I wrote this when I was in my 9th standard (1986-87). Edited it again in 2001. This extract from a story is about how a few skulls scared the hell out of a sleepy neighborhood in Chittoor - a town in Andhra.� - Suman kumar

The story was, when savithramma opened the door early morning, she fumbled on a circular thing on the floor just outside the door. She snaps the light on and she had the shock of her life. A real human skull, decorated with turmeric and sindur was grinning at her. I could understand her histrionics. It looked like black magic.A shiver ran up my spine.
So they brought a phakir to counter the black magic. The phakir was an old sufi, who lived in the slums near the hill top murugan koil. He had a paint brush goatee stickin out of his chin somehow matching the countless wrinkles on his face. He had only a few front teeth left and when he spoke they shook, perilously close to dropping down on the ground. Well, this phakir did some 'sambrani' ceremony and mumbled incoherent sufi mantras. And he assured Savithramma �it is gone and won't come back to this town-no country- ever again' My non-believer mom was trying to suppress her laughter and I was too excited about all this. Though my mind said all this was nonsense, I wanted to believe in magic and ghosts, I mean how else do you expect a 10 year old to spice up his life? So I broadcasted this story in school and by the time I was back from school in the evening, a different version
hit me thanks to our servant maid Leela. She told me one shot, breathlessly.
�Some evil mandravaadhi has done it on behalf of savithramma's uncle. The uncle and she are in a dispute over a piece of land in Gudur. Remember? Babu was down with typhoid? two of their cows died in accidents? I hope the phakir is genuine! I don't know what's gonna happen now! If the phakir's spell fails, then it'll destroy savithramma's house." And she smiled. She hated Savithramma, that's another story.

Two days nothing happened. The third day I woke up to the screams of Vasanthi and her sisters. They stayed next to Babu's house. Yea, you guessed it right. There was not one, but two skulls(poor things, they need company, I mean come on you can't stay all night or a better part of it alone) and some accessories accompanied the skulls. Some bones! and what was most chilling was the fact that one of the skulls was giggling 'tak tak tak' its jaws banging together. I knew why it happened. The wind from the open back door of vachi's (vasanthi) back yard screamed through the open front door and hit the skulls. And the grinning skull must have been pretty old. Well,it is simple. When you try and close a gushing water tap what happens? lot of water tries to rush out through the now smaller hole. Yes. But people weren't in a mood to buy science. They gave a chicken as sacrifice to goddess durga. And the men decided they'll have a vigil team in the nights.

This series of skull-planting proved to be a bonanza for all the deities in and around chittoor. Vasanthi's mom promised lord muruga on the hill a 100 coconuts and vachi's brother - the only earning member of the family- had a minor cardiac attack and I witnessed a fight between him and his mom on how many coconuts should be given to lord muruga.
After ten days the vigil team gave up. No evil black magic man was found. And it still remains a mystery who'd planted the skulls. I'll give you a clue though. The house owner, who owned the row of houses (our house included) wanted savithramma to vacate. I am not implying anything, but hey no harm in indulging in some wishful imagination. What say?

Add to:del.icio.us| Digg| Reddit| StumbleUpon| Technorati