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Shrieks Of Ghosts
Shrieks Of Ghosts
Shrieks of ghosts
---Sunil Sharma
Midnight cold-n-cruel unfolds
At the witching hour the moon
Hides her scarred oval face and disappears
Then the raging curs and December wind
Keep him awake in the well-lit apartment
At the 10th floor in the Vasant Enclave, a
Leafy suburb of New Delhi,
Where the wealthy and the powerful live;
A shriek is heard that congeals his blood
A loud terrifying shriek travelling up,
A woman calling out desperately:
Help! Help! Please help!
And loud footsteps are heard and
Muted cries and barbaric laughter
As if a pack of laughing hyenas is loosed
Upon a prey in the concrete jungle;
The nerd loses his peace and peers out
Into the brightly-lit alley outside the wall of
The gated community, well-secured and patrolled;
He finds no human figure out there!
But the shrieks are heard again-n-again
Rising in a crescendo that shatters the eardrums!
Next morning his hosts tell the geek an urban legend
Years ago a young working woman got murdered
After being raped by few thugs high on drugs;
The folks in the neighbourhood did nothing to
Help her, the poor object of combined male lust;
Since then, on dark nights, her ghost stalks the
Deserted narrow alley and raises hell by knocking
On each door that was once closed for pleading her!
The spectral presence slowly drove the scared
People to sell their flats to strangers but
The lonesome shrieks followed them
To their new homes everywhere.
Although rapes/murders have not stopped even after that
Gruesome episode of urban indifference, and,
The gleaming city of the flyovers and high-rises has turned into a graveyard of unburied and the revengeful female ghosts, demanding justice.
Why this ongoing nightmare? he asks.
Well, some can see such stalking ghosts but the governments cannot!
