Aatma

The Soul

THE SOUL

Das as usual was on his morning walk  while  returning from his walk he would buy rasgullas ( a sweet dish made out of milk ) or puri bhaji for breakfast a kind of bread fried in oil and potato gravy.then he would reach home his wife would make tea and they would have the food which he had bought .Since few days  he avoided going out ,his milk man who used to come in the morning had complained to him about a dirty stink coming from his floor of the building ,he himself could smell it if he opened his entrance door there where four flats in his floor , he lived on the third floor it was a old building with no lift it had only five floors and each floor had four flats ..Slowly the smell started spreading to the whole of the building ,the families complained to the society incharge .They in  turn complained to the police and the police came broke open the flat door which was right in front of Das’s flat all had crowded to see what was happening .When the door was broke open a waft of strong stink spread everywhere it was unbearable all had tied mask on their face as it was very bad the police entered the flat and there was all excreta burnt ashes and lot of filthy things all over the place and a lady  Anjita who lived in that flat with her parents was found lying unconscious  on the floor her clothes were in tatters  her wrist was twisted and hanging and lot of blood had oozed out and dried she had become frail as she might have gone without food for many days her hair had matted she was in a pathetic condition .Nobody had seen her for months after her parents had committed suicide by consuming poison ,she had locked her self in the flat ..She was estranged wife ,her estranged husband had come to perform the final rights of her parents and then noone saw him , the police calls for a ambulance and takes Anjita to hospital and get the flat sealed .All the neighbour start gossiping and spreading their own version of the stories. Mr. Das was sad to see Anjita in that condition she always wished him when she used to see him in the garden while taking morning walks.he felt destiny gave her a raw deal first she had a bad marriage then her parents committed suicide ,reason was not known and now she was in this bad shape .The day passes and all are sleeping in the building . Das gets up at 2 am with loud bangs on the door he gets up in fright  he goes sleepily towards the hall from the key hole he could see Anjita had fallen in front of her door and someone was banging the door from inside and she was crying and shouting from out trying to open the door as it was sealed and she had no strength there was lot of banging from inside Das opened the door and asked her how she managed to come from the hospital as they had taken her in the afternoon ,for that she becomes aggressive and with her chalk like white face which had no blood and her eye which was so white as if the pupil had disappeared looked at Das he was frightened to death looking at her and he screamed for help. The whole building got up and eve body came down to his floor and asked him what happened he was as white as ghost he was frozen with fright when they splashed water on him he came to conscious and showed them the flat no one could understand what he was trying to say he said Anjita has come from hospital and she was trying to open her flat and someone was banging the door from inside she also said that she needs to go in as they have to be freed .The neighbour feel sorry for Das’s condition and call the Building secretary and they call the hospital to check on Anjita’s condition ,as they did not see anything in font of her flat ,they doubted Das having hallucinations but as he was not agreeing they thought it better to call the hospital to check if Anjita had been released from the hospital.When contacted the hospital staff tells them Anjita expired few hours after she was admitted in the afternoon and they have intimated the police. The whole building is now scared , if Anjita expired soon after being admitted then how could Das see her in front of her flat and talking to him was she the ghost .all take their children and soon go back to their flat and advise Mrs. Das not to open the door for anybody and take care of Mr.Das suddenly the building is quiet, the building which was so full of people just a  few minutes back was having a  deserted look . Nobody wanted to encounter  Anjita’s ghost.Next  morning all the families meet at the   society office for a meeting they discuss as Anjita and her parents are no more ,they should take the police’s help and find out about her estranged husband and get the flat sold . . When they contact the police ,the police say they have found out the address of her husband and he will be soon reaching Kolkata to claim Anjita’s body and cremate her and then the society can talk to him about the flat proceedings. .All the elders visit Das’s house to enquire about his health and also tell him not to worry and  Anjita is no more , her husband will be performing her last rites and will also sell off the flat. Das just smiles at them and gestures them to go as he wanted to rest, all leave his flat with concern for him ,In the early hours of the morning around 2 o’ clock Das again gets up with jerk .He slowly goes towards his door without waking up his wife and tries to listen this time he does not want to see from the keyhole least he sees the ghost again  instead he presses his ear to his door he is shocked to hear a lady crying from the flat as if she is desperate to come out she is begging to be freed crying in a very painful way . He slowly picks up courage and sees through the keyhole  and seeing nobody outside he slowly without making noise opens the door and puts his head out , he sees no one he comes out of his flat keeps his door open so if needed he can run inside his flat ,he slowly looks around for any neighbours then slowly goes towards Anjita’s flat and keeps his ear on the door and concentrates for some sound when he is trying to listen he hears some women crying in desperation and his heart beat increases he wonders when the police has sealed the flat how can anybody be inside they had got the flat cleaned and sanitised also then how did the women remain in and even Anjita had come the other night saying she has to free someone .But no one wants to believe him now if he tells them someone is inside then they will again not believe him as it is they just told him in the evening Anjita had expired he is about to lift his head which was stuck to the door when a big bang happens on the door from inside and Das literally falls on the ground ,it was as if a very strong person was banging on the door Das crawls back to his flat as fast he can and does not dare to stand up if by chance the person sees him from the keyhole he crawls inside the flat and closes the door . with the closing there is light in the hall and Mrs. Das is looking at him in disbelief .She tells him he has not learnt his lesson and he is becoming very inquisitive about the flat which will one day end up with him being admitted to mental asylum by the neighbour so he should shut his mouth and not tell them any more happenings in that flat.Das keeps quite as his wife will also not believe what he just experienced so he drinks water covers himself with the blanket and goes to sleep.After few days there is hustle and bustle in the society Das looks down from the window of his flat as he has stopped interacting with the families as his wife had forbade him least he tell them more stories. Das comes to know Anjita’s estranged husband has come to see the flat after cremating Anjita’s body a  few days back .The police and the secretary of the society accompany him to the flat with few building members as witnesses for handing over the flat to the rightful owner. Das prefers to see all the activities from the keyhole . He was a decent man he looked too tired with the happening in his life ,he looked frail and sad after the seal was removed from the flat and he was taken inside the flat for inspection before handing over the flat keys to him .Das was seeing all the activity from the keyhole much to the irritation of his wife . Das was waiting with bated breath to see what happens to the person inside ,but after all the formalities the police and rest of the people shake hands with Anjita’s husband and leave . Everybody goes Das is surprised they did not find anyone inside he looks at his wife she gives him a dirty look and walks off to the kitchen He tells her as she is cooking meal she should cook more as he is planning to call Anjita’s husband for lunch as a good neighbour should do,before Mrs. Das can protest Das goes out of his flat and rings the doorbell of the flat , the man comes out Das introduces himself and shows his flat the man says he is  Aurobindo Bose .Anjita’s widower and gives a faint smile and shakes hand with Das .Das pulls his hand and forces him to accompany to his flat and freshen up and have lunch with him , very reluctantly Bose agress and closes his flat and enters Das’s flat there he is guided to the washroom and then both sit on the couch and start talking Bose sounds very tired and stressed he thanks Das for inviting him over as he did not want to be alone in the flat at least so fast.Das pours a cup of hot tea and offers biscuits to him till the lunch is ready Bose sips the tea very slowly,and looks at Das as if in gratitude .Das presses his hand and nods as if to say everything will be alright.Bose says everything happened so fast just four months back her parents committed suicide aand now her death , she had stoped taking to him completely after her parents death so he did not know she had locked inside the house and had starved to death .Otherwise he would have definetly helped her. After talking for long on all topics and having the hot meal made by Mrs. Das, Mr Bose  takes leave and tells he has to make a  video call to his friends as they will be worried for him so he takes their leave .

After entering his flat Bose just sees around the whole house and relaxes for sometime then he remembers to make a call to his friends he makes a video call to his friend in Mumbai they start talking his friend consoles him and tells him it was not his fault they were meant to be separate so before Anjita death they mutually stayed away from each other in different cities after talking for long time Bose tells his friend now he will have to stay in this flat for few weeks to get the flat papers her death certificate and finally to sell the flat only after that he can return to mumbai as he wants to finish the work fast till then he will feel lonely in the flat , his friend says why is he lying to him that he is alone in the flat .Bose says yes he is alone his friend says if he considers old people as invisible then he is definitely alone but he can see one couple sitting behind his chair on the sofa continuously from the time they started the video ,Bose jumps on his chair and is about to fall ,when he gets back his balance his friend has already disconnected  the line .Bose is scared now whether to turn around and see he feels his friend has played a prank and then he slowly takes a deep breath and turns around he does not see anything .he sighed a relief an tries to call his friend again but the line does not get connected .He ties another friends contact number she is a lady his childhood friend he sends her a w******p  message to come on video call as he is feeling very lonely .He sits exactly at the same  place  and calls her on video call .she comes and says hi and smiles at him and again waves out Bose says why is she waving out again and again for which she laughs and tells him it at that uncle who is sitting on the couch he is waving at her so she too waved listening to this Bose gets up from his chair and asks her how may people are sitting on the couch she says only one old man is sitting and looking at her and waved at her.Bose tells her he will talk to her latter and cutts the line .Now he is really scared two friends living in different cities can not play the  same prank and his childhood friend does not even know about his friend in Mumbai. Any ways he decides to sleep he goes to the washroom to brush while brushing he is engrossed in thoughts and when he see the mirror after washing his face he jumps in horror he sees a man with blood all over his face standing and staring at him he turns back and sees nobody he again splashes water on his face and is reluctant to see the mirror but he has to check it for himself so slowly he lifts his head and sees in the mirror and does not find anybody  he quickly comes out of the washroom closes the door behind him ., and goes straight  inside the bedroom, closes the door tightly and jumps on his bed , takes a blanket and covers his body from head to foot and tries to sleep but he cannot sleep, the face of the man with blood on his face keeps flashing in his mind. Somehow he falls asleep, it has not been an hour since he had slept he is woken up with  a big sound of vessels being thrown in the kitchen it keeps continuing for long as if to indicate to him to come out and see .He slowly says a prayer and opens his bedroom door the noise is still going on vessels are still falling all over the place . he goes inside the kitchen he cannot see anything so he switches on the light it lights and in a jeff it goes off there is no electricity the whole building is in darkness so the little light which was coming from the window also stops and there is total darkness .he searches for a candle in the drawer with his lighter but he does not get any candle when he holds his cigarette lighter in front of him  he is horrified to see a injured lady extending her hand to give him the candle he runs away from there back to his room and closes the room and sits there against the door as if not to allow anybody to enter the room .he is anticipating more trouble when suddenly he feels the banging on his door the banging goes on intensifying ,he cries out for help and wonder’s how nobody in the building can hear the commotion going on in this flat how can anybody sleep in the night when so much banging and vessels being thrown around . he shouts to stop the noise he pleads to whoever is doing it he just cries his heart out to spare him .And when he falls asleep on the floor he doesn’t know . Only when the sun light passes through the window glass and he feels warm he gets up and remembers everything that had happened in the night .He gets up and goes to the washroom and after his work is done he comes out ,he then goes to the kitchen to check the condition of the kitchen and when he enters the kitchen he is shocked to see not a single vessel on the floor it was as clean as ever , as if nothing had taken place .He boils water and drinks it and decides to check Anjita’s cupboard for important document and any things so that he can take it and shift to some hotel till all the formalities are completed he opens the cupboard there are only clothes of herself and her parents when he checks closely he gets a bag he pulls it out and goes to the balcony and sits on the chair and opens the bag in that he gets a file he pulls it out and goes through it he starts going  through the paper it is her medical reports from that he comes to know Anjita was diagnosed with third stage cancer she had few months to live ,he was taken aback and felt really sorry for not being there for her in that difficult phase of her life a tear falls from his eyes.then he gets a plastic bag in it he pulls it out and inspects it he puts his hand inside it and turns it inside out and is petrified at the content there where skeleton remains of a person skull, bones ,ashes and many more weird things which clearly indicated towards some sort of practise being performed in the flat ; it was surely something to do with black magic,he put back all the content carefully back into the plastic bag and kept inside the main bag along with her medical reports, then he got two books one was a diary and another was a small book about Tantra (black magic )he read her diary in the diary Anjitha had mentioned how lonely she felt after separation from her husband she tried to cope with it when one day when she had severe pain and got it diagnosed she was told about her third stage of cancer .and she had few months to live she did not want to die she did not want to be seen as a loser she wanted to fight it and live life to the fullest she was ready to do anything to extend her life she was desperate she resigned from her job .she went through many books about age old practises  , and she came across a lady who can help her in this mission , she tells her parents she is going to visit her husband for one last attempt to save the marriage so she will not be available for few days .She goes in search of the lady and then she reaches that place she see a old lady may be more than 100 years of age is sitting next to a burning pyre and she puts her hands inside the pyre and takes flesh from the burning body and eating it she is in a trance she is muttering something .she senses Anjitha’s presence and tells her to stop wherever she is ,and asks her what brought her to that place .And when Anjitha tells her she has few months to live and she does not want to die .The lady tells her to sit down , her assistant talks to the old lady  then the man comes and tells Anjitha the path she has chose is very tough will she be able to do it .Anjitha says she will do anything to live a long life .so the old lady calls her and puts her hand in the burning pyre and fishes out a chunk of flesh from the pyre and tells her to consume it Ankitha hesitates then the lady shouts at her for disturbing her and wasting her time .If she wants to survive she will have to consume the flesh of a body  she soon grabs it and swallows it .and then the old lady gives her the bag with all the things skeletal remains and all the things which she will be needing for the ritual .and gives her manual book how to perform with detail instructions written in it. And tells her to run and come when she is done with it..After reading Bose wants to puke he goes to the washroom and pukes and when he washes his face he se many bones and fresh blood on the floor of the washroom .he runs to the room picks up his belonging and takes Anjithas diary and black magic book goes out of the flat closes it and rings the door bell of Mr. Das .he rushes inside his hose and tells him all that had happened to him in the night now Mrs. Das is also convinced that something is wrong in the flat .Bose gives the book and diary to Das ,he reads the diary in that it is written all the material which is needed for the ritual which the old lady had provided to her,next was she had to do some chanting and call the soul of a couple who had recently died to heil her in the black magic , thirdly she had to sacrifice two close blood relatives of her ,and then after the invited souls help her in her rituals they should be sent back from where they were called so that they will bless her and give her the boon she desires and if at all the ritual oes wrong and she cannot send them back at a specific time they will harm her ,so all the chantings has to be done with great care all the rituals have to be performed at the given time and while doing thi she should not come in contact with out side world she she should not step out .

Now Das reads her book in that she had written that when she returned home after meeting the Tantrik (the old lady) she is wondering from where to get souls who have left their body very recently it was tough for her, she needed to finish  this ritual as she had few months ,she did not want to die of cancer..As her luck could be next day she heard a couple above their floor met with a car crash and died on the spot she immediately started for the process of calling the departed soul to help her she was successful inputting the soul in her control this gave her confidence ,the next step was to sacrifice two blood relatives ,so she sees her parents and thinks what better then her own parents she poisons them both together ,in the morning and lives her home and goes for the day to her friends house so that she will not be a suspect ,but here she does the mistake of stepping out of her house . When the neighbour’s find her parents dead no one suspects her and her estranged husband comes to give her moral support and to cremate the bodies .though she is successful in the second task she had  a big blunder she came in contact with outside world .Though later she locked herself in the house and tried to continue with the ritual it had already backfired on her the invited souls had become aggressive they started torturing her ,they wanted to be freed but she wanted to control them and give her extension of life ,when it was not happening she started feeling guilty for killing her parents in the greed to survive so this made her more weak and she could not control the two souls who by now had become aggressive and restless they wanted to be free they twisted her limbs and she was not able to move .and the whole thing went wrong she eventually died as her limbs were all twisted by the couple ghost who had been called to help her and they were now going to trouble the building people if not realised .Bose is scared he does not know how to save the people as he is sre the ghost will creat havoc in few days .Das ays there is a solution ,we should go in search of the lady and tell her to save us .Bose agrees only if Das accompanies him to that place .They have got the address in Anjithas book .so they go to that place and speaks to the old lady’s assistant and tells him they will not lodge a police complain against both of them if they come to the flat and slove the problem .So both accompany them to the flat by the time they reach it is already dark Bose opens the flat shows them the bag with all the items then the old lady tells him to go out of the flat and let them perform the ritual after if is over she will come out.Bose goes to Das;s house and they pray to god from Anjitas house they can hear chanting and black smoke coming out with very dirty smell they can hear one male and one female voice pleading to be released the crying is very intense lot of smoke and smell follows crying of the souls is heard lot of banging is heard at last they can hear a horrible animal type growling noise a very fierce noise coming from the room and the everything is quiet for an hour, then they can hear the old woman and her assistant .walk out of the flat and without saying  word they look at Bose and gestures him to go in and they throw some powder on him.Next day morning Bose calls a helper and gets the flat cleaned .and advertises in the news paper about the availability of a beautiful flat at economical rate near the railway .