The Project

Friday March 9th: 5.40 am

“Mom, you worry unnecessarily, I will be okay”, said Nikitha as she packed her suitcase with clothes and necessities for two days.

“I have never heard of anything as crazy as this, what sort of project is this? Who comes up with such weird ideas? Why should you be going alone?” screamed her Mother.

Nikitha was too excited about her research project. It was something she always wanted to do. A special report no one had embarked on earlier and a girl, that too.

“What time is your train Nikki?” asked her mother, who by now had resigned to her daughter’s adventures.

“Leaves Secunderabad at 6.50, and Maa, I will be alright, you relax, it’s just one day, I will be back for dinner tomorrow” she replied, hugging her mother, who was now almost in tears.

The cab was waiting. She did one final check of her handbag for charger, power bank, mosquito repellent cream, pepper spray, and wet tissues. The ticket and cash were in the central compartment, zipped safely.

As she ran down the stairs to the waiting cab, she waved at her mother, who was now smiling… “My Nikki is so intelligent and brave”, she thought to herself, and waved back.

“Platform number 1 ki taraf jaana hai bhaiya”, she said, dumped her travel bag into the rear seat and jumped in.

She reached the station a half hour early, and took a stroll on the crowded platform. She spotted a book stall and stopped. She was not the newspaper reading kind, and hence picked up the latest issue of Femina. The cover had a picture of Sridevi, and she knew there would be lots of other interesting stories too. “It is going to be almost a 4 hour journey, and the magazine will ensure I don’t exhaust my mobile battery on music”, she thought.

The train arrived at 6.45,and there was jostling all around, as people with heavy luggage, trunk boxes and huge bedrolls were struggling to get into the compartments. Nikitha spotted her A2 coach, swiftly moved in and sat at the side window seat. People were still busy getting in, but soon the train was full, and started moving. She was happy to see a 6 year old boy sitting in the seat opposite to her. “Thank God, I don’t have to worry about some stupid old man trying to strike a conversation”, she exclaimed to herself.

She plugged in her earphones, played soothing Latino music on her mobile and closed her eyes.

A week ago…

Nikitha was walking across the first floor long corridor of the University’s famed heritage building. Her department was at the far end and she was pacing herself to reach in time for an important class.

“Ms. Nikitha”, she heard a familiar voice call out, and turned around to see Dr. Sandeep Sharma walking towards her.  “Good Morning Professor, I was planning to meet you after the Cognitive Psychology class”, she said. “I have some good news, we have identified a survey based project for you to undertake”, said the Social Psychology professor.

She was thrilled and exclaimed “Oh, wow, at last!”

“Meet me after your class, and we will discuss it in detail”, he added and walked ahead.

Nikitha was pursuing her Post Graduation in Experimental Psychology. She was brilliant in academics and one of the most popular students of the college. Having completed her graduation with a Gold medal, there were high expectations from her to top the University.

Though initially fascinated in exploring the psychological causes of crime and strategies to prevent it

by becoming a criminal psychologist, she chose to pursue Experimental Psychology. She was keen to apply experimental scientific methods to the study of human behavior. While her course required her to do psychological research in clinical, developmental, social and cognitive neuroscience, she chose Social psychology, with special focus on human response to the occult. Well, that’s where it all started, the persevering research on occult appearances.

Nikitha had a strange obsession for the paranormal; she did a lot of study and personally believed in the supernatural. Her professors detested her belief, but she continued her research on the paranormal and found solace in connecting them to human behavior. As part of her second semester project, Nikitha was to present a paper on human behavior to unusual situations. She chose to use this opportunity to pursue her interest in the abnormal.

She approached Dr. Sandeep Sharma who was a known students’ professor. Empathetic to their interests, he would ensure students pursued what they believed in. When Nikitha confided her choice of research paper, Prof Sharma was astounded, but promised to look into it, and he did. 

That afternoon, as an excited Nikitha walked into his large cabin, Prof Sandeep welcomed her with a beaming smile.

“So young lady, do you read Telugu?” he asked gesturing her to take a seat, even as he was searching some papers.

“I speak Telugu fluently, have been here in Hyderabad all my life, but studied in CBSE with Hindi as major” she replied. “I can actually read a bit of Telugu as well, learnt it to read cinema posters”, she went on.

“Oh, you watch Telugu movies, who is your favourite star” he asked.

“I watch mostly Mahesh Babu’s films, he is so dashing…” and she stopped.

“What’s his next blockbuster?” the professor asked casually, still rummaging through some newspaper clippings.

“Bharat ane…” she was interrupted. “Ah, look at this, it will interest you” he said and showed her a newspaper clipping of Eenadu, the Telugu daily.

She looked at it and then at her professor, with a blank face. He knew what it meant. “Ok, let me read it for you….”he said, smiling.

“There have been some strange occurrences in a village in Kaghaznagar Mandal of Komaram Bheem Asifabad district in Telangana. Many people have reportedly sighted a devil, and have graphically described it. The villagers, though scared, have a reason to believe that the devil is a resident of the place and visits to oversee them, offer suggestions and help.”

“Well, that is the gist of the brief report. I have spoken to the reporter who filed this and have also got some contact in the village. Would you be interested to visit and interview the villagers and ascertain their behaviourial changes post the sightings?”  said Dr Sharma, and removed his spectacles.

Nikitha was speechless for a moment, she just blurted out an excited ‘Yes’!

In the train

“Tea, Coffee, Cold drinks…” The loud voices of vendors inside the long-distance train broke her nap. She looked at her watch, it had been almost two hours since the train left Hyderabad. The air conditioning was quite effective and the couple of stations the train stopped at, didn’t disturb her.

The little boy in front of her was looking out through the dark glass by cupping his hands around his eyes. Most people in the coupe were either dozing or reading. She seemed to be the odd one, everyone else was booked for the 24 hour journey to the national capital, but her destination was just an hour and a half away.

She opened her travel bag and took out the disposable foil pack that had two sandwiches packed in it. “Hmm… that was a very heavy breakfast”, she thought as she began eating.

Flipping through the pages of her magazine, Nikitha was recollecting the words of Prof. Sandeep Sharma. “Stay at the house of my father’s friend - the retired Assistant Engineer, don’t venture out much, but for the evening meeting with the Sarpanch and the villagers, return home before dusk, carry internet dongle, meet the village youth at breakfast the next day”. Most of it was regular advice, but just one thing kept echoing in her mind “look out for strangers and strange occurrences”

It was almost 11.00, and the train was running on time, which meant she would be alighting at her destination in about 10 minutes. She stood up and put the travel bag on her seat, smiled and waved bye to the young boy who smiled and waved back.

11.10 am – Vempalli Railway Station

Nikitha was the only one to alight from her compartment, and the train stopped for less than 30 seconds.The almost deserted platform had a young, handsome station master waving the green flag to the train. At the far end of the platform about a dozen labourers alighted from the General compartment and crossed the tracks to the other side of station.

“Can I have your ticket please?” The station master queried.

Nikitha looked at the six foot tall man and thought “wow, looks like Siddharth Malhotra”.

“Ticket please”, repeated the station master.

“Er… here it is” she said, handed over the ticket and walked towards the exit. She turned back to have one last glance at the handsome hunk and thought “I’ll come early tomorrow and strike a conversation with the guy”.

Outside the station, she saw a ‘one-horse Tonga’ with a young lad of about sixteen or seventeen wearing a green trouser, a pale white dirty T shirt and a red towel tied to his forehead. There was absolutely no one else around. It seemed a bit eerie, but the bright morning and the breeze made it too pleasant to be perturbed.

“Where do you want to go Madam?” Asked the boy, who nonchalantly picked up her travel bag and put it in the back of the carriage. It was like she had no choice of travel – No Uber, Ola or autos. The only shop across the slushy road next to the station was closed, she thought “Wish I had some tea in the train”.

“I have to go to Srujanapura, near the Sarpanch office. Are you the only one to take me there? No motor cars or auto rickshaws?” Nikitha asked in an exasperated tone.

“Trust me Akka, er... can I call you Akka? He asked. She nodded in the affirmative. Nobody had addressed as elder sister, ever. “Akka, my name is Sathyanarayana, you can call me Sathy, and everyone here calls me that. No one comes to this place by train, you are a rare visitor”, he added.

Nikitha cooled down a bit and asked “So, how come you are here?”

“I come to the nearby temple every Friday and then wait here at the station for any travellers, I hardly get any customers” said Sathy.“Today is a lucky day, I am seeing someone for the first time in months, and also going to my village” he added.

 “So, how far is this place Srujanapura and how much will you charge?” Nikitha asked, as she stepped on the foot rest and climbed into the Tonga.

“It is about 10 miles from here Akka, we will take about an hour. I charge Rs. 300, but for you I will take 200, as I am getting an opportunity to go to home for lunch”.

As the Horse cart went on to the main road from the winding station pathway, there were shops on

either side, small dingy shacks selling household goods, groceries, vegetables and fruits. In about 500 metres, the road became deserted with the core town, on the opposite end. They had hit the state highway.

There were trees lining both sides of the road which made the travel soothing.

Sathy broke the silence with his query, “So, are you visiting Subba Rao garu’s house?”

Nikitha was taken aback, “How do you know that I am going to Subba Rao Sir’s home?” she asked.

“That is the only big house near the Sarpanch office, and you are coming from a big city, I assumed you were his guest, am I right?” said Sathy with a smirk.

“Ok, I am impressed. So what do you know of this place you live in, any recent developments?” she replied.

“Are you a journalist? Recently some reporters came and spoke to our villagers, they talked about some ghosts and wrote about it in a newspaper” he added.

Nikitha’s eyes brightened in surprise- it seemed like her survey had already started. “What do you know about it Sathy?” she asked, for the first time calling him by his name, and thought “need to befriend this guy”. “Have you seen the ghost too?” she asked.

“Looks like everyone in my village has seen the ghost, and are talking about it, except me”, he replied with a tinge of sadness in his voice.

“Hey, that’s okay Sathy, it’s not like you have missed meeting a celebrity or anything”, she said.

“He is as good as that, they all talk about him as some big celebrity, I don’t know why I have not been able to sight him, maybe I have to sleep more, and see him in my dreams”, Sathy laughed out loud.“Why are you asking me about ghosts and all, are you going to take his photo? Will you show me if you are?” he added.

“No, no I am not taking his picture, I am a student and will be writing about your village people’s reaction on sighting the ghost.” She replied.

Sathy turned back and smiled “please take my picture Akka”.

Nikitha screamed “look at the road and ride”.

“Ha ha, no problem, Basanti knows the road well, I don’t have to look and drive, like a motor vehicle” he laughed.

“Basanti, why such a name for your horse?” she asked.

“My father was a big fan of Hema Malini, he saw the movie Sholay a dozen times, so named our horse after the famous horse cart rider role she played” he replied.

Nikitha clicked a photo of a beaming Sathy with Basanti on her mobile phone.

Just then, the road forked at a junction and Sathy patted the horse thrice. It stopped under a huge

banyan tree on the left. Sathy explained “this highway leads to the neighbouring state, we will now be going by this left side road, another four miles”. Pointing to the opposite direction across the road he added, “There, that is a dhaba, if you want to buy anything, do it here, we don’t have big shops in our village”.

Nikitha jumped down from the cart, crossed the deserted road went to the dhaba. There was an auto rickshaw parked outside and a dark stout guy, with pock marks all over his face, and gruffly hair staring at her from it. He looked like a rogue.

The dhaba resembled a large Kirana store in a city, with not just food being served, but almost all items fit for a super market available. She picked up few Lays chips packets, couple of 2 litre Bisleri Mineral water bottles and some chewing gum. She paid in cash and got about 80 rupees change. She realized that was the only change left with her apart from the 500 and 2000 rupee notes.

“Bhaiya, can I get change for Rs. 2000 or 500, please” she asked the guy in the counter.

“Sorry Madam, we do not have change for that, I can’t help you”the dhaba guy replied.

Nikitha expressed her disappointment with a shrug and was about to leave, when he asked her “How did you come here, Madam”. She pointed across the road and said “by that vehicle”. At that moment the auto driver walked in front of the entrance and grinned at them. 

“Oh… okay, but beware of strangers madam, you seem to be from the city”, replied the dhaba guy.

She thanked him and returned to cross the road towards the Tonga, even as the auto driver continued to eye her. She felt uncomfortable.

Nikitha climbed into the horse cart, and without looking back asked Sathy to move.

They took the left turn and the road narrowed into a muddy terrain. She didn’t speak a word for the next ten minutes, still a bit anxious.

It was again Sathy who broke the silence with a casual quip, “what Akka, saw some ghost or something… you look worried?”

“No, nothing. How long will we take to reach?” she asked in a harried tone.

“We are almost there, just another 10 minutes Akka, don’t worry, I am there” replied Sathy in a comforting voice.

Nikitha smiled, however she continued to look back on the road, in case someone was following her.

12.15 pm: Srujanapura

The Tonga halted at the street corner abutting the only double storey building in the village. It was a small house in a large plot with trees all around. Nikitha alighted and asked Sathy if he had change for 500 Rupees.

“No Akka, I don’t have any money, give me whatever you have, I will take the rest when you return to the station” he replied.

“Thank you Sathy, here, keep this 80 rupees, I will be leaving around noon tomorrow, will pay you in full then”, she said and handed over the money.

He smiled and pointed at the large tamarind tree behind her host’s house and said, “There under that tree is my hut, you can call me if you require anything, I mostly sleep outside”, and left.

Just as she opened the gate to enter the house, she heard the noise of an auto rickshaw, and turned back to see the same roguish guy pass by the house, gazing at her with a dirty grin. The sight ruffled her yet again. 

Mrs. Subba Rao opened the grilled door, and invited Nikitha into a cozy drawing room.

“I am Lakshmi, Subba Rao garu’s wife, please sit down. Dr Sharma informed that you will be coming. Hope you had a pleasant journey”, said the lady, with a warm welcome.

“Yes, Aunty ji, I came by train and was driven here from the station by Sathy, that guy who lives behind your house”, replied Nikitha.

“Oh Pandu, he is a nice fellow. Do you want to freshen up and eat something?” Lakshmi asked.

“No aunty, I am not hungry. I have to make a few telephone calls and will have lunch later, around 1.30 pm”. “By the way, isn’t Subba Rao uncle at home?” Nikitha enquired.

“He has gone to the sweet shop at the corner, to get curd, and will be back soon. Let me show you to your room” she said and took her inside the living room.

It was quite a large room, which had a cot with cushioned bed and an attached bathroom to the left. There were two windows – one at the far end of the room and another to the wall on the right, both were open and it was quite breezy.

Nikitha thanked Lakshmi for the warm hospitality and said she would join her in half hour. She then pulled out her iPad and plugged it in for charging, took out the dongle and activated the internet. The first thing she did then was to call her mother, “Maa, I’ve reached here, and am fine. No problems at all”.

“You take care beta, I was worried, eat well and stay safe, bye”, her mother replied.

“Bye, Maa, love you” and she hung up.

She then opened WhatsApp to find a message from her friend Radha, “You crazy girl, where have been off to? You didn’t even tell me before going off to some godforsaken place” Radha replied.

“…and How did you know?”

“Dropped in at your place, Mom said you are off on some adventure to catch ghosts”

“Oh, Mom… you know na… overtly worried… I’m on a serious project”

“Oh! Okay.Come back alive! Try not to date the ghost ;) ”

“Oh, but what if he’s hot? Let me have lunch, and then I’ll call you” …and Nikitha ended the chat.

Next on the list was Madhavi… “Hey Mad, I reached this place. It’s a weird place, but cozy home of the hosts”.

Madhavi replied after 5 minutes: “Have you spotted any ghosts?”

“Spotted? I am here to meet the people who have”

“Don’t talk to them in your English, they probably don’t have dictionaries!”

“Of course not! Listen, forgot to tell Radha, she found out, but didn’t make a mess… talk to her, I’ll catch up with you guys in the evening”.

1.35 pm: Lunch

Subba Rao was a fine gentleman, he welcomed Nikitha at the dining table and enquired about her Post Graduate studies and the project. They chatted over lunch and he told her all about the ghost sightings by the villagers.

“Uncle ji, have you seen anything like a ghost? I mean is it true or some strange group hallucination happening?”

“Well, neither I, nor your aunty here has seen anything strange, we keep hearing these stories from our milkman, maid and the other villagers”, he replied. “You can get to hear and interview the villagers at 4.30 pm. I have arranged everything. They will assemble at the community hall and the Sarpanch will also be there”, he added.

After lunch, Nikitha went up to her room and checked for emails on her iPad. There were too many mails, but mostly inconsequential and the important ones weren’t urgent and could wait till Monday. She then lay down on her bed and tried to catch some sleep, the thoughts of the auto driver haunted her for a while. In a few minutes she dozed. About an hour later she was woken up by the noise of the window panes fluttering wildly in the wind. She got up to clamp them, but the hook was broken. She looked out of the window and found the deserted street, then walked to the window on the right to look at the rear side of the building.

She saw the tamarind tree and Sathy lying on a coir cot outside his hut. She waved at him, but he didn’t respond, he seemed to have had some liquor and gone fast asleep.

She looked at her watch and decided to have a shower and change into cleaner clothes for her meeting with the villagers.

4.30 pm: Community Centre

Subba Rao accompanied Nikitha to the Community centre. She was astonished to see about 25 people seated under the large tree in the middle of the ground. The Sarpanch welcomed her and briefed the villagers about the purpose of the meeting and her project.
The villagers were quite forthcoming in their response.

However, Nikitha wasn’t impressed. She felt most of them were only parroting hearsay stories and they were actually not a wee bit worried about the happenings. Her premise for the project – human behavior in adversity, especially on sighting the unknown – was it falling flat? She was lost in thought. The next hour passed with little interest.

They wrapped up at 6.00 pm, and Subba Rao and Nikitha walked home as she began thinking about the evening meeting and dreading the failure of her trip, and more importantly the project.

8.00 pm: Early dinner, early to bed.

Her hosts usually had an early dinner and retired to bed by 9.00 pm. Nikitha as well ate her dinner and went to her room. She was a late riser usually, but today was different. She had woken up at 5 in the morning and had a long day already. Tired she was, but sleep wasn’t on her mind.

She switched on her iPad and keyed in the details of her conversations with the villagers. There were hardly any findings. Disappointment was writ large, the psychology part in her report seemed totally blank.

She spoke to her mom for a few minutes and later engaged with Madhavi and Radha, simultaneously messaging them. The random chats slowly turned into gossip as she told them about the hot station master, about boys, crushes and a lot more… she had a hearty laugh, one that lightened her mood. Eventually around 11.30 pm her eyes began shutting. She switched off the lights and fell asleep.

The noises

It was just past midnight, when a loud howling noise startled her out of bed. Nikitha ran towards the side window and looked out to find only a faint flicker from the far off street light. She tried closing the window, but the noise got louder.

It seemed straight out of the werewolf movies. The howling of the wolf now seemed to shatter her ear drums. She closed her ears and eyes and sat motionless on the bed.

After about a minute she slowly released her hands from her ears. The sounds had stopped. She opened her eyes and slowly approached the window. She could hear the barking of street dogs, one of them was wailing in a muted tone, as if it were injured. She composed herself and decided to peep out of the window. In the fraction of a second, as she looked out, a human hand brushed outside the window, inches away from her face, with a loud grunting noise. She shrieked loudly and fell.

By the time Nikitha regained her senses and stood up, she was trembling. She rushed to the rear window and could faintly see Sathy sleeping on the cot outside, as in the afternoon. She shouted out his name, but at a distance of almost 300 feet, she could hardly be heard. She wanted to go down and wake up Subba Rao, but thought otherwise and returned to her bed.

She had to talk to someone. With a bit of courage she made a video call to the friend who expected her at that hour.

“Hey”… she said. 

“What happened, your face looks so pale!” said Shreya, her all weather friend,

“I’m… I’m scared. Don’t ….know what… to do” She was fumbling for words, her hands still shivering.

“Relax, good you called me, just tell me what happened, is there help around?”

“I don’t know if it is a ghost I saw, or some rogue playing a prank on me, but that’s it, I can’t wait to get away from this place” Nikitha answered.

“Drink some water, don’t panic, I will be on call as long as you want” Shreya replied.

…and then they talked for about an hour.

After the call, over the next two hours she tossed in bed, thinking about the strange phenomena, the auto driver and sleep simply wouldn’t happen.

Finally Nikitha garnered courage and decided to shut the window.She slowly pulled in the panes and as she latched it from inside, she heard someone knocking it from outside. There were three distinct knocks and then it stopped. She ran again to call for Sathy, but this time he was not to be seen. It was a bit cold outside and she knew he would have gone inside the hut to sleep.

Over the next few minutes she closed her eyes and prayed hard, fatigue overpowered fear and she passed out.

Saturday March 10th: 8.10 am

Nikitha woke up to a splitting headache and walked down to the hall, where Subba Rao and Lakshmi were having coffee, their second round of the morning. She stood there with tears waiting to roll out of her eyes.

“Good Morning Nikitha, hope you had a good sleep, come have some strong coffee”, greeted Lakshmi.
“I can see you had a really good slumber” added Subba Rao.

“Good Morning Aunty and Uncle.”, she replied controlling her emotions and sat down to have coffee. The aroma and the rich taste had its effect.

She started feeling better, and the thought of the return journey back home actually brought a smile on her face.

She stepped out and stood near the gate, and abutting the compound wall of the opposite house was the same auto with the now familiar 1111 number. She decided to skip the breakfast outing and had idlis at her host’s place.

11.50 am: The return

Nikitha had a quick bath, readied her bags, and waited in the ground floor drawing room. As Subba Rao and Lakshmi bid her a happy return journey, she touched their feet, sought blessings and thanked them again for their hospitality.

Sathy, wearing a bright blue T shirt, stood beside the cart parked under the large banyan tree at the street corner. He had the usual welcoming smile. Nikitha hopped into the cart and even as she heard the sound of an auto rickshaw veering, ignored looking back.

She plugged in her earphones and turned on some music. The back curtain was drawn down as she chose to shut her eyes and relax.

As they hit the highway, Sathy spoke. “Want to pick up some water bottles or something Akka?”

“No, I am good, let’s reach the station”, she replied.

There was no further conversation. As they entered the compound of the railway station, Sathy reminded her “Akka, you owe me Rs. 200 of yesterday too”. “Yes I remember Sathy, let me buy the ticket and then I’ll give you the change” she said.

1.00 pm: Vempalli Railway station

Sathy parked his cart under a neem tree, at a distance from the station building. Nikitha strode in, hoping to see the hunk Siddharth Malhotra. The train from Delhi was to arrive at 2.12 pm and she had over an hour. The station master’s room was empty, but for a little boy playing with a ball. An old man walked in from the platform and asked her. “Yes madam, how can I help you?”

“Where is the young man from yesterday? I need a ticket to Secunderabad by Telangana Express”, she replied.

“I am the station master here, and have been for the last 27 years. I can tell you there is none else here apart from me. Also, Express? No such train halts at this station.” He answered.

“What? I came here yesterday by the same train from Secunderabad and…” she was interrupted. “Can I see your ticket Ms…?” he asked.

“Well, I gave it to that handsome young station master yesterday”, her voice turned worried and she looked inside the room and seemed to recognize the little boy.“That boy, that little boy travelled with me yesterday in the train, he was sitting in the seat in front of me”, she was almost screaming now.

“Madam, he is my grandson, and he has not travelled in a train the past 6 months. Besides, yesterday he had his primary exam at school” he replied.

“Well, I need to go to Secunderabad, and you have got to help me Sir” she was almost in tears, couldn’t believe what was happening.

“You will have to go to Sirpur Kaghaznagar by auto, it will take 40 minutes. From there you can catch the same train”.

A confused, scared, tired, hungry, and emotional Nikitha didn’t know what was going through her and stepped out of the station. The same Auto driver was standing beside the 1111 vehicle.

She was now furious, and screamed at him “Why are you following me, where is the Tonga and Sathy?”

“Tonga? Sathy? Madam, you have been travelling with me since yesterday and I have seen no horse carts in this state for almost 15 years”. What little colour remained in her face, had drained.

Exasperated, Nikitha opened her phone 'Gallery' to check the picture, of Sathy and Basanti, she had clicked... there was just a blank white screen.

“Akka, Can I drop you back in Kagazhnagar, now?” Pandu asked in a humble tone.

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Pics Courtesy: Internet