A SINISTER DREAM ( A ghost)

Chirping birds outside the window, right behind my head, just started quarrels and inside the room, there was about 2 years old girl child wandering hither and thither with fairy gestures and I, in bed as if lying down in a half lulling mode, was listening to them and watching her respectively. The child as if was keen on playing with me and barely stretched its hands with a joyful invitation and was just about to touch my hands only when someone started alarming me with a hasty jog and an uncouth clamour leading to my dream breaking awakening once again!

Now I am sitting in bed and at this moment, it takes a little time, for the body, to send the green signal to the brain to bring it in order properly and to be fit for the relentless journey a new day usually offers both of them and me as well. I keep finding myself ‘where are the chirping birds and that sweet little child craving for playing with me?" Suddenly the sweet tone of birds, I don't know-how, is reduced to the repellent horns of the busy vehicles outside and that innocent child to a 14 years old boy, Bachhu, a hard-working fellow coming to wake me up as I like to sleep in this room at night alone.

Mahesh Apartment, BP road, Bhayender, Mumbai, Maharashtra. If you please read the words backwards you will come close to an exact location wherein once upon a time  I stayed with some of my mates. It was another room on the second floor with four big windows that remained close most of the time as they were not allowed to be left open except at night. The room itself was the workshop and was 20"/20" in its length and width but we were sometimes more than 20 guys in this narrow unhygienic circumstances leaving us almost crowding in that single room itself. We were not allowed to go out in day times rather it was at 11 p.m. only when we would get unlocked to get some fresh air if I or we wish for it. Right now you must be brooding on why such kind of lifestyle we lead there...right?Ok, let me first give you an idea of the situation we lived in and some of the difficulties we faced there.

Legally we were not allowed to carry out our work as this was a residential building. All the residents of the building were irked as often we disturbed the clean and silent peaceful environment making loud noises with hammers & metals mostly with gold. Sometimes a thick smoke would continue to come out of our four windows at night leaving the air surrounding polluted and causing cough of the residents living on the floors just above ours. All these activities were unacceptable in any residential area and we knew it thoroughly. Our Malik, however, was not in search of any other place where he could transfer the workshop. He was rather more interested in buying another room on that floor itself. Honestly speaking we were completely unaware of this secret mission of our mean-minded Malik. Sometimes I noticed some persons known as " Gali ka vai" with their sluggish appearances just coming straight to our secret workshop and calling out, from just in front of the door outside, some ribaldries to our corrupted Malik and he in response to their very invitation, was more than happy as we all used to see him attending them with a smiling face in his appearance, as if their bloody words were blessing for him. Yes, one more thing I must mention here is that we would never be allowed to encounter any neighbours making a call outside the door. So this was always our Malik who used to face them in this situation! And we noticed him having just opened the door and got caught up, by them, by his neck and affronted by their sluggish phrases. We all got used to seeing it as these were the occurrences we even knew about and the particular day a week that it was to ensue. So this was nothing new to us. Honestly speaking we all the prisoners felt somehow happy seeing him gone through this state at that moment. Yes, they would come to snatch the money on their demands as they knew it was an illegal industrial workshop run by our Malik being camouflaged into this big residential Apartment just to get rid of Government's eyes. So our Malik was bound to fall prey to their mean tactics of earning black money. But above all these hustle and bustle the yearly figures of an unlimited income of our Malik was so high that no ignominy could hit the solid wall of his conscience. And all that he managed defrauding us of our right to get a minimum salary of the labour. But from the watchman of our building, I have just come to know a piece of news that another room had already been bought and it was done so just because of its location at a corner of the floor. One another reason going in favour of our Malik was that this room had been left unrented for a few years as no one was interested to occupy this room. 

Now I am, in the morning, sitting in bed and trying to prepare myself for our upcoming long hectic monotonous work on the day ahead. I left the room and went for a bath just right beside the room. While bathing, all of a sudden, I happened to get a loud screaming from Bachhu from inside the room! He came to wake me up and was engaged in sweeping the room when I left the room. I ran out of the bathroom and just spotted him surrounded by other coworkers who had just made their way there getting panicked by his snappy shrieking! The fact which was known from him was that while sweeping there was an unusual load-shedding, leaving the room completely gloomy and Bachhu then, felt, as if someone had just placed a touch of hands-on his shoulder behind and when he turned around to see, saw nothing and got afraid of that gloomy ambience. And this was something that finally provided them with the necessary fuels to consolidate their narrow mindedness. To tell the truth, when I came to know that this room was going to be in our possession I was happy as I always liked to be by myself at least for some time for every day. But at first, I did not get that chance as all of us were eager to go there. Some of our mates started saying that there was an odd sound, some spoke about a kind of phantom-like a shadow but I ignored them. And added to it was today's incident. I inspected that the room had a solitary window with its lonely door being slightly loose rather than being properly matched with its frame, created cracking sounds due to the passing wind outside and inside as well. So I had no problem to be alone there and I was really happy with my newfound solitude. So it had been more than 6th months since I started going to sleep there alone and used to have a sound sleep at night.

What exactly I did after 11: PM was that I, first going to the ground floor spend some time with the watchman who was about 55 years old. In spite of our age difference, we were very good friends and often keep sharing our thoughts. He belonged to the Maratha community and has a deep sensation for us, especially for those poor guys, under teenage, who leaving their parents, relatives education etc. were spending their boyhood by going through hardships to secure some money for their families. I got to know many things about Maharashtra and Mumbai city with his accompany. So today, we all were a bit scared because of the incident happened early morning but I personally never felt anything sinister about the room either. I noticed some of our mates were so scared that they didn't even want to go to the toilet alone as it was just beside the room concerned. So they thought that it would be better not to ramble singly rather always at least two or three together. But for me it was unnecessary and I knew for sure that the night ahead I am going to enjoy that loneliness once again when I would enter the room itself for sleep as a reminiscence of the last night's dream was still fresh in my memory. The watchman did not know in which room I used to go to bed and I too never realised it to be worth sharing with anyone outside our shop.

I just went to him and he asked me about our dinner as usual. And I also responded to him with the same. We were sitting side by side in chairs, almost blocking the entrance as at night no one was to come in or go out either if not there was an emergency. He asked me, "Rana, today I didn't see any of your coworkers coming outside, are they busy?"."No Uncle, they are watching a movie." I replied. As I wanted to make our very early morning experience secret. Thus we continued our chatting and it was just about 1 a.m. when we caught sight of a black cat at a distance. It was staring at me though I was not able to make particular sense of its statue-like gazing at me the watchman made me sense its intent! " Rana, just keep yourself aside and let it pass by," he said. "It's ok Uncle, but where is it to go now?" I just asked him." on the 2nd floor," he answered."the second floor! But why?" I asked him for an unknown dismay."It always comes to this way and disappears towards the 2nd floor and it is better not to be too curious about it. Let it does whatever it need do there. There is something else always on this planet, you can't just catch sight of them on eyes and you need not do it either. This is something that only remains to be sensed deeply in a particular way." He said. I realised I was going to get a new lesson and thought that it was the right moment I need to share the occurrence with Bachhu. I with full of my sense shared it with him. He just listened to me quietly but made no comments on it. He was just going to wish me a "goodnight" for the night and asked me " Rana, you should go now and I hope your mates would be waiting for your returning or how could they get the door locked inside?" he asked me. And here was I who just  made a sleep of tongue and unconsciously told him" No one is waiting for me Uncle, I am going to sleep to that solitary room beside." And now I noticed in his eyes an unknown reflection of fright just appeared for a moment and then got vanished! Though it could not leave my eyes blind from its ephemeral presence. And I can still remember the words that he spoke to me that night.

"Rana, don't stay alone in that room at night. It has strictly been ordered not to spread any propaganda over the incident that happened just four years back but you are like my son, and I must warn you that whether there was a murder or suicide that is still in confusion, and the dead body of a wife was found hanging from the shelling... and the postmortem report said the lady pregnant. We all neighbours are cognisant to this brutal fact!".

...I was left bewildered...and my solitude too!...with the last night dream...

Oh...! That's why no one was interested to take this room on rent...and that's why it was rented at a low price!