Why did Govind suffer from fever? (2005)

Visiting Govind’s house every morning had become a practice. There was a subconscious force that used to compel me to bend the handle of my bicycle in the direction of his house. I got down from the bicycle, went near the gate and called, “Govind Bhai”, “Govind Bhai”. His mother came. “Aunty, Govind Bhai is there?”, I promptly asked. “Yes, Ganesh. Go upstairs.”, she said in a tensed voice. I climbed the steps to reach upstairs.

Govind was sleeping with two blankets loaded over him. “What happened”, I asked. “Just put the backside of your hand on my forehead and check the temperature”, he said. I did the same without asking any question. I found his body temperature a little more than normal. “What happened?”, I asked again, this time with a hope of a more convincing answer. “I got scared of something last night, that’s why I got a fever”, he said. “Scared of what?”, was my immediate question.

Govind said:

[The night was chilling. I, as usual, was coming back home with my bullocks. I could see nothing in my surrounding except the white bullocks and the grey road that too up to a certain distance. Shouting “anon!, anon!”, I was singing “Hanuman Chalisa” to beat the fear of darkness.

After crossing the village, I had to cross a few rice fields spreading across two miles to reach home. The volume in which I was singing was increasing gradually indicating the intensity of my fear. I was looking at everything around and the sky more than I was looking at my bullocks. In regular intervals, I used to beat the bullocks with a whip to make sure I was not alone on the way.

All of a sudden, I discovered a woman in white clad looking towards me. I found that the woman had no legs. She was calling me with gestures. I felt a sudden chill in the air. The night was so scary. I tried to wrap myself with the only blanket I had. I was beating the bullocks more frequently till I got some audible response from them. Nobody could guess the wordings of the “whatever” I was singing at that time. Shivering in an unusual way from top to bottom, I also discovered sweat on my forehead.

I slowly forgot my destination, the presence of bullocks, trying hard to ignore the woman (Ghost) but, looking at her stealthily. There was no change in the movements of the ghost. She was looking at me and calling me with gestures. For one second, I even thought of going back to the village I just passed-by and spend the night somewhere. But I remembered my grand-pa had told me that “ghosts enter into our body when they are behind us.” I gathered all my courage and moved forward.

There was no other way to pass by. I, with unsteady foot-steps, was discovering ditches on the plain road. I forgot singing; was on the threshold of shedding tears. Looking at the ghost constantly, I then also started hearing a deafening sound from the ghost, “sh... come to me”, “sh... come to me”. I did not realize the bullocks had gone to the rice fields. I had lost my blanket somewhere on the way. My only comrade then was the whip which I did not realize I was holding.

I did not look at the ghost when I was at the closest. But, I had to cross the ghost, then, she would be behind him. I crossed without looking at her, walked few steps, but gathered all my courage to have a glance of her. I stopped, only turned my head to see the ghost. My entire body was static, only the head moved. And, to my surprise, I found a white cloth on a bush swaying in the wind.]