A ghost and some Cogni-boys

Prologue

Gopu woke up at midnight hearing the scream. A woman’s scream. He called his friends, Kishore and Nandu. It’s been the second time they have been hearing the screaming. It seemed that the scream came from the terrace. They decided to check it. They went up the terrace to find that terrace was filled with white light, that too in a moonless, starless, cloudy night. They saw something approaching them. They didn’t know what it was. But they knew for sure, whatever it was, it was danger. They ran, not to their room, but out of the house. They didn’t look back till they reached the beach. None of them were able to speak a word. They decided to stay awake. But they were so exhausted that, in few minutes all of them were sleeping on the sands, not aware of the approaching crabs, or rising waves…

April 9, 2008

In the evening, when I walked into Fatah and Ajith’s house, they seemed to be in some serious discussion with the other inmates of the house – Kenny, Tilju, Charles and Jaseem. Rahul was nowhere to be seen. Fatah and Ajith are my batchmates, and live in a house near to our flat. The house had ample space for all of us. So I visit them often.

Me: “What’s up folks? Planning something?”
Fatah: “There is a problem da. Something is wrong with this house.”
Ajith: “Lot of weird things are happening here. We are hearing sounds from the terrace at midnight”
Fatah: “All of us had similar experiences. We checked the terrace. There is no cat or any other thing. We often here sounds that seem like falling of stones. But no stones are seen in terrace”
Ajith: “You know what; none of our phones will have range once we take it up to the terrace. Actually it should be the other way. When we go to the terrace, the range should be increasing. Only Rahul is not convinced about the ghost. He made fun of us all and is now watching a film in Kenny’s laptop.”

At the same time, Rahul came to us in a hurry.

Rahul: “Daaa, I agree, there is something wrong. Weird things are happening here. You know what; I just noticed that the iron box is still hot. I am the only one who has been to that room this evening. I agree. There is a ghost in this house.”
Fatah: “That’s it guys. Everyone is convinced. I think we should conduct some pooja here to get rid of the evil spirit. Arun, do you know whom to call for that?
Tilju: “Wait guys. I agree that there is something wrong here. But Rahul… that iron box… that’s not the work of ghost”
Rahul: “How can you be so sure?”
Tilju: “Because, just now I remember that I forgot to switch it off in the morning when I left in a hurry”

“Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”, every one except me pounced on him. This was the second time someone was forgetting to switch the iron box off and each such occasion adds about Rs.100 to the current bill. Once Tilju got his fair due of beatings from all, we were back into our discussion.

Me: “Tilju, did you have any experiences with the ghost?”
Tilju: “I don’t know. I mean I am not so sure. When I was sleeping, I heard some sound and when I tried to wake up and put on my glasses to see what it is, the glasses were broken. That ghost has now started damaging our things. Soon, it will turn to us too.”

I noticed that Rahul was flinching.

Me: “What’s it Rahul?”
Rahul: “Well Tilju, I had something to say to you. I was waiting for a good opportunity and I think this is it. Yesterday, when I woke at 5am for doing yoga as usual, your glasses were not in the place where you usually keep it”
Tilju: “That’s what I am saying. The ghost destroyed it and put it away.”
Rahul: “No. What I meant to say was that you somehow misplaced it in the night and it was right under my leg when I set my foot on the floor to stand up and walk. Then the glasses..”

Rahul never saw it coming. The blow was delivered instantly and he felt the pain. Then another session of word duel ensued and finally it was all settled and we were back to our topic.

Me: “Guys, I think you have a point. Do you remember how we conducted the birthday celebration of Kenny at the terrace in the midnight? That time, however we tried, we couldn’t light the candle on the cake whenever the candle is lighted, it will blow itself off instantly. There was not even a slight breeze. But the candle won’t light. Finally we had to settle with a lighted cigarette on the cake.”
Ajith: “And when we tried to inflate the balloons, they all burst shortly after inflating. We tried it a lot of times. But the same thing happened.”
Kenny: “But still there were some balloons. It was night. I couldn’t see anything clearly. But I think there were balloons.”
Me: “Those were not balloons, Kenny.”
Kenny: “Then??”
Fatah: “Some other thing, also made of rubber”
Ajith: “Inflatable”
Jaseem: “Transparent”
Kenny: “You mean… “
We: “YES”
Kenny: “You are kidding, right. How can you do that to me? Using it for my birthday party?”

April 10, 2008

It was Rahul who found it out. He was casually going through the channelone blogs and found out the post, ‘The ghost of Thiruvanmiyur.’ I heard about it when we all were having lunch together at Suntech cafeteria.

Rahul: “I even chatted with the author in the communicator da. His name is Gopu. He confirmed it.”
Me: “It may be any home in Thiruvanmiyur. Did you ask the address of the house where he stayed then?”
Rahul: “Yes, I asked him and he gave our address.”
Fathah: “Our house!”
Rahul: “He also gave the entire layout of the house. He is sure it was the house that he and his friends vacated last year due to fear of ghost. He warns us to leave the house immediately.”

There was one more problem. Except Tilju, all others were classmates in their engineering college and they are leaving tonight for their convocation. They will be back on Monday morning only. Tilju have to spend three nights in the house.

Me: “Come to my flat Tilju. You can stay with us till Monday.”
Tilju: “It’s not needed da. I will manage.”
Charles: “You better go to Arun’s flat tonight da.”
Tilju: “Whatever happens, I won’t go. That’s final.”
Me: “Then I will give you company. Don’t say anything. We will be together in your house till the others return. ”

That night, after seeing off our friends, we returned from Chennai Central. We had our dinner and by the time we reached the house, it was already 11.30. We felt so sleepy. We talked for sometime and slowly we slipped into deep sleep.

April 11, 2008

We were very very bored. Left with nothing else to discuss, we turned to the ghost. We decided to deal with the ghost head-on. For that, we should meet it. We decided to write a diary about our life on these days. (The inspiration was Bram Stocker’s Dracula) So hereafter, I will be quoting only from the diary

Today we decided to meet the ghost. We decided to lure it towards us. For getting some courage, we decided to have a bottle of beer. So we brought two bottles at noon. But when we searched for it in the evening, we couldn’t find it. So we had to do away with the ‘kick.’ We decided to sit alone so that the ghost may come to us. I sat at hall while Tilju was on the terrace, One hour passed and nothing happened. We decided to sing some songs to grab the ghost’s attention. The way we sang the tamil songs proved our skill in the trade. In a few minutes, all the open windows of our neighbors were shut. Tilju put on a white pants and shirt. His idea was that the ghost will think of him as another fellow ghost and will come to befriend him. But nothing happened. I felt that the ghost was a female. I wrote a love letter for her and placed at the terrace. No one came to read it. At last we were fed up and decided to go and sleep.

April 12, 2008

Dear diary, this evening we decided to watch some horror movie. But then most of them were deleted from the laptop for lack of space. But there was a classic Malayalam psycho-thriller Manichitrathazhu. We decided to see it. (Tamilians, this is your Chandramukhi. And for other fellow Indians, you have seen the film as Bhool Bulaiyya. But believe me yaar, None of these remakes come nowhere near Manichitrathazhu, and none of the actresses in those movies perform well like Shobhana did in Manichitrathazhu.) We have seen this so many times. But since we were in a room suspected of the presence of a ghost, a story about spirit’s possession of a body had a quite interesting effect on our mind. Atlast, when movie ended, we heard a clap from our behind. We looked back and saw the ghost. A lady. But she was not clad in white. She wore a colourful churidar. She smiled at us and said, “Manichitrathazhu enikku ettavum ishtalla cinemeya. Shobhanayude ettavum nalla abhinayam ithila.”

Tiju: “Are you the ghost?”
Me: “Ishwaraaa, malayali!” (My God, it’s a keralite!)

She was not so fair nor so dark. She had long hair and had a divinity on her face. She is the typical mallu girl. And she replied, “Njan Nisha.” (I am Nisha.) Hereafter all our conversations are in Malayalam. For the comfort of viewers, we are putting it in English.

Nisha: “Tilju, you are true. I am the ghost of this house. And Arun, I am from Thrissur, Kerala.”
Me: “Me too, from Thrissur.”
Tilju: “How do you know our names?”
Nisha: “Oh, all of you had been here for months. So I know all about you.”
Tilju: “We heard you are very dangerous. The previous people of this place, Gopu and others, you nearly killed them by terrorizing.”
Nisha: “Don’t worry. I won’t do anything to you all. After all, you are mallus na. Its been a long time I’ve talked to a fellow keralite.”
Tilju: “Then you could have come before too. We all have been here for the past 3 months.”
Nisha: “I don’t like that much to come out in the open. Now it’s just you two and I thought I should come.”
Tilju: “Then you could have come yesterday. We were trying everything to get your attention.”
Nisha: “Oh, that. Sorry. Yesterday I got knocked off after having your beer. It was a desire for a long time, to try beverages. Thanks guys. Anyway, I got the kick and was grounded for a long time. So I didn’t notice any of your activities yesterday. But I surely got the love letter from Arun.”
Me: “Sorry Nisha. It wasn’t meant to intimidate you. We just wanted to see you.”
Nisha: “It’s ok. Never mind. And since it’s the first proposal I have got in a long time, I may even accept that.”

We all smiled. We talked for sometime about life in Chennai, news about Kerala… Then Tilju decided to take the plunge. He was never shy in taking initiatives.

Tilju: “Nisha, how did you become a gho.. Oops, sorry. How did you become a spirit?”
Nisha: “You know what; I too have been working in your company. I stayed in this house with 3 other mallu girls. They too were working in our company. Once I was assigned a small project of a big client. At that time, there was a newly inducted trainee in our team and it was my task to make him a professional programmer. I was asked to give him code to work on. At that time, one of my best friend’s marriage came up on a Friday. I had to attend it at any cost. The project that I was working on had Friday as the deadline. All my other teammates were busy with their own work. I couldn’t ask any of them to bail me out. There were only some format validation functions to be written. I assigned the task to that trainee and I went to Kerala. I was confident that he will be able to complete it. But when I returned on Monday, I found that my PM was waiting for me. My task was not completed. Due to me, we missed the delivery deadline. I was asked to deliver it on Monday itself or to get out of the job. It wasn’t much of a problem because I just had to do some small functions. The trainee was nowhere to be seen. May be he too have gone for leave. I opened my project code and compiled it just to see an error summary containing 1573 errors and 2341 warnings. My dear trainee has messed up with all my work. I decided to kill him. But that was priority 2. Numero uno was to correct the program and deliver it. I worked on and on till Tuesday morning. There were 186 errors left when my suspension letter came in… I returned to my house, this house. I couldn’t return to Kerala with the shame of suspension. So I hanged myself, here in this house….”

She was weeping. She wept and wept and then, she disappeared.

April 13, 2008

Today evening also, she came. We talked for a long time.

Me: “Nisha, how long will you have to live like this as a ghost?”
Nisha: “Till the day I correct all the bugs in my program. Then I will be free.”
Me: “But it would already be corrected by someone in our company way back.”
Nisha: “No. When I was terminated, they built a new program from scratch. They discarded my work. Can you help me in correcting it. I can get you past all the firewalls and security (the advantages of being a spirit!) and give you a remote desktop connection to the system I was using. I will give ip, username, password… Just try to correct the bugs. “

She made the connection possible bypassing all security. We logged into her system and opened the code. We found that the code was left untouched. 186 compilation errors. We tried everything to correct them. It was well past midnight. Then, just by chance, one thing hit me.

Me: “Wait a minue. What’s line number of the first error?”
Nisha: “2908”
Me: “And the total number of lines is just above 3000. And there are 186 errors. That may mean that all the lines from 2908 onwards are affected with this error. And that means.. we have been looking at the wrong place. The error is not in 2908, but somewhere above. We have never looked there because there was no error reported from there.”

We looked closely and suddenly Nisha screamed.

Nisha: “2897, look I forgot to put a semi colon there.”

I happily put it there. We were relieved that we corrected atleast 1 error. I just compiled it. It was our turn to scream. There were no errors remaining. All the remaining 185 errors were due to the cascading effect of this one error. We were speechless, so was Nisha. Finally she regained her posture.

Nisha: “Thanks guys. You have helped me in this. Now I am free to leave this world. But before that, Arun, I have to speak something privately with you.”

She looked at Tilju and he got the point. He went out of the hall.

Nisha: “Arun, were you ever in love? Did you ever propose someone?”
Arun: “mmm, actually… once. She was a very good girl.”
Nisha: “Did she accept your proposal?”
Arun: “she.. she didn’t tell that she loved me. Neither did she tell that she didn’t love me. But she stopped talking to me after that. No phone, no scrap, no mails…”
Nisha: “Well Arun, your second proposal is accepted. I really liked you, and love you. These two days I spent
with you were truly memorable. Bye Arun…”

There was a flash. I had to close my eyes. When I opened my eyes, she was gone.

Tilju: “What did she tell you da?”
Me: “She… how can I tell that da?”
Tilju: “Tell it.”
Me: “She told… she told that there is one more beautiful spirit in this house. “

Epilogue

When all others returned on Monday, we told the story to them. None of them believed it. Well not entirely. They seemed to believe the last part, about the remaining beautiful spirit. Some of them still don’t sleep at night. They stay awake just to get a glance of that spirit…