By the railway tracks
“Deenu Kaka!” exclaimed the children.
They rushed to the front courtyard.
“Deenu Kaka…” Gauri cried aloud. “Thank God you’re here!”
Deenu looked at her in disbelief. “Really?”
“Yes, yes. You’ve no idea what’s just happened,” Jyoti squeaked.
“What’s happened?” Deenu queried, staring at them in wariness.
“Come with us, Deenu Kaka,” urged Somu.
“Where?” Deenu asked suspiciously, standing his ground and unwilling to move.
“In the backyard,” Gopi said urgently.
“But… But… Why?” Deenu asked with mistrust.
“Uff! We want to show you something, that’s why,” Sneha said impatiently. She grabbed Deenu’s hand and tugged. “Come along now, Kaka.”
The children urged him, “Yes, yes. Come with us, Deenu Kaka.”
Deenu was half pushed, half dragged into the backyard, unwillingly.
“But… But… Beta Ji… Bitiya Ji… I… I…” Deenu stammered, trying to resist them.
“Oh… Deenu Kaka, stop being such a scaredy cat! You’re not afraid of ghosts then why are you afraid of us? We’re not going to eat you up!” Jai said irritably.
“No… No… Beta Ji… I’m… I’m not afraid. It’s… It’s… just that…” stammered Deenu again.
“Deenu Kaka, let it be! Have a look at the clothesline in front of you,” Jai said, pointing to the clothes.
The man turned his head to see what Jai was trying to show him, even if unwillingly, half expecting this to be a prank.
“What’s this?” he asked, taken aback, when he saw the clothes with splashes of colour.
“These are the clothes Amma washed today morning and which your Bholu has painted!” Sneha said, her hands on her hips. Sneha looked like a little volcano ready to spout lava.
“My Bholu! Nahin… Nahin… Bitiya. He’s not my Bholu,” Deenu said shaking his head from side to side.
“Aren’t you the only one who has seen him, Deenu Kaka?” Sneha queried, eyebrows raised.
“Yes. I mean… No. I’ve not seen him. He’s a ghost…” Deenu tried reason.
“Whatever! But you’re the only one who acknowledges his presence and knows his typical ways,” Jai said.
“Alright. Alright. How you do you know Bholu has done this?” Deenu retorted.
“Because we heard giggling!” Sneha replied.
“In fact, Deenu Kaka, we all heard those giggles,” Somu said, looking around fearfully as if he expected the giggling to begin again.
“Hmm…” nodded the other children.
“Ohh… Is that so?” Deenu asked, finally sounding convinced. “My! My! What a mess he’s made! The nasty chap!”
“Exactly! Amma won’t be happy about this,” Sneha said.
“Very true, Bitiya. But what can be done?” Deenu queried, giving them a miserable look. “Anyway, here are the dal pakoras with chutney, Malkin Hukum and Lata Bhojai sent for all of you.”
Deenu showed them the parcel, wrapped in newspaper and tied with string.
“Dal pakoras! Yummy!” Gopi said excitedly. “Is there any chutney to go with them?”
“Yes, there’s the green spicy one as well as the sweet tamarind one,” Deenu showed them the two small containers.
“Shouldn’t we have them before they get cold?” Gopi asked, rubbing his palms together.
No ways! First, we need to sort out what is to be done with these painted clothes,” Sneha said sternly.
“What can be done with them?” shrugged Jyoti. “Of course, except being washed.”
“Yes, they’ll need to be washed again,” Gauri nodded in agreement.
“But how will we wash them?” Sneha asked. “We’ll require water from the well.”
“That’s easy. I’ll draw the water for all of you. Better still I’ll help you to wash the clothes too,” offered Deenu Kaka.
“Will you?” Jai asked. “Wow! You’re a real sport, Kaka. You’re simply awesome.”
“It’s nothing!” Deenu said and blushed with joy at the appreciation.
“Deenu Kaka, you must tell us about another adventure today,” Sneha said eagerly.
“If you all insist, I will. But first let’s wash the clothes,” Deenu kept the food parcel aside and set about the task.
Soon the clothes were washed clean and dried in the sunshine once again.
~ ~ ~ ~
“Awesome! These dal pakoras are just too good,” Somu said, smacking his lips. And, this chutney…”
“… is mind blowing!” added Gopi, licking his fingers.
“Deenu Kaka, have another pakora,” urged Jai.
“Nahin… Nahin… Beta Ji, these are for all of you,” Deenu said, shaking his head vigorously.
“You can have one more, Kaka. There are lots here for us,” Sneha said, popping a crispy pakora in her mouth. “Don’t feel shy.”
“Alright, Bitiya Ji…” Deenu smiled and picked up a pakora.
“Deenu Kaka, tell us about one of your adventures,” Jai said, making a big deal about choosing a pakora.
“Ahh…” Deenu said, chewing thoughtfully. “There’s this one adventure I had with the bada sahib.”
“Bada sahib?” Gauri asked, confused. “Who’s that?”
“The bada sahib lived with his family in the railway bungalow near the railway station. He worked with the railways. Deenu Kaka’s father used to work in their house as a gardener,” Sneha supplied the information.
“Am I right, Deenu Kaka?”
“Yes, yes. You’re absolutely right, Bitiya Ji.”
“What adventure you had with the bada sahib, Kaka?” Jai asked impatiently.
“Yes, yes. I was just telling you that. One day my father told bada sahib to take me with him on his train. Actually, my father wanted that I should get a job in the railways. So, my father used to keep sending me with bada sahib in the hope that he would be impressed and put in a word for me… but… I hardly ever bothered about making an impression. I was more interested in watching the machines inside the train, the coalman feeding the maw of the engine with more coal, the black smoke from the engine’s chimney making clouds in the sky, the darkness of the night slowly swallowing the light of the day; the running electricity poles and trees, the fields of yellow mustard flowers…”
“Deenu Kaka…” Jai interrupted him.
“Ahh… Yes. Yes. So, I was saying that one day I boarded the train with bada sahib. Everything was just as usual. I watched everything with great excitement. Slowly it began getting dark. The train was running on the tracks… khadak… khadak… khadak… khadak… It was such a lovely movement, swaying from side-to-side. Even after getting off the train, I would feel for days that I’m still on the train…”
“Kaka…” Jai said.
Deenu cleared his throat and tried to focus only on the story he was narrating. “Well, it must’ve been after midnight. I woke up for some reason I couldn’t explain. I had an uneasy feeling. It was quite dark outside but inside the driver’s cabin the bright light was blazing from the furnace. The coalman was still at work feeding the engine. Bada sahib was staring at the instruments on the wall in the front. There was a lot of noise inside the engine, as usual. I remembered my father saying that it was a full moon night. I thought it would be a good idea to see the scenery bathed in the silvery glow from the moving train. So, I got up from the mat on the floor and walked to the window. I peered outside at the trees and bushes all painted silver, even the fields looked white. It was all so beautiful…”
Deenu paused in reminiscence.
“Deenu Kaka… Deenu Kaka…” called the children, eager for him to continue.
“Ahh… Yes. Yes. I get carried away. So many adventures, so many memories,” Deenu Kaka sighed.
“Chokha!” Jai said. “But then what happened?”
“When what happened?” Deenu asked in surprise.
Jai groaned. “What happened when you looked out at the scene from the train that night?”
“Ahh… Everything looked so pretty. I remember closing my eyes in delight. I was trying to capture the memory forever. There were no cameras in those days like now-a-days in mobile phones. You click, you snap and the photoo is taken.”
“Alright! Then?” Jai urged him on.
“Then… Then I opened my eyes and what do you think I saw?” Deenu asked in a hushed tone, looking around at the rapt expressions.
“What did you see, Kaka?” Jyoti queried in a whisper.
“A woman,” Deenu said triumphantly.
“A woman?” asked Sneha.
“Yes, a woman,” Deenu nodded his head.
“So what? We all have seen women. There are women in our village. Women are everywhere,” Gopi scoffed.
“But have you seen one dressed in red, hair loose, racing with the train… along the railway tracks in the darkness of the night?” Deenu asked smugly.
The children stared at him in disbelief.