Samuel is my childhood friend and presently employed with the merchant navy. Trisha was his daughter and stayed in our neighborhood with her mother Patricia & older brother Abraham, as her father was out for his maritime assignments most of the time. Although staying in one of the port towns or cities would have been more preferable for the Samuel family, but considering Trisha’s congenital asthmatic problem and on advice of their family doctor, instead of leaving her all alone in some hostel in a far off hill station, her family preferred to move lock stock and barrel to the Mussourie, as it housed a few renowned Schools. As I was also employed with one of the big hotel chains and posted in Mussourie itself, I was entrusted the additional burden of being the local guardian of Samuel’s family. Accordingly, I would visit their home almost every day while going back to my cottage which was housed on a vintage ridge above the township.
Since presence of Samuel was almost negligible, the kids got very attached to me with passage of time and Trisha particularly became very much attached to me and would wait for me eagerly every day to narrate the happenings in her School & class room during the passage of the day. I would sometimes help out with her homework whenever her mother was running some household errand. Days passed by and slowly Trisha started growing into a wild boisterous girl who would participate in all kinds of cultural activities that were happening in her school, even at the cost of neglecting her studies at times. Trisha’s character was totally juxtaposed to that of her bother Abraham, who was a quiet & studious boy unlike her. As days passed by, her mother was getting more and more anxious by the day, because of her lack of application towards studies and Trisha was at the receiving end of her mother’s verbal lashes almost on daily basis. The last straw on back of the proverbial Camel was broken, the day when Trisha flunked her class 4th final examination and all hell let loose in their household, with Trisha being severely scolded and reprimanded by her mother. When I visited their house that day in the evening, during late November and their School was also scheduled to be closed for the winter season, I found their house uncommonly quiet. Having entered the house, Patricia poured out her woes to me about how stubborn Trisha had got over the years and that despite umpteen attempts by her she had failed to mend her ways. I pacified her telling that every child was special and that one should look for the hidden talent in every child and hone it, instead of pressurizing a child to abide by the books. Having assured her of the fact that I would talk to Trisha in this regard, I called her name aloud. However, there was no response and when I enquired from Patricia about Trisha’s whereabouts, she was also taken aback, since she herself had also not seen Trisha after that morning session, when she had rebuked Trisha. Suddenly, the aggressiveness in Patricia’s attitude gave way to that of concern and she started looking for Trisha in the various rooms of the house and thereafter in the lawns outside as well as the store room at the other end of the lawn which was Trisha’s favorite hideout. But despite a thorough search all around in the house, Trisha could not be located and being late in the evening the entire valley had by then been engulfed in darkness and chilly winds had started sweeping across the valley. Suddenly a pall of gloom set over the Samuel household.
The search for Trisha continued throughout the night, but to no avail and in the morning the local police authorities were informed of the fact of disappearance of Trisha after she could not be located even at any of her friend’s place or the School. Gradually hours passed by but there was no trace of Trisha, having got the message, Samuel too had flown in from the Mumbai port, but all our efforts were in vain. Since Samuel had to leave in a hurry because of his prior official commitments, he specifically sought my help to assist his family in this hour of need. After almost five days had passed since Trisha’s disappearance, a rumor started circulating amongst some locals regarding the sighting of a little girl in the vicinity of the house of Sir Everest, which was a very unlikely & distant place for a little girl of such tender age to have traveled to. But despite all kinds of logic, Patricia decided to recee around the area and accordingly we moved to the locality and housed ourselves in one of the small villages around. Next morning while traversing a narrow hill road running parallel to the jungle area I suddenly heard a giggling sound akin to that of Trisha and I stood rooted to the ground waiting to hear and locate the sound. But strangely, Patricia who was just behind me did not hear anything and on her insistence, I again visited the area alone. To my utter surprise I heard the same unmistakable giggling sound again and this time I caught a glimpse of her bright red skirt too and followed in the direction where she had gone. Suddenly I was greeted with a sight which I could not fathom in my wildest dreams, Trisha was standing on the edge of the ridge giggling and her voice was unmistakable but her face was a pale shade of her usual self and ashen. After being dumbfounded for an instant, I asked Trisha sternly as to what she was doing here in the wilderness, but she just giggled back and started running along the ridge dangerously and I lost her in a few minutes and had to retract back to the village. This sudden development of events had rattled me badly and when I went back to the village I developed chills & rigors accompanied with very high grade fever. Incoherently I was describing what had happened and the Villagers called the local headmen and the Priest who immediately embarked upon some rituals with sprinkling of water and burning of dry chilies and other condiments accompanied with chanting & mumbling of some ritualistic connotations. I had recovered sufficiently by late evening and narrated the incident to Patricia with the villagers in attendance. The Village Priest requested us to perform some rituals, as according to them the soul of Trisha had got entrapped in her earthly body and he advised us that the earlier we leave it would be better for both the family and Trisha as Trisha’s soul which was yearning for her near & dear ones would gradually leave her earthly body for the eternal journey or else she would follow us back home which would brook bad omen for the entire family.
Being a loving mother and with the weight of her daughter’s disappearance being tagged to her outburst, Patricia could not over come the guilt feeling, she trashed the locals and decided to seek Trisha all by herself. The villagers had distanced themselves from us fearing the worst and I had no other alternative but to trudge back to the spot. When we reached the particular desolate spot Patricia started calling aloud for Trisha and wailing simultaneously begging for forgiveness and behold Trisha appeared from the ridge where she had disappeared the previous day. Although now she appeared all the more paler, Trisha started speaking in monosyllables and told her mother that after getting the scolding from her she had consumed some pesticide kept in their house and run away to the jungles to meet God, but was still waiting to meet him as every time he came to take her back to Heaven she felt tied down. Gathering my wits, I held her hand and found it to be very cold & wax like and parts of skin were coming off, presuming this to be effect of the Pesticide, we rushed back carrying her and found that all the villagers had by then shut their houses and even bolted the windows from inside. But strange happenings started all around as soon we had brought Trisha out of the jungle area, suddenly all the electricity bulbs in the village area started flickering without any rhyme or reason. Thereafter, while on way back to the cottage, the vehicle which had been hired by us at exorbitant rates, first refused to get started and thereafter just as we were getting past the jungle pathway, the entire roof of the Jeep got blown away in a freak manner as if torn off like a piece of paper by some very strong unknown force. This not only unnerved the driver but also had an immense impact on my psyche as well. The driver started chanting the name of the Gods and intermittently would seek their forgiveness for being greedy and having agreed to ferry Trisha.
Having reached the cottage we took Trisha inside and being a small place the news had spread like wild jungle fire and every other local resident had shut his door & bolted their windows to avoid the ill omen. Despite best efforts, we could not locate a Doctor in the vicinity, who could have a look at Trisha due to fear of ill omen. Finally, we were able to convince a Bengali Doctor posted at the local dispensary, who agreed to have a look at Trisha, more out of curiosity rather than for rendering service. He checked her vital statistics but was aghast at what he had recorded and he informed us that he had not encountered anything like this ever before during his entire professional career, as his instruments could not record any readings regarding pulse or heartbeat in Trisha and even her body temperature was recorded as 15° Celsius which was not possible for any living human being and he immediately fled the house scampering, as if he had seen a living ghost. Later I came to know that he too had developed chills & rigors and had to be attended to by another local Priest. During the entire night the electric lamps in the Samuel household continued to constantly flicker, sometimes very vigorously accompanied with strange rumbling noises on the tin roof top. Since no local electrician was willing to come & attend the Samuel household boding ill omen, despite a thorough search I could not locate any electrical or mechanical fault in the entire household. These strange happenings even rattled poor Abraham and finally Patricia was convinced to call in the local Bishop to resolve the matter.
Bishop Francis was a very old and soft soul and as soon as he entered the house the rattling and flickering increased, as he told me later he too felt a chill run down his spine and the more he tried to perform the rituals of chanting verses from the holy Bible, the more intense the cacophony of the ensemble on roof top seemed to increase its tempo. Despite his best efforts, after putting in about an hour or so, finally Bishop Francis informed us that he could do little by himself in such a situation, that it was some kind of Poltergeist activity and that he needed to discuss this with others and he would return the next day. Trisha, meanwhile seemed to be aloof of all the happenings around her kept sitting on Sofa set kept in the corner of the living room which was the favorite couch of her cat called Timber, but the cat and all the stray dogs that used to loiter around their house for snacks from Trisha had all disappeared, as if into thin air, neither to be seen nor heard during the entire night. Gradually as the next morning dawned, the Bishop came in along with some local Pundits who reiterated the advice that had been tendered by the village Priest and advised Patricia that Trisha was dead, except for the fact that her soul could not be liberated, as she could not sever her ties from her near & dear ones and the only remedy was to destroy the body so as to liberate her soul. Thereafter, the debate raged on for hours as to whether Trisha should be buried or burned on a pyre lit akin to Hindu practices. Finally Patricia was convinced by the Bishop & the Priests that the only way that Trisha could live in peace was only if her body was destroyed by fire. In order to ease her guilt feelings, on advice of the Bishop Patricia gave Trisha some sleeping tablets along with fruit juice, which she drank with a knowing smile on her face. As soon as Trisha fell asleep or acted to do so, only God almighty knows the fact, we all sought her forgiveness and requested her soul to depart in peace. As soon as her sleeping body was taken, out all sorts of foul smelling articles & missiles started appearing from thin air, but determined that we were, we went ahead with the advice of the Priests and amidst chanting of Hindu mantras along with recitals from the Bible, Trisha’s body was put to fire and it burned like wax. That was the last of Trisha and her family moved away never to return. Over the years my contact with Samuel has also all but been severed, maybe the memory of their loss as also the strange & weird mannerism, had been too much for his family to have maintained contact with such godforsaken place. However, even now, at times, while returning late from my sojourn at the Hotel while passing by the cottage, which has remained unoccupied over the years due to the tag of evil omen, I hear a sudden giggling sound but dare not look back.
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