Mrs Kaul loved her apartment on the ground floor of the building. It got a good amount of sunlight, and the bright paint of the apartment spread it even further.
The sunlight was the privilege of having a park in front. The park was a beautiful view, with grass, trees, the bushes and of course the Sun. It was always a pleasure to watch the flickering light of the Sun making its way through the moving leaves of the trees.
There was a park bench that could be seen from the drawing room window. It was right in front of it facing the other way. In winter mornings, Mrs Kaul would go out and sit there to enjoy the warmth.
One night things took an unusual tone. It was around 1 am. Mrs Kaul was not late to bed except if she came across a movie of her liking. When Mrs Kaul proceeded to close the drawing room curtains before proceeding to sleep, she was startled to the point where she almost let out a scream that had started but didn’t reach its potential peak.
Outside the window the figure of a man could be seen sitting on the bench. Mrs Kaul could see only his back. She stood for some time, trying to make sense of who it was, whether she should alert her son or husband. But it was a park, no restrictions on apartment residents to come here at any time.
Mrs Kaul quietly went to bed. She stayed awake for some time more before actually falling asleep. She was sure it was a one-time occurrence. But there the man was that night again sitting there.
Mrs Kaul was sure that this was not always the situation and no one came to sit here late at night, so this was something recent. Was this man trying to peek into the apartment, was he waiting for a victim, etc some of the movie influenced thoughts came to Mrs Kaul’s mind.
The man could not be seen the next night, the night after that Mrs Kaul didn’t check, believing the problem was solved, but yes you are right he was back again.
None of Mrs Kaul’s friends around had seen him, they lived in apartments from where the park couldn’t be seen.
Mrs Kaul after much thought and loss of needed sleep time, decided to tell her husband, her concerns. Mr Kaul paused reading the newspaper for a moment but he wasn’t surprised, he thought for a moment and said,
“It’s Mr Pulami from fifth floor, he has started writing a book on poetry and comes out here to think in silence”
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 