एक खूँटी … प्रवेशद्वार की !!!!!

 Romancing around in greens!!!

Trip to Midnapore is remembered for its utmost vibrancy, thrill, happiness quotient, and learning. The moment our train touched the Kharagpur station in West Bengal, we took a sigh of relief that finally, we are moving close to our destination. Enamoured by the hugeness of the platform reminded us of our GK question, to name the longest platform in India. Stretching our legs and lifting our respective luggage didn’t deter us from discussing our next mode of transport since we have been intimated in advance. The thrill had just begun so moving like tamed goats, chattering and blabbering about everything but nothing, in particular, we mounted on the tractor-trolley. 

Not easy to manage the herd of 26 girls and 2 boys of different backgrounds and more so of varied temperaments by our very own HOD. Although each of us was a pampered child of her family, none of us was cared for in particular. With too much excitement about delving into the unknown finally, we reached our destination, Bidisa. 

The serenity of the ashram at first scared since we as city gals used to, the cacophony of our big town Lucknow. Later the tranquillity seeped through our veins and calmed our nerves and the echoes of the paddy field surrounding the Ashram was enough to make us realize that we are in the midst of nature. 

Half the group was doing research on Lodha and the other half was on Munda. We travelled by foot along the railway tracks for 16 km in total every day. The scorching heat and lack of transport forced us to think about the difficulties of the inhabitants of Bidisa. ‘Kinship’ as a topic of research is very interesting in itself. Due to the language barrier, it was not easy to go into the deeper details of relationships, marriage, incest, etc. But with the help of some local people, we could do so and within a week a friendship bond was formed with a few of the vocal tribesmen. One thing which caught my attention very vividly was that, as we move towards a more sophisticated society we become more conservative in thoughts. Love alliances were quite prevalent in this tribe and children out of wedlock were accepted easily, as they were considered to be innocent. Really amazing, isn’t it? 

The weather was hot, humid, and rainy. The days were hot and the later part of the day was humid due to the torrential rain. One corner of the ashram had a huge double-storey building were on the first floor had a huge hall with several windows. This hall was our temporary home away from home for a month. We sleep in two rows, separated by a narrow passage, on the cemented floor having one mattress for each of us. The ground floor had many single rooms adjacent to one another and a couple of toilets in the open verandah, within the main door of that building. 

The kitchen was on the other side of the ashram and reached by a muddy path surrounded by tall trees. Each day Kitchen duty was allotted to two of us in rotation. In the Backyard, a small pukhur(pond) was situated between the mini forest's wilderness. In the beginning, we all enjoyed the rains and Kalli ghataayen but were later scared to move within the ashram as many reptiles, frogs, and water-borne insects were seen in and around the place. 

One day we heard a loud knock on the front door, which was situated on the ground floor, amongst the heavy rains and thundering sound of clouds. None of us was ready to go down and open the door so we opened the window just above the door in our hall and shouted “who is knocking?”. Couldn’t see anyone we ignored. After some time we heard the repeated knocking sound of the door. But still found no one. Scared, we all sat close to each other and shared with each other the mysterious happenings of the place. None of us was wearing an anklet, still could find somebody moving past us, in runjhun sound. Our excursion group had 2 male students also. Both of them were staying on the ground floor. For the first time, we thanked God for having them in our group otherwise they were treated as outsiders. Their lanky physique didn’t hamper in establishing them as a macho figure 💪 of our female-dominated group. Four of us went and pleaded with them to stay with us the rest of the night as a few started crying and trying to make a call to their parents, from the landline which was out of order when it rained heavily. 

The unity of the group was exemplary,😁as within the huge group many subgroups played a prank on one of the fellas, and the rest of the day the prank victim use to become the talk of the group and faced sarcastic smiles and whispering overhears😉. 

We forgot everything and glued to each other like quick fix ka jod, jo chhutega Nahi and speculated about the unusual events taking place. Various strategies were discussed to deal with the situation. One such was to investigate the past of this ashram. We became pally with the cook during our kitchen duties. After engaging him in gullible conversation we persuaded him to narrate the story doing the rounds for many years. 

“Earlier this place was quite popular amongst the research scholars of anthropology so many stayed here for a couple of years at a stretch which developed close bonds due to proximity. One such young couple fell in love with each other. The girl was fond of dancing but that boy loved making wooden objects with the help of a hammer and nail. Due to the difference in religion, they denied marriage so the boy committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling and the girl jumped into the pond behind and died due to drowning. That is why we hear the sound of the hammer at night and the sound of moving anklets. The unsatisfied spirit of both of them still doing the rounds in the ashram.” with a long sigh cook gave a cursory glance to each one of us to beware, of those spirits. 

A few days passed by without any such incident but as we hope, hum Kahan Baj Anne Walon main se the, out of adventure and thrill called the spirit to know the real truth. How insane it was? Spirit refused to go back......omg it was absolutely frightening. Without bidding formal goodbye we dispersed and then all hell broke loose. Now it was difficult for us to go to the washroom alone. We were accompanied by two of us guarding the washroom door. Few insisted to have a spectator inside the washroom while going for a bath🤪😅....too hilarious sometimes. We asked Sir to have a first-hand experience of this ghostly act. He refused to believe us that this place is haunted even though we were scolded for our narrative. 

Hall had 30-plus spectators to witness the ghostly act. Sir was sitting at the place where the sound of the anklet was clearly audible. After sitting in pin-drop silence for about 20 odd minutes suddenly we could hear the sound of an anklet entering the hall entrance, everybody looked at Sir but he was expressionless. Again we told sir that the spirit is moving in this direction but again he refuses to believe us. It was a unanimous decision that spirit has a fixed path of movement but could not convince our HOD. He was too adamant to believe in such a story. Later he asked us one relevant question “even if the spirit is residing here and causing no harm to any human life then why you are after him. Don’t disturb them by your cowardly act instead you as a guest should be thankful to them for their hospitality 😇“. 

Even though we were not convinced, and had some doubts, as the haunted place may be our imagination only, but stopped discussing the poor souls. Oh yes!!!  how hospitable were they? ..... 1990s era had television but had few hours of the current so devoid of these facilities we were constantly entertained by them😁😁.

A puja was arranged 🙏 ........to satisfy us or them?...still not clear. Somehow we prayed for the young anthropologists who had an untimely death. Also, We heard a lot about the black magic of Bengal so one additional topic took place in our after-dinner discussions!!!!!!

Lastly, still, I could hear, sometimes, that runjhun sound of anklet when in the evening, thunderous clouds create the same atmosphere.....respite still not!!😳😳