Aatma

The Veil

The veil

Subod was very excited.He was to leave for his native place after , nearly 14 years.He completed his tenth standard from his village and as he was very brilliant in studies and had got good percentage ,His parents had shifted to Bangalore ,since last fourteen years .His father had a grocery shop . They never went to their village ,they got busy with their life in the city ,his father had to start the business from scratch and so he was very busy and Subhodh ws getting adjusted to the city life .He had to make  a lot of adjustments .Being a young boy  from a village he was not accepted in any groups in the college , he slowly made place in every body’s heart because of his intelligence in his studies , he became popular with the teachers and then slowly he made place in all his friend ‘s heart..Only his mother was in touch with the relatives in the village. They used to be in touch by writing letters .His mother would write in her mother tongue so he never knew what was written in the letters. They had a small house and a farm , his mother’s brother had shifted to that house and was farming and taking care of the property , they did not have any children , the crops which they grew in the farm were sufficient for their survival . Subod was working in a very good firm and was getting good salary , he had planned to get married in a year His mother had suggested they visit their native place and spend few days with her brother and his wife as it had been so long she had not seen them.As they were in good financial position , and could afford to closes their shop for few weeks they three decided to go and visit.So Subod had taken  leave and was shopping a lot for his Uncle and Aunt , they very excitedly did their packing and booked a luxury bus journey to their village. It was in an interior place the bus journey would take them one and half days ,and then again they had to change to  a bus to go to their village. Next day morning they booked a cab, loaded their bags and sat in it and went to the bus stop half an hour away from their house, after reaching they got into their bus and got seated comfortably .Subod’s parents were very happy they were acting like children , they had left the place for their son’s future and had never gone back even for a week as they were not in a good financial position .Today they were very happy their son is taking them to their original place , all three were excited .Subod remembered his small house and the farm how is used to go from the farm to his school , sometimes playing with the cows grazing the grass , he also remembered few friends though he had forgotten their names .He remembered there was one particular girl in his class , she was very fair and had buck teeth.All the children had nicknamed her as plough ( a wooden instrument used in the fields to gather the mud ) as her teeth was protruding .but he never teased her as he was more interested in his studies .Not knowing what to accept from this visit he fell asleep , he got up when the bus stopped for the lunch break .After having lunch the journey again , he saw his parents very excited and talking to fellow passengers in their local language . He was happy to see them enjoying.themselve.Next evening they reached their village , they stopped a bullock cart and kept their luggage and climbed and sat . Though the journey was painful but they were enjoying the scenery on the way  to the fields and the river flowing, the temple ,and the people walking and waving out to them everything was the same there was no development in 14 years in fact all the houses looked very old and dilapidated there were no concrete roads it was only a very neglected underdeveloped village, mostly the people they saw on the road were old , may be the young generations moved from the village in search of work.They reached their house his aunt and uncle were waiting for them .When they saw them all had tears in their eyes . He saw his mother was crying uncontrollably , she was hugging her sister in law , Subod touched their feet in gratitude , they were glad to see him .they said they never hoped to see them again and this was a great surprise that Subodh thought of visiting them .They eat a delicious meal and sit and talk ,his parents and his aunt and uncle had so much to talk he left them and fell asleep .Next day he was woken up with the smell of cows moews and the cats meows .He gets up to the natural alarm and sits on his bed and takes the smell of the surrounding ,His parents had already got up and helping his aunt , he goes out and brushes his teeth and his aunt pours water from the well ,he had lost touch of the village life .He finishes his morning routine and tells his aunt he is going for a stroll ,and will also bath in the river .he takes a change of clothes as he was planning to swim in the river.He roams around the village but does not see any familiar face he then goes towards the river and starts stripping his clothes he suddenly hear many women laughing loudly and telling him to run from there ,he picks up his clothes in embarrassment and goes to another side of the river and starts swimming he realises on that spot women of the village take bath and wash their clothes , he feels this place was isolated and farm the main place and relaxes and swims when suddenly he sees a lady wearing a white long skirt and long tunic with  her head and face totally covered with a veil coming towards the river with clothes for washing he quickly hides behind a big rock and watches her ,she sits near the bank of the river and washes her clothes he can only see her delicate thin hands which is very fair and the red bangles in her wrist were making noise as she wash brushing the clothes he felt she would be looking very beautiful. Then she gets up and takes her basket and walks away her anklet makes a very beautiful music to his ears.He feels happy at last there was someone to look forward to in this otherwise dull village.He quickly finishes his bath and changes his clothes and reaches home.While having lunch his aunt ask him where did he go to swim ,he tells her that the village ladies chased him away from the main spot and so he went to the other side and swam ,he did not tell her he saw one lady there too.She scolded him for going to the other side of the river she said how can he be a i***t , that part is near the cremation ground and people immerse the ashes of their loved ones , and one should not go to that side for bathing.Next day in the evening he is again going for a walk and seeing if he finds someone he knows .While walking he sees a old house in the middle of a field and surrounded by may trees one tree was tamarind tree ,he immediately remembers that house belonged to the girl who had protruding teeth ,he stands on the road and watches the house hoping to see someone come out but after waiting for long time he sees nothing so he moves ahead and thinks its been so long she might have got married and moved to another village and may be having babies he feels sad that he annot remember any friends of his .he goes far away  from the village and suddenly realises he has to go back as it was already very dark .His aunt had warned him not roam in the night this was not his city .He quickly takes out his torch and starts flashing the light and walking very fast towards his house ,which he feels suddenly is very far ,he keeps walking he is all alone not even a stray dog can be seen he starts walking without stopping some time a bird would do some strange noise and his heart would be in his throat ,he would curse the bird for scaring him and again increase his walk , he felt as he was walking he could hear the noise of anklet behind him ,he recognises it of the lady he had seen the previous day washing clothes in the river .He just turned around and saw her , again in white and her face covered in the veil.In the moonlight her skin shone like white marble .She ignored him and took a turn to the same house which Subodh had seen while going ,she went hurriedly into the house.He guessed it was his classmate who still stays there .He was happy he decided to again come there at that time next day and talk to her and see if she remembers him.He reaches home and waits for the next day to dawn, as he had planned to meet her .Again in the evening he purposely walks around  that area so that he can see her .After some time he can hear the anklet making noise  he goes towards her and tells her to spare some time for him .She does not listen and keeps walking . He tells her he is her class fellow and had gone to city 14years back for further studies .He says his name is Subodh and tells her he has forgotten her name though, she tells her name is Mira he recollects and says yes he recollected it .He asks her from where does she come daily at this hour of the night .she tells him as there is no work in the village she has to go out of the village to work and while returning it becomes dark.And then she takes a turn and heads to her house without telling bye to him,he stops and stares at her , he feels pity that she has to go so far to work.Next day again he waits for her to come from work and starts talking to her now even she has got used to his question and keeps answering his queries without stopping  her walk ,when he asks her to stop and sit somewhere so that they can talk at leisure ,she laughs very sweetly and sys village people will spoil her name ,and she will not be able to face her father.He asks her about her father she tells him ,many years back when she was very young her mother died all of a sudden ,the relatives told him to remarry so that the girl will get motherly figure , but he refused to remarry and took care of her himself, she feels very obliged to her father She tells him since few years he is bedridden and she takes care of all his needs, so she has to work hard to be able to get medicines for him. . Sobdh asks her why she covers her face .She says,she had promised her father that she will take care of herself and never spoil his name and will guard her dignity.They keep meeting every day and talk a lot about their school days and their friends Subodh looks forward to this meetings he has fallen for her sweet voice ,but is irritated not getting to see her face ,One day while walking and talking a wind blows and her veil moves from her head and he suddenly catches a glimpse of her ,he is shocked to see her face so beautiful and her teeth were not  protruding she gave a beautiful smile and he fell more in love with her,she again covered her face and walked away ,while going towards his house he decided to propose to her he thought  he had planned to get married , so instead of some unknown girl why not the village girl and then she will not have to go out and work ,he will take her father to good doctor in the city and get him treated there.He was very excited .Next day when they meet again he tells her he wants to talk to her at a quiet place for a long time , sit and relax not like every day walking hurriedly .She agrees to meet him next day around one in the afternoon at the same spot then she will take him to a place and they can talk and he can ask her whatever is in his mind.Next day Subodh very excitedly meets her t the given time Mira comes as usual in her white attire and covered face ,she takes him towards a hill he asks her why on a hill she says that is the only place where human beings will not come an disturb them that is the only safe place where she can talk to him without getting worried of being seen.He agrees and starts following her they walk for a long distance Subodh finds it difficult to climb the hill , but Mira walks like a mountain goat when he asks her how can she walk so fast without getting tired ., tells him they used to have many goats when she was young she used to bring them to graze on the hills .One old man sees Subodh walking up the hill and goes and informs his Aunt and uncle .Here Subodh is so tired he tells her if she takes him any more further he will die before asking her the question he wanted to ask her .She stops and tells her to sit on a stone and she tells him she knows what he wants to ask her,he is surprised she tells him he is interested in marrying her .He asks her in surprised way how did she guess he was going to propose to her.Mira tells him she is not a fool like him ,he looks at her in puzzle for calling him a fool She tells him he saw her washing clothes near the cremation ground where no other ladies where washing clothes ,she covers herself fully and comes out only in the night and still he is asking her how she knew about his interest in her.Now Subodh loses his balance he feels the earth is spinning fast and he is going to be thrown out of the universe she open her veil and he sees her protruding teeth her bruised skin and blood oozing out of her body her eyes are white like her dress ,she lets out a horrible scream at him and charges towards him to throw him down the hill he runs for his dear life calling out to his mother for help, the ghost of Mira follows him like a vulture screaming at him saying you  lust driven man wanted to marry me , and wanted to hurt my body you will be thrown out of the world .He runs as fast as he an and collides with something and falls down he can see many birds over him and loses conscious.After a day when he  opens his eyes he sees many people around him and some are praying and his mother is pressing forehead .They feel happy to see hi regain conscious .They tell him . he was involved with Mira’s ghost she was killed 11years back .She had gone to the same hill with her goats as was her daily practise , her father was not keeping good health so she took over the work of taking the goats for grazing on the hill,some men knew this and waited for her there one day , and when she came up they rapped her and threw her down the hill , The whole village tried to search for her body but it was never found they believe it might have been eaten by some wild  animals ,  her  ailing father could not take this shock and died on the same night.And from that day onwards her ghost is seen on the hills and near her house . She has thrown few people to death from that hill, so when old man saw him climbing up the hills alone he suspected the ghost has taken you up so he immediately collected all the villagers and they came with the holy water to save him, and they reached him on time and he got save. But now they wanted him to leave the village along with his parents as no one gets saved from her once she lays her eye on them.. He was lucky so he should leave today itself arrangement is made and he and his parents leave the village ,he sits on the window seat of the bus and shivers with the thought of her face and how he had fallen for a ghost.He sees the hills while the bus is moving away from the village and he shudders with fright.He closes his eyes and is shocked to see the lady ghost getting into the bus ..