Nestled on a hilltop in a quaint village in Goa, studied a girl in one of the finest MBA colleges of the country. It was one of the most coveted and esteemed institutes to study in and applications for their flagship PGDM course exceeded over thousands every year. It was quite a feat to bag a seat in this course solely on basis of merit. However, she never felt it was an achievement of any sorts.
Over a game of "Never have I ever" her friends teased her asking "What is the wildest prank you have ever pulled off ?" Her response was a meek shoulder shrug. Tall and lanky, with a pair of glasses resting on the bridge of her nose, her hair ruffled as ever (due to the moist weather) she seemed like any other girl on the campus. Her hair was waist-length long and carried streaks of red giving an impression of an unruly mess even though she had just combed her hair before entering the common area of Hostel-5 in order to meet her friends.
Unable to answer the question convincingly and after having experienced a sense of disappointment on listening to the memoirs of her peers, she got up abruptly and decided to exit the hostel. Sounds of mirth and clings of beer bottles could be heard in the background.
She walked aimlessly towards the campus back gate kicking a bottle of beer en route. It rolled and rolled and she mindlessly followed its trajectory until it struck the foot of the of a lamp post just outside the gate and came to a halt. Damn! she exclaimed as if she had expected a more dramatic outcome and took a U-turn towards her hostel in order to call it a day.
A couple of kilometers in the direction opposite to the college at the foothill where the police station existed, a congregation of people had gathered around the central banyan tree.The tree in all its might was spread across a burgeoning space enough to cover the entire population of the village at any given point of time.While the elders were engaged in a seemingly interesting piece of gossip, the children were cheerfully hopping and somersaulting onto the aerial roots of the tree.
There were a couple of people gathered around one of the villagers who appeared to be in a state of shock.They cajoled him to speak but all efforts were in vain as he wasn't in a state to utter any words. His eyes were wide open with the pupils visibly dilated and he looked at a far fetched point on the horizon not paying attention to any of the questions raised by the villagers.The elders stationed at the outer edge of the commotion murmured and blamed some kind of black magic for this situation.Whatever the reason, it was evident that this man had witnessed something grave so much so that it left him dumbstruck thereafter.
Kusum woke up with a startle. She looked around and realised that she had overslept. She retrieved her cellphone from the folds of her bed sheet and noticed that it was ten to 12 pm already! She sprang onto her feet, dressed up in a helter-skelter manner and made a dash for her class at the auditorium. Flashes of the previous night interrupted her concentration - she was trying to understand the four stages of group formation in the Organisational Behavior class. She remembered how her friends laughed whilst pointing fingers at her. One of her friends had even rolled off the bed squirming with laughter and clenching his stomach while tears of joy emerged from his eyes.
Her attention was restored to the present by a flying chalk which zoomed across the tip of her right ear. The professor had made a second attempt to ask her a question which she had not acknowledged. In a moment of frustration, he instructed her to leave the class.Unable to process the reason for her being reprimanded she decided to obey the instruction instead. She gathered her belongings and left the class. It must have been the hangover, she convinced herself.
She proceeded towards the canteen while Kailash bhai waved at her fondly from a distance, instructing her to come and savour a cup of his patented ginger tea. This was her favourite part of the day. She picked up her glass and sat at her trademarked spot - the edge against the library wall that was a perfect spot from where one could admire the Sahyadri Hills in all its glory. During the monsoons, if lucky, one could also witness a perfect 180 degree rainbow nestled amongst a line of clouds against the backdrop of the mountains. She spent hours admiring the view until it turned dark and she was signaled by one of the security guards to return to the hostel.
For some reason she decided to take the long route today which meant she would exit from the front gate of the campus and walk along its circumference on a narrow tarred road which led to the back gate. From there her hostel was at a stone throw distance.
She exited the front gate and took a left turn to walk onto the tarred road. It must have been around 8 pm and it was pretty dark. She sensed a scooter approaching towards her. This was an unusual proceeding for a village which shuts down by 7 pm. The sounds of the whirling engine grew louder and louder. She expected it to be a zealous teenager who would have secretly ventured out with his father's bike in order to a take a quick ride and eve-tease some ‘modern' college girls who would gather every evening at the back gate for their daily dose of fresh air. She quickened her pace hoping to make it to the lamp post as soon as possible and cursed herself for having opted for this adventure at this hour.Instead of approaching her, she realised that the scooter throbbed and had come to a screeching halt.
Disappointed at the bad timing, the teenager tried to restart his bike but his attempt failed.The lamp post light flickered and he felt a sudden drop in the temperature of the air - all too unusual for the moment. He froze trying to fathom the course of events and while doing so one of the rarest sights was witnessed.
A girl approached him. She was dressed in white with her face barely visible as it was covered with her hair. It was so long that it covered not just her face but even her torso. She was walking towards him but her feet were upturned in the opposite direction making it seem absurd and an impractical occurrence itself. How is that possible? he thought.
He tried to kick start his bike feverishly now that his battery had given way. The lady continued to approach him and just when she neared him, he managed to start his bike and make a u-turn to race his bike at its mightiest in order to flee from the scene.
It all happened too quickly within a span of 5 minutes and by then Kusum had made it to the interiors of the campus and was walking towards her hostel. She thanked her stars to have safely escorted her and she vowed never to venture out at this hour of the day.
Next day, word of mouth spread quickly across the campus which was now brimming with stories so as to how a lady dressed in white was spotted, what her ulterior motives may have been and what would have transpired if she had managed to lay her hands on the teenager. Just like the movies, it was unclear so as to what happened to her and how she managed to disappear in a frame of 5 minutes. Rumor has it that when the teenager reached home, he couldn't speak a word. With the help of random hand gestures he managed to point at the lamp post from a distance but that's all that he could reveal. The villagers did walk until the lamp post in an attempt to unearth the course of events which which may have transpired. Random passersby mentioned a lady in white being spotted, however there was no further information to be added.
Kailash's tea stall was brimming with activity unlike the usual this evening. Infact he witnessed the highest number of footfalls ever since the college's flagship Fresher's night that year. Many flocked to him to understand if something like this was ever witnessed since the college was conceptualized. For a college with a set of students and management which changes ever two years, it was only Kailash and his tea stall which remained stationary. Nonplussed but equally concerned about the turn of events he mentioned that for a college which has witnessed some of the most vague events like students being attacked by Cobras & scorpions in their rooms to a helicopter randomly landing on its football ground, this by far was the weirdest event to have transpired as per the annals of the institute.
Kusum picked up her glass of tea walking past Kailash to her favourite mountain gazing spot while reassuringly smiling to herself and repeating "What is the wildest prank you have ever pulled off ?"
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