From the Other World

The night was silent, as silent as nights in the cities can be. The sky had a layer of smog covering most of the stars. The moon was in a waning crescent.



Something moved in the dark very quietly, there was no sound of steps, or brushing against the walls or anything else. The steps were very focussed and calculated. The shadows moved in reaction to the movement and then it was gone. The silence was not disturbed but then something happened.



A slightly yellowish, warm white beam of light blasted through the darkness, making its presence felt on everything it touched. The light was from a torch and the torch was held by Mrs Gujral. She had also slowed down her breath to try and hide her presence. There was no light bulb on this side of the covered terrace for some reason only known to Mrs Gujral herself.



Mrs Gujral moved the torch to throw light around and looked through her old spectacles as if anything out of the ordinary was revealed. As the beam of the torch and Mrs Gujral’s eyes focussed on the right, there was movement on the left.



“I know you are there,” said Mrs Gujral, “All I ask for, is to stop haunting my house. There is no one here but me”



There was no sound of any form, as Mrs Gujral waited for a response and then suddenly a cat passed through the beam of the torch light and then it was gone.



Mrs Gujral took a breath of relief and walked back inside.



Mrs Vasudha Gujral lived alone. Her son and his wife had to go to another state for work purposes. They would not be back before a month. Mrs Gujral hadn’t lived with her husband for the past four and a half years when his drinking habit got worse, often being accompanied with words which one should rather refrain from speaking if the intention is to prolong a healthy marriage and not end it all of a sudden.



Mrs Gujral was not very positive when it came to cats.



“Why what did a cat to you?” asked Mrs Kamble, with whom Mrs Gujral often sat in the evening to have tea



“It’s like they are always communicating with another world. Always moving around with focus on things we literally can’t see,” said Mrs Gujral



“But that is their nature. You cannot seriously think that there is another world and this sweet little animal is communicating with it,” said Mrs Kamble



“I don’t know, I just don’t feel easy around them,” said Mrs Gujral



One would think cats wouldn’t want to go near someone like Mrs Gujral but it wasn’t so, they often visited her house, they could be seen on the boundary wall, in the compound, on the terrace and sometimes when the terrace door was left ajar, a cat would occasionally step in.



“They have been told to make me lose my sanity,” Mrs Gujral told Mrs Kamble one day



“Really? I mean why you, an old woman, shouldn’t they be targeting someone younger?” said Mrs Kamble with a smile



“You all think this is a joke… One day you will see that I am right about everything,” said Mrs Gujral



We are still waiting for the day Mrs Gujral mentioned. The cats in the area have become less than before, then again, it’s the same with birds, squirrels and other animals. I am just imagining that Mrs Gujral who is completely confined to her house now due to age, must be thinking the other world has lost interest in her.

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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