The vast open space in front of house extended till the small cemented arena where military band played on ceremonial occasions. The ground however was not visible due to tropical trees doting open space and where there were no trees the ground was left ugly with bald and green patches randomly dispersed. Little Babu wished Ber tree in front of the house was Neem tree instead to allow playing of Jhaar Bundar (Monkey of the tree) despite that they did play Jhaar Bandar and injured themselves in the bargain. There was a curious branch forking out of the trunk referred to by them as a ‘surang’ (a tunnel) for its long horizontal run. The girl next door often told ghost stories and once secretly confided that the Ber tree has a resident ghost. Babu was extremely gullible! In summers little Babu slept out doors along with his family, would often try to sneak a view of the tree if woke up late at night through the mosquito net fixed to his bed. One day, a particularly cramped evening with ghost stories he woke up late at night. He thought he saw a dark figure taking round of the tree and as it turned to look it him the figure melted, disappeared. The view never left him though much later in life he came to terms with it as some kind of trick played by his mind.
One day there was a lot of excitement when kids informed him that a mad man was brought to the local dispensary. He had never seen a mad man before but obvious violence associated with a such a person was part of his psyche gathered from all the movies he had seen. So they went to the dispensary in a group. Near the dispensary they began to trudge slowly as if they would be attacked by the mad man on sight. At the turn from where the dispensary was visible they hid behind a tree and cautiously peeked at the mad man tied or rather chained to a metallic cot placed on open ground in front of the dispensary. The tied man would rise and fall violently giving out muffled grunts. He was wearing a stripped pajama with bare hairy chest. The sight frightened him and others too. When officers saw the group they shooed them away. They departed quietly without any further ado however imprint of that view firmly etched in his subconscious mind.
To be continued....
