PREFACE
I am a better storyteller than a writer, and this has been a story I have told to numerous people in my life, but attempting to pen it down, is a different challenge altogether. Nevertheless, riding on the wave of encouragement I have received from the readers, I have decided to give it a full go. But before I start, I would insist on a few points. While the basis of the story is real, several changes have been made, to the plot, the sequences, as well as to the characters, to give it a fictional and dramatic twist.
Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is partly coincidental, but if some of it sounds like a popular Bollywood movie from a decade or so back, take my word, that is purely fortuitous. In fact, watching the movie was what convinced me to believe, that I had a story worth a transcription.
Most of this narration is from a first person’s perspective, usually with me as the main raconteur, but a part of it is also from the first person’s standpoint of one of the central characters in this story, my father.
Without holding up any further, let me start then.
CHAPTER ONE:
THE HOUSE ON THE ROAD!
This happened almost four decades back, but I can still remember it like yesterday. We used to stay in a small town called Haldia, due to my dad’s employment with the Calcutta Port Trust and had come to visit my uncle in Kolkata. My uncle is the youngest brother of my dad and had a family of four including my aunt and their two children, Raja (9) and Rana (6). We were two brothers with my elder brother being almost 10 yrs while I was about 5 yrs old myself. My uncle used to stay in a rented house back then, and I’ll try to explain the layout of the house and its premises, for the readers to get an idea.
The house was right on the main road and once you enter through the main gate, to the left there would be a 2 BR standalone house, which was occupied by my Uncle and his family, back then. To the right there was a small shrine. Further down the pathway, to the left there was the large house of the landlord and his 8 member member family, while to the right there were 3 single storied rooms, which were mostly used when there were guests. Further down, there was a tube well with a washing area to the right, and 2 small bathrooms next to it. Beyond this, the boundary wall ended, but the landlord’s perimeter did not. There was a small and low rear gate, crossing which one would land up in an open area, something like a field with some odd bushes and shrubs. There were 3 WCs to the left and a sizeable pond to the right, which was nested at the center with a few tall palm trees around it.
The rear gate was mostly kept latched with an old metal latch, although it was never really locked from inside. The main gate to the front was however, locked from inside every night and reopened early in the morning, and kept open and often ajar, most of the day.
Both the houses inside the premises had their own toilets, but the toilets outside were disjointed and for common use.
NOTE:
This is when I would ask you to check out the attached image of the layout, it might be of significant relevance later in this story.
Usually, it was customary for the guests to use the common toilets outside of the walled premises, but as kids, we would mostly use the toilets within our Uncle’s house and no one had ever objected to that. Especially after sundown, the toilets outside would feel pretty creepy, more so because they were lit up by a single, low wattage electric bulb each. In the darkness of an open field, a 25 watts bulb would make you see little, and imagine way more than there is.
Coming up next: CHAPTER TWO
