the Thinker

"Go ahead junior, you cannot take that long. Your time starts now," barked one of them.

Amay looked behind him and saw the frown on Dishant's face, one of the senior students of the lot. He dared not oppose or express hesitation. Two most immediate consequences to such an act which floated before his eyes were that either they would bash him up on refusing, or they will laugh on him and go on telling people what a wimp he was.

He had been warned by his cousin who too was in a boarding school.

"You cannot avoid being ragged in a hostel in most cases. You can simply pray that your seniors do not come up with rather adventurous ideas to rag you," He said.

"But is it not punishable in most places nowadays?" asked Amay, trying to hide his trepidation.

"Who cares about that? Everyone wants their bit of fun, don't they? If you complain then they will mark you as their prime target and I also suggest you keep that temptation at bay because finally, you don't want to be picked at for the rest of your school days, do you?" asked Amay's cousin.

Amay started moving forward slowly as he heard his seniors jeering and shouting at him behind his back. One of them cried out, " Remember, you have to climb up to the left wing and go straight to room number 2A and knock on the door three times. Now move on, fast and do not try to run away because we will find you out!"

Amay started walking slowly towards the left wing. The day he entered the hostel, his roommates warned him about it. Bhavesh told him, "I think they will send you to the left wing tonight. That's their favorite trick."

"What's there in the left wing?" Amay asked.

"It's the forbidden part of the hostel. No one is allowed to go there and if the need arises you need special permission for that," replied Bhavesh.

"Why is it forbidden?"

"Well, years back it was not. All the rooms in that wing were occupied by students. But one day, a boy jumped from the balcony and committed suicide. He was in room 2A. Two weeks after that incident, a guy woke up at night to go to the bathroom and there, he saw something strange. He was almost paralysed with fear. Few days after that, someone fainted at night seeing something in the balcony. Soon their parents complained to the administration and so; the left wing was evacuated and now, no one is allowed to go there alone. It is supposed to be haunted," said Bhavesh.

"But, then they cannot send me there can they? Because if they get caught...," Amay tried to find some way to reassure himself.

"They won't. They are too smart for that. For your information, they already manage to send two freshers to the left wing two months back. One came back unconscious; he was hushed up by them. The other one left the hostel a few weeks later," replied Bhavesh.

Amay had already freaked out on hearing the story and now, he was walking towards the very same, infamous left wing. As the forbidden corridor came closer to his view, his heart skipped a beat. He started moving up the staircase and felt his sweat dripping down gradually from his forehead to his chin. They gave him a torch, but a tiny one. 'Are ghosts scared of torches?' he wondered.

The very air around the place made his hair stand up. It was a December night. Besides, this part of the hostel building appeared to be colder than the rest of it. There was darkness all around. Amay could feel sweat in his palms. Now he was approaching the famous balcony from where the boy had jumped. On this side of the balcony were the rooms. His raised up his torch, his fingers were almost cold and numb. Room 1C, Room 2 and there it was-Room 2A.

Amay suddenly felt that his feet had become so heavy that he could not move. What if the ghost was hiding somewhere near, waiting him to come forward and then attack him. He felt like running away from there as fast as he could. But he knew he will not be spared for that. He closed his eyes for a moment and thought, "I have to do this. I have no option. If I manage this today, they will not trouble for the rest of the term. There is nothing like ghosts, I have to do it."

He opened his eyes and looked in front. Slowly, he moved closer to Room 2A. He raised his fingers to knock on the door and found that they were shaking badly. He gave a soft knock on the door, hoping that if there was a ghost inside, it would not be able to hear it. No one answered. Amay gave two more knocks on the door and stood there for a second. He let out his breath with a little relief, turned his back and was about to move when he heard it.

"You are their new victim or what?" a voice spoke from behind.

Amay froze where he was standing. He felt a cold rush of wind all over his body and yet he was sweating profusely. His throat went dry.

"Look at me dear," spoke the voice again.

Amay wanted to run off without looking what was standing behind him. He did not know what madness caused him to turn around and face the person. Still cold with fear, he looked up to face him. He was a boy, 15 or 16 years old. His face was not too clear due to the darkness and Amay did not dare raise his light up to see the stranger's face. Mustering all the courage that was left in his tiny heart, he asked in a half choked voice, "Wh..Who ar are you?"

"I am Sushil, Sushil Nair. What's your name?" He asked.

"I..I a..am Am..Amay," replied Amay.

"What are you doing here so late at night? You are their new target for ragging, are you?" He asked.

Amay nodded his head and then the question occured to him too. "Wh..what are you doing here?" he asked the stranger.

Maybe, Amay saw it wrong. Anyways, it was too dark to see; but something told him that there was a smile on the other boy's face.

"Come, I will take you out of here and leave you at the entrance to your dorm," He said.

Amay suddenly felt a comforting warmth when he heard those words. Suddenly he felt a little less scared. Both of them started walking back together side by side through the corridor.

"So, you are a localite or you hail from somewhere else?" asked the boy.

"I am from Himachal," replied Amay.

"Oh. So you are from outside. That's why they are so harsh on you. Gits! they always send the outsiders in the hostel to this place first," said the boy.

Amay did not reply back.

"So, who all are there in your family?" The boy asked again.

"My father, mother and an elder brother," replied Amay. He had started to feel quite at ease with this stranger. "Who all are there in yours?" Amay asked back.

The boy was quiet for sometime as they continued walking.

"It was me and my parents earlier. But then, my parents divorced a few years back," he replied in a low voice.

"Oh! I am sorry," said Amay.

"That's okay. There, that's the entrance to the right wing. Go ahead, you can go back to your room safely from here," said the boy.

Amay looked in front and saw the entrance. He then moved his hand up to thank the boy. But he was already far from him, walking back towards the forbidden corridor. He then remembered, the boy never told him what he was doing there? Was he being ragged too? Was he asked to spend the whole night there? But he appeared too old for that.

"So, you did what you were asked to do?" a coarse voice interrupted Amay's thoughts. It was Dishant.

"Yes, I did," replied Amay.

"Good for you, now hurry back to your dorm and do not breath a word about this to anyone, understand?" said Dishant.

Amay nodded as he walked back to his room.

Next morning, Bhavesh caught up with him in the assembly hall.

"You have sort of become a hero in the class. Everyone heard what happened last night. You did not faint or cry, that's really brave of you," said Bhavesh, with a smile on his face.

"No actually, he made it easier for me," replied Amay.

"He who? Someone else was there?" asked Bhavesh.

"Yes, a senior guy. He told me his name...Sus...," before he could finish the bell rang and they rushed off to their class.

That day during the library period, Amay sat down with some old newspapers to get information for a social science assignment. He was getting bugged. 'No relevant material at all,' he thought. Suddenly, an article in one of the papers caught his attention. He picked it up and started to read-"An elite public school hostel of the city witnessed a tragedy on tuesday night. One of its students committed suicide by jumping off the third floor balcony of the hostel building. The name of the student was Sushil Nair, aged...," nothing else that was written in the article registered in Amay's mind after he read that name.

hi amirta - thanks for dropping in my page. i am almost in oblivion with blogspot. hardly visit others page. its ages i had read your writing. oflate keeping in touch through mails. thank you so much for dropping by.. once i get settle with present situation would be back to read your stories. i remember at one time i was very regular reading your continuation stories with out fail.  

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Good to have u back here dear.. I am happy that u started writing this.. I kind of expectted this ending.. but it was wonderfully written...
Hope u post more frequently..  

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hi known stranger,

thanks for dropping by and yes, off late i too have not been able to post more regularly...but do keep posting and blogging..m trying to catch some time up with my blog now.

hi art, thanks for dropping byu and for ur comments..yes, i guess now i can post more frequently for some time.  

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RGV, here comes the plot for your next movie 'Darna mana hai par bahut zaroori hai'....

Soumen  

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Wow! a nice story... I too kinda expected the same ending!
See if you can write a second part for it...

It's been a real long break for the thinker and as per your comment above, I hope you'd be regular for sometime now.

Thanks for the wishes... Apparently, I had the worst day ever on that day!  

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Hi Soumen,

I think i will take that as a compliment.

1.618,

nice to see u drop by...thanks for ur comments yes, guess i will try b a regular now...missed blogging..
and was sorry to know u had such a worse day on ur b-day...well, i can only wish that none of ur b-days in future turn out the way they did on ur 25th yr...but have faith...look ahead and smile...all the best for all future years to come.  

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Wow! Very well-written...
I saw the post and decided I will read it tomorrow as it is late now [3:15 am], but I just could not take my eyes off!



GBU
Arti  

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hi arti...thanks for dropping by and for ur comments.  

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Hey TJ...Great to see you back ..I speak as though it's easy to spot me around here..haunting the alleys of blogosphere..! :)

Really nice story..Can imagine that happen in my ole school..thankfully had no bullyin seniors..Really enjoyed the story TJ! :) Hope you didn't actually run into one o' these spooky characters!

N yes, I notice the Mal spook..Why does 'it' have to be a 'Nair'??!!! Wait till I get back with a crazy Bong spook of my own!! Grr..!  

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hey dear,

great to see u back too..how are u? thanks for all those inspiring comments, they actually make my story sound good...no, i did not have the opportunity one such 'it' during my school days..and as for the 'Mal' spook, were u really spooked off by him? i thought u would admire him more..so the 'Nair'...looking forward to ur bong spook!!  

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