Who was He???

It was Spring Season. Flora and fauna were mingling so well to make the atmosphere mesmerizing.  Yellow sonaru, purple orchid, red gulmohar flowers, hibiscus…all were adding an alluring beauty to the landscape, carpeting nature with their lovely colors, fragrance and aesthetic splendor.

My Dad got transfer to this new place, few months back. We took one rented house. The backyard was huge, full of bamboo, mango, lichi, coconut, guava, jackfruit, beetle nut trees etc. The backside boundary was not even visible from our home. Our naughty minds and legs took me and my brother to the end of the backyard to discover one day that there was a bamboo stick fencing (jewra) and in between, it was broken. We could see a big pond surrounded by big trees in the other side of the boundary, probably 100 mtr distance from our property-edge. Next to that, a dense forest started.

My Dad says that one should see green landscape after getting up from the bed, it soothes the eyes. That’s why we kids used to go backyard every morning to see the greenery as far as possible. After school, we used to play around.

One Saturday evening, we few kids were talking about fishing... The discussion became so hot that it incited me, my brother, Sid and Jena to plan to cross the back frontier and go for fishing in the pond, next very day. Sid, who was eldest among us, probably 9 years old, bought a fishing needle from the nearby shop. We three other kids arranged one long stick and thread. We all planned that after lunch when our parents generally take nap, we would gather in the backyard and move towards the destination, silently. My brother was responsible for packing earthworms in a can as bait for fishes. 

So, action according to the plan…! We crossed the boundary very easily through the broken fencing…approached towards the pond…The shadow of the huge buniyan tree was making the water look extremely dark. There were so many birds in our backyard, but, we could not see any bird, neither any animal around. An unexpected silence was making the surrounding intense. Though we were kids, we could feel something different…Cold breeze was continuously hitting us.

Our brave hearts! We started our process of fishing…..Sid put the fishing stick on water…..
"Ssss...plussssh!!!" 
A huge splashing sound came from other side of the pond…..as if someone has thrown a huge stone into the water… We just thought what it was….but Sid assured, may be, it was a big fish….and we continued….

Suddenly my brother shouted…… “Run, run….Save you life…run fast….”…pointing towards the top of the buniyan tree. We too saw it……Oh my God! A good physic old man with clean white dress, was sitting on one of the brunches…and looking at us with red eyes…….

We ran and ran dropping all our stuff there……..We reached home……entered home and closed the doors….Alas! We all had fever for few days…….Our parents thought it was normal fever probably, as no one of us disclosed the fact….For many days, I kept dreaming of going behind the same old person towards the jungle......

We still wonder…what it was or who he was….!!!!