That Humming Sound

I was posted in that interior village as an Assistant Conservator of Forest.  I got a lovely quarter.  Two bedrooms with one balcony and a cute front-yard. One chowkidar with his family lived in a small cottage near my house to help me in all household work.

First night, I had a very sound sleep, while during the dawn, I heard a humming sound from far. There was a beautiful wood near my house. I could feel the humming sound was coming from the other side of the wood. 

I wondered, asked the chowkidar’s wife, if she knew about it. She said that this kind of sound comes from different trees and birds, and asked me not to worry at all.

Next few days too, I heard the humming sound, almost the same time. It was a sweet-sound, but didn’t seem to be real. I thought of enquiring more, but everyone said the same thing. 

On a Sunday morning...I got up early, laying back on a cozy chair and gazing at the sky with my cup of hot coffee. I was content to just sit there thinking about the humming sound. Suddenly, I heard the sound… It was gradually becoming mysterious for me, which was driving me insane. I wanted to know from where it was coming….I decided to visit the wood…

I wrapped around a shawl and proceeded towards the trees. Tall trees, impenetrable bushes, varieties of birds, all were making the whole scenario mesmerizing. I kept going deeper and deeper, following the humming sound….

After a while, I saw one open space, full of colourful flowers and a buzzing stream flowing in a zig zag way. I could see an old man plucking flowers and keeping in his basket.  He was looking at the flowers at the side of the meadow and noticing nothing else ….I went near to him and asked him softly whether he was the owner of the meadowland. He smiled, “No…! But, I am the owner of the breeze flowing over this….” He just laughed.  “I come here to pluck flowers every morning…” He added.

I quickly came to my point….I asked him whether he had any knowledge about the humming sound. He nodded his head with a smile. My face became brightened. I asked him what was that sound and what was it’s origin…

“Come, I will show you the origin of the humming sound…it’s nothing, but actually some gusty sound…”

He asked me to follow him… He had a stick in his hand.

He started his conversation…

“Many years back, when I was young, a pretty girl came to our village, like you. I had a sheep herd that time, often used to come to this grassland. One day, I saw that girl approaching me….I was nervous. She came to me and enquired about the same humming sound…”

He kept talking. And, we were walking deeper inside the wood…..It was becoming darker and darker, because of the density of the trees… Then, we reached a similar place from where we started our journey, near a whispering brook. Colorful flowers were decorating the whole savanna. We kept walking…

He continued… “I wanted to spend some time with her….so I told her that I knew the source of the humming sound…”

The old man had a glint in his face and childish exuberance, while he was walking me through the dense forest. It’s been quite a while I walked along with him listening to his story. Suddenly, I started feeling creepiness in air and realized it’s been more than 2 hrs since I left my quarter. He looked at me and gauged the uneasiness in my face, with a smile.  

He said, “My young lady don’t be worried I am taking you to the source of humming sound”. 

Suddenly, I felt like some animal is gulping water from a stream. Immediately, I turned around to see and realized that I was near the same stream, where I met the old man plucking flowers. 

I understood that something was wrong and decided to flee from there…from him…..I started running……..But, I had no clue which direction will take me back to my quarter…

I kept running…..I reached the dark place again, densely rooted trees, and crossing that place, I reached the meadowland with the brook again…..This time I saw the old man sitting on a rock, smiling at me…

I kept running…..and running……until I found myself next day at my bed. I was engulfed by many people…..

  

#AtoZChallenge 
My theme : Imagination and reality

The Ghost near my Gate

Summer in my village was notoriously hot that year. It was the hottest season, people had not realized earlier that despite of having rows of big trees, forest nearby, there could be such bone dry sand and dust settling under the paved roads and every possible nook and corner.

It was impossible to sleep inside the house. So, for few days, we put our beds in the back yard…which was an open area. We were safe from the mosquitos and insects as we used to put mosquito nets. There was a different fun to sleep under the starry sky.

One Saturday night. Two of our friends from nearby village came to stay with us. We arranged our beds, quite early and planned to share ghost-stories. Someone mentioned that Saturday was ghost’s favorite day. Lots of scary stories, we shared with each other. 

We slept after sometime. In the middle of the night, I heard some awkward sound. I tried to grasp, being extra attentive what and where from the sound was coming. It seemed few horses were walking on the road. In our village, the roads were just above our house level. The roads were not clearly visible from back yard. I got up from my place and walked slowly and silently towards the front yard. I was hiding myself in the backside of the bushes and trees, inside our boundary. As it was moonlit night, I could see three white horses walking one after another… When I tried to zoom in through my eyes, Oh my God, I could see three old aged persons were sitting on those horses. They were in quite white, transparent attire. I pinched myself, whether I was dreaming or it was real. As they passed our gate, I thought they would not see me and I went near to the gate to see where they would go…

Suddenly, I saw one horse was turning back…..It was coming towards our gate…..I got scared…what to do…I tried to hide myself back of a bush. The horse stopped in front of the gate. The man came down…I could see his blank eyes clearly…..He tried to open our gate…..He was almost successful…..I screamed, and ran fast to the backyard…But, no one was there…..

I screamed loudly…for help….knocked at the door….

Someone was shaking me hard…..”Get up! Get up fast…! Let’s go inside the house immediately….” 

I screamed more…looking at the old man who was in white attire……. Then, I realized I was inside the mosquito net along with my friends and siblings. 

And my grandpa was calling us as a thunder storm almost started.. 

#AtoZChallenge 
My theme : Imagination and reality 

That Diamond Ring

We had been going around for last six months. We used to talk on phone for hours and hours …..now, he proposed for a day out….to some romantic place. As all nearby places used to be crowded with couples, we thought of going somewhere nearby hilly area….

We were driving his convertible Mercedes with open top through a winding stretch in the hills. We reached the hill top, through a narrow zig zag road. It was fully carpeted with soft spongy grass with tiny blue & violet colored flowers spread all around. We kept our shoes in the car and started walking barefoot. I thanked him 100 times for bringing me to such a stunning range.  

It was a lovely evening, the wind was soothing and calm, and we could see the fog nestling against the hillside below. The rolling green hills gave way to a waterfall falling relentlessly. We had some quiet time together. Little did I know that there was so much more planned! He brought a picnic basket filled with my favorite snacks (chicken lollypops and cheese balls, chocolate covered cashew nuts and few butterscotch pastries ). 

After setting up the picnic blanket, we sat down and explored the contents of the picnic basket. He took out a red wine bottle with two beautiful glasses. He asked me to bring the water bottle from the car. Coming back, I saw, he had already poured wine in the glasses. He pulled out something from his back. He asked me to open…. Oh…wow…..it was a compressed bouquet of red roses….When I opened the wrapper, golden sprinkles fell on me…….mesmerizing!!!

We started drinking sip by sip….giggling, gossiping….with romantic talks…Whoaah!!!! What’s that….in the bottom of the glass, something dazzling bright……..I was shocked…..It was a diamond solitaire  ring…!

He was smiling…..took his pose on his knee and said, “Will you marry me?”

I wanted to say yes, but, something got stuck on my throat…. I coughed, some blood came out of my mouth….I understood why was it…...I screamed loud, “Don’t you know diamond is poisonous? …….I am dying…….Save me! Save me now!”

He got a shocker….He held me on his shoulder, ran towards the car…..drove fast, faster…….The hilly edges were quite sharp…..I was loosing sense……eyes were closing…..I heard him putting a huge break…..

I screamed…….

“Momie ! Momie ! why are you  still sleeping, don’t you have exams tomorrow? “ my dad was screaming at me. 

Thank God, that was just a dream and diamond is not poisonous in reality ….

#AtoZChallenge 
My theme : Imagination and reality