The night that was......

"Ebar aamay jetey hobe..colleger shomoy hoye giyeche"… she told me.

I was happy the night was over. I was happy it was day again.

I slept all day.

It was a gruesome train journey to Calcutta (now Kolkata) and I had no idea why I was in that doomed train. All I can collect is , Sid had come down to Ranchi the day before and had unfolded his plans over some clandestine alcohol. We (read He) bought a bottle of R.C ( 'Royal Challenge' for the those of you who are caught unawares!) from a theka near my abode in Ranchi , although I am strictly against such acts of unwanted paranoia. But Sid still thinks he was some kind of a superman in his last incarnation, whose soul couldn’t transmigrate entirely after he died. And here he was, born again as a normal human being, who desperately wanted to become Paranormal or worse abnormal.

Hence came the alcohol ..into my house- via the steps- to the terrace.

''Mujhe Kalkatta janaa hai.. kal..Chalega?" he said gulping down the grail.

''main.??..pata nahi yaar..waise tujhe jaana kyon hai?'' I enquired.

''arey tu kisi baat ka jawaab de sakta hai ya nahi??..jab dekho ulta sawaal pooch leta hai!!'' he snapped.

I am a God fearing middle class Brahmin, and I was pensive. I was tensed , not because Sid snapped at me.. but because I knew all hell would break loose if my folks knew I was up there on the terrace, drinking something that would invite the wrath of Goddess Lakhshmi, send Saraswati infuriated out of the house and a whole gamut of Gods would spell doom.

Q.E.D I was tensed, coz alcohol synonyms blasphemy, but the alcohol was at work I must say coz it soon got the better off my religious epistemologies and I was…as they call it….hic..'HIGH'!!!

And so was Sid, coz while I was fighting back my conscience ..he had let loose half a dozen practically unbelievable, strategically unachievable and theoretically impossible stories of his heroics. Nonetheless, he had always been a friend, and we still were going strong over the alcohol.

Suddenly I had my moment of weakness. I floated over the year that had passed by and I realized I was free like a gull.. I had appeared for almost all the engineering entrances that season, and as you guessed, got through None. I deserved a break though I had done nothing worth it.

"Yess!!" I thought.. ''This could be my chance..Calcutta with Sid!!'' It was bound to be fun, I thought again, With all the Bengali chicks that I'd eye warm upon while Sid shopped for his garment store in daltonganj. WOW!! . Something,.. may be the alcohol ..or may be something else that I don’t remember made me answer him in the affirmative about the very first Question he posed .

''chalega''??

''Haan ...lekin Tickets??'' I said.

''Abey meri ticket pe dono chalenge..sona kisko hai??..T.T ko kuch paise de denge..maan jayega!!''

That was Sid and all he could be. I had never traveled without a ticket in my life until he made me do so. I was jealous of him, coz he made things really simple at times and he often left me wondering about why on earth couldn't I think like he did. And he did it yet again .as if this T.T.E was his long lost brother or like the poor man were his Father-in-Law.

The next thing I can remember is the Train. I had a heated confrontation with his 'Father-in-Law' until he took his writing pad out of the black coat and scribbled something illegibly. He had billed me for Rs.700. I wryly handed over the money to the T.T.E and hated every moment of it, when Sid who was nowhere to be seen until now appeared out of nowhere and gave me a blatant explanation about why he had slipped off just at the T.T.E 's apparition.

"Arey tuney paise kyun de diye yaar..mera intezaar kar leta"

I did not want to talk about it coz I was not buying his story this time or may be I wasn't smart enough. Whatever it was, it felt good to be out of Ranchi after a long time.

We reached at four in the morning and the city was already alive.

I had always liked Calcutta, for the magnificence that she symbolized , for the Trams and taxis that slithered around her streets. For her people, who always seemed to have taken life on full throttle. The city was already out of the bed and there was chaos everywhere. But somehow, I liked it all. It was the only metropolitan I had ever been to and it seemed my academic achievements as they stood, wouldn't have taken me any farther.

Suddenly, while I was smothering with admiration for the city, the trams, the taxis, the people, I heard Sid.

"Arey kahaan jaa raha hai tu??...idhar jaana hai us hotel me!!" Sid clamored.

It was then when I learnt that I had crossed over to the other side of the street and the hotel we were supposed to check into was on the opposite side and a couple of blocks away.

Minutes later we were standing in front of a mammoth concrete structure made up of large blocks of granite and painted red all over.

''HOTEL MEGHDOOT '' the signboard read.

We entered into it through the unguarded collapsible gates right under the grotesque signboard when a middle aged man with contorted looks almost screamed..

"aaiye sir, aaiye.. is baar kaafi dino baad aaye hain??"

My brain started processing the unknown signals that he had just transmitted. Had I been to this hotel before? I thought. I went back and forth in time but did not find a single instance of the hotel or any hotel of the same name.

"Haan is baar maal uthane me thodi der ho gayee.. aur sab badhiya??" Sid acknowledged.

''Ek double bed A.C deluxe room chahiye..apna waala'

It was only after we were into the cool ambience of the room when I learnt that this was the umpteenth time Sid was into this hotel when he was in Calcutta. In Fact, it was the only Hotel in Calcutta he had ever checked into.

Strange.. I thought and I couldn’t help wondering what had always maneuvered him to this Hotel and what made him log on to his 'apna waala Double bed ' room when he'd always travel alone for his trips. But it was him, Strange him and Stranger were his ways.

I don’t remember when I dozed off until I found Sid knocking on me as if we were supposed to catch the next flight home. And standing next to him was the same man who met us in the lobby with his old distorted looks.

''Chal taiyaar ho jaa…ghoom kar atey hain'' said Sid, with those irritating taps on my back which were growing both in magnitude and frequency. I slithered my way out of the bed coz I did not like the expressions that the man was incubating on his already distorted maxillofacial muscles.

Next thing, we ( me, Sid and the man) were on the Elevator of the Hotel.. but wait!! It was supposed to winch down if we were going anywhere out of the inn!! We we're moving up!

"Tere liye surprise hai.." he retorted with a triumphant gleam in his eyes. He was proud he had guessed what was going on in my head before I actually enquired about it.

In less than a minute we were on the Top Floor of the hotel. I could see the masts of all the other buildings surrounding the now seemingly haunted Hotel at my eye level.

We were walking through the incessant corridor when suddenly both of them stopped abruptly and I just managed to avoid dashing into the man whose grotesque expressions had metamorphosed into a wicked smile.

No one spoke for the next three seconds.

The man flung the door open with a jolt and what I saw inside was my most vivid memory for a long time.

It was a room full of women.

And every one of them stopped talking when we entered and looked upon us in unknown anticipation.

All thoughts, all my senses deserted me.

There were women, sitting on the chairs, standing by the closets, lying down on the bed, and on the floor. There were women who were married, with their vermilion clad countenance, there were girls of almost all ages and appearances scattered all over the room with utmost negligence as if they were prisoners of war waiting to be scavenged upon. Everyone was still. I was cold and felt sick.

I stepped out of the room as fast as I had entered it. I always knew there was something evil about that man with us who, it seemed to me, would land us into real trouble soon. I felt asphyxiated and wanted to get back to where I belonged. From where I stood, I could see a girl who by all means, was fast asleep. She was unaware of the silence that was prevalent inside those covert walls.

''Wo wali…wo jo so rahi hai….dus baje'' Sid grumbled, finally eroding the deadly silence, to the man who was still smiling slyly.

We were in the elevator again, but this time it was just me and Sid. The elevator was moving down and I heaved a sigh of relief. I was relieved, coz I did not have to witness the miserable plight of those women anymore. I was relieved that the devilish man was not in the elevator anymore. I was relieved that Sid was talking normally again. All the while that the man was around he had been very careful in his speech, speaking only after long pauses, with calculated vocabulary and absolute snobbery.

"tu mujhe wahan kyon le gaya tha.??." I snapped at him.

"arey tu darta kyun hai itna??" he retorted

''Ek ladki aane waali hai..aaj raat ko yahi rahegi hamare saath." "Chal ab bahar chalte hain..bhookh lagi hai''.

It was 6:30 P.M and the orange sky was just getting darker.

''Kya?? Tu pagal ho gaya hai kya??...I blurted out in disbelief. Yeh nahi ho sakta yaar!..tu pagal ho gaya hai''. I confirmed.

For once I wished he were not my friend. Suddenly Sid looked like an amorous fool who had got the basics wrong. I felt trapped. I did not have enough money to afford a different room where I could put up for that night and board the next train home.

''Abey tu bada ho gaya hai..!! bacchon jaisi baatein mat kar..yahi sahi wakt hai…main isliye tujhe kalkatta le kar aaya hoon …uskey purey 1700 rupaye diyen hain yaar..hum dono ke.'' Sid spoke out, in a manner that was characteristic of a concupiscent woman slayer.

''Dekh main kuch karney wala nahi hoon kisi ko…tu chahey kuch bhi kar''. I replied in a stentorian voice.

We had our dinner near the treacherous hotel. Meghdoot now reminded me of Meghnaad, the son of Ravana , the master of treachery and guile and who did give a tough time even to lord Rama. I was only a poor mortal.

It was 9:45 P.M. and we were back into the Hotel. I was counting on my contingencies. I was going to stay out, all the while Sid was with the girl, until he was done. Until she was gone.

The doorbell yelled. Sid opened the door in obnoxious haste. My heart pounded against my chest. I felt sick again.

She was a young girl in her early twenties and she was beautiful. She had dreamy eyes, which ensconced effortlessly into her perfectly suave countenance. She had a perfect jaw line that supported her carefully etched face. Her lips were colored just right to assign her an urbane persona. She was dressed in the same old black salwar kurta that she wore while she was sleeping in that doomed room on the top floor. She looked with utmost indifference to everything inside the room, including Sid and me.

I did not want to look at her anymore, coz I knew why she was with us. She knew it too.

I began looking out of the window to save my self from the embarrassment that my heart was brimming with.

''Naam kya hai tera..??''…Sid erupted out, eroding the deadly silence in a manner that did not come anywhere near to politeness. It was a long time that we passed out of Sacred Heart High, and Sid I am sure, did not retain any of the lessons taught of courtesy towards women

''aaliya'' she replied with an unassuming nonchalance in her voice. I was still standing where I stood when she entered the room. I was still looking outside the glass window. It was a dark night and it seemed it wouldn’t stop getting darker.

''Main neeche se cigarette le ke aata hoon…tu isse baat kar.'' smirked Sid. I did not know whom that sentence was addressed to, Me, or the girl and I did not give a damn.

It was five minutes since Sid left the room. I was still looking out of the window into unknown nothingness. I hated Calcutta. For the magnificence, that was a mere hoax. For its trams and taxis that seemed to carry women who were ready to get laid for a couple of currency notes. For its people who were pimps under their seemingly spic and span skins.

"Prothom baar naki?"(is it your first time?) I heard her speak. And the question was for me.

I did not speak a word. I was stiff as a rock. I couldn't move. My throat felt croupy and dry. I wanted to get out of that room. In a split second, I decided I was walking out.

I had to walk out of the room through the small gallery that ran between her and the door.

I did just what I planned in the past two seconds. I was walking. I walked through the gallery, all the while keeping my eyes off her, all the time keeping my eyes on the door that, at the moment, was my door to renaissance.

As I looked at the door, I was happy it was going to be over soon. I had almost made it.

I turned the knob … nothing happened.

The Door was locked from outside. Suddenly everything was clear. This was Sid's surprise gift to me. The girl!

I tried to open the door twenty one times and over but as luck would have it, it didn't.

The girl chortled watching me struggle with the door. I could hear her. I still didn’t look at her.

There was no way out now. Suddenly my cell phone beeped. It was a message from Sid. It read.

" darwaza maine bahar se lock kar diya hai, Khulega nahi. Mai paas waale room me hi hoon darna mat. Kal subeh milte hain''

I lost my mind. How could he possibly do this to me, I thought. I tried calling him up.

He had switched it off. I banged on the door. I shouted for rescue. But no one came for my cause.

And there I was, deserted in that room with a girl who was still chuckling, in the dead of the night. I wished I had never come to Calcutta with Sid. It was all my fault. And it was a hefty price I was paying. I felt sick.

''Ki holo? Bairey jaabey kaeno?''.( what happened? Why do you want to go out?) she enquired. I looked down at her. She sat on the bedside smiling at me as if this were some kind of joke I was enacting.

''Tum jahan baithi ho wahin baithi raho. Aur mujhse baat mat karna samjhi.?'' I retorted in an unforeseen fury. I suddenly wanted to hold her responsible for my sad state of affairs. For that weak moment, I forgot what we were taught at Sacred Heart High.

I knew this was it. I walked hastily to the wooden chair near the window and sulked, thinking a way out of those malevolently surreptitious walls. The cool ambience of the room was turning into a cold morbid chill.

It was 1 A.M and I was still there. It was getting cold inside. I could see droplets of water on the window, condensed from the warm atmosphere, which coalesced into larger drops until they were too large to defy gravity. Every was asleep. Everyone, but me. My sin? Well, I wanted to sleep. Alone.

I stole a glance, which I had so long evaded, at the girl who, may be, was trapped with me in the room. She was asleep. She was sleeping just the way she slept in the room on the Top Floor.

Finding everything my way finally, I began thinking about getting busted by the police in the middle of the night if they found out I was there in a room with a girl who was a sex worker and was not supposed to be there in the legal maxims.

I was tensed, I felt sick again.

No one came for the rest of the night. Not Sid, Not the devilish man, Not my folks from Ranchi, Not the Police. No one. I was still sitting on that piece of wood that had become increasingly uncomfortable as the night eroded until it was day again.

I had dozed off on the chair at around six when I could no more fight back sleep. A reluctant voice woke me up

''Ebaar aamay jetey hobe….colleger shomoy hoye giyeche''.( I have to leave now…its time for my college)

It was her. She was leaving. The door was open and I saw the wicked man smiling at her.

I was happy the night was over. I was happy it was day again.

I slept all day. Alone.