Adventures of Little Babu IV

The world of little Babu was not composed of myriad complex emotions. All that came later with maturity, life at that age was simple and very basic; fear, awe, happiness and a sense of guilt and a couple more like strong possessive sense. It always filled little Babu with wonder when in the morning he saw thousands of birds, some in formation, some solitary and some crisscrossing the sky; all flying away from the rising sun. This would go on for perhaps half an hour or may be an hour. This relentless flying filled the sky with birds in V formation now sharpening like an arrow and now blunting into wavy form raising a cacophony with their chatter. The same routine was followed in the evening only this time they will be flying away from the setting sun. Curious questions arose in his ahead about these birds but as already told before, it was not little Babu’s wont to seek answers from others rather cook up an explanation himself.

The thorny Ber tree was where they played “Jhaad Bander” even though the tree was thorny they had become adept at climbing up on branches and jumping from there to throw away the short stick from the circle below.  Once Shubhakar casually mentioned that he saw a ghost circling the tree at night, little Babu, incredibly gullible that he was, absorbed the information as the gospel. Thence on his summer nights, sleeping outdoors, became worrisome so much so that one night he actually believed he saw a dark silhouette circling the tree and upon turning towards him disappeared. 

One after noon there was some buzz about a mad man being brought over to MI room. (MI – Medical Investigation, kind of dispensary for minor treatment). MI room was not too far from his house although tucked away among a cluster of trees near the boundary wall. MI room was the place where he got his shots for Small Pox, Cholera etc. therefore it was not a likable place. The gang was raring to go and have a look at this mad man, his own masochistic streak egged him to get into trouble. So, they all trudged along gingerly hiding behind trees. One thing about which everyone was certain that this mad man was extremely violent person. 

When the gang neared the MI room, a small but long shed like building with sloping roof, hiding behind the foliage and tree trunks little Babu saw a very fair complexioned, slender man wearing only white pajama, chained to a metal cot outside the MI room. The man was not very strong but the raw energy and violence emanating from him was debilitating. He was growling with low guttural sound like a wild animal and then suddenly charged with humongous energy raise his chest high like a bow and bring it down with raw power so that cot itself would jump in air. The sheer power of that spectacle rattled one of them to shriek in terror exposing their presence there. Immediately a few members of the staff chased the kids away. But the image of that man in just the pajama exuding inhuman power got permanently etched in a deep recess of little Babu’s memory.