Totally Owled

Srijit spends his Christmas at his ancestral home in Chinchwad, every year. There he has his old grandparents and an unmarried aunt. Srijit’s grandpa Mr. Dandekar is an angry old man with the boldest voice in the family. Even today, his say is the last say. None can dare to cross him on any point. His wife Kamlaji can’t even raise a qualm on even petty matters. She, hence, prefers to do whatever her husband wishes. Their unmarried daughter Sunita works in a local primary school and looks after the old couple since the time Srijit’s father got transferred to Indore. Srijit too is very scared of his grandpa’s mood and hardly argues with him on any point. He loves his knowledge on classical music and keeps surfing through his library of gramophone records the whole day.

 

 

Last night Srijit slept early around 9pm. His grandpa sleeps next to his bed on ground due to his typical conventional healthy habits. With deteriorating eyesight, he keeps a big torch with him beside the pillow. It was gifted to him by his father as a token of family pride. Srijit was quite accustomed to his grandad’s loud snoring but that night, a prolonged, weird, shrilling noise disturbed his sleep. Trying to adjust the pillows, Srijit got awfully annoyed with the same and hence decided to check out the source of irritation. It was four in the morning; hardly any sunrays could be expected. He picked up his grandad’s torch and came downstairs, following the source of noise. It brought him to their poolside garden. There was a giant banyan tree whose branches were just by the side of the bedroom’s window. A small owl was screeching from there since long – it took Srijit close to thirty minutes to figure out the acute source of noise. The owl was sitting on one of the highest branches where the torch’s light could hardly reach its eyes. Consequently Srijit decided to find some pebble from the ground and throw it pointing at the owl. Just as he had thought, he picked up a stone and threw it with utmost force. Within a flash of moment, what he saw was just a glare of light flying in the darkness and a splashing sound thereafter. The poor owl ultimately stopped screeching. Flabbergasted and utterly scared by his act, Srijit came back silently.

 

 

Next morning, someone jerked him up! It was his aunt Sunita. Last night some supernatural things had engulfed Mr. Dandekar’s house. He used to worship the holy banyan tree in the garden and few years back the old man had planted a black stone below it. It resembled a Shiva Linga and hence he watered it every morning with hearty devotion. That morning it had disappeared. Also the torch which he kept beside his pillow was missing. He clearly remembered keeping it with him last night. Srijit found the entire village crowding in their lawn, someone from the mob added to have seen a glowing ball flying in the sky from his window last night. This added fuel to the fire. All decided to give a call to an ojha (Indian villagers fight against ghosts through these holy priests who specialize in fighting out supernatural attacks on innocent people) from another village near Pimpri.

 

 

Hearing all this, Srijit got totally owled! He understood everything – the stone he picked up from ground was none other than the missing Shiva Linga and by mistake he had thrown away his grandad’s torch which dropped in the pond behind the banyan tree. Srijit almost fainted imagining the ojha’s impending treatment. Anyhow he managed to pack his bags and left for Indore before someone out there could point out the real culprit behind those so called ‘supernatural’ hauls.