CHAPTER THREE:
THE TEAM! DARKNESS! THE BLACK MOUNTAIN!
And so, for the next forty minutes or so, I stayed and watched my family members participate in this amusing activity, without having any idea on what the consequences might be later. By the time the clock showed 9:30 pm, my brother had finished his third glass and was asking for more, a request I flatly declined. As he finished a glass, he would hold it upside down to his lips for a while, to ensure not a single drop was wasted. Then, he would close his eyes and chew on the fibres that had been deposited at the bottom, as sediment. I warned him that it was not a wise thing to do, but he waved me away dismissively. My mother had somehow finished the half glass that I had poured for her, and despite my insistence, refused to have any more. My Boudi had already finished her glass, and shyly nodded yes when I asked her, if she would have some more, but before I could pour any, my brother firmly objected to the idea.
– “Don’t serve her any more! She has never had it before, let’s not risk it.”
Boudi seemed to be a little disappointed, but accepted this advice. My mother, who had already kept her own glass aside, also nodded her approval to my brother’s diktat, so I didn’t feel like pushing either. I had been drinking slowly myself, and had finished my glass as well. But knowing well that Sintu would be waiting on that dark terrace all by himself, I decided not to drink anymore and instead, wrap things up.
My brother tried again;
– “Instead of her, you should serve where there is no risk at all!” and raised his empty glass again.
I promised him, that I will try to save some from our central reserve, and maybe later in the night, we could have another round together. He was satisfied with that prospect and insisted that I should come back home soon.
It was almost 10 pm, and without further delay, I bid goodbye to my mother, brother and sister in law, before heading off to meet Sintu. On my way, I did a mental review of the status back home and whispered to myself;
“Everyone looked okay. They seem to have enjoyed the evening. Luckily none of them is too high. Mother and Boudi were normal and neither had too much. My brother did take a little too much, but he seemed to be fine as well.”
When I reached ‘our den’, I was wondering if Sintu had already returned after delivering the bottle reserved for the ladies. Knowing him well, I was mentally prepared that I might need to pull him out from the company of our lady friends. But as I approached the house, I found Sintu waiting for me at the ground floor itself. He greeted me with a customary curse for taking too long.
– “Did you deliver the bottle to the girls?” I asked, lowering my voice.
– “No! We have a problem. They have a guest in the house and I was waiting for him to leave, but he is still there and now it is already too late to go to a girl’s house.”
I silently pondered over the situation and agreed with his conclusion. It wouldn’t be very civil to go to the girls’ house after 10 pm, with a bottle of Siddhi.
– “Indeed, some problem! Shall we give it to the girls tomorrow morning then?” I inquired.
– “The problem is, this Siddhi needs to be kept refrigerated, or it will go toxic by tomorrow!”
He had a point. I knew he couldn’t keep it in the fridge in his house. Neither did I want to take the bottle to my own house. Both of us came to the solution at the same time.
BIBHAS Da!
Bibhas da was a friendly gentleman in his fifties, a single man, who mingled well with younger groups like ours. He was a regular in our carom activities, although, when it came for us to choose a partner, between Bibhas da and someone else, for a game of doubles, every one of us would choose ‘someone else’.
Bibhas da could be trusted, he didn’t have anyone to answer to, he knew the girls very well, he stayed 15 metres away from their house and most importantly, he had a fridge, that was usually empty!
The two of us walked to his house, explained the situation, and requested him to take custody of the 2 ltr. bottle for the night. We assured him that we will retake possession the next morning and hand it over to the girls, as per our deal. Bibhas da, as was expected, did not object. He gracefully accepted the bottle and opening his Voltas refrigerator, placed it horizontally on the middle shelf. We thanked him and took our leave.
As we walked back, I asked Sintu about the small observation I had made, while Bibhas da was tucking the bottle inside his fridge. The bottle was not as full as I had left it earlier. Sintu smiled and replied with another cuss word;
– “You took almost two hours to return. What am I supposed to do sitting by myself, on a dark terrace? Relax! It’s not even a glass, the girls won’t even notice.”
It did seem fair, since I had also had a glass at my home, and Sintu had missed the opportunity to have a glass with the girls. So I patted his back and we walked up the house to enjoy our Siddhi together. The terrace felt pretty chilly, so we decided to settle down on the mezzanine level, with our backs resting on unfinished window sills, as we passed around the last bottle of Siddhi, and made some small talk.
The next hour or so passed very quickly, or maybe not so quickly; I can’t recall well. But as the substance started to have its impact on us, we went through periods of laughter followed by absolute calm and silence. It was during one of these calm moments, when neither of us were speaking a word, or moving an inch, that I got to see it!
The sky was pretty dark that night, since Shivratri is always on a new moon night. As I stared at the sky from the window sill, I suddenly realised that the sky had two different colours. Dark, and darker! The darker colour seemed to be farther away, but I could clearly see the point where the two colours met each other. I narrowed my eyes to focus on the darker colour, and that was when I saw it move. THE DARKER COLOUR WAS MOVING! And it was moving straight towards us!
I kept gazing at the sky and I could clearly see it happen. The ‘darkness’ was approaching us, faster and faster, as it came closer. It also grew bigger with time, and began to engulf the ‘lighter darkness’ till it got completely overpowered by the ‘darker darkness‘. Then the darkness took the shape of a black mountain, and I sensed it approaching towards us, at a break neck speed. Sintu had been silent for a long time and I had lost trail of what our last conversation was about, when I heard his voice again;
– “Mota?”
– “Hmmm?..”
– “Ki dhumki mairi!” – his customary words of expression when he would be high beyond a certain level. I didn’t respond, so he continued;
– “Are you okay?” He asked with some concern.
– “Hmmm…!” – was all I could muster. I didn’t want to tell him about the ‘darker darkness’ and the ‘black mountain’ either.
– “I am stoned!” he declared, as I kept silent while he continued;
– “Don’t laugh, but I just saw a huge black mountain speeding in my direction. It was about to crash on me!”
I was speechless! We had seen the exact same vision. I shared with him what I had seen myself, we laughed aloud and then we nodded in unison, “This stuff is real good!”
I lit up a cigarette, took a few drags and passed it over to him. Neither of us were willing to move, but even sitting in that position, it felt at times, like the window sill was sliding down. I suggested that we sit down on the floor to be safe, and Sintu agreed. The process of standing up and sitting down, took much longer than usual, but soon after, we were seated on the floor, our legs stretched in front, our faces away from each other, as our backs rested on each other. We silently smoked the cigarette, before I recognized Sintu’s voice again, even though, it felt like it was coming from some deep valley, far away.
– “Mota?”
– “Hmmm.?”
– “We are not exactly newbies in terms of getting high, right? Even though Siddhi is not something we have done much.” – he paused for a while, waiting for me to say something.
– “Hmm.. true!” – I was indeed a man of few words then.
– “If you and I are both seeing black mountains tonight, I wonder what your dada and Boudi are seeing right now! I think you should go and check on them.”
I sat up with a jerk! I had almost forgotten about my family, but Sintu’s words reminded me of my responsibilities again. Indeed, if we were both so high, I am sure my family, especially my brother, would also feel something. Despite his chest thumping declarations, I knew, he was not who pretended to be. Yes sure, he had a few drinks here and there, with his friends, but he clearly overestimated his prowess when it came to getting high.
I was suddenly very worried about the well being of my family. Sintu seemed to be equally concerned, and he egged me on to go and check on my family first. He made me promise that I would call him and update him on the situation back home, and if there was any problem, whatever the time was, I should call him, and he would come to help right away. I thanked him profusely as we helped each other up, and saying goodnight to one another, we parted ways. As I walked away, I could hear Sintu’s voice from a distance;
– “Call me as soon as you reach home, I’ll be waiting for your call!”
