A cold winter night

In every family, we all had to discover, an enthusiastic elderly aunt who is always very eager to share some sort of adventure with the children. We had one such aunt in our family. Such aunts used to be the most talked about topic among kids because their stories satisfied our thirst for adventure. 

Now it’s up to the readers to understand why, being kids, we all used to listen to her with great fun. I can still recall one of her stories about a dacoit. Here is the story…

It was a bitterly cold winter night. The train had halted at Chandan Nagar for a while and was about to start. A tall, strong-built man somehow managed to get on the running train. His face was tensed. He had wrapped himself in an old and dirty blanket. It appeared as if he was carrying something cylindrical in shape.

Most of the passengers on the train were fast asleep. A young boy clung to his mother as she escorted him to the restroom. The duo saw this mysterious man standing near the gate. The little ones are brilliant observers. He shook his mother’s hand to make her aware of this suspicious man. Since the man didn’t appear friendly, the mother quietly ignored him and came back to their berth.

The little boy said, “Mother, did you see that uncle?”

Mother replied, “Yes! Now you go to sleep.”

The little boy looked at her excitedly,”Uncle must be hiding a long block of ice cream in that blanket because something was dripping from it. It must have melted!”

The lady put her son to the bed. She quietly tiptoed to see if her son had rightly observed, and she was horrified to notice that blood was dripping from that blanket. Out of fear, she woke up her husband, who was sleeping on the other berth and narrated everything. Other passengers heard the conversation. On grounds of security, they decided to confront him and find out what the fictitious person was carrying.

The person was gazing outside the open gate. He got tensed when he sensed a couple of other passengers had surrounded him.

“Excuse me, mister,” one of the passengers shouted. “Why are you standing near the gate? Are you without a ticket?”

The man did not move but was surely annoyed by the questions poured at him.

One of the passengers got irritated by seeing no reply from him. He raised his voice, “Hello, don’t you hear us? What are you hiding?”

The man again did not move.

Watching this, the third passenger got agitated. He pulled the man from behind. The sudden pull of the passenger made the man lose his balance. He was about to fall but somehow stood still. But this act made him furious. He screamed at the other passengers, “Leave me alone!”

The same passenger pulled him again. The cylindrical-shaped object slipped from his grasp this time. The object rolled down just like a carpet rolled out to open. All the passengers were horrified to see what came out.

It was the arm of a newlywed bride, with a lot of gold ornaments like bangles, armlets, and rings on it. It was covered with blood and mehndi. He quickly wrapped the object in the blanket and ran off the running train before the passengers could react, but another train was approaching from the opposite railway track. Though the man jumped from the train to save himself from being caught, he couldn’t save himself from the judgement of God.

Since then, many passengers have seen a tall, well built-up man wrapped in an old dirty blanket standing at the door many times in the middle of the night. When passengers approach him, he jumps off the train, and another train crosses the track from the opposite track. He disappears in the thin air, giving it an eerie appearance. The locals assume that the man is guilty hence he is still seen harrowing from one train to another in search of salvation.

We all were in awe as we listened to our Aunt. She continued, “So next time if you are travelling to Chandan Nagar and if you see such a person standing at the door of the train, don’t approach him.”

One of my cousins asked very innocently, “Aunt, what would happen if we approach him?”

“You will better find out yourself,” Aunt winked and smiled.

Sweta Gupta