AND I FELL IN..........A DITCH!!!

my holiday trip to bangalore started in Jan with a BANG!!...the very first day we arrived at bangalore, mum insisted on going to church ( it's a widely accepted fact that mum's very religious)....since it's not so far away and we can reach there in 20minutes walking, i and mum walk to and from church for the daily 5:30pm mass....on this particular day we were both walking through the usual shortcut my pap often warned the both of us not to take when alone or when it's dark...it was around 6pm, and we were doing just what we were forbidden to do -walking through the shortcut in the dark.... "hey mum, i think we're walking the wrong way! i can't find the ddDAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh..........!(surprisingly i was aware that i yelled out in a tune that roughly sounded like a religious hymn we sang in church that day) " CRASH! i groped around in the dark to find what i had gotten myself into and realised to my horror that i was standing (or rather trying to stand) right in the middle of a ditch. Since my hands, hips and feet had badly been hurt (uhuh! scraped it against the rough concrete sides of the ditch during the fall. Ouch!), i could think of nothing but the pain. i could see mum's dark profile above me and though i couldn't see her features properly, i knew that she was in complete agony. before mum could do something silly like jumping in to get me, i heaved myself up and sat on the side of the ditch. the effort made my head spin and all i could say was, "mum, i'm okaaaaaaaahhhh!!" i blacked out and for a moment i thought i was going to die or something. When i came by, i noticed my poor mum standing next to me, holding me with while rubbing her stomach with the other (mum always has gas trouble in her stomach when she is in a state of shock). mum somehow managed to get an auto and we reached home safely. once inside the flat, i folded up my pants a bit to have a good look at my wound and i almost vomited....a huge chunk of my flesh, just below my knee, had been scraped off and there was blood everywhere. Mum started her stomach massage again. She fussed over me for the next few minutes, applying holy oil on the wound, chanting a series of prayers and at last giving me a glass of warm milk for my broken bones and still fluttering heart. i found it difficult to forgive myself for fainting just because i fell into a ditch...well, we've all got our weak spots...

ONCE UPON A SPOOKY NIGHT!

The worst part of being a senior is trying to convince the rest of them that you are mature enough to handle things yourself and setting a nice example. What with my broken Malayalam, bizarre character and weird ideas, literally nobody takes what i say seriously. It so happened that one day, i was sitting in the hostel mess hall along with three other first years. The poor girls were studying for a physiology exam they had the next day while i was sitting in a corner reading "The Other Side of Midnight" by Sidney Sheldon. The three of them being very comical and likable characters, made an otherwise ordinary event, remarkably hilarious. Sangu, kept yawning every five minutes and seemed least interested in studying her stuff. Her chubby cute face was a picture of boredom. While Anu occasionally woke up from her slumber and tried to study with sudden bursts of energy, Winnie had her eyes glued in her text only occasionally peeping sideways to see what the rest were up to. The heroine of my book had found the guy of her dreams (for the hundredth time) and i was so sure that she'd settle with him till the end, he being a handsome and charming man, when all of a sudden we hear a scraping noise at the door. Sangu opens her bleary eyes and has this quizzical look on her face. Anu looks blankly at the door and looks on with despair. winnie is still glued to the book and seems to be so involved that even a hurricane might not have disturbed her. It's easy to make up a story and scare the shit out of these innocent juniors provided they have atleast a seed of doubt or fear. These three bonkers seemed indifferent to what was happening in their environment and i couldn't have made them scared even if i was the best story-teller in the world. i gave it a try any ways......
Me: " did you just hear that sound?"
Anu: "twas the wind."
Me: "no, it wasn't!"
Sangu: "i'm feeling sleepy"
Winnie: "go sleep. it's ok. i'll come after some time."
Me: "it wasn't the wind. it's the sound of something scraping on the door. maybe a white cat or something.....ooooohhhh......"

The three of them look at me in a matter-of fact-way and seemed to tell me, "you cannot fool us ", when exactly, at that same time, we hear the sound again. Impulsively we look at the clock and to our surprise we discover that it's twelve- midnight. There's an eerie silence after that

Me: ahem, well did you guys know something?....aaahhh, well, i'll tell it to you tomorrow....you might have to spend a sleepless night if i did....you've got a physiology exam tomorrow and i don't want to disturb you...

"aww, c'mon...tell us". i notice that Sangu's eyes have opened an inch wider.

Me: i don't believe it myself ofcourse but everybody else seems to...(and i narrated an incident that happened two weeks back in the hostel itself, after midnight. two girls reported that they had heard a heart wrenching scream from one of the rooms and immediately saw a white cat run just past them and disappear into thin air. they had gone to each room to see who had screamed, but found out that everybody was fast asleep . Moreover, they didn't have the slightest clue of where the cat had disappeared. this incident scared the hell out of a few girls in the hostel. i assured them that i didn't make up the story)
well, it could be the white cat scraping at the door....."

Little did i know, when i uttered those words, that the next day i would be the butt of a joke. While i was having breakfast the next day, i noticed that a group of first years were actually looking at me and giggling. Anu asks loudly, "well did the white cat have a white dress on?", and the others burst out laughing. i indignantly reply, "Hey, i never said that! why don't you imagine the cat in diapers while you are about it! Afterall all even ghosts may need to shit".