unoccupied, "why did he sit beside me?" I looked beneath the seat for my watch... extended my hand to check the bottom where there was no light. No luck...

And then it came to me again that I might have missed my stop. I turned around and asked the man whether my stop had passed or not. He sensed the anxiety in my voice, and told me assuringly that it was just the next station, one minute, 55 seconds, 50 seconds... dilemma "should I wait and look for my watch missing my station, going till the next station, returning from where I had no idea... "No!" I had already witnessed too much horror for that evening. In desperation I closed my eyes and thought that it was this very man beside me who would have taken the watch, "so many window seats unoccupied..."

I cursed him and cursed him hard in my mind since I didn't have the courage to confront him... But I did step on his toes as I got up from the seat. I reached the door, asked how much was the fare from the Allahabad Bank chauraha. The conductor replied that the man sitting beside me had already paid for me. "Yeah right... the watch must have been a thousand bucks, he sure could have spared five from that" the bus stopped... I wanted to go back and pay him the fare but the conductor had already shoved me down the bus. Half way down the path to my building I realised that I had left my bag in the bus as well. "too much horror, and still increasing..." I only wanted to go home and hug my mum and cry, I had restrained till then...

I did the same, my mum who was about to shout mellowed down at the sight of my breakdown. I narrated everything with lots of sobs in between. She flicked the tears, hugged me close... and asked me to go wash my face and get ready for dinner. I stood in front of the mirror, splashed a good deal of water on my face... when I reached the dinner table, I saw that somebody was sitting in the living room. the same man... I was braver now, it was my home... my dad was there in the room. I entered... my mum smiled and asked me to thank the man, "why...!"

Apparently the man wasn't as bad as I had thought him to be, infact he was kind enough to come to my place to deliver the bag personally as he could not find my phone number anywhere, my address, however, was there in the school diary . He wouldn't have come, but for the expensive watch which I had carelessly kept inside the bag, and then he remembered how anxious I was to get back to my place. it was already nine, he had to go to his place on a taxi, and considering his clothes and appearance he wasn't used to travelling on taxis.

When I went to bed, my mum came and sat beside me for two minutes... when she left she simply said "I hope you learnt something today."

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now thats a refreshng sweet nad simple story. He should consider writing short stories. Hes talented for sure. And the narrative is good.

Califus said...

kinda ruskin bond types........
gud 4 ppl studyin in 1st or 2nd std.....
for their moral science lessons........lol

random said...

another nice one... not very professional, not very literary, but still worth a read... i like the simplicity of your stories the most, even though they are kinda predictable, still, the way you portray the thoughts of your characters and their environment is pretty enticing... reminds me of ruskin bond... nice effort... lookin forward to some more of these...

Anonymous said...

typical mohit stuff...lucid writing...everything original...u have tried to make a small story gripping and humourous...nice work...give some serious writing a try...lets see what u can do in that...

My Foot? said...

good one!
I'd have actually thought it to be true, if you hadn't out it under fiction...

the steppin on the toes part was just too good though..

random said...

humorous? are people not getting the story or am I not getting the story right??? what is so funny abt the story? xcept the stepping on the toe part of course...

Unknown said...

the thought of it being humourous is homourous..
but its a well written story..and i hate to say this when it already has been said before, but while reading it, it did remind me of ruskin bond.
good job mohit!keep it up!!

Saloni said...

thnx for d appreciation...
i lik ur blog as wel..its all but dark...

mahendhar said...

hmm to say frankly i dont read many fiction books but this one really intrigued me towards fiction,gud work and by the way he seems to be a genuine writer,keep going my friend.