Forbidden Estate

Forbidden Estate

It was a cool evening. Ramya was back from school, as usual, and was tired. Her school is about 5 kms from her house and Ramya goes by the Govt. bus. There are a lot of kids from her place, Peroorkada, to this school, so it is quite safe. As Ramya reached home, she found that nobody was at home. That is nothing new, since both her parents are working and will not be back till 6 o’clock. Her brother must have gone for his tuitions. She sat there at the steps, waiting for her parents to arrive. It was around 4:30 in the evening. Ramya started feeling hungry and thirsty.

Sitting there, waiting for her parents, Ramya started feeling drowsy. Soon, she lay down on the step and fell asleep. (Ramya was studying in 6th Standard, but was of quite a small frame so, could easily fit in that step!) All of a sudden she was awakened by a hissing sound. The poor little girl looked around her, quite scared, for she rightly guessed that this must be a snake. The last time it had come, her father had killed it. At that time also she had heard this hissing sound.

The frightened child looked round her. She couldn’t see anything clearly, for it was already getting late, and daylight was fading. The sky had acquired a reddish hue. Then, something slithered by the coconut tree. She was sure it was the snake. She heard the slithering of the snake over the dead leaves again. Scared she rushed out through the gate, to get her neighbour’s help.

She walked unto the nearest neighbour (the one staying directly opposite to her house), and tried to open the gate. It was too high for her. She banged at the gate but no on came out. She went to the house just next to hers. To her dismay, she found the gate locked. At the next house, she was not even given a chance to approach the gate by the guard dogs there. Their ferocious barking had always scared her, and on this particular day, more so.

The little child came back to her gate, afraid of going inside, and having got no help from anyone, she stood there helpless. It was slowly getting dark, and she started wondering why her parents and brother are not coming back. Little did she know that a major clash between the KSU and SFI (the student’s political outfit) had left 3 dead and a few wounded. And among the dead, included a bus driver, who was nothing but an innocent spectator, and had got involved in the whole fiasco by chance and ended up losing his life. The moment this was known, the entire Trivandrum* city’s transport came to a standstill – the bus drivers had proclaimed a “minnal panimudakku” – a sudden strike. At their behest, all other public transportation like the autos, taxis etc. had joined in. All this happened at about the same time that Ramya heard the first hissing sound. And while she had been running from one house to the other, her mother, stranded in the office was thinking about her children and what they were doing.

Her father was trying to arrange some kind of transportation and her brother had been advised by his tuition master not leave his house, till everything calmed down. The entire family in 4 different places, fearing for themselves, and their dear ones….

The reader would have thought now, why nobody was using the technological boon given to humanity by Alexander Graham Bell. I would like to remind him, that this was mid 80s and telephone was still a luxury for most of the residents of Travancore*. On this particular day, Ramya’s parents had contacted each other through phone, updated each other of the situation and were now thinking of how to reach home as fast as possible. They both were worried about the kids.

Ramya was worried, now she didn’t even know where the snake was and what worried her most was that it could have gone inside her school bag, which still lay by the step. She was confused and very tired. She started walking aimlessly along the street. The sun had set leaving the world in darkness and ushering in the Moon and her bevy of beautiful starlets.

The little child walked up the street and moved onto the next street, noticing that most houses were bathed in darkness. As she walked on, she met Suja and Divya playing. She was glad to see them; in fact at that point she would have been glad to see any human being. “There is a snake in my house and my parents have not come yet. I’m also feeling very hungry”, said Ramya. Suja and Divya were her dearest friends; they were in the same school but were 1 year senior to her. The trio Divya, Suja and Ramya were quite popular in the Indira Nagar housing colony. Suja went to her house and got some biscuits and bread for Ramya. She gobbled them up and looked satisfied and happy, now that one of her problems had been solved. Now the three girls sat thinking of the “slithering hissing” problem that they needed to solve.

Suja’s parents had also not arrived yet, though she had her Grandma at home to take care of her. Divya’s mom and Chittas* had gone out and had not returned yet. She too had her grand parents at home. Both the girls convinced their grand parents and soon set off to tackle the menace.

They walked to Ramya’s house which was in the next street. It was only when they reached the gate that; they actually started to wonder what they could possibly do about the snake. All the three were afraid but were not about to admit it. The three sat on the step, just outside the gate and started discussing how and what could be done.

Divya who is always the brave, said, “Snakes are very dangerous. But you shouldn’t kill them, since they may take revenge. We should shoo it away.” “We first need a torch so that we can see the ground clearly”, suggested Suja, who was always practical. “Yes”, agreed Ramya, her face shrouded in fear. Both Divya and Suja immediately went to get torches. Both returned in a matter of minutes with 2 big torches and 1 small one. Suja also managed to bring with her some more biscuits and a few cakes (which her mother had baked for Christmas).
“But what will we do when we actually see the snake?” asked the timid Ramya. Now that was something none of them had thought. Each started thinking as to what can be done. “We need a stick”, said Suja and she went in search of one. Soon she was back with a stout staff that she had found lying in front of some house. Both Divya and Ramya looked at it approvingly. In fact, Ramya’s face, which till then had been clouded with fear, was now a wee bit clearer.

The three girls then with the help of torch started looking out for the snake in the back yard and near the front garden. Just then they heard a sharp crying sound. All the three rushed to the source of the sound to see a mongoose and the snake having a good fight. “Let us go”, whined Ramya, as usual. Her only solution to all problems is to go away from it. “Hey, wait, lets see who wins”, said Divya enthusiastically. “Yes, let us wait. If the snake wins, we have more trouble in our way. It will be safer if we keep a distance”, suggested Suja. Both Ramya and Divya moved a few steps back. The two animals continued the fight unaware of the audience.

As the kids watched, the mongoose became victorious in the deadly fight. Once the struggle was over, a deadly silence enveloped them. The mongoose left happy with its triumph leaving the kids with carcass of the snake. The girls were also happy since the problem had been solved automatically with no effort from their part.

“But how did a mongoose come here. I have never seen one here”, said the Ramya. “Let us follow it”, said Divya. “One cannot follow a mongoose”, said Suja, giggling. But Divya didn’t wait to hear Suja’s suggestion she was already running in the direction in which they had seen it leave.

The mongoose had in fact gone through the gate and into the wild bushes that led to the rubber estate. The girls were able to go till the bushes but then lost sight of the mongoose. They looked at each other and as usual, Divya started cajoling all to move on. The rubber estate was a restricted area for them. And Suja and Ramya were afraid of the place since a lot stray dogs roam in the estate.

Ramya, judging by her normal character, would have immediately protested and would have whined. Yet that night, with parents all away, the kids were gripped with a strange excitement, and even Ramya nodded her head in agreement, a naughty twinkle in her eyes. They still had the torches and the staff with them. They marched forward into the darkness, into the forbidden area. How true is the saying – Curiosity kills the cat – though the girls were spared of such a predicament, they did come face to face with death, in another form.

The girls entered the rubber estate, slowly, their heart was filled with fear and a strange happiness, both at the same time; they were in the midst of a unique excitement of conquering a prohibited area. Perchance,  Eve experienced the same mystique excitement when  the apple from the Forbidden Tree, touched her lips.  They walked through the estate and saw the rubber trees in all directions. The ground was covered with a thick layer of dry leaves. The moon was shining bright. They stood silently for some time and looked around. The trees were arranged in rows, and between the trees, some other crop, like the tapioca, was also planted.

Ramya whispered, “I am feeling hungry”. “Let us have something and then proceed to explore”, suggested Suja, still in a whisper. The girls were afraid their voice would attract attention since they had already heard a rustling sound twice. They sat down and Suja distributed the biscuits and cakes to all, and they sat there munching it when they heard a distant howl of a dog. It was very dark by now, and the stars were peeping out of the clouds at the kids. All the three sat still, looked at each other with fear-filled eyes, “Is it the Howler?” asked Ramya. The three girls remembered the words of Gomathy Ammooma* – there is a ghost of a guard dog that roams around in the estate at nights and howls whenever it finds strangers invading its space. It rips the intruders to pieces… – and the three shuddered at the thought. Fear gripped them and suddenly, Suja said “Let us leave. It is too late.” Divya too agreed to the suggestion and the three girls stood up and started running, leaving the half-eaten biscuits by the tree. During the run, Divya tripped on something and fell. Looking down she found that she had actually tripped on a toy car. This surprised her – a toy car in a place which is hardly visited by people – and since she was the most curious and adventurous of the three she called the other two and showed them the toy. Suja immediately noticed a few blood drops on the toy and was about to comment on that, when they heard a rustling sound. This time they heard it right behind them and it sounded like someone rolling over the dead leaves.

The girls went slowly, treading the leaves very cautiously lest they make any sound, to see who it was, Divya leading the way. The sight that met their eyes was terrifying. They saw a small boy had been severely beaten up and left to die. Suja also noticed that a big burly man, with a very handsome face was walking away, very fast from the scene of terror. The girls moved close to the boy, shook him hard, tried to call him. The boy didn’t respond to any of these. Suja heard again the rustling of the leaves, as though someone was walking, and told the others. They decided to leave, Ramya feeling bad that they didn’t help the boy. The little girls didn’t realize that they had been shaking a cadaver.

By then, all their parents had reached homes, managing to find some kind of transportation. All the three left to their own houses, cautioning each other to keep tight-lipped about what they saw. What probably they didn’t notice, especially Ramya was that they had left a very important piece of evidence there. In the rush to leave the place, Ramya’s id card had fallen down – she was still in her school uniform!

The girls were, obviously, questioned at their homes, but they were able to get away. The next morning, Ramya woke up late. As she was having breakfast, someone rang the calling bell. She didn’t pay much attention to it. But soon her mother came in, her face filled with rage, and in a very controlled manner asked her to wash her hands and come to the living room.

There, in the living room, Ramya saw a man clad in khaki shirt, khaki pants, and a cap on his head – a policeman, she said to herself. Scared, she stole a look at the long, thick moustache of his. That heightened her fear manifold – she had, up till then, see a policeman only in movies. He went near the child and asked her, “Mole*, did you go to the rubber estate yesterday?” She looked guiltily at him, then her mother and her father. Her mother’s face was set with rage and her father consoled her and asked her to tell the truth. Soon, Ramya was pouring out the entire incident.

The policeman took her and went to Divya’s and Suja’s houses, to get their versions of the story. Most of the things the three girls said more or less corroborated. But Suja was able to provide more descriptive information especially about the big burly man.

The girls were never told what exactly had happened on that night in that rubber estate, but got good scolding from their parents for venturing out into such dangerous places, that too in the dark. They themselves discussed it aplenty but were not able to reach any conclusion. The only thing that they were able to learn from the snatches of conversation that they picked from their parents was that one Narendran had been arrested. They assumed it must be the man they saw that night. Though they wanted to know more about the whole incident, their parents kept mum, and the girls didn’t have the courage to ask.

Their life continued with the usual games, fights, laughter and homework. But every time they see the rubber estate in the distance, they shudder with fear and wonder where that little boy is. They still don’t know that he is dead.


By Lakshmi A

*Trivandrum/Travancore - a small town in Kerala, India
*Chitta – Mother’s sister
*Ammooma – A term used to refer to any old lady
*Mole  - affectionate way of referring to a child