Shamshaan Ghat

It was around 7 pm when one of my friend Gopal came rushing to my house and screamed, "Arrey Girish has gone away." I casually asked him, "Where?". Gopal screamed with both anger and grief " Abey Chutiya, chod kar chala gaya. He committed suicide yaar." 

I just stood there with my glass of rum and then asked him" When did this happen?" . Gopal said he received the message from his wife just 30 minutes back. We were a group of five school friends and now we we were in our mid forties. We knew he was unemployed during this Covid pandemic and was going through financial crisis. But never knew that he will take this extreme step. He had a wife and two children - son is five years old and a daughter ten years old.

I immediately contacted the other two - Manoj and Pratik. We all then rushed to the hospital to see him. The doctor told us that the body has gone for post mortem as it is a suicide case. We saw the police constables enquiring with the doctor and completing all the formalities. Since it was already 9 pm, I asked the doctor, 'How much time it will take?' The doctor replied, 'Minimum two hours'. I asked the doctor 'Can we see him?' He said go straight and take a right and then immediate left go straight you will find the hall where all bodies are kept. Since this was a Municipal Hospital, the path was very scary as there was no crowd or any movements in the corridor. We all looked at each other. But then decided to see him. We slowly walked along the path. Some tubelights were not working. There was darkness somewhere and some blinking lights and every sound of our footsteps was giving a 3D effect. We were even afraid to look back. We formed in two groups each holding the others hands and slowly walked down the alley. It was a severe winter night. It was chilled inside the hospital and we were also chilling and holding our hands tightly.

We turned right and then immediately left and walked straight as advised. There was total silence. Just the noise of our footsteps. From nowhere a voice screamed ' Kaun hai? Kya chahiye? ( Who is there ? What do you want ? ). As we went near, we could see an old watchman. I said with trembling voice, 'We have come to see our friend Girish's body. The watchman said ' Accha woh suicide case! Go inside the hall. First row, third body. We were totally scared and trembling to go inside. Gopal without saying anything gave us a facial expression to move away and not to enter. For a fraction of second we all just stood there. But then suddenly one person from inside opened the door and said Chalo jao udhar ( Go there ). 

Here we saw two rows of ice slabs on opposite ends being kept. There were around 8 bodies lying without clothes. We were freezing . All the rum had gone down the drain. We all went near Girish's body, saw him, covered our mouth and within 20 seconds we came out running out of the room. We just started running from there, when the watchman shouted,'Arrey bhai dekha kya' ( Did you see him? ). We ran as if a dobberman was let loose behind us. We could hear only the heavy sound of our footsteps. Near the entrance , the doctor asked us , 'Did you see him?' We all said together Yes and walked away. I walked briskly ahead and puked. All others followed me.

Now I was a diabetic patient. I need to have my food and medicine on time. So I gathered others and told them' yaar body 11 baje milega, lets have something.' All agreed. Gopal said, Arrey there is a nice dhaba, lets go there. We will get good prawns curry which is Girish's favorite. Ek khamba bhi marte hain uske naam par.'

We went to dhaba and had our dinner and went back to the hospital. At around 11.30 pm we received the body. We all sat in the ambulance besides Girish staring at him and all the experiences in the hospital flashed back. There was total silence for the next 30 mins. We arrived at his house. His wife , children, parents , brother and two sisters started weeping . He was then taken home. Crowds started paying their last respects.

In the meantime we went to Shamshaan Ghat where the Hindus burn the bodies. All necessary arrangements were made to ensure there was no hurdles in completing the rituals. Suddenly our friend Manoj said,' Arrey lets have some drink yaar. I just want to forget all this.' I said, Arrey boss now its 12.30 am. There will be no bars open. Manoj said, 'Lets try, Lets go immediately and come back before the body comes'. We came out of the Shamshaan Ghat. It was pitch dark. We walked towards the main road. For ten mins, there was no autorikshaws. We started walking . Suddenly a rickshaw came. He started refusing us. Then we said, We will pay you double the amount. He agreed and we got into the rickshaw. All the shops were closed. The rickshaw fellow said, Boss all bars are closed now. You will not get anywhere. Yes you will get in a local toddy place. If you agree I will take you there. We all looked at each other. We had no other choice. We reached the place. The place was stinking with fish remnants and gutter outside. We covered our face and entered inside , took the stock and again got into the rickshaw and reached the cremation. 

Within five mins, the ambulance and other crowd flocked the place. All rituals were completed. The body started burning. People paid their last respects and started moving. It was 1.30 pm. Now there was no one in the Shamshaan Ghat. Only the caretaker was there . We then hinted amongst ourselves for the toddy stock consumption. We all slowly started drifting away from the burning body to some place in the bushes nearby . We put our handkerchief sat down and started drinking . It was eerie silent and very cold also. Suddenly Manoj felt to urinate and he requested one of them to come along with him . He was very scared. So Pratik went with him. Myself started drinking. Gopal was a tee totaller. We gave one bottle to the caretaker. He just drank full and slept there. 

Suddenly there was a screaming sound. It was Manoj's voice. Come. Come fast. We both ran towards the body burning . We just couldn't believe that Girish' body suddenly from the torso lifted up and it was sitting. We saw that instead of Girish lying down, we saw Girish was sitting and getting burnt. We all literally pissed in our pants and we ran fast without looking back. We reached the main road and started running. Suddenly the same rickshaw fellow came screeching and aksed..'kahan jaana hai.? Where you want to go?. We said Shamshan Ghat. He said What? Yes Ek bottle pada hua hai. wapas lena hai.

Thus ends the story here.