Das - Short Story #8

My brother and I were big time pranksters when we were really young. We were known as the DevDas brothers. Dev is my name and Das was my fraternal twin brother. I was elder to him by 12 minutes. We were born in Toronto where Dad and Mom had set up an Indian restaurant in the late eighties. We grew up in Canada. In the year 1999, Das and me had our first trip to India to see our grandparents. We were 12 years old then.

Our grandparents lived in a remote but a beautiful village. The village was like a wonderful painting with green trees, several huts, some temples, a river and brown mountains in the background. My grandfather had the biggest house in the village. It was the only concrete house in the village with a bathroom. Dev and I were shocked to learn that usually people bathed in the river and took a dump in the forest.

We stayed there for 45 days fascinated by everything we saw and everywhere we went. We became friends with one Mr. Mani, who was the only person in the village who could speak little English, after my grandfather of course. Mr. Mani worked in the telegram office. He was our neighbour and would visit us on his way back home and tell us scary stories with his broken English. 

After sunset, the whole village would be dark with as there were no streetlights. Actually there were no streets, just one main road that went through the village and ended near the riverbank. The houses had lanterns and fireflies hovered around them. There were frequent power cuts and electricity was scarce.

But the house we stayed in had tube lights; grandfather was quite a well to do man. It was a two-storey house. The ground floor was where we stayed and the first floor had three rooms and a large hall usually for guests. Most of the time it was locked.

The house was quite eerie by itself. We had a large garden and a car park in the front, the house had a veranda where we used to sit and talk with Mr. Mani. The ground floor had four rooms, a hall and a kitchen and a backyard where the bathroom was located. You needed to carry a lantern to the bathroom, as it had no lights. If you were one of the 'easily scared' kind person, you would not dare go to the bathroom at night.

One evening, a few relatives came to visit us. A cousin of ours, Jeev, who was a year younger to us, came along. We were sitting on the veranda listening to Mr. Mani's story. He was telling us about a damned spirit that roamed the village. Her name was 'Yekshi' whose husband was a drunkard and abused her daily. One day when her husband was bit by a snake and he was dying, she ran from house to house begging for someone to come help her husband. But everyone turned her away. Even a young grandfather didn't bother but slammed doors on her. Nobody cared for the drunkard. The man succumbed to the venom. This sent the woman to a state of shock and she hung herself. It was later revealed that she was 2 months pregnant. Mr. Mani said that her spirit roamed the village seeking revenge. Infact there had been several miscarriages and still borns in the village a few years after her death. An astrologer from the nearby village when consulted said that an evil spirit was the reason behind this and suggested a ritual. A ritual was conducted in the village temple and the priest who performed it told the villagers that every year a similar ritual had to be conducted to keep the evil spirit away. From then, things turned normal.

Jeev was little scared by the story, but pretended to be brave, but the both of us were eager to learn more about Yekshi. That evening after dinner, when all the adults were talking adult stuff, Das, Jeev and I decided to go to the first floor and sleep in the hall, as the breeze there was cool. Suddenly, Das came up with an idea. We all had heard about the oujja board, but never knew if it really worked. He wanted to see if her spirit would respond to the ouja board. But the question was where to get a board from. So Das went down and got a sheet of paper and a pen and candles. He made a rough oujja board on the paper with alphabets and placed a coin. The candle was lit and Das put the coin in the center and started to ask questions. We all placed our index finger on the coin touching it. He asked, "Are there any spirits wandering nearby, please respond?” Nothing happened. "Is Yekshi here, we are summoning you here, we have questions for you. Are you there?” Nothing yet. After a few more questions. We gave up.

We could see Jeev was sweating with fear. The both of us could see that he was controlling his emotions because if he said he was scared, then we'd laugh and call him a pussy. Das smirked at me and I understood he was up to something. We spread our mats on the hall and went to sleep in an hour. The three of us chose to sleep in the same hall whereas the rest slept below us in their rooms.

Das slept in the middle, Jeev on his right and me on the left. We were trying to fall asleep talking about the latest movies, Das started to groan and shiver. He was mumbling something the both of us could not hear. His arms and limbs were twitching. His whispering grew louder and he was saying gibberish. I was controlling my laughter because I knew he was trying to scare Jeev. Suddenly, Das sat up. In the dark I could see Jeev standing up, but I could not see his face clearly. He backed a bit. I was still lying down, breaking into laughs. Jeev was telling us, "stop it, it's not funny". Das was now sitting cross-legged and was moving his upper body to and fro as if possessed. I was in laughs now. He was making weird noises like low grumbling which went 'Hrrrmmmmm, Hrrrmmmm". I stood up and crept behind Jeev to scare him. But he held my hands tight and told me, "Dev, something’s not right, call everyone now, I'm scared". I was in hysterics now. But Das was full on with his acting, his noises growing louder. I asked him to stop, as it would wake the others. Jeev ran downstairs, stumbling in the dark. I patted Das, asking him to stop because Jeev ran away. But he kept on. He was shaking violently now and groaning very loud now. "Stop it Das, I'm not even scared. You are going to wake everyone up". I expected him to laugh with me, but he went on. It was so un-Das. Then it happened. He spoke in a female voice, that of a mature female. It scared the shit out of me. He asked, "Why?" and kept screaming the same thing over and over.

I switched on the lights to find that the light bulbs were not working. There was no electricity. A few people came running up the stairs. I could make out dad in the dark, Grandpa was carrying a lantern, a few uncles came with him, Jeev came up too with my mother and some aunties in the house. They pushed me aside. Mom caught hold of me and was forcing me downstairs and I was resisting. All the males had gathered around Das now. He was too violent now, screaming at the top of his voice. I was unable to grasp the situation. Why did he not stop? It was not funny anymore. Dad shouted at me and all the women who had gathered there. Mom pushed Jeev and me down the stairs now. I went not before having a glimpse of his face in the faint light. His eyeballs had gone up and his eyes were white and he was drooling, shaking and screaming, but still sitting cross-legged.

We were waiting downstairs when all of a sudden, an uncle came running down and went straight out of the house. We could here screams now. I could hear grandfather shouting, "Go away, go away now". This went on for five minutes. Electricity returned and the whole house was now flooded with light. Grandma was sitting on her wheelchair listening curiously to what was going on. The uncle who had gone out came running back, this time with the temple priest. He was carrying a few things that looked like a whip, a small pot and something folded in an old newspaper. They looked dead serious and ran up. The rest of us including Jeev waited down. We looked at each other, but didn't say a word. Mom and few aunties were weeping and talking among themselves.

Upstairs, everything turned pin drop silent. Then screams. There was shouting and I could hear Das screaming. My heart was thumping now. A few people had gathered outside the house now. Mr. Mani was there too looking at me with wide eyes. 

A few minutes later all the screaming stopped. We could hear them coming down. They carried a passed out Das. There was white foam in his mouth now. They put him in a car and drove away. I didn't sleep that night. I slept next to mom, and she was holding me close to her. I think I would have dozed off at dawn. When I woke up, I was alone and was sleeping on a bed covered with blankets. No one was around. 

I went to the hall to see all my aunties and mom sitting in the hall crying. Jeev was there too. Dad, Grandpa and the other uncles were standing there still, not talking. Grandma was on her wheelchair with her hand on the forehead. She was weeping. I stood there confused. Then I saw, I saw what I had missed. Lying on the hall was Das. His head was wrapped in a white shawl revealing only his face and the body covered in white. He was dead. Everyone had gathered around him. I fainted.

Das had died of epilepsy. He never had epilepsy in the first place. It was his first attack ever and had uncontrollable seizures on the way to the hospital. He died even before they reached the hospital. The return trip to Toronto was one of the worst trips I ever had. I never visited India again even though Das was cremated there. Life turned normal in a year. We missed Das terribly. Mom could never move on. They never asked me about that day.

I studied to become a doctor and now work in a reputed hospital in Boston. My parents still live in Toronto. I am married to a ballet dancer and we had our first baby last week. We named him Das.