JAGANNATH

BENGALURU :

I suffer from a split personality disorder as the weekend approaches. A part of me which is a 9 am-5 pm workaholic, wrestles the idea to get out of bed and acts like a lethargic piece of meat. This part of me is even tired to “think” of pending household chores and the soul keeps searching for nourishment within the confined spaces of the bed. The other part of me, which happens to be a writer, loves to pack his bags and set out from the urban buzz because each journey has a story and each story is a food for a storytellers nourishment.

It is an author's skill to make his readers visualize the stories he creates. The writer may have heard them and recreated it or creatively sat through agonizing hours to formulate a new story. In any which way, a writer's biggest success is when the reader cannot make out the difference between fact and fiction.

Stories are found everywhere and in everything. They are found in every living soul and sometimes in the dead too.

I am fortunate that I often get to hear some wonderful stories and I am restless until I pen it down for my readers. This story I present to you today is a fact for the ones who would believe me and fiction for those who don’t. For those who want to stay neutral, this story is open for skepticism and debate.

PART 1: THE PRE-JOURNEY

It was the “khooni” Monday again and I had just arrived at the office early in the morning. I was under a strong hangover from the eat-sleep-eat-repeat ritual of the weekend. “I am never going to have those chicken popcorns again”, I cursed myself. I was sure they would cause me dementia one day. I had already keyed in my system password wrong, twice!

The phone started ringing in my signature “Game of Thrones” ringtone and I was happy to divert my attention from the multiple permutation and combination of passwords that my brain was computing. It was one of my friends from my time in a Bachelors's Degree who had called. He was a friend who had simply lost touch. It had been almost 8 years now. After the pleasantries were exchanged and old memories were refreshed, he invited me to his wedding. I Congratulated him and obliged and took note of the dates and venue. The wedding was scheduled on the coming weekend, in Mumbai and like a millennial, my friend later sent his official wedding card through Whats App.

Staring at the wedding date on the card my brains got a visit from a weekend foe. My Split personality disorder was now creeping in. The writer part of me was delighted as this meant I got to travel and that too on a weekend. The lazy part of me was already procrastinating to come up with excuses to miss the wedding. The writer part took the better of me and I booked the tickets for a journey I would remember for a lifetime!

PART 2: THE JOURNEY

I always favor long journeys by Bus and hence did not think twice before booking a comfortable coach rather than a flight to Mumbai. It was the month of December and the country was already reeling under a severe cold wave. The journey by road is almost 15 hours and is supplemented by beautiful roads and perfect scenery. Unfortunately, I had to travel through the night and would miss watching the beautiful landscapes. The Bus departed from Bengaluru as early as 4 pm and was scheduled to arrive at the city of dreams at 10 am on the next day. Surprisingly for Bengaluru standards, the bus departed on-time and I heaved a sigh of relief.

I had booked a private bus and the bus was almost empty during departure. It was a 40 seater capacity coach and a maximum of 10 seats was occupied. I realized the journey would take a long time now given the bus driver would like to maximize his profits by stopping the bus and boarding passengers along the way. The tiredness of that day's office work all vaporized as soon as the coaches AC’s were switched ON. I reclined my seat and was snoring within no time, much to the dismay of my fellow passengers.

Dozing off for me on a bus is a challenge as I cannot snore to my heart's content !. Intermittent jerks keep the brain awake and the body is always in sync with the speed of the vehicle. A part of my brain would always signal me whenever the bus would halt or pause momentarily. At around God knows when, when I was in dreamy land and deep sleep, the driver pressed the breaks so hard that my head went and hit the seat in front of me. The noise of the squealing tires was at its highest pitch. There was a loud thud noise and then the sound of the glass shattering sent a cold shiver down my spine. Almost all the luggage’s from the top racks had fallen. Thankfully, the bus wasn’t full and fallen luggage was not too heavy. As everybody tried to regain their composure, some of us started running towards the driver cabin to see if there were any casualties and to see the cause of this accident.

The driver and cleaner were already on the road and the scene we saw was gruesome. The driver along with some other people from the village nearby was helping out a man, whose limbs had gone into the headlights of the bus. I was numb and detached from the world. My brain was not at all working and I was not able to even think for some time. As I looked around, I saw a Bike which was almost about to catch fire. It was on the other side of the 4 lane road, which meant it must have flipped so many times to reach there.

I could now make sense of the intensity of this accident and thanked God for saving my life. The biker’s face was bathed in blood and as the helpers took out his body from the metals of the bus, they heaved a sigh of relief as he was still breathing. Just then, an ambulance came, which one of the bus passengers had called for. I joined the rest of the team to help them carry the injured biker to the ambulance. We were all thankful to God for saving his life and went and sat on the bus for another 5 min for the driver and conductor to inform us whether we could continue the journey back on this bus. Thankfully another bus approached us which was also going to Mumbai and agreed to carry us all as he had many unoccupied seats.

I quickly took my luggage and went and sat on the new bus. I was exhausted, but I was sure my body was not ready to let me sleep after this incident for a very long time.

PART 3: THE STORY

At around 3 am, and must have been 1 hour since I fell asleep, that the bus halted on the service road. I woke up and looked around. All the passengers on the bus, which was almost full, were in deep sleep. I could not also see outside as it was dark. I wanted to stretch my legs and made my way towards the driver who was sitting idle at the seat to request him to open the door.

I also questioned why the bus has been halted. “The bus is punctured, sir,” he said. I couldn’t believe my bad luck tonight. I had to reach by afternoon to the marriage hall and knowing the Mumbai traffic, I was sure to have missed the morning welcome receptions.”Sir, there is a tea stall outside, you can have one till the helper replaces the tire” said the driver. I managed to get out, and as I stepped out, the cold mist hit me like frozen thorns all over my body. It must have been the coldest night of my life.

Shivering, I tried to look around to find the tea stall. The driver shouted from inside, “Sir, The stall is on the other side. You have to cross the road”. Thanking him, I made my way to slowly cross the road on one of the busiest National Highways in the country. As I halted for a moment at the divider, I could see a lot of commotion at the tea stall in front of me. Around 15-20 people were intently listening to the tea vendor who was animatedly talking to them. I went and stood behind the people to listen to what he was saying.

The tea vendor was saying "Thank you, my friends, for waking me up. As you all know, I had suddenly collapsed while making tea and you all thought I was dead. No No ! I do not know what had happened, the only thing I remember is that I was sucked out of my body and in the shock of separation I couldn’t remember a thing.

There was white light everywhere and I was just traveling fast towards something I do not know, but I was feeling happy. Suddenly some angels came to me and said that the Lord of Death is waiting for your judgment. As I stood terrified in the gates of heaven, I saw a tall dark figure standing with his back in front of me. It was “Yama”, I realized and he shouted “O, Jagannath !!, You have come too soon, this was not your time to die !.

But your soul has attained moksha!, you have learned everything you should, Ha Ha Ha !” and as he slowly turned to face me, it was his turn to be terrified. He looked at me and shouted at the angels, “You, Idiots !. Not this Jagannath, Get the other one”. As he said those words, I remember one of you, my friends, waking me up and I regained consciousness. It was a wonderful dream my friends and it is a wonderful night !. I hope you enjoy my tea too !”.

The people around him started clapping and enjoyed their sips of tea. I took my plastic cup and made my way back to the bus. I was amused by the man and his story. What all people have to do to retain customers and that too at 3 am in the night!. Drunken man maybe, I said to myself.

I finished my cup of tea and fell asleep as the bus started its last leg of the journey towards Mumbai.

PART 4: THE DESTINATION

At around 10 am I reached Panvel which is the first point as you get into Mumbai. I quickly made my way towards the hotel to freshen up, which was near the bus stop. The best thing about hotels is sometimes their free Breakfast and I did not want to miss out on those. I had a bath and tried to calm my nerves from yesterday's eventful night. I went downstairs for my breakfast and took the “Times of India” in my hands. As I flipped through the pages, I saw one small article which caught my attention.

“In a horrific road accident at Khed, Maharashtra, one person was killed as his bike which was above 100kmph on the wrong side of the road, rammed into a private bus which was on its way to Mumbai. The accident occurred on the Mumbai-Pune National Highway and the victim was not wearing a helmet. As many as 14 passengers were on the bus who have escaped unhurt. The victim was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead. The deceased has been identified as 20-year-old “Jagannath” from Mumbai, who was on his way to Pune.

The tea and all the free breakfast on the table lay cold and so was I, Numb! Again!

O Jagannath, O Jagannath !!