Monday, March 26, 2007

Fear

It was twilight when I gingerly set my first foot into little woods. I had a prickly feeling on the back of my neck. There were already sweat beads on my forehead. An invisible line separates the outside world from what everyone knew to be a forbidden zone. None of my friends has ever set foot into little woods. I was the first one to do so. Little woods looks creepy even as far as two hundred meters away. There always seems to be an aura of evil about it. Even the untamed grass stops growing a foot outside the perimeter of Little woods.

Let me tell you why I had to go into little woods. The boys were playing a game of cricket and Mark had hit a good one right into the heart of little woods. Usually nothing would persuade me to go inside little woods. But this was cricket and I realized that I was entitled to hero worship once I went in and came back with the ball. Persuaded by other boys, I had to go inside and retrieve the ball. The sun was going down pretty fast. This made little woods look ever darker and graver than ever. The only consolation I had was that, I had told my friends to call Jaswinder, the local Indian help we had, if I took more than a half hour. Jaswinder was the only man to walk along the edges of the woods and was brave enough to do so to guard his coconut groves from thieves.

There was always a rumor about what inhabited little woods. It was said that there were crocodiles, snakes, scorpions and other venomous insects inside little woods. My father had once said that an unspoken true existed among the creatures of the woods and the outside world. We would not go in and they would not come out. It was that simple. I wasn’t afraid of snakes or killer crocs or spiders. It was the murmur about paranormal existence that deeply troubled me. The particularity and the accuracy of many of the accounts narrated by the Indians varied. But most common about all the stories was that the soul of a young woman dressed in tattered white robe roamed little woods. The eyes of the woman were said to be black and the folklore says that anyone who looks her directly in the eyes is doomed.

All these thoughts went past me as I set foot into little woods that day. The moment I stepped into little woods, sound seemed to mute itself and any trace of activity around me stopped. I turned one last time to look at the far away figures of the boys. The cracked ground beneath my feet crumpled and seemed to mock every step I took on it. Dried twigs cracked and crackled. Every step seemed to indicate that it was to be my last. It was dark inside and what was left of the light from the setting sun came in small bursts of thin rays. They too soon died down.

I stood still for a minute. Sweat was now running through my back. There was not even the sound of popular crickets or grasshoppers which you usually hear in the woods. I strained my eyes to adjust them to the eerie environment. The silence and creepiness seemed to grow by the minute. Judging by the quickly changing surroundings, I made a dash for it in the direction that the ball finally flew out of vicinity. Hardly had I taken ten strides when I saw movement in the woods. I froze instinctively. I tried hard not to visualize a woman in a white gown. Luckily the movement was on the terra firma. ‘Probably a Snake?’ I thought to myself as I moved in the direction of the movement. The movement stopped too. To my relief I found it was a lizard. It was quite as immobile as I was, and with its tail standing vertically it was now studying the intruder alertly. It scurried away in a flash. Temporarily relieved, I moved forward again.

By now I was trying hard to concentrate on the ground to figure out the shape of a cricket ball. My eyes fell on something smooth and spherical on the ground. Happy to at last see it, I bent down and picked it up. It bent inwards as I picked it up. To my disappointment, it was just one half of a cricket ball. Feeling let down, I threw it away. There was an almost inaudible hiss as it landed far ahead of me. I was sure that I had heard a sound. My old fears were now returning. Three steps forward, I felt something moving along the length of my arm. I jumped and wildly started brushing my hands. Five minutes of shouting, shrieking and yelling made whatever that had creeped upon my hand to fall to the ground.

There was a steady trickle of sweat down my chest and my cotton shirt was beginning to get drenched. I wiped the sweat off my eyebrows with the back of my hand. It was getting difficult to see with the sweat pouring into my eyes. I strained hard on the ground once again trying to fathom out the shape of a cricket ball. By now I was beginning to see what an impossible task I had gotten myself into. Getting a cricket ball from little woods is impossible even during day light, let alone the dark. Making up my mind to get a new ball the first thing the next morning I whirled around my path.

There and lo right before my eyes was the ball lying at the base of a dried up neem tree! Ecstatic at the sudden turn of fortune, I swooped down and picked up the ball. I took the next step to move away from the woods and found the shirt being pulled back. I turned cold, but found courage to find what was pulling me back. It was just a low branch where my shirt collar had been snagged. Little woods had granted me what I wanted; now it was trying to hold me back. I shook my head to clear my mind off what I had thought of. Surely a patch of land can’t have a spirit of its own! Slowly, I pulled free of the tree and started walking away.

The light in the direction of the open ground seemed to be almost out. With every step, my feet were now gaining speed. It was then that I heard the rustle behind me. I started running and in my blind fear did not notice the stubble coming up ahead of me and went face along into it. Lights were instantly knocked out of me and I all I could hear was a ringing tone in my ears. I did not see or hear anything for another minute. Then I felt two strong arms pull me up to my feet. When my senses at last came around, I found Jaswinder staring at me. ‘Mein teek hoon’ (‘I am O.K’) I told Jaswinder. He bobbed his head and led me to the edge of little woods. ‘O.K. Sir. I leave now’ he spluttered in his broken English and walked away towards his grove.

I could now make out the figures of my friends running towards me. I sheepishly grinned towards my friends as they lauded my ‘brave’ attempt at recovering the ball. I will never forget Jaswinder. What a life saver! Sometimes, a man’s face is all it takes to survive. Now I know how Robinson Crusoe would have felt! I parted way from my friends and turned towards the road that led me to my home. On the way I ran into Jaswinder again and thanked for his help. ‘You really saved my life inside little woods tonight Jaswinder. If you hadn’t come I surely would have lost hope.’. He smiled gently and bobbed his head. I think it took a minute for him to understand what I had said. By then I had started walking again. Then he hollered after me ‘Saab mein wahaan nahi thi. Me not there today. I don’t go after sunset …’ My stomach squirmed one last time and I bravely took two more steps before I collapsed to the ground.

No comments: