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Gopu And The Ghost - Part 3

Discussion in 'Stories (Fiction)' started by Rrg, Dec 3, 2018.

  1. Rrg

    Rrg Gold IL'ite

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    Dear All,
    Greetings!
    Many of you might have read my earlier short stories, "Gopu & the Ghost".

    Re: A peep into the world of ghosts!

    Aththai (m)adi ........

    The setting for present story, remains the same, but the main characters are Gopu & Sundu (another neighbour of ours)
    With your permission, I propose to take off from where the earlier story ended.
    As usual exaggeration guaranteed, built up on the main incident.
    So, is being posted under fiction.
    Thanks!



    Gopu and the ghost - Part 3


    It was annual vacation time for schools - closed for nearly two months. Nothing much to do but to play with children in the neighbourhood.
    “Is Gopu there?” Sundu was about to ask standing outside Gopu’s house, when he found him rushing out of his house, with his patti (grand mom) close on his heals brandishing a visiri kattai (vintage hand fan).
    “Run, run for your life. The kurali is chasing” he dragged Sundu along with him and ran.
    “This kuttychatan of our house. Always upto some mischief. You come back and see what I do to you, badava” Sundu could hear Gopu’s patti shouting after him. Without understanding what it was all about, Sundu also ran along with Gopu.
    (badava: It is kind of a slang in Tamil. It is usually used towards only male children (not at girls) who are mischievous, to scold them dearly. It is not an abusive word and it is normally used by elderly people only. It can be roughly translated as ‘naughty or sweet rascal’.)
    For all those who are new to Gopu, here is an intro:
    Gopu was Sundu’s neighbour, when he was in elementary school. He was about three years elder to Sundu. Even though average in studies, he was an extremely intelligent and worldly-wise character. No problem was big for him to handle. He had a solution for anything & everything. Highly mischievous and had impressed me as a friend to lean on in case of difficulties. Sundu had developed a great admiration for him – kind of a ‘hero worship’ in those days.
    He was very much drawn to paranormal subjects right from an early age. For young boys in that area, he was sort of a guru in many matters including ghosts.
    “Why was your patti chasing you out of the house, calling you kuttychatan?” Sundu enquired.
    “I will tell you. Before that what are the types of ghosts that you know of?” Gopu asked.
    “All that what you taught only - raktha kattery, kollivai pisasu and mohini pisasu. Why do you ask?”
    “Those ghosts are very minor ones - ‘jujubies’ when compared to kuttychatan and kurali pei, you know. First you need to know about these superior ghosts for your better understanding of why patti called me names and chased. Would you like to know?”
    “Yes, yes”
    “First let me brief you on my favourite Kuttychatan. It is a male genie of the size of our thumb. Very difficult to locate. But, if you could somehow get it to serve you, nothing is difficult for it to accomplish. It can do wonders. It is very loyal to its master so long as it is well taken care of. It is highly mischievous and playful. If you ask for a fruit from America, it will fetch it for you in a jiffy. But, once called you need to always give it some work till you send it back with sumptuous food or varieties of fruits in good quantities or otherwise shall consume the person who called it.
    I have managed to secure a kuttychatan with the help of my tantric guru, who lives in deep forests. It can take any male form. In fact, during my last annual exams I sent it for writing my exams, while I was playing outside. It went in my disguise and wrote the exam, you know” Gopu said.
    “ Did it er you pass?” Sundu asked sincerely. Gopu was not pleased at such irrelevant questions.
    “Don’t interrupt me with such silly questions. Do you want to know about these ghosts or not?” he demanded.
    “Yes, yes” Sundu nodded.
    “Then listen carefully. Kurali or kurali pei as many call it, is a female genie. Same size as kuttychatan. Possess almost the same qualities. It lives on top of palmyra trees. Also, very difficult to locate. You must lure it with something nice to eat and catch hold of it while it is eating. You can control it only by fixing a nail on its head. It won’t be loyal to you even if you take good care of it. It would always be looking for escape routes. Unlike kuttychatan it will continue to stay with its master, till such time the nail remains fixed on its head. It can also take different forms.
    For any onlooker, it could even hide the real master from their eyes and present itself as the master. The moment you take the nail out of its head, it would give you a solid slap and fly away to its abode. You can use this genie for any errand and it will complete any hard work in no time. But, it is very weak in maths. You can’t send it for writing maths exam. Like ladies, it will not forget anything offensive that anybody had said or done anytime in the past. Once it becomes free, it will go after them and settle scores with a vengeance. This is a major difference with kuttychattan, who is always playful and forgets most of the things done in the past, just like men. Kuttychatan and Kurali don’t like each other. They always fight, if they ever come across each other.”
    “Any questions so far?” Gopu asked like a professor.
    “Yes. Is kuttychatan good at maths?”
    “Not very good, but ok. Why do you ask?”
    “You see, I find my lessons very boring. More so maths. If only you could get me one, perhaps I could use it for my maths exam at least. Also, I would like someone todo my homework regularly.”
    “OMG! Do you think getting kuttychatan is that easy? First, you need to collect one litre of fresh milk from three animals, of which one must be an elephant. The other two can be any animal other than goats, cows, camels, buffaloes or donkeys. Then you need to collect roots of three specific and rare trees available only in dense forests. Then you need a piece of top portion of the skull of a fresh male corpse. The roots and the skull piece need to be boiled in the mixed milk of the three animals, till the skull and the roots absorb the entire quantity of milk and still remain dry. They are to be taken out then and burnt to ashes.
    Add just first three drops of your first urine of the morning to the ash and make it a paste. Apply this paste on your forehead and repeat the kuttychatan mantra one lakh times. Only then the kuttychatan will appear. You need to appease it with lots of fruits and request it to be your assistant. If it likes you, it will agree. Otherwise it will slap you and go away.”
    Sundu was astounded and asked” How did you manage it?”
    “It was tough, but my tantric guru who resides in the forest helped me out. Luckily for me he got milk from a lioness and tigress to which I added the elephant’s milk from Parthasarathy Temple elephant. The guru also gave the roots of the specific trees and the skull piece was provided by my KuduKuduppandi friend. For fruits, I took it to the near by fruit shop and asked it to eat whatever it wanted. With that it had become my friend. Only I can see it. It will not be visible to others you see. Otherwise I would have shown it to you”
    “Gopu, you are amazing. But, how did you milk the Parthasarathy Temple elephant? I thought it was a male”
    “You doubting Thomas. Will you please keep quiet? I got it from the mahout. Perhaps he gave me the milk of the elephant’s mother that he had kept for feeding the son elephant. If you want to learn more about the genies better don’t cross question me, understand” he reacted sharply. Sundu nodded his head.
    “Do we need milk from a tigress and lioness only?” Sundu asked.
    “Good question. Now you are talking like a bright student. I am happy. You see, the more ferocious the animals are, the stronger kuttychatan you get. If you use a cat’s and dogs milk the kuttychatan you get will be too mild. It can’t do even half the things that mine can do. So better to go for more ferocious and strong animal’s milk. However if you can’t, you can settle for a strong race horse (not the cart pulling ones) and a giraffe, zebra or rhino instead.”
    “I think I will manage without a kuttychatan for the time being. Now tell me why your patti chased calling you names?”
    “You see, yesterday, my friend KuduKuduppai, came asking for some old torn clothes. My patti sent him away saying that there were no torn clothes to spare in our house. I felt bad. So, I asked my kuttychattan to get me a torn saree of patti. That fellow, assumed my form, took a blade and was busy tearing a 9 yard saree of my patti, that was put out for drying, when patti noticed it. She started chasing the kuttychatan in my form, but it coolly disappeared. Patti found me standing there and chased me out instead. I find my patti getting aggressive at me for nothing nowadays. I think some kuralipei has taken her form or got into her and making her behave rudely towards me due to my closeness to kuttychatan. I should somehow drive the kurali out of the house. Would you care to help me on this mission?”
    “Yes I will. But, hope no harm will come either to me or patti”
    “None whatsoever. I stand guarantee” Gopu assured.
    Next afternoon, Gopu brought two big scissors, one for Sundu and one for him. They were to cut Patti’s hair very short when she was deep in her siesta, without disturbing her sleep. Gopu then wanted to shave off the top of her head and feel for any nail there. His idea was to pull the nail out of her head and release the genie from inside his patti. He was confident his friend kuttychatan will protect him from the Murali’s slap. Sundu didn’t understand a thing of this paranormal operations but went along with Gopu, his hero.
    They both went in to Patti’s room, who was fast asleep. Despite her age, patti had copious hair on her head, flowing upto her hips. They managed to cut her long plait off first and trimmed the hair on the sides, without disturbing her even a bit. Then, Gopu was about to shave the hair on top of her head, when his mother entered the room. She was shocked by what she saw. She shouted at and charged to beat him with a stick. Meanwhile patti woke up by the shouts and screamed, looking at her plaited hair lying next to her. The room was full of cut hair bits like a barbershop. Gopu ran out, dragging Sundu along shouting, “It was not me, it is the work of the chatan, chatan and only chatan”. They ran away to Sundu’s house and hid themselves.
    Sundu’s mom could guess that there was something wrong with the way they were behaving and questioned them. Sundu spurted out the truth. Her reaction was funny. She was trying to suppress her laughter when she heard of Gopu’s mischief. But, she didn’t like Sundu being a part of such stuff. She took him aside and warned him with dire consequences in case he got involved in any such mischief in future. Gopu went back to his house after an hour or so.
    In the evening, Sundu’s mom took him to Gopu’s house for apologising to patti for his role in cutting her hair. There they saw a Gopu happily sitting in his Patti’s lap and eating a murukku. Patti’s head was fully tonsured and she had covered her head with her saree, as old widows do, in those days. Sundu’s mom apologised for his behaviour that afternoon and made him prostrate before patti.
    “No Vembu, the kids are innocent. It is my late husband who was responsible. For a few days now, he had been coming in my dreams and was suggesting my shaving off my hair, as his mother used to do. I was resisting as I didn’t want to lose my long hair. This afternoon, after cutting my hair, only when Gopu ran out shouting ‘It was not me, it is the work of thatha, thatha and only thatha’ did I realise who the culprit was. Perhaps my husband desired it so badly that he got into the kids to do it. No harm heeding to a dead man’s wishes I thought, called the barber home and got my head fully tonsured. Why scold these kids who were mere pawns? In fact, I feel better without hair on my head. It is very cool and no need to comb regularly you see” patti laughed.
    Gopu came out with Sundu. “I have checked thoroughly. Luckily no nails on Patti’s head. Now that she is bald, we can notice if some nail appears also. By the by, did you notice the chamatkar (miracle) performed by my kuttychatan? You know very well that I ran out shouting it was ‘chatan’ who did it, but he made patti hear that as ‘thatha’ who did it. Very smart, no?”
    Sundu wished he also had a kuttychatan for himself, but wondered asto where to go for those three milks, roots and skull piece?
    ‘Some people like Gopu were lucky to have the right connections. That’s why he is hailed a hero’ he told himself.
    “Gopu, why don’t you ask kuttychatan for help in getting the ingredients for me?” Sundu pleaded.
    “Don’t worry, I will do something about it. You are my dear friend and I don’t want you to be disappointed. You come to my house’s terrace tomorrow sharp by 12.00 noon, with your early morning urine” he said.
    Sundu was there sharp at 12.00. Gopu brought milk in a vessel claiming it to be a mixture of an elephant’s, horse’s and a donkey’s.
    ‘For an emergency it’s ok’ he said. He also had cut root pieces of some plants and also a small box of some black greasy substance. He claimed that he gotp it from the kudukuduppai, after giving him patti’s torn saree and that it was nothing but a skull piece extract.
    “You keep your urine sample. It is needed only at the fag end. While I boil these here, you better watch out for intruders coming up. Some kurali may come to spoil our pooja. Be careful” he said.
    When he was about to boil them all in the vessel on a stove, Sundu heard Gopu’s mother coming up. The speed at which she was climbing up the stairs told him that ‘not everything was right’. He just ran and jumped over the parapet wall dividing their two terraces and hid behind the parapet.
    Gopu’s mother saw the milk vessel and the stove. She caught Gopu by his hand and demanded “I am looking for milk and stove in the kitchen and what are they doing here?”
    “Oh nothing. I was only teaching Sundu to boil the milk”
    “And what is my kajal box doing here? Were you teaching him how to apply kajal to his eyes?” She gave him a tight slap.
    “No mom. Leave me. Kurali is attacking me. Om hreem kuttychattan save me” shouting he tried to wriggle out. She caught hold of his shirt’s color.
    “What’s this kuruli uruli business? Yesterday itself I should have punished you when you cut patti’s plait. You escaped due to patti’s interference. Today this. It’s becoming too much. You are spoiling Sundu also and his mother is complaining about it. Let me give you a sound thrashing that you will remember through-out your life.”
    She bent down to pick up a stick to beat him. When she straightened up there was no sign of Gopu. He had vanished leaving only his shirt in her grip. She realised that he had opened the buttons from bottom up and the color button the last and slipped out.
    Later that evening Gopu came looking for Sundu.
    “What happened when your mother came up to the terrace?” Sundu asked.
    “Oh that! It was not my mother after all. It was a kurali, in my mother’s disguise, trying to stop me from calling another genie for you. In a way it was good you ran away. Otherwise, I might have found it difficult to protect you from the genie, you see. I uttered my kuttychatan mantra. He helped me vanish from the scene. Don’t you worry. Next time I will take you to my tantric guru in the forest and get you a kuttychatan. Let’s lie low for the time being.” he said.
    Sundu saw no reason not to believe what he said and threw away the sample so carefully collected that morning.
    That evening Gopu’s mom came to Sundu’s house.
    “Sorrydi, Vembu. I have warned Gopu not to involve Sundu in his mischief. The other day it was stinking dung on my husband’s dress. Yesterday it was my mother’s plait. Today, my milk vessel is painted dark with kajal, which is not yielding to any detergent. I think he had mixed something else to kajal before painting the vessel. I don’t know how to keep Gopu in check” she was heard saying.
    Sundu wanted to shout, “That was not kajal. It was skull piece extract that kudukudupandi gave Gopu. It’s very powerful. Be careful”. But he was not sure whether it was Gopu’s mother or kurali talking to his mother. Better sense prevailed and he kept quiet.

    Sundu is now waiting for his next chance to own a genie that could help out in his home work, fervently hoping that it comes before school reopens.
    ————————-
    Cheers,
    Anbudan,
    RRG
     
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