The Summer of '82 - Chapter 6

The path to the temple was a spooky one. The major path of the temple was covered with dry leaves while a clear ground was visible in a serpentine curve which indicated a trickle devotees who would visit it. The fear of snakes under the leaves were the reason we were told to walk on the clear path. The summer heat made the snakes come out of their holes and seek the shadows under the trees and the dry leaves around. A house in ruins donned the other side of the path. A huge house without a boundary wall. The leaves had fallen all around the courtyard. An old banyan tree stood in abundance of aerial roots reaching out to the ground at the far corner of the land with little stone statues of Gods and Godesses smeared with red on their forehead. The house had a strange effect on me. I drifted my path as I stared blankly at the tree. The wind moved the leaves on the ground in a pattern that had no structure. I stepped into the courtyard of the house not realizing that I was left behind all alone.

The house was in shambles. The wood under the tiles had wilted and seemed as if it would give away anytime. I doubted if anybody stayed in that house. There was a strong stench that polluted the air. All the windows were closed. A richly carved door with a brass lion handle was hidden under a layer of dust and eaten by termites. I prodded on the verandah. The walls had lost its color many years ago, it seemed. There were broken battens holding hanging electric wires as it hung out to a bulb under a wooden beam. As I slowly inched ahead, I noticed the window had a slight opening. The window was heavily framed with a wooden ornate grill. I inched myself close to the window and searched the openings if it could reveal the interior of the house. As I searched the window, I realized hot air being puffed on my shoulders. For a moment I froze, not knowing what to do. If I had to run, I would have to turn to the entrance of the verandah. There was a small opening right across, a few steps away, but it seemed too small for me to escape. The hot air started slowly to have a growl... and I shot to the little opening ahead. My judgement turned out to be right that the opening was small for me to escape. But I managed to scrape past it bruising my hand and my legs as I tumbled onto the courtyard below. The momentary shock had made my ear warm and I scampered through the dirty ground and ran. I ran into the belly of Namboodiripaad. Regaining my composure I ran out. I could not hear anything else except my own breath. As I ran back, I could see Kannan walking back. Seeing me, he was ecstatic. I ran towards him and then caught his hand and continued down to the temple. I guess he was confused and yelling, but i could hardly hear anything except my breath and the beats of my heart that were pounding inside me. We ran to the temple pond and sat there catching my breath.

As I calmed, things came back to normal. My ears cooled down, and my heartbeats sank into silence. I turned to look at Kannan who was staring at me.

‘Where did you disappear’ Kannan asked me completely furious ‘I was scared.’

‘I dont know how I went into that spooky house on the path’ i said, trying to justify myself. ‘I dont know how i reached there, it was like, i was pulled in there, and then as I entered the house i could feel someone breathing heavily over my shoulders and I ran and jumped out of a small window’

That is when i felt the pain on my elbow and knees. I looked at my elbows and it was scratched with a wooden splinter piercing my skin. I pulled it out and the sting emanated great pain. I stepped down to clean the wound with the water in the pond. As the water caressed my wounds a burning sensation passed through the body and I cried with my eyes shut, cringing in pain.

‘Did you see him?’
‘Who?’
‘Pranthan kuttan?’
‘Who is that?’

‘It is Namboodiripad’s youngest son. He is mad. He bites everyone he sees.’ He didn’t bite me, i thought to myself, and I was glad i was not bitten. I shook my head. ‘No, he didn’t. But i felt his breath over my shoulder.. ’
‘.. I know you felt his breath. I wish you had seen him. No one has seen him. He is tied to a long chain so that he doesn’t get out of the house.’

‘Tied??’ I don’t know if i felt bewildered or sorry for him.
‘Namboodiripaad doesn’t like anybody to go to his house. Pranthan Kuttan has bit so many people... and he is so strong it is difficult to pull him apart from his victim. The last time some one had gone was when Hamsa had gone to give back Namboodiripaads umbrella which he had forgotten in his shop and Pranthan kuttan bit his ear’

‘Bit his ear’ i was now scared.

‘Yes, the left ear of Hamsa you see is fake!’ Kuttan said pinching his left ear. Hamsa was the only grocery shop in the village and he had inherited from his father who had inherited it from his father.

‘No one goes into that house. You know there were ten deaths in that house, and all of them were not in the right way’
‘What do you mean?’ the pain had gone away, or probably i was used to the pain or probably I had gone numb of what I had just heard. Probably, it might also have been the fact of being scared to death of witnessing a madman at such a close distance.

‘Well, Namboodiripaad had ten children. Seven boys and three girls. Four of them were born dead. Later one girl fell into the well, one son had gone to the main road and was run over by a truck, one of the girl had hung herself from the ceiling, and one of them got swept away when he had gone swimming near Madakkeri Dam. One boy ran away when he was eight years old after he witnessed his sister hanging from the ceiling.’
He continued. ‘Nobody goes to that house. It is more haunted than the temple. Do you still want to see the ghost?’

I was not sure anymore. We decided to go back home. Our stomach was grumbling and as I got up, I realised I had excruciating pain on my left knee. With Kannan as a support we limped back home. We went past Namboodiripaads house, and it looke spookier than before. We hurried past the house and our fears were then lesser.

Namboodiri was in the verandah of our house when we entered the gates. He was with ammamma and in deep discussion with her but her attention diverted to us the moment we entered the gates. There was silence as i limped to the verandah. Ammamma looked at me and held my hand. She then twisted it to have a look at my elbow, which was bruised and had turned dark brown. Namboodiripaad left saying nothing, and ammamma took me to the bathroom and started applying dettol on it. She was silent all the while. I tried to break the silence. Out in the courtyard Kannan was playing with the custom made bat hitting a ball onto the blank wall.

‘Ammamma, why is pranthan kuttan tied with a chain?’

‘Were you scared?’ she asked as she took a cotton swab and wipped it on the wound. The pain intensified, and i cried out in pain.

‘I was’ I replied. ‘I thought it was the ghost in the temple.’

‘And I thought you wanted to meet the ghost in the temple?’

I was shocked. How did she know?

‘How did you know?’ I asked surprised.

‘Well, I am your grand mother, I know’ she replied with a sparkle in her eye. ‘And his name is Kuttan not Pranthan Kuttan. Pranthan means mad, and he is not.’

‘But Kannan said...’

‘In the evening we shall go and meet him. I want you to carry your Tinkle comics’ she said.

‘No, I won’t’ I was reluctant. I did not want to be bit by a mad man! And to give him my favorite comic books. I wouldn’t do that either. She applied Soframycin on the wound.

‘Keep it open, it will heal faster’ she said ‘and we will be meeting Kuttan today.’

‘No, ammamma. I wont. I dont want to be bitten by a madman.’ I went out and hugged her trying to persuade her to change her mind.

‘Son, I will be there with you. I wont let you be bitten by anybody.’ She persisted. ‘You will be fine, I promise you.’

When I told about my conversation with ammamma, Kannan fled. He remembered, he had something to be done at home and will see me the next day, if i was alive, he said.