The train chugged slowly along; we passed paddy fields and soon we crossed the bridge across the River Cauvery near Srirangapatna – the river flowing silently along on its seaward journey. I had boarded the train 2 ½ hours earlier in Bangalore. I thought about Gayathri, my good friend whom I would be meeting after nearly a span of 10 years. We were earlier neighbours when my father was posted in Mysore.
I got off the train at Mysore Railway
Station and took an auto to Indiranagar.
We passed through some familiar roads, the Mysore Zoo and a few other
streets before I reached Gayathri’s nice little house. It was a moment of deja-vu as I took in the
long driveway, the veranda, the coconut trees and other little details of her
house. Suddenly, the car parked in their
portico surged to life and with the loud, whirring sound of a raised engine,
the car shot past me, almost knocking me down.
As I regained my composure and walked up the driveway, Gayathri came
running out of the front door to welcome me.
We hugged each other, smiling and laughing all the while.
We spoke about common friends and got
up-to-date on the happenings in each other’s life. And then I remembered and asked, “Who was it
in the car? He was in one great hurry and shot past me…he almost ran me down!
Gayathri replied, “Oh, that must have been
Sriram, my younger brother. You remember
him, don’t you?” I said, “Sriram! Of course,
I do. He was the kiddo of the house. But why was he in such a tearing hurry?” Gayathri then haltingly said, “I have to tell
you something. After all, you are a
psychologist. You will be able to
understand this better.”
Gayathri continued, “You remember that old
lady who stayed all alone, down the road, in that small hut? She used to rave and rant as her children had
abandoned her.”
I said, “Yes, yes, she was always yelling
at somebody or the other. She hated all
children and would take away our balls and cricket bats. I remember her
distinctly.” Gayathri continued,
“Exactly! After we all grew up, it was
Sriram and his set of friends who played on the road. Invariably, while playing cricket, they would
hit the ball towards her hut. She would
confiscate it and never return it, all the time shouting at them. Sriram and his friends tried to talk to her
sensibly but she would not listen. They
in turn got angry and called her all sort of names - You crazy crow, you stupid
old dog, you mad cat, you fat rhino..”
I sat listening wondering what this was
leading to. Gayathri continued, “You
know, all harmless stuff that children usually say when they are angry but
hardly ever mean it.”
“Anyway, all this was nearly 7 or 8 years
back. Sriram and his friends have all grown up now, they are all in
college. Quite a few of them have moved
away too. In fact, there is only Sriram
and his friend Vittal who continue to stay in this road.”
“Well, that old lady died a few months
back. Before dying, she walked up to our
house, called out to Sriram and said, - ”Here, take all your stupid balls, and
your stupid bats, you miserable boy. You
taunted me all those years back, you called me horrible names. I will remember every one of those
names. I will come back and haunt you
and your friends!”
Gayathri paused dramatically. I could only gape at her. She continued, “That old lady, she then let
out a maniacal laughter and said, “Watch out for me. I am like Alamelamma; the Wodeyars could not escape her wrath,
neither can you.”
I listened to all this, trying to suppress
my laughter. Seeing the troubled
expression on Gayathri’s face, I guffawed and said, “And you believe all that
the old lady said?”
Gayathri, in a troubled voice continued - “Wait,
there is more to it. We all thought it
was just some rubbish - an upset, old lady trying to make a lot of noise and
dropping names from the old folk lore. But over the last couple of months, after her
death, strange incidents have happened.”
I was curious. I said, “Oh, really? Like
what?”
Gayathri continued, “Sriram loves the new second-hand Maruti Swift car that Father bought him. He is always cleaning it and taking care of it. He used to park it in the portico. But everyday, a crow would come down, shrieking loudly, and would drop bird-poop all over the car.”
I said, “C’mon Gayathri, that is hardly
strange stuff. It is what birds do. Aren’t you over reacting?”
Gayathri said, “No wait, that is what we
thought as well. But this kept happening
every single day for nearly a week, and exactly at the same time, in the same
manner. Sriram then decided to park the
car inside the shed. The next day what
does he see - a cat has entered the shed and has pushed down a can of paint on
the car. The bonnet is now splashed with a dark shade of blue. Sriram completely lost it – his car, the
possession that he most cared about, was being attacked.”
Gayathri retorted, “Well, you can say it is
coincidence when it happens once. But
again, after the paint-dropping incident, we found that the same cat – a full-black
one - had entered the car through an open window and had clawed its way through
the upholstery. It had not spared an
inch – its claw marks are splayed both on the front and back seats! What do you make of that?”
I was a little thoughtful, trying to figure
out a likely explanation. But I quipped, “How do you know it was the same cat?”
Gayathri continued, “Sriram heard strange sounds coming from the shed and went
in to check. That is when he saw the
cat. The funny part was when Sriram
tried to shoo it away, it stood its ground, glared at him and mewed repeatedly
in a strange tone, in almost the same tone that the old lady had used! Don’t you think that would freak somebody
out?”
I was a little perplexed. Gayathri said, “The story does not end
here. Sriram’s other friend Vittal,
well, he too faced similar incidents. He
had left his favourite sports shoe out in the shoe-stand at his place. He saw a black dog jump across his compound
wall, walk towards the stand, pick up the shoe and run. He chased it.
But the sly dog was much too fast and made escape. Vittal later found the shoe torn and shredded
in front of his house gate.”
I said, “Gayathri, you guys are reading too
much into these incidents. They are just random acts and you have nothing to be
worried about.”
Gayathri said, “I knew you would say that.
Just like you, we too thought there was nothing to it. We decided to move the car out of our house. You know Kumar Mama, right? He lives in
Madikeri. So we drove down to Madikeri to his house.”
I could not resist saying, “Don’t tell me,
the same black cat, the same black crow along with the same black dog followed
you from Mysore to Madikeri?”
Gayathri got a little upset. She said, “Okay , laugh as much as you
want. But this is what happened in Kumar
Mama’s house. A similar black crow
-obviously, I can’t say if it was the same one- dropped poop on Sriram’s car, in
exactly the same manner and at exactly the same time like it used to do before!
What do you make of that? Isn’t that
rather strange?”
I looked at her and laughingly said, “Maybe
crows just go about doing their business in the exact same manner, across all
geographies. What else can it be?”
Gayathri was ready to strangle me. Instead she yelled, “Don’t you get it? Don’t
you see the connection? Sriram and his friends had referred to the old lady at
various junctures as a crow, a cat, a dog and a rhino. She is now taking those forms to harass
Sriram and Vittal! Her curse seems to be coming true!”
I then asked, “Okay, but why was Sriram
rushing out of the house in such a panic?”
That is when Gayathri threw the bombshell. She exclaimed, “He heard the flash news on TV just before you arrived. The lone black rhino in the Mysore Zoo has escaped!”
