THE TALE OF THE WRONG STATION

As the train stood still in the wilderness, my frustration increased. The bogie was hot as hell. These May- June months are always hard to travel. The fans were as usual, blowing even hotter air on us. It was just unbelievably sweat-dripping inside that compartment. I looked outside the window for a break. It seemed as if I were in a movie, but the dull reality hit me soon. The man sleeping on the upper berth was snoring like a raging bull, just to convert my frustration into irritation.

We were returning from our Uttrakhand trip. The weather was all well there. After such a long time all seven of us, my college brigade was together in this trip. So it was really hard to cope up, after having such a great time. The late train set my mood off. As if that wasn’t enough, it stood still for 2 hours.

But then again, there were my brainless buddies who were enjoying this as well. They were constantly cracking jokes, teasing each other, cherishing the moments spent together. When I saw them, I came to know how much over-focused I was on the heat wave. So I decided to get a face wash and reached to the basin. On my way, there was this weird old man who wore peculiar clothes, as if he were going to a party or something. His dressing bugged me as I thought how someone can wear these things in this burning summer. We exchanged an awkward glare.

When I came back, I found the old man sitting on the berth in front of mine. After a while, I noticed he was staring at me in a strange way. But it didn’t bother me. I was more concerned about the battery of my phone, as music was the only escape I had. Sadly, it died!

“Aren’t we close to the crossing which is rumoured to be haunted?”, Shamli asked Shifa.

“Yeah, I’ve heard about the tales”, she replied.

“Oh come on, how old are we!”, Vinay said to them. He was a non-believer in ghost tales. So was Parakh and so was I.

“But I said RUMOURED”.

“As if that takes your interest out of the bullshit tale!”

“Come on guys… Let it be…”, Aakansha  trying to make peace.

“What does the legend say?” I asked out of the boredom.

“They say a train bogie derailed at Khaatti crossing. A lot of people died. And now they are ghosts… right Shamli?!” Parakh mocked Shamli.

“Look I did not say ki wo sahi baat hai”, she defended herself.

“Yeah… it is just a rumor na Shamli…” I mocked my friend Shamli by focusing on the word rumour.

Laughs and more jokes were followed …

“People believe in tales, don’t they?” As that creepy old man uttered these words, an uncomfortable salience hit us.

“Sorry?!” I exclaimed.

“I see you guys are mocking one of the most infamous urban legends of this area. People here believe on it. They know what they did. That’s why they are frightened by the ghosts of the victims of that unfortunate event.”

“We just don’t know about that legend. Can you tell us?”  Nidhi, the most naïve of us asked that stranger.

“Why do you want to know?”

“We’re just curious”, replied Shamli.

“Okay” with a mysterious voice he said… “I will tell you but would you believe it?”

“umm…pata nahi..”, Parakh told that man.

“You are a non-believer” the old man smirked

“I just hate nonsense” Parakh continued to hold onto his rational part

“You won’t once you get there” said old guy staring at us

“We’ll see.”

“Indeed you will”, old man gave an uncomfortable smile.

“What’s the tale? Let just hear it out”, I asked that man with a slight fear and disbelief.

And as he started to tell us about the tale, I remember that I could feel no heat. That bogie went quiet. He told us about a misfortunate wedding.

It was a train with a bogie full of passengers who were returning from a marriage. People were chanting, kids playing games, happiness surrounded that compartment. Then there was this newlywed couple. “They are perfect.” That’s what everybody said. These comments were making glowing face of bride reddish out of blushing. They were looking great together. On the front berth to them, there were the proud parents of groom. The sparks of their eyes was enough to let you know how happy they were; a mother who still couldn’t believe how soon her boy grew up, a proud father who was happy to see his son becoming a man. The noisy relatives who just had lunch and were discussing what would be in dinner, made the whole picture complete.

But the happiness was about to vanish. Due to heavy heat the rails were stressed out of order. Near khaatti crossing, the train derailed. The impact crashed the bodies of the passenger. Most of them died a quick death. And those who didn’t were not able to understand what just happened.

Those were lucky; who died within the seconds not knowing anything, feeling any pain. Those who were still alive, were sure to die. It was a massive disaster. People were screaming. The cries of the little kids were the most heart breaking.

As it was loud enough, the villagers arrived before police or railway relief could. Now a sane brain would expect them to help the injured. They did initially. But soon they found about the bogie. Their greed took over their humanity. They started robbing the victims. To the victims, seeing another face of human was a relief. But somehow they couldn’t understand why they were looting them instead of helping. The ruthless mob looted all, bangles, chains… from the dead or alive, they just didn’t care. How can those screams pass their ears? How can they could be that inhuman?

People cried and died but those villagers didn’t seem to move. Amazing… how greed of gold, watches, cash is enough to sell humanity of the most intelligent creature called human making them just inhuman body of flesh.  Did they know, what were they even doing? I wonder!

The bride, she was injured but there was still life inside her. Her dreams shattered in front of her eyes. She could feel no pain. She was in disbelief and was shocked as how could life be so merciless. Her man of dreams was breathing his last. She tried to reach him, he crawled back at her too. Even then their hands could not meet. “Next life maybe”, he said in his discontinuous voice. Tears rolled down her eyes. They were alive seconds ago and now only seconds were left for their death.

Meanwhile, the mob was looting, thinking that they are making fortune. One man reached to the bride. He saw a next to dead woman with jewelry from top to bottom. He started snatching those pieces of metals from her body. He didn’t care whether she was alive or dead.  The wedding couple maintained the eye contact. They could just not believe what is happening! The groom was in pain, he knew that his bride could be saved even if it was a little too late for him.

He grabbed the foot of the man who was pulling the golden ear piece out of the ears of the girl. The man didn’t seem to care; he pulled that piece making her ears bleed, for him she was already pool of blood. But that blood was not her, it was her husband’s. She was just injured not fatally. The groom once again pulled the leg of snatcher.

This time the villager had enough. He kicked the groom in his face. That was more than enough for that misfortunate man. He died while his teary eyes locked with hers. As he breathed his last, sighed on the fate before died.

She screamed. Her pain could be felt from her scream. The villager got afraid as she could draw attention of others. He didn’t want to share his part of blood wealth. What could he do? He tried to shut her up. But she could not. The pain was unbearable for her thus his attempt failed. That villager had no option, he choked her to death.

That was the end of her. They died, all of them. Everyone except those two; they were murdered. 

As he told us this story, the girls were about to cry. I could sense the unease that had gotten into the environment. He continued after looking at our pale faces.

“But…they do return. Each night, bright lights flashes, echoes of laughter surround that crossing. It comes to life. Looks like a dream.”

I didn’t get that. I looked at Parakh; he gave the bullshit-detected look. As the tale continued, we didn’t realize when the sun went down. It was getting darker. Finally after standing at a human less place for four long hours, our train finally moved. As the train started moving, I could feel the cool breeze coming from the window. Our wrecked mood came to a sane place. We were back to chanting, clicking pics, mocking each other. It all got normal.

I was relieved as the scary tale was not my cup of tea. After just an interval of half an hour we came to the Khaatti station. It was a strange station. No wanders, no man, no nothing, just an old building with no lights. One could feel the strange fear on the faces of my friends. I was still figuring out what was this place.

Suddenly, spooky chill ran in our nerves. All of sudden everyone started chatting but us. The noises, the strange conversation we could hear, made us feel weird. We looked at the other passengers and they were looking at us. No one was uttering a word still there was this noise of conversation inside that compartment.

All of sudden someone screamed.The girls were scared. They screamed too. Parakh tried to calm them down. It was now scary. The screams were multiplying. To be honest, I got scared too. It was too much for me.

The man looked me in the eyes and asked me “Why don’t you fear us?” I was baffled. I looked at my friends.  They were screaming covering their ears. Everything was slow. I could feel that every chilling second was a minute long. Again it was way too much for me. I could feel my heart beat racing. It felt so hard; I wish I could tell you how hard and heavy my heart felt. 

It was unexplainable. But there was only one man who could made sense at this point. Suddenly the floor had blood stains. We could smell rotting bodies of some animal maybe. Shamli screamed “that’s a dead body!” There were a lot of dead bodies. It was senselessly insane. 

I was agitated up to my guts. I wanted answers. I looked at the seat in front of mine. There was no one. He was gone. Just in a flash. How was it even possible?

“He’s gone!” Parakh shouted. We were now shaking.

“He is on the platform!” Vinay pointed with a breaking voice. I looked at him. He looked me into my eyes. It was as if he was enjoying my fear. He smiled and stood still. Suddenly at the cornor of the station master’s building, I saw her!

It was her. Jubilant red bridal saree, eyes filled with tears, hands full of Heena designed but the sorrow on her face, it was all visible even when it was dark. I moved close to the glass to have a glance of her misery. She looked right into my eyes. She was looking into my soul. I could feel the pain. I could feel her sorrow.  At that moment all I could focus was her face, the irony of fate. My friends were screaming, only Parakh was in his mind trying to shut all the windows. As he was shutting them down, they get open the next second, even after locking them. I was numb. I was not feeling anything, no fear, not anything. All I was sensing was her face and her pain. My window was somehow closed.

But as I tried to open it so I could see her clearly, all of the windows of the bogie shut down simultaneously.  I placed my hands to the window glass, kept staring at her. After a long while, she smiled and the glass of my window shattered. I could not understand what had just happened…