tales of Suchita

Pandit Karma Prasad was sitting to one side of the havan, murmuring shlokas that Arjun, Sanjana and Radha couldn’t understand, adding ingredients that looked like he was cooking something scrumptious. Radha’s stomach wailed in agreement.

Try as they might, they weren’t paying a whole lot of attention to what the pandit was saying. It was the morning of their summer holidays and they had spent the night telling each other ghost stories. They had inadvertently spooked each other so much that sleeping had become a challenge.

They had finally stopped talking at 1 when Radha’s mother had scolded them. It had taken them far longer than they were ready to admit to fall asleep. Arjun could swear he had seen the sun rising in the horizon before he had gotten exhausted enough to sleep.

Only to be woken up at the ungodly hour of 6, forced to bathe, dress and sit for a havan. They hadn’t even been given breakfast. Sanjana was this close to declaring a mutiny as her stomach let out a mating call in solidarity with Radha’s stomach.

Arjun snickered and was immediately hushed by the line of adults sitting behind the children. He didn’t know why the gods couldn’t accept this havan at a more normal time. Wouldn’t they be needing a holiday too now that exam season and fever were over?

Radha could not believe how cool his cousins were. He had thought he would be the only cool person in this house but Arjun bhaiya and Sanjana di had disabused him of this notion. He said in an imitation of his stomach, “Bhooook.”

The children snickered and were shushed again.

It was ridiculous why they were doing this havan. It was to rid the haveli of a ghost. There was no ghost. Radha had made up Phulkari because he was bored. He had told his mother he had seen a woman clad in a bright pink saree, asking him why everyone was in her house. In hindsight, telling his mother that an invisible person was talking to him was not the smartest of moves.

He couldn’t have guessed that his dadi would overhear. She said that Phulkari had indeed been the owner of the property before signing it away to dada because she had needed the money. According to dadi, Phulkari had been reluctant to part with the house. From there, how she had jumped to the conclusion that she was haunting the haveli to prevent its resale Radha couldn’t fathom.

He was an amateur detective so he knew how dangerous and short-sighted it could be to find evidence after you had made up your mind.

Pandit Karma Prasad kept chanting and at one point he started swaying in his seat. This time, Radha let out a giggle but smartly smothered it in Arjun’s shoulder.

“Beta, kya woh pretatma safed saree pehene ird gird mandara rahi hai?”

Radha couldn’t help it, he burst into helpless laughter. The adults shouted and the cousins looked at him like he had grown a new head. Phulkari, who was actually roaming around the havan not in a white saree but a green one because she liked colours, poking at the ingredients the pandit was pouring into the fire, cackled.

Chachi, who had got up from the floor after much manoeuvring, because one could not discipline children while sitting down, said to Radha, “Will you please, for the love of god control yourself?”

Seeing the unhealthy red colour on chachi’s face and the beseeching look on Arjun’s as he tried to hide Radha in his shoulder, Sanjana declared, “It’s the pretatma chachi. Woh Radha mein ghus gayi hai. It’s not his fault.”

That logic seemed to appease everyone, including Phulkari. Arjun rose with Radha still laughing in his arms and declared, “We’ll take him inside. You should continue the havan. Once the ah pretatma leaves him, we’ll come back.”

Sanjana ran behind the two boys, not waiting for anyone’s permission. She was not going to miss this golden opportunity to sit inside, under a fan, and maybe eat the delicious poha that Bahadur had prepared for their breakfast.

And if she saw a woman, clad in a blue saree, hovering near the garden, as the three of them crossed it to the kitchen, she ignored it. After all, there were no such thing as ghosts, right?

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Song: King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men

Check out the other posts for 2023 here. Written as part of #BlogchatterA2Z