Aatma

Eternal Part 1

The Eternal Wait

Love all ,the referee sitting on a tall chair looking at four pair ,with racker in their hand and waiting for the game to begin and the shuttle to come on their side so they could hit it hard, the person who had the shuttle and was to serve ,was seeing the tension on his opponents face and trying to gauge his reaction where would he hit the shuttle ,would it be towards the net or behind him,the man who was serving had won a game and his opponent had won a game this third round was the tie he needed only two points to win the game the tension was in the air all the eyes were on them ,they were the most popular pair and won many games before .the whole colony crowd had come to the club to watch the badminton tournament ,held every year for the celebration of the independence day .

The colony belonged to a Swedish company in India .The factory was in a suburb of Mumbai .The colony  had  only twenty bungalows and a very big club with a  badminton court, table tennis court ,  a big kitchen and two very big washrooms.the floor of the club was of wooden ,the roof was very high so when the players used to hit the shuttle it used to go very up and also make noise ,there were ventilators above the windows ,one could see the tall trees trying to peep in through those ventilators and sees what is the noise going on in the club , they would sway in the rain and try to look inside have a glimpse of the fun the people of the colony were having.Outside the club was a huge veranda ,a huge gallery type place ,where  children of the colony played  hide and seek ,in front of the club was again aa huge cemented court to play open tennis , and a very big ground with grass and there boys of the families staying in the colony played cricket , and during the full moon day all the elders and the children used to party in the club and have games and play in the open ground under the moonlight.Such was the life of the people in the colony very satisfied and lots of fun and enjoyment ..

There were two gates for the entrance to the colony of twenty bungalows .And four guards two on each gate , they used to keep taking rounds from one end to another , and also going around the bungalows to check . The guards had a big bamboo stick with which they used to hit the ground while walking ,and the people sleeping in the house used to feel assured they were taken care off by the guards..There were many trees huge mango ,cashew ,jackfruit ,plum, fig trees and the most important peepal tree ,this tree is very important to Indians and the Hindu culture ,the Hindus pray and worship this huge tree .And it is believed the people who practise black magic and trap the souls ,do penance  under this tree,in the night when the whole world sleeps they start doing their work of worshiping the Satan and getting power to work against the Divine ,they want to become more powerful than the Divine and control the universe, they want to do all that divine tells us not to do .They control the souls of people with unfulfilled desire and get their work done through these trapped souls.

One such Huge Banyan tree ( peepal )tree was behind the Bungalow of a family . They had three sons and a very beautiful college going eighteen years old girl . She was very popular in the colony as all the boys wanted her attention ,the elders showered praises on her and the girls wanted to be seen with her so that they got noticed by others.She was even very popular in the college ,the boys used to follow her till the colony ,but could not enter the colony as it was heavily guarded .She knew about her beauty and took full advantage of it . She got her work easily done ,as all wanted to be in her good books and also wanted to be seen with her, 

The sons and the daughter used to sleep in one big room and they all had separate beds .each slept in one corner of the room .The daughter Gunjan slept near the door which off the room and next to the door was a huge veranda and outside was a big garden and there was the huge banyan tree.In the night when the whole family went to sleep after having a good dinner , Gunjan slept on her bed and near head was a couch, she slept with her back to the door and fell asleep in the middle of the night, she heard a cat making noise , meow meow meowwww it started becoming very aggressive and  she felt as if it was trying to jump up the window and reach the ventilator and than enter the room ,she was petrified of the cat ,and was shocked to know here was a cat near her bungalow ,they never had cats in their side of the colony ,her side they had dogs and she was more surprised to see her brothers were not bothered what was happening in the veranda.

She curled herself and covered her body and tried to close her eyes ,but she could not help listening to the activity outside , after sometime the meow of the cat stopped ,she was relieved ,she slowly stretched her legs away  from her chest and was going to turn on her stomach and sleep as if she was running for a marathon with one leg in a running position .She hear a squeak sound on the couch which was near her head but to the other side of the couch ,as if the cat made a way for the ghost to enter the room ,she acted as if she is dead and kept quiet and held her breath, then she felt the ghost was getting up and coming and sitting right near her side of the couch as that side made a squeaky sound , it went on happening for some time from this end to that end  . And suddenly she heard the guard coming towards her side of the house ,and making noise with his bamboo stick hitting it to the ground .And soon after that  she heard the dog barking and everything in the room was quiet. No squeaky sound from the coach or no meow from the cat..She jumped up from her bed and along with her blanket called out to her mother and ran to her parents room and slept next to them.

Her mother held her tightly and she slept peacefully after that .In the morning she got up to go to college her father prepared  tea and breakfast and they both had it .Her father saw his daughter a little disturbed but did not ask her ,she left for her college as she had to go in the train to another suburb to attend the college .There along with her friends she forgot her experience and disturbed night ,and was engrossed in her lectures and then went to the canteen , and had her usual round of admiration gang following her and sending her love letters . Her day is spent well and then she returns in the evening to her house and after having snacks she again goes to club and plays badminton and at 8 pm she goes home and her brothers reach home at 9 pm .

That time was  family time as during those days there were no mobile phones or computers ,it in the early 70’s There were television in few houses but only one station run by the government it had timings in the morning and in the evenings.So families during those days used to si around the dining table and talk about what happened in the whole day in their life . .Gunjan tells them that tonight she has decided to sleep in her parents room ,her brothers laugh at her and tease her, but she is adamant .They ask her the reason ,she then tells everybody about the night ,how she heard a cat meow and she has never seen a cat near their house before ,they all agree with her, they tell the only cat they three have seen is the wild cat at home named gunjan and again her brothers laugh at her, their father scolds them for teasing her, and tell her to go on with her narration.Gunjan tells them the cat was trying to jump on the window and was getting very aggressive and in the end she felt someone was sitting on the couch and moving on it , and this experienced when she was wide awake.The mother looked very worried ,she kept  quiet and did not talk much and only assured her daughter nothing will happen to her  again as she will sleep with them in their room. The daughter was very happy and relieved .Her brothers suppressed their laughter and waved good night to her and went to their room and slept .

Gunjan had fallen asleep a long time back in  her parents room when suddenly she felt her mother talking in whispers to her father, she tried not to catch their attention and did not move and tried listening to their conversation ,she heard her mother telling her father that in the afternoon mrs. Desai had come to visit her and she told her that in the middle of the night when she got up to visit the washroom she saw from her balcony a women wearing a black gown like dress running down from their house to the road .And she looked deadly.Her mother was shivering while narrating the incident to her husband , she told him she believes what Gunjan told she experienced in the night as it matched with the story of Desai ,something had definitely happened in their house that night. Gunjan listened to the whole story and realised something seriously happening around their house .She slowly acted as if she was still in sleep and held her mother tightly and slept.  

After few days the incident had been forgotten and Gunjan was in the house cleaning her wardrobe ,her mother had forgotten she is  in another room and started talking to her husband about the night ,she asked him whether ,he had touched her forehead in the night .He said he was very tired so he has fallen asleep as soon as he hit the pillow ,Gunjan ‘s mother tells her husband as was his usual habit of touching her fore head when he wanted to have s*x and he would signalher her  to get up and follow him to the storeroom ,then he would open the door and her mother would follow him to the room and then they would lock  the room and indulge in love making and come back to their room, so she tells her him she felt he touched her forehead and she got up and walked thinking she was following him she felt she saw a dark figure but as she was sleepy she just followed the figure and then she banged the store room door and then realised ,her husband was not there and she had got up and gone till the room. Then she came back and saw her husband sleeping and was frightened and held her daughter tightly and fell asleep . She tells her husband why all of a sudden ,this kind of activity started in their house .

Now Gunjan was getting ready fo the sports function soon to be held in their colony. All the boys and girls were choosing their partner for mixed doubles games for badminton and table tennis.All the boys wanted Gunjsn to be their partner not because she was good in the game they wanted to be with her and spend more time while practising.The slides company had invited few young people sweden to study the company here in India so that they can understand the working of the company well and go back and start a new company in sweden.So all of a sudden very tall good looking men where seen in the colony ,they started frequenting the club in the evening after work and playing Badminton , they were given three bungalows in the colony to stay as long as their training was held.So to chill they used to play in the club and they saw the beautiful Indian beauty Gunjan in the club trying to attract their attention .She soon became friendly with them and they in their broken english tried to flirt with her she was flattered that foreigners are paying attention to her .One day her parents called all the men from Sweden to their house for dinner .They were too glad to visit and become friendly with her parents .Gunjan dressed in a beautiful Indian dress ,when they arrived she welcomed them with flowers and rose water and applied a red turmeric mark on their forehead they liked the welcome ,and later after having sumptuous dinner they left , she and her brothers went to leave them till their bungalow ,as every bungalow was in a distance from another it had garden and few vacant space and the next bungalow.

When they  reached the first bungalow to leave two of them there ,her brothers went ahead to leave the rest and told Gunjan to follow them  But out off the two men one went to unlock the door and the other Davis stayed behind  and pulled Gunjan as it was dark because of the trees  he kissed her on her lips and fondled her breast ,she was shocked but he was very fast , before she could do or say anything he embraced her and again tried to open her front buttons hurriedly and touched her breast which was hot with nervousness he could feel her heart beating fast. He went on kneading her breast and telling her she is so beautiful that he could not resist her and then as she relaxed a bit , he picked up her gown and put his hand and touched her v****a and smelt it and told her he wanted  more. And told her to meet him the  next day in the club. And told her not to tell anybody about their secret. She was still shaking with pleasure which was  the first time in her life, no man had ever touched her before ,she was feeling as if she had become a woman.. He  kissed her passionately and left her.