Bholu – the mischief maker!
“How do I know? Well… you see… after a while another ber hit Millie. She looked around curiously…” Deenu said looking pleased with himself.
“… And saw no one… And then what happened?” Jai prompted him impatiently.
“You both are very good children. You follow every word with interest… Very clever too,” Deenu said appreciatively.
He caught the look in Jai’s eye and hurried on.
“Very well, beta ji let’s continue without any more delay. Millie was now annoyed because this plum hit her on her back, really hard. She shouted aloud asking the miscreant to show his or her face. She called out all her friends’ names but no one replied. It seemed a bit strange to her. Again, she heard a rustling, somewhere close by. The buffaloes and goats also stopped nibbling and chewing. They glanced about them as if expecting something untoward to happen. The koel stopped her singing and now there was an unearthly silence…” Deenu dropped his voice to barely a whisper filled with suspense.
“Ohh…” breathed Sneha, her eyes round in wonder.
“Yes… And then came a shower of the ber. The branches of the trees overhead shook wildly and waved from side-to-side. The fruit began to fall with greater force on their heads. And, Millie shouted to whoever it was doing it to stop but the louder she shouted the more she and her terrified animals were pelted with the fruit,” Deenu said waving his arms, making forceful chopping movements in the air. “The buffaloes and goats ran helter-skelter, and Millie put up her hands trying to shelter herself from the onslaught.”
“Oh no! Then what Millie did? How did she escape?” Sneha asked, worried about the other girl.
“After a while the hullabaloo ceased and Millie looked around in vain. Her animals had all disappeared.
She groaned in dismay wondering how in the world was she going to find them,” Deenu Kaka said. “It’s difficult to search for terrified animals in the forest.”
“How did she manage to find them, Deenu Kaka?” questioned Sneha, her lower lip quivering. “How frightened she must have been! Or did the big black wolf eat them up?”
“Wolf? Na… Na… No wolf in these forests here,” Deenu shook his head vigorously.
“Millie went around calling their names and looking for them deeper into the woods but she couldn’t see even one of them,” Deenu Kaka said.
“Wait a minute… But how can you say it was Bholu who did this?” asked Jai, after a moment of thought and consideration. “Who saw him? Did he say ‘I’m Bholu’?”
“It was Bholu!” insisted Deenu. “Who else could do something like this? He loves creating confusion and wreaking havoc.”
“What happened to the animals?” Sneha asked, her concern directed elsewhere.
“The animals reached home safe and sound,” Deenu supplied. “Millie looked high and low for them and when she couldn’t find them, she decided to go home and tell her parents. She realized she would need the help of her elders and neighbours to launch a search. But when she reached home, she saw her parents were about to set out to look for her because the animals had run home in distress bleating and mooing loudly.”
“Oh… Thank God everyone was safe!” Sneha sighed with relief.
“But I’m still not convinced it was Bholu, Deenu Kaka. It could have been anything, maybe a storm…” Jai said, giving Deenu a look of doubt.
“Nahin… Nahin… beta ji. I tell you it was none other than Bholu. I was near the river, I heard Millie calling out for her animals. I ran to help her but I couldn’t. Her cattle ran off in different directions. Once Millie also left, I looked around carefully, hoping to understand what had happened… And then… I heard… something that Millie hadn’t heard…” Deenu Kaka said mysteriously.
“What did you hear, Deenu Kaka?” Sneha asked eagerly.
“What was that, Kaka?” Jai queried curiously.
“A giggle… and another… and another.”
Deenu looked at the two children sitting before him with a strange look on his face.
~ ~ ~ ~
“Bholu is a badmash, what you call in the sahib’s language, hmm… pol- pol- poltergeist. I know… I know…” Deenu Kaka said importantly.
“How do you know?” scoffed Jai. “Have you ever met one?”
“Met one? I worked for one of those bada sahibs long back when I was a young boy like yourself. I must’ve been eight or nine years; I used to go to the badi haveli near the railway tracks. Sahib was an officer in the railway and so he lived with his family in the railway bungalow. My father was the gardener, I used to help him with the sowing and cutting and watering,” Deenu said with pride. “I learnt a little bit of English from sahib and his sons who were around my age. I taught the two boys to climb trees and make catapults; they taught me to read and write English, a little bit, not much. But mind you, I know a few English words even today. I read the English newspaper when I go to the big city. Even the postmaster calls me if he requires any important document he wants to be read and he can’t understand it.”
“Very well, how did you learn this word you just used?” Jai asked. “And, what does it mean?”
“Poltergeist… It means a mischievous ghost who makes mysterious noises like laughing, giggling, tapping, or banging. In short it means a noisy ghost.”
“And, Bholu according to you is a noisy ghost?” queried Jai.
“Of course, he is. You should have heard him at the bada sahib’s bangla. He would keep banging the things in the storeroom on the topmost floor, or in the garden shed. He would sit in the branches of the tree and keep giggling and laughing,” Deenu said with zest. “Initially, the memsahib would be troubled to hear these strange sounds even in broad daylight but the sahib would tell her calmly to ignore it. He would say, ‘Helen dear, just don’t pay attention. It’s that pesky poltergeist again’. I remember… I remember…”
“Didn’t the sahib do anything to catch Bholu?” Sneha asked innocently.
“Catch a ghost?” Deenu screamed with laughter. “How can you catch a ghost? They’re like the air. They pass through the strongest of walls, even metal boxes can’t cage them. The sahib just ignored him but we boys… the chhota sahibs and me, we tried many times to trap him but he would flee, cackling loudly at our failed attempts.”
“Didn’t he get annoyed with the chhota sahibs and you?” Jai queried.
“Hmm… well… I don’t think he got annoyed but yes… he would lay traps for us too. And, if anyone of us got drenched with a jug of water balanced on a half-open door, or slipped on a block of fresh butter, or stepped into a puddle of glue and feathers, or tripped over a rake… we knew it was him,” Deenu said looking in the distance, lost in memories.
“But how could you say it was him?” insisted Jai exasperatedly. It could be anyone of you boys playing a prank on each other.”
“Beta ji, you’re forgetting… Bholu is a giggler. He makes mischief and then enjoys the fun. He giggles loudly and endlessly till the sound fades away when he flies off to search his next quarry. Don’t you remember the day he pranked you and bitiya with the raw mangoes?”
“Well…” Jai said at a loss for words. His mind flew back to the episode that occurred a week back.
“Exactly! He giggles and giggles like a naughty child enjoying a joke.”
“Hmm… Yes, Deenu Kaka. He kept giggling continuously and loudly that day,” Sneha nodded in agreement.
“And, he’s as disobedient as a stubborn child. I must remind you, like I told you earlier, he’ll always do the opposite of what you tell him,” Deenu said with emphasis. “So, next time if you don’t want him to do something say exactly the opposite.”
“How wonderful! That means if we want him to do something we must tell him not to do it. Right, Deenu Kaka?” Jai said with a small smile.
“But… what do you want him to do?” Deenu looked in surprise at the boy.
“That… you’ll have to wait and watch!” Jai said with a mysterious look and a smile.