Be Connected - Kalai Selvi Arivalagan (macos ebook reader .TXT) 📗

Arun it was always a wonderful experience to drive on the National Highway 45 after sunset.
It happened during one of his trips to Chennai. On the glass panes before him, he could see words appearing one by one and blinking at him.

“It wont b long, b4 i get u by ma side & jst hold u, tease u, squeeze u. Tel u whtz been on my mind.”

As there was a heavy drizzle, he switched on the wiper to clear the water drops on the window panes. After every wipe, the water drops formed into words. Arun never had such an experience. He looked at his colleague who was sitting near him.

‘Ram, look at the wiper.’

‘Yes, nothing unusual.’ His colleague replied to him casually.

‘I can read words on the window pane. Every time the wiper erases them, but they appear again and again.’
‘Something strange’, his colleague glanced at him with a surprise.

Arun murmured to himself. When the drizzle stopped, the words stopped appearing on the window pane.

Usually Arun’s seat behind the wheels would be warm always. During rainy seasons that warmth would be comfortable for him. It saved him from a cold shiver while driving outside the city.

That day it was different. Arun could feel a blanket of cold air around him. His nerves from his head to toes suddenly went rigid and he could feel a numbness surrounding him. Arun could not tell what was happening to him.

Something kept his mind blocked with flooded thoughts. This made him miss a speed breaker on the way. Just few meters away from the speed breaker, he applied the brakes. This sent a jerk till the end of the bus, and even the people who were seated at the backseat felt the shock.

A shudder went down the spine and jerked Arun. A lunch box flew from the hands of a girl and fell on the engine cover. The lid of the lunch box opened and splashed the gravy on his uniform. Pods of garlic from the gravy fell all around his seat.

‘Arun, stop the bus.’ His colleague shouted at him. Arun stopped the vehicle at the road side. He gripped the steering wheel with his shivering hands. For a few seconds he closed his eyes and tried to relax.

‘What happened?’ Arun gave a blank look at his colleague.

‘First, drink this water.’ He waited for Arun to drink the water.

‘Are you alright now?’

‘Yes.’ Wiping away the streaming sweat on his face with the towel, Arun started the bus. Whatever that happened a few minutes ago shocked him. And he felt it might take another one or two hours to come out of the shock.

Chapter 4

Arun looked at his watch. It showed ten past thirty minutes. Except for five to six passengers, the bus was empty. The night breeze blew through the opened windows smoothly and made him shiver. Desperately he wished to reach home soon and cuddle on the soft bed completely covered with thick bed sheets.

Moments driven in silence made him feel low. For no reason, he felt restless and unhappy at heart. When Arun drove the bus into the shed, the shed looked full with parked vehicles and so he went to the rear end of the shed. Unusually on that day, the rear end of the shed looked dark and gloomy.

The lights at the corner on that part of the shed were not glowing, but mild rays of full moon peeped into the shed through the slits on the tin roof. Arun could sense the scrambling foot steps of rats and bandicoots through the space under the parked vehicles.

Arun had gone for long night trips. He never felt scary and nothing had ever happened to take his wits out. But on that day, he felt uneasy and restless. The previous night’s scary experience lingered still deep inside him. Suddenly it brimmed to the surface and made his heart palpitate faster.

Arun started to sweat profusely and with struggling hands he wiped his face. Instead of feeling warmer he felt colder. Arun felt the invisible presence of someone over there and as a natural instinct he walked away taking big strides and came out of the shed.

The watchman who sat near the gate greeted him with a big smile.

‘Hello, Arun, what’s happening? You look pale and white.’

‘Don’t know. I am ok.’

‘I feel something wrong with you. Come and meet me tomorrow evening. I will pray for you.’

‘Thanks. But I am alright. No need to worry. Good night.’ Arun walked inside the cloak room to get his lunch box and joined his colleague who was waiting for him at the office.

After yesterday’s experience, Arun’s colleague did not want to leave him alone. He accompanied Arun till he reached his home safely.

‘Never leave things untold.’ With a chuckle his friend read the words on the ad board.

‘I don’t have anything to tell you now.’ Arun replied him back with an irritated tone.

‘Oh, but in my heart I feel something is there for you to tell.’

‘If I have anything I will tell you tomorrow. Now leave me to sleep in peace.’

‘Sure, unless you get messages popping in even in your dreams.’

Without replying back, Arun jumped down from his friend’s bike and banged the door loudly for his mother to open.

‘See you tomorrow. Leave others to sleep in peace.’

Without giving Arun time to reply back, he left the place immediately.

As his colleague told Arun, Arun could not sleep in peace on that night. He kept tossing on his bed till 3 am and slept soundly till 9 am in the morning.

When he woke up from his bed, he could see his mother restlessly walking here and there.

‘Arun, brush your teeth and come fast.’

‘Ma, what is happening here?’

‘You get up first. If you can take your bath, it will be fine.’

When Arun came back after ten minutes his mother called him from the front room.

‘Arun, come here.’

Arun saw an old lady sitting in the front room. Arun recognised her. She was the same old lady who would always come to their home to pray when Arun or anyone in the house was sick. In addition to visiting the doctor, his mother would call the old lady and pray for quick recovery.

The old lady was an ardent worshiper of the local deity. If she prayed and offer the holy ash to the person who was sick, it chased the illness away within a short time. She would pray for all types of problems and his mother believed her strongly.

The old lady asked Arun to sit before him. When he sat before her, she took the plate filled with holy ash and started to recite some slogans in Tamil that invoked the blessings of the local deity. She asked his mother to light the camphor in the middle of the plate.

For sometime her right hand fingers went in circles on the holy ash. She started slowly but after a few rounds her fingers went faster. She continued to do the same till the camphor burned away. Then, she took some holy ash from the plate and applied it on his forehead.

‘You can go.’ After Arun left the front room, the old lady looked Arun’s mother.

‘Nothing to worry, some evil spirit was following him for the past two days. Ask him to apply this holy ash when he goes for work. He will be normal in another two days.’

‘Ma, do you believe all these things?’

‘I don’t mind even if you don’t believe. But I want you to apply this holy ash before you go for work.’

‘Whatever it may be, for your sake, I will do so.’ Arun replied his mother with his usual smile.

Chapter 5

Neena’s face reflected on the right-hand side-view mirror. It looked as if a beam of light rays just came and struck on the base of the mirror. The evening breeze softly rustled on the neatly pinned folds of her saree and gave him a glimpse of the narrow strip unhidden between her fitting blouse and her thin waist.

Her thin waist reminded him of the hour-glass shaped drum called Damaru or Udukkai or Uddukku. Udukkai is a small drum which is about one foot long. The middle part of the drum, which is called waist, is narrow.

The folk singers in Tamil Nadu used Udukkai during their oral narrative. It is even used by the fortune tellers and priests in the village temples when they invoke their favorite deities or spirits to drive away the evil spirits. The Udukkai acts as a talking drum which can communicate messages to the spirits to drive away the evil.

The Udukkai is also believed to have magical powers which can give spiritual power to the performer when he foretells the future. Only men play this instrument, as the instrument is believed to possess mystic powers. The instrument has two small strings with knotted ends. The drum is held between the thumb and the forefinger. It is rolled from side to side as the knotted ends of the strings strike the centre of both the sides alternatively and produces rhythmical notes.

Neena’s narrow hour-glass shaped waist invitingly attracted Arun’s attention on that day. His mind silently compared it to the details he knew about Udukkai and this made him smile to himself.
Though Arun thought no one noticed his secret glances toward Neena, one day she caught him looking at her.

Like soft tendrils struggling in the air to get a hold and attach itself, Arun’s secret glances pitched Neena to an invisible hold that made her feel relieved at times.

‘Some one is still there in this world to appreciate me and my features.’ With a sigh, Neena breathed heavily. The days whenever she traveled along with him made her day and unknowingly developed affection toward his presence.

Days rolled on without any thing specific. Both of them were hesitant to speak their minds out and it went on like a silent mime. Every gesture they understood and their minds started to incline toward each other.

Sometimes, Neena would wonder how he could make her experience heated flushes and cold chills simultaneously and let her sweat in the evening breeze.

The impact of seeing him once again hit her like a lightening bolt. She felt damp in her hands and her legs felt weak. She struggled to balance and felt dizzy all at once.

Neena could feel his secret glance while she climbed down the bus and stepped onto the road. She reached home as if in a trance.

After washing her face, she lighted the Kuthuvillaku in the pooja shelf and then prepared some tea for her. Sipping her tea, she looked around the room. Unusually the house looked silent. The television was not switched on and her mother sat busy in the corner of the room cleaning the leaves of the greens she got for cooking. Neena immediately understood why it was so. The group of people who came there last week must have sent a negative reply. For her it did not look