04-08-2019, 02:05 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-08-2019, 10:33 AM by Antar. Edited 1 time in total. Edited 1 time in total.)
# 3
“Scoot”, said Lisa clicking her fingers and the poor sod scurried away.
She turned her attention towards me, an arm resting at her waist and moving the other foot forward, her anklet bells tinkling in the process and languidly assuming the pose of a tease … … just as she had done … … a lifetime ago … …
… we were on my honeymoon … the desert safari was so enticing … the banzara women had coaxed her into wearing one of their traditional ghagra and choli … and ghunguroos for good measure … she had emerged from one of their tents and under the starlit skies walked towards me, and instantly all the menfolk in the touring group seated besides me turning their heads at the chhum chhum of her ghunguroo … she made a low adaab to each role-playing a courtesan and the men around me had their mouth hanging open, I felt an electric excitement coursing through …
“adaab janab”, said the Lisa before me in voice dripping with me. She made a low courtesy smiled sweetly. I froze.
It was that same smile, the one I would have waited eons for; the very same drawn out laughter lines, looking at me with the same adoring expression …
… … the dholaks and pipes had opened into a melody and the group of the gypsy women danced into rhythm. Without missing a beat, Lisa had joined in, blending in with the others and moving out solo … the music suddenly changing to a raunchy bollywood masala song and Lisa changing into a sudden sensuous beat … the men around clapping in encouragement … the boisterous old fart by my side who obviously had more of the toddy than he could handle get up and clumsily tuck a rupee note into her blouse … she being sportive it … it was all good fun … later … much later … I had given chase to her till we were a little farther away from the group … there under the stars I had pounced on her and we had made violent love under the stars …
And suddenly to the we were standing face to face by the river ghat. after
“Care to move a little farther away my darling?” she winked at me twirling the ghagra that she had worn years ago in the desert.
The breath caught in my heart. My chest was thumping.
“You are not Lisa”, I said breathing heavily. Just a few hours back I had scattered her ashes in this river.
She moved in a circle around me, with the anklets tinkling in the still of the night. Then she came to a stop before me – her face inches from mine.
“Look closely”, she whispered.
“Could it be her? Could it somehow be her – having re-materialized somehow?”, the thought raced in my mind … … For the one before me was none other than her before the illness had hit her and of a time when we had been so happy and smiling at our destiny having found each other when Destiny itself had been smiling back at what would hit us both …
My jaws dropped at her sight and my stomach tied itself into knots. No longer could I bear it anymore. With a sob I dropped down … rose within. It wasn’t her.
“Go away! You are not Lisa”, I started sobbing, “Leave me alone.”
“Really!”, there was that engaging lilt in her voice, “how can you say so? Weren’t you the one who had promised me seven life times of togetherness?” Her voice dropped a notch. “I have come to hold you to that promise – for this time and for ever afterwards.” She gave out a small laugh – the way she used to when teasing me.
I kept on sobbing.
The water in the Ganges flowed at a short distance, reflecting the stars in the clear sky. Up on the embankment, I was all alone with Lisa.
“Now, look at me”, she said and twirled around, her skirt riding high.
At once, I became aware of the pungent smell of rotten eggs and of charred flesh.
She had disappeared.
In her place was a grotesque form of flesh.
That was how I came across IT and at the first sight, I felt like throwing up.
The thing had neither hand nor a leg –just a quivering mass of flesh consisting of a hairless head fused to an ballooning torso. It reached barely a couple of feet in height and its flesh colored skin shone with a pinking hue like exposed flesh. ‘Where did this Frankensteinian abomination come from?”, I wondered even as I recoiled in instant revulsion. Simultaneously a nameless fear gripped my innards. I felt the pricking at the back of my neck. A small voice inside me began whispering that there would no escape.
“Oh! Rather fancy me like this?”, IT said in Lisa’s voice.
“Please, please”, I had fallen on my knees and folded my hands in supplication, “Let go of my Lisa please”, I was croaking.
“Tch tch, how funny that be”, IT said in an icy voice that could cut through steel, “Promises of togetherness and yet”, it sighed audibly, “Tell me son. Do you truly believe that Jesus was a savior?”
“Jesus, you mean Jesus Christ?”, I blurted out. ‘What was that again?”, I blinked taken aback by the change of tack.
“I am not a Christian”, I confessed.
“Oho! Tell me how he saved mankind and I may let you go.”
The stench of putrid flesh emanating from IT was overpowering my senses. I tried to fight against the dizzying spell that was trying to overtake me. In that brief span of time I knew I had with me, I tried to rake my brains for what all I knew on that subject - Adam & Eve and the forbidden fruit - everyone knew that and again there was something about Cain and Abel and temptations of seven kingdoms (was it so - for my mind was completely fuddled now); Why had IT chosen me to put such a question – after all I was as removed from any religion as we were from the moon … but I had to say something … something … anything that could possibly save Lisa’s soul … if IT had gotten hold of that … for whoever IT was, I couldn’t just walk away when it was Lisa at stake.
I picked my words carefully… “Man was born in sin. Jesus laid down his life so that mankind could be redeemed”, I said.
“Ha ha, ha ha ha! Poor ignoramus”, the blob of flesh guffawed, “well well, we will see more of each other.”
In an instant, IT had vanished though the sounds of laughter reverberated in my ears.
Back at my Mumbai flat, the memory of that laughter continued to rile me as I tried to drown it ineffectually with progressively increasing quantity of alcohol. Though, Dipak my brother-in-law was privy to most of my personal affairs; somehow I didn’t feel it fair to burden him with this. I was relieving the incident everyday and the memory was sharp in every detail all the time. For a while, I even considered checking up with a doctor; but what was I going to say? I had completely stopped going to office or anywhere else. In my mind, only one picture ran – that of Lisa – the way she had longingly clutched my hands during her last days in the hospital, being too exhausted to speak ... and simultaneously, there was IT, connected in ways I couldn’t fathom … and I had to do something …
I would bang my head on the table …
Dipak would visit me periodically and would make small talk and sometimes talk of office matters. I would nod dumbly.
A week later, he made the suggestion. “You need a change of place, let’s find you a place where you could forget everything for a while… what do you say?”
I nodded again, not caring either which way.
So when Jaichand Agrawal, an old client of ours, had mentioned about his firm’s rustic guest house near Bhopal; Dipak had all but shoved me there and that is where for the past four months, I had locked myself in blissful quiet. Over the period of time the harrowing memories had started to fade as did the necessity of the whisky bottles. My thoughts settling down. The pain was becoming bearable and I was becoming more adept at shutting out Lisa’s images.
Till now!
It was that whiff of the unmistakable pungent odor and I knew I was done in …
In the strides to my room; I had just hoped against hope, that the smell was due to something else or that I had imagined the whole thing. But the sight of that thing lounging in the rocking comforter and the room reeking of sulfur and charred flesh - that was no illusion at all.
“Hello again”, IT said.
I stood rooted to the floor.
“Jaichand’s daughter, I give you this time.” Again that nauseating guffaw emanated from the mound of flesh . “And for good measure, her husband too. Ha ha ha.”
I was shell shocked. Before, I could slip in a word and before I could attend to the million questions that came to my mind, there was a poof and IT was gone. So also was that smell from hell. Only the reclining comforter swayed as if it had been recently vacated.
It was then that the room started to rock before my eyes and presently I knew nothing.
“Scoot”, said Lisa clicking her fingers and the poor sod scurried away.
She turned her attention towards me, an arm resting at her waist and moving the other foot forward, her anklet bells tinkling in the process and languidly assuming the pose of a tease … … just as she had done … … a lifetime ago … …
… we were on my honeymoon … the desert safari was so enticing … the banzara women had coaxed her into wearing one of their traditional ghagra and choli … and ghunguroos for good measure … she had emerged from one of their tents and under the starlit skies walked towards me, and instantly all the menfolk in the touring group seated besides me turning their heads at the chhum chhum of her ghunguroo … she made a low adaab to each role-playing a courtesan and the men around me had their mouth hanging open, I felt an electric excitement coursing through …
“adaab janab”, said the Lisa before me in voice dripping with me. She made a low courtesy smiled sweetly. I froze.
It was that same smile, the one I would have waited eons for; the very same drawn out laughter lines, looking at me with the same adoring expression …
… … the dholaks and pipes had opened into a melody and the group of the gypsy women danced into rhythm. Without missing a beat, Lisa had joined in, blending in with the others and moving out solo … the music suddenly changing to a raunchy bollywood masala song and Lisa changing into a sudden sensuous beat … the men around clapping in encouragement … the boisterous old fart by my side who obviously had more of the toddy than he could handle get up and clumsily tuck a rupee note into her blouse … she being sportive it … it was all good fun … later … much later … I had given chase to her till we were a little farther away from the group … there under the stars I had pounced on her and we had made violent love under the stars …
And suddenly to the we were standing face to face by the river ghat. after
“Care to move a little farther away my darling?” she winked at me twirling the ghagra that she had worn years ago in the desert.
The breath caught in my heart. My chest was thumping.
“You are not Lisa”, I said breathing heavily. Just a few hours back I had scattered her ashes in this river.
She moved in a circle around me, with the anklets tinkling in the still of the night. Then she came to a stop before me – her face inches from mine.
“Look closely”, she whispered.
“Could it be her? Could it somehow be her – having re-materialized somehow?”, the thought raced in my mind … … For the one before me was none other than her before the illness had hit her and of a time when we had been so happy and smiling at our destiny having found each other when Destiny itself had been smiling back at what would hit us both …
My jaws dropped at her sight and my stomach tied itself into knots. No longer could I bear it anymore. With a sob I dropped down … rose within. It wasn’t her.
“Go away! You are not Lisa”, I started sobbing, “Leave me alone.”
“Really!”, there was that engaging lilt in her voice, “how can you say so? Weren’t you the one who had promised me seven life times of togetherness?” Her voice dropped a notch. “I have come to hold you to that promise – for this time and for ever afterwards.” She gave out a small laugh – the way she used to when teasing me.
I kept on sobbing.
The water in the Ganges flowed at a short distance, reflecting the stars in the clear sky. Up on the embankment, I was all alone with Lisa.
“Now, look at me”, she said and twirled around, her skirt riding high.
At once, I became aware of the pungent smell of rotten eggs and of charred flesh.
She had disappeared.
In her place was a grotesque form of flesh.
That was how I came across IT and at the first sight, I felt like throwing up.
The thing had neither hand nor a leg –just a quivering mass of flesh consisting of a hairless head fused to an ballooning torso. It reached barely a couple of feet in height and its flesh colored skin shone with a pinking hue like exposed flesh. ‘Where did this Frankensteinian abomination come from?”, I wondered even as I recoiled in instant revulsion. Simultaneously a nameless fear gripped my innards. I felt the pricking at the back of my neck. A small voice inside me began whispering that there would no escape.
“Oh! Rather fancy me like this?”, IT said in Lisa’s voice.
“Please, please”, I had fallen on my knees and folded my hands in supplication, “Let go of my Lisa please”, I was croaking.
“Tch tch, how funny that be”, IT said in an icy voice that could cut through steel, “Promises of togetherness and yet”, it sighed audibly, “Tell me son. Do you truly believe that Jesus was a savior?”
“Jesus, you mean Jesus Christ?”, I blurted out. ‘What was that again?”, I blinked taken aback by the change of tack.
“I am not a Christian”, I confessed.
“Oho! Tell me how he saved mankind and I may let you go.”
The stench of putrid flesh emanating from IT was overpowering my senses. I tried to fight against the dizzying spell that was trying to overtake me. In that brief span of time I knew I had with me, I tried to rake my brains for what all I knew on that subject - Adam & Eve and the forbidden fruit - everyone knew that and again there was something about Cain and Abel and temptations of seven kingdoms (was it so - for my mind was completely fuddled now); Why had IT chosen me to put such a question – after all I was as removed from any religion as we were from the moon … but I had to say something … something … anything that could possibly save Lisa’s soul … if IT had gotten hold of that … for whoever IT was, I couldn’t just walk away when it was Lisa at stake.
I picked my words carefully… “Man was born in sin. Jesus laid down his life so that mankind could be redeemed”, I said.
“Ha ha, ha ha ha! Poor ignoramus”, the blob of flesh guffawed, “well well, we will see more of each other.”
In an instant, IT had vanished though the sounds of laughter reverberated in my ears.
Back at my Mumbai flat, the memory of that laughter continued to rile me as I tried to drown it ineffectually with progressively increasing quantity of alcohol. Though, Dipak my brother-in-law was privy to most of my personal affairs; somehow I didn’t feel it fair to burden him with this. I was relieving the incident everyday and the memory was sharp in every detail all the time. For a while, I even considered checking up with a doctor; but what was I going to say? I had completely stopped going to office or anywhere else. In my mind, only one picture ran – that of Lisa – the way she had longingly clutched my hands during her last days in the hospital, being too exhausted to speak ... and simultaneously, there was IT, connected in ways I couldn’t fathom … and I had to do something …
I would bang my head on the table …
Dipak would visit me periodically and would make small talk and sometimes talk of office matters. I would nod dumbly.
A week later, he made the suggestion. “You need a change of place, let’s find you a place where you could forget everything for a while… what do you say?”
I nodded again, not caring either which way.
So when Jaichand Agrawal, an old client of ours, had mentioned about his firm’s rustic guest house near Bhopal; Dipak had all but shoved me there and that is where for the past four months, I had locked myself in blissful quiet. Over the period of time the harrowing memories had started to fade as did the necessity of the whisky bottles. My thoughts settling down. The pain was becoming bearable and I was becoming more adept at shutting out Lisa’s images.
Till now!
It was that whiff of the unmistakable pungent odor and I knew I was done in …
In the strides to my room; I had just hoped against hope, that the smell was due to something else or that I had imagined the whole thing. But the sight of that thing lounging in the rocking comforter and the room reeking of sulfur and charred flesh - that was no illusion at all.
“Hello again”, IT said.
I stood rooted to the floor.
“Jaichand’s daughter, I give you this time.” Again that nauseating guffaw emanated from the mound of flesh . “And for good measure, her husband too. Ha ha ha.”
I was shell shocked. Before, I could slip in a word and before I could attend to the million questions that came to my mind, there was a poof and IT was gone. So also was that smell from hell. Only the reclining comforter swayed as if it had been recently vacated.
It was then that the room started to rock before my eyes and presently I knew nothing.
![[+]](https://xossipy.com/themes/sharepoint/collapse_collapsed.png)