Lonely

Like every morning I was completing my morning walk around the lake when I found my morning walk friend Jitenbabu who was sitting by the side of Lake call out my name. I had not seen him for the last one week as he had gone to Santiniketan to enjoy the abode of Tagore and the surrounding nature in the rain. 

I sat down by his side and enquired about his trip. He looked very excited and said, " My best travel so far to any place. " My association with Jitenbabu is of 10 yrs and it all started here at the lake. It was raining on that day when I shared my big golf umbrella with him. He also started his career in oil Industry located in Assam like me but he was in Assam Oil Company, Digboi and I started my career in Gauhati Refinery of Indian Oil Corporation. He was more or less of my age and divorced. He was staying in his ancestral house in Southern Avenue.

 "I remember you told me that you love going to Santiniketan in rainy season to enjoy the smell of wet fields and the limitless horizon where sky meets the field."

 "Yes,that was my main attraction but it turned out that there was some other plan was stored for me."

 "I can make out from your face that you had some unforgettable experience !"

 This is what he told me. 

As you know I took Santiniketan Express for Bolpur. I was sitting in 1st class AC Chaircar,the train started on scheduled time ,I pulled out the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. The seat next to me was vacant. From Burdwan baul , many hawkers boarded the train. I always carry eclair to give to poor kids or if anyone does some good deed. A blind beggar led by his young son came to my seat. I gave him a tenner and some eclair to his son. The train pulled out of Burdwan. A young man in pajama kurta,with a jhola and a stroller bag asked me if the next seat was vacant. I nodded and he placed his bags on the overhead luggage storage place and took the aisle seat. I was busy reading my book and he was busy on his mobile talking to someone regarding his plan of staying in Bolpur.

 I was trying to guess his profession. It was Monday so he is not a tourist otherwise he would have started on Saturday, whereas I as a retired person preferred Mondays when I don't get the compartments full with noisy tourists. He had that typical literate look which is a rare in today's youth in jeans and Tees. He smiled at me and introduced himself as Souvik. I asked his profession and he told me he is an online tutor teaches English. I know that after Corona on line education has picked up it's called Edutech. Byju has created history for being the fastest growing start-up in on line education during Corona time. It was valued at 22 billion dollar then, it dared to think big. Money was pouring in ! Ravindran,CEO ,founder achieved a Rockstar status, Byju became one of the main sponsors of the last FIFA World cup by paying 40 million dollars but unfortunately after Corona when all schools opened then Byju lost cliental and the present valuation is 5 billion. 

So I jokingly asked him that hope he was not one of those numerous tutors located throughout India under Byju. He smiled and said he was independent, showed me his laptop with a dongle which was his main tool. He powered the lap top and showed me some slides of his tutorial. I was impressed. He looked at my book and said he too reads Albom . His favourite writer was Paulo Coelho too among others. I asked him whether he has read Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. He nodded and was surprised that I have read that book. In the meanwhile he pulled out a packet of salted peanuts and shared with me. I stopped reading the book, I was liking the intellectual talk with him, for a change Souvik was not interested in cricket or politics,the favorite subject of most of the Indians. I informed him that I have booked a cottage in West Bengal Tourist Lodge.

 On scheduled time the train pulled in Bolpur, he got up , lowered his bags and my stroller. He didn't allow me to pull my bag,he asked me to go ahead with my sling bag. He helped me to get down from the train. Somehow I convinced him that I can pull my stroller bag, we both came out of the station. He hired a taxi and requested me to accompany him. I reluctantly got in. I normally take a toto. 

He dropped me at the lodge , I was looking forward to meet him again,as though he could read my thought and said ,"I will drop in after lunch if you don't have any other programme. " I readily agreed as for my such 3 days stay I generally don't make any fixed programme as my main aim was to relax. 

 I checked in my cottage, freshened up and proceeded for lunch in the dining hall. After lunch I came back to my cottage ,I wanted to lie down for a power nap. At about 4 pm there was knock on my door, I opened the door and found Souvik with his sling bag and a packet standing by the door. I invited him in the room,he gave me the packet and said," here is a packet of Eclair for you to distribute. You can carry your packet of eclair for poor and this you can distribute to whoever ask you for. You were telling me you want to have an experience of moving with group of young people who can sing and dance to the tune of Rabindrasangeet. I have organized such a programme for you at Sonajhuri forest area."

 I could not believe that he could organize such an experience, this was one of the items in my bucket list. He had hired a taxi, we got in and proceeded for Sonajhuri by the river  Khoayee. After Santiniketan the right hand side goes to Prantik and the left side road to Sonajhuri. After 10 minutes we reached a place near forest where I could see lot of young men and women in jeans,kurtas,sarees ,skirts in all kind of modern attire. They were not surprised to see me, I was warmly welcomed. A group was already singing a popular chorus, "Aloker jharna dharay.." The sun was slowly setting in the overcast cloud. The shaal tree and the reverberating music created a magical ambience. I slowly walked towards the group and joined them in singing the chorus. I am no bathroom singer but sometimes I whistle along whenever a song which i like is playing in the music system. This was my first live participation and was enjoying it. We sang on for an hour or so. A group was dancing. I was so happy that pulled out the packet of eclaire which Souvik had given me and got up to distribute. Some of them got up and took it from me. Not that all were interested in eclaire as that time tea was served. Many young girls and boys from the dancing group took eclaire. That packet was not finished. I thoroughly enjoyed those magical moments with young people. After my divorce I was leading a lonely life so those moments gave me a new kind of high. I wanted the show to go on forever but everything has to come to an end. It was getting dark and slowly those youngsters started going back. Souvik told me later those were students of Santiniketan. We also got up ,he dropped me at the lodge.

 Next day he took me to Kankalitala (one of the pithosthan where Satis's ribcage has fallen), there also we met some youngsters . We all went by the side of temple to the open field,whenever I come to this temple I prefer to come out in the field and watch the yellow mustard crop. Again this group too started singing together and I joined them in singing. This time they came to me one by one after talking to Souvik I gave them eclaire as I was happy. 

              Next day we went to Santiniketan met some students at Kalabhavan and had discussion on various sculptures and arts created by Nanda Lal Bose,Ramkinkar Bej etc. I was happy so distributed a round of eclair.

 In the evening I told Souvik that I would leave the next day and thanked him for gifting me those intellectual moments. I returned him the remaining eclair and asked him to give those to  his friends. He took the packet smilingly, he took out one piece and asked me to take before sleep for a good sleep.

 Yes,I had told him that for years now I was not getting proper sleep. I took that eclair after dinner and slowly I felt as though I was floating in my bed , my body was so light,I became one with the nature. Sometimes I was singing in  Sonajhuri and other times I was in Upsana Griha listening to Tagore. A myriad of dreams. They say dreams come in black and white but my that night dream had colours.I was in different universe where i was a poet,an artist.

           Next day I had slight headache and then I realized that I have taken some kind of barbiturates (drug). A hard realization hit me, I was peddling drug on behalf of Souvik. It’s illegal no doubt but then he presented me a life time experience which money cannot buy. I will always remember those moments when we all sang together in Sonajhuri or the intellectual discussion with those art students. 

“Jitenbabu, no doubt Souvik had gifted you unique experience. Sadly you won’t see him again!” I said.

The mask

The Mask

“Yes we had to cut short our stay in Bolpur because of a mask!” exasperatedly told Dinu.

Samaranand was surprised to see Dinu taking a morning walk in his usual grey tracksuit and a black fleece hoody that day. When he last met, Dinu a few days back then he informed Samaranand that he would be away for a week or so to Bolpur where his brother with his family from Delhi would join. His nephew had booked a bungalow called “Pakheer basha “ ( Bird’s nest ) through B&B at Prantik. But to his surprise found Dinu taking walk within 3 days of his tour which was of more than seven days.

On inquiring the reason of Dinu’s early return, he got the answer.

Sensing an interesting story Samaranand invited Dinu to a bench by the side of the lake and eagerly asked ,”Tell me the story of mask !”

Dinu coughed and looked sheepishly at Samaranand and said you , “You will not believe as you are a rationalist !”

Samaranand laughed out loudly , winked at Dinu and said , “Even an interesting ghost story or supernatural would have some logic. Come on tell me in full, don’t leave any small detail.’’

Dinu started telling about his trip to Santiniketan.

Me and my wife reached by 9 am to Howrah station to Catch Santiniketan Express which leaves at 10.10 am from platform 12. We asked our driver to wait and trooped to the Food Plaza for breakfast. Had alooparatha my favourite.

Dinu took a breath and mischievously looked at samaranand and said ,” Look I am not leaving any detail!”

Samaranand smiled and said “”continue, leave the semantics .”

Dinu continued…

We got in the chair car and occupied our seats 45 and 46 in Coach C2 . The train started as scheduled. In front of us a group of six oldies with wives were travelling and were noisy as hell. I couldn’t concentrate in reading the book by Jeffrey Archer  “Nothing Ventured”, my wife was trying to get sleep in the window seat. The train reached on time at 12.30  and Bappa was there to receive.

We took a toto after haggling for fare, we reached near Camelia but then the toto driver was not able to locate the Pakheer Basha. He took guidance from some local youth and took a kuch pakka road deep inside Prantik.

Samaranand said, “I know Camelia hotel, I had stayed there many times about 20 years back, Prantik was just getting developed, a few scattered houses could be seen from the hotel.”’

Dinu continued..

Now Prantik is full of Bungalows but the connecting roads are bad.

We reached the destination , my brother and his family were already there. Two bedrooms in first floor and one in ground floor, we took the ground floor bedroom. The living room,drawing room and dinning room combined is a big hall. One of the walls of the drawing room is decorated with various masks, some of those are scary one. I commented that the house owner must have put CCTV camera behind one of those masks.

Samaranand stopped Dinu and commented, “”Are those chau dance masks, typical of Bengal.”

“No, there was not a single of Chau kind, those were pretty scarry. I asked Gopi the caretaker about those masks and pointed a particular black mask, where can I get one like that?’’

He told that those masks are not available in local ethnic markets. We finished our lunch quickly. We were famished so did not bother about the quality of food.  Took rest and then called totos through Gopi to take round of Sona Jhuri market. The journey by toto through that kacha pakka road was bone breaking . After marketing we headed back through the same pot holed road. I was irritated because of bumpy journey, I was cursing myself for not checking the location prior to booking. The dinner was terrible, it appears that all these B&B type bungalows get their food from a common kitchen which  must be a typical Bengali roadside joint of cheap type. My nephew lost cool and sent angry email to the owner. I started reviewing Pakheer Basha in Google , gave three stars, before posting it I looked at the mask and said loudly I am giving 3 stars, I wanted to give 2 stars but the bungalow with it’s amenities compelled me to give 3.

The breakfast was worst, half-cooked puri. My nephew informed that the owner has replied and put the onus back on us saying we had a choice to go elsewhere. I was not expecting such reply when we know that there is dog eat dog meat competition out there in the market.

We took toto and headed for Kankalitala. As usual the toto was organised by Gopi,the caretaker. We reached Kankalitala in 20 minutes. While taking round of the market by the side of temple I was approached by a boy who pulled out a black mask like the one hanging in the bungalow and asked whether I was interested in buying. I asked him to wait and took out my mobile to take a snap, when I turned the boy had vanished. I was flummoxed, I patted my trouser pocket to check whether my wallet was still there. I narrated this incident to my brother and nephew. They thought I was pulling their leg.

We spent two hours at the temple, took snaps. Kankali tala is one the 51 shakti piths, it is said that Devi’s rib cage had fallen here.

“’Yes I know the mythology. As we know Lord Shiva was seething with anger on sati’s death, he was doing his earth shattering tandav dance. All the Devas approached Vishnu to find a solution. All of them came to the conclusion that until the dead body of Devi is not removed Shiva would not cool down. Vishnu with his Sudershan chakra dissected the body of sati, those 51 parts thus cut fell throughout India and each place had become a Pithasthan, Hindu devotees throng to those 51 pithasthans. Satis two parts fell in Pakistan, then of course it was India. Those two places are Hinglaj and Shivakaraya, many devotees from India go on pilgrimage to those places.”” Samaranand added.

Dinu continued;
After finishing round of Kankalitala we headed for tourist lodge for lunch, we wanted to avoid lunch in Pakheer Bashaa because of bad experience. We spent rest of the day going round Tagore's abode, Santiniketan.
Before dinner we had a few pegs while again the masks on the wall were looking down at us. I lifted the glass and said, ' Cheers"'  to the mask. After a drink we asked Gopi to serve dinner. As usual it was bad. My nephew Shubho again sent an angry email.
It was getting late, we hit the bed. My wife who is a light sleeper suddenly got up  and woke me up. 
"There is someone in the room. I have clearly seen that black mask breathing down on my face."
I got down from the bed and searched the room including looking below the bed. There was no one. I opened the connecting door to the drawing room, switched on the light and went to the wall, the mask was missing. Hearing us moving in drawing room my bother and Shubho came down. They too were shaken as the mask was seen by them too either in the far corner dancing or looking at them through the window. We shouted for Gopi,he came from the outhouse rubbing his sleepy eyes. We were all agitated and confronted him. He showed total ignorance about the mask incident. We could not sleep properly in the night.
During breakfast we decided to leave for Calcutta, we had paid money in advance so Shubho once again spoke to the owner regarding our decision of vacating the rooms earler than schedule. That rascal told that he can refund ten percent of the balance money. He knew anyhow we would leave so blackmailed us. Somehow we managed to get reservation in ordinary chair car of Santiniketan Express for our return to Kolkata.
Samaranand is a rationalist and does not believe in supernatural so his binary mind was busy in finding a logical reason, he believes in black and white, there is no place for grey.
Samaranand decided to find out the truth about the incidence of Mask at Prantik. He immediately rang up his assistant Babulal and started making programme for Santiniketan.
"I will go to the root of the mask mystery!" Samaranad said with resolve to Dinu.