The Bhulo

Anwar and Jyotsna hid behind a guava tree twenty feet away from Mahadev’s house. Mahadev was jumping up and down running across the small front with a stick in his raised hand, shouting at invisible men. A whitewashed sign near the entrance read Mr. R K Nandi, General Manager, Franco Midland Electrical Hardware Limited.

“Let’s kick him in the guts” Anwar said with gritted teeth.

“No! You’ll be in more trouble” Jyotsna said and briskly walked at the gate, ignoring a perplexed Mahadev.

The curtains were drawn on the windows and it was cooler inside. There was no one in the living room. A faint sound of a news reporter babbling on the radio greeted her as did the mouth-watering aroma of deep fried spices. Mahadev dashed inside and the three started to squabble.

Hearing the commotion, a tall and lean woman entered the room. She wore a red printed sari with the trail end neatly tucked into her slim waist. A torrent of sweat dripped from her forehead. She wore a small red vermillion dot in between the eyebrows. Wiggling a spatula at them, she said, “Dev. How many times I’ve told you to play outside the home. Shall I call your father?”

But before Mahadev could answer Jyotsna jumped up and said, “I’m here to meet Uncle.” She made her eyes as large as she could.

Mrs. Nandi looked down at her and called out her husband over her shoulder.

Half an hour and two fruit cakes later, Jyotsna and Anwar left for home. Mr. Nandi had promised Anwar will not be expelled and admonished his son. He also made them swear not to brawl. “Ahimsa” he said, “is the only virtue that can change one’s heart. Violence can never make anyone change their opinion.” Jyotsna wished she had her slate. She kept reciting the lines while walking with Anwar. The sun hung close to the horizon and a cluster of birds, like little ticks in the distance, sailed over an orange sky. The sky dimming slowly, painfully. “I know a shorter way home” said Anwar abruptly as they strode across the field, “but it’s through Madhuvan forest. I have used it twice to reach home quickly after a fishing day but the sun was up. I know what the path looks like and the general direction we must travel but it’s dark and…”

His voice trailed away.

“Dark and what?” Jyotsna asked.

Just then a bat flew close to Anwar and Jyotsna jumped. Bats sucked blood.  She tapped at Anwar’s shoulder and pointed at the bat, hovering over her head like a tiny glider.

He took a deep breath as though resolved to face the worst and said, “Let’s go”.

So, a minute later they entered a grove of tightly clustered trees. The walked for about five minutes, not speaking, listening to sounds other than breaking of twigs or rustling of leaves. The moon light criss-crossed over the cattle trodden path across the trees that grew so thick after a while that the stars were not visible anymore.

Anwar stopped under a huge banyan tree a couple of minutes later.

“I think we are lost” he said looking at Jyotsna. Jyotsna could just see Anwar’s eyes, reflecting the dim moonlight falling through the leaves of the banyan tree.

“You stay here. I’ll just look around…” there was a sharp echoing sound, like hammer on nail, making him jump and accidentally bump into Jyotsna. She grabbed his elbow and said loudly, “What is it?” Squinting through the darkness, she hardened her grip on Anwar.

“There’s something moving there” she pointed to her right. They both stood frozen and listened. There was a scraping noise and Jyotsna said, “It’s like something heavy is being dragged”

They looked at each other. Jyotsna couldn’t throw away the thoughts about vampires.

She remembered Anwar saying to her about “bhulo’s” – ghost of lost travellers luring other travellers to their certain doom. Suddenly a pair of bright golden orbs came to life in the distance. They were floating two feet above the ground and swaying slightly. She was rooted to the spot, unable to move. Her lips trembled and the hairs on her spine rose up. A terrible thought came in her mind. What if they were lured by a bhulo? A swift wind ruffled her hairs and she started to cry, bawling at the top of her lungs.

The pair of lights froze and turned towards them. For a second nothing happened. Then suddenly, with jerky movements and a howl that chilled their bone-marrow, the golden eyes started to move towards them. Terrified and hysterical, she ran with eyes tight shut, as fast as her legs would carry, Anwar following suit. They ran like they never ran before. They ran until they could see the lamp post on the road side, until they could see the clock tower at the main market. Panting and huffing, they reached the quarters. Anwar took large gulps of air and turned towards his home, but before going in he said “That was the thing that took Nelson away”.

Jyotsna went to bed with her head thronged with the eerie glow of the monster in the forest. Her dad was snoring loudly in the next room, but she couldn’t sleep. She kept staring at the ceiling fan that was emitting a low monotonous hum. Finally, she drifted to sleep. Perhaps she was hungry because she had a very strange dream. She was a huge yellow monster with gigantic jaws and two bright eyes. She was eating the soil she scooped in her jaws. There was a howl somewhere in the dark and she charged towards it like a raging bull, angry that she had been disturbed – then there was Anwar, crying in his hideout – then Anwar turned into Nelson and Jyotsna grabbed him, tossed him high in the air and caught him in her jaws. There was an ear splitting crack of splintering bones and she woke, trembling. She rolled over and fell asleep again.