Some places are there in our country which are specially gifted with the opulence of nature, where nature has bestowed most if not all of its exquisiteness. Amrauli was one such place where the natural beauty seemed to have reach the heights of surrealism. This small town in the lap of beautiful nature, is the true abode of the beauties of nature, where one can to one's heart fill relish the true beauty of nature. The small hill station was regarded as a paradise for the nature lovers, surrounded with dense, dark forests n steep, colossal mountains. The dark, dense forests were as much enigmatic as they were exquisite. The trees had formed such a thick cluster and were blessed with such dense arrangements of leaves that even the rays of sun could not perforate the interiors of those forests and consequentially the interior of these forests remained as murky and chilling as the ancient forests were in the medieval ages when supernatural beliefs were at their summit. The forests had an appearance of exquisiteness yet a strange formidability even in broad daylight which forbade people to enter the forest even in broad daylight, let alone at night. The inhabitants of the town opined that somewhere in the depth of the forest was concealed some enigma of which not a single being had the slightest idea. In accordance with their opinions, the forest possesses a strange hypnotic power that enticed people towards it. However those were all local beliefs and the exact amount of truth lying beneath those beliefs had remained unverified till date.
It was a lovely, sunny, day after days of cloudy and murky weather as if some sparkling ray of hope was about to enter the misty and murky world of darkness. The small rail station that connected Amrauli to the other parts of the country was located outside the town and the path leading to the station went through the forest, with the forest in each side and the road in the middle.
It was mid day when a train came to a halt at the station. The weather underwent an abrupt change and breeze began to blow faster as if insinuating towards the inception of a new story, as if it was giving a premonition that something was going to happen.
Precisely at this moment a feminine figure became visible at the door of a compartment of that train. She was dressed in a fittings dark blue jeans and a black tee with a knee length white jacket. She had her shades on and hence her face was not visible to its fullest extent but the remaining of her face which was visible was providing enough evidence of her extraordinary beauty. She smiled and her cheerful smile seemed to brighten up the ambience of Amrauli. She took a deep breath and then climbed down the stairs that connect the station to the train compartment and pulled her luggage down. It seemed as if the train was waiting for her to get off it because as soon as she got off the train, the whistle blew and the train once again commenced its journey to its next destination. The girl was quite young, hardly of eighteen years.
Girl : " Phew finally I'm back. Home sweet home. Welcome back Nandini."
The naughty breeze was playing with her hair, causing them to blow to and fro. Strands of her shiny, black hair fall on her face concealing her beautiful features from general view. Nandini took off her shades with one hand and shove off the strands of her hair with the othe hand gently revealing an incredibly beautiful face with big, black beautiful and sparkling eyes. She took hold of her luggage and walked away in a leisure pace towards the exit of the station.
The path leading to the town was almost desolate. As Nandini began to survey the place her gaze fall on a single cab standing right outside the station. She thanked God for finding at least one vehicle to reach her destination as she was, till the moment, cursing her idea of surprising her family by not informing them beforehand of her arrival.
Nandini walked towards the cab and bent down to get a clear view of the driver. It was an aged man who was sitting on the driver's seat. She smiled sweetly at him and he too smiled back warmly.
Nandini : " Baba will you take me to the town? Here there is no other vehicle. Please."
Driver : "But Madamji, its noon time and we had to cross the forests. We, the inhabitants of Amrauli, always try to evade passing through the forests at noon and at night."
Nandini : " Really? But why is that so? I mean look how beautiful they are."
She craned her neck to get a better view of the forests which, for some bizarre and unknown reasons, seemed to entice her. Nandini, being a nature lover, had already fallen in love with the forests.
Driver : " Beauty sometimes conceals the gravest dangers madamji."
Nandini : " Now what do you mean by that baba? Why are you so apprehensive about passing through the forests? Are there any wild creatures residing in the forest?"
Driver : "No Madamji, there are no wild creatures but those who reside in there are even more formidable than the wild animals. They are ancient, very ancient creatures and even wild animals are frightened of them. After all even those wild animals are also living beings of flesh and blood."
Nandini cocked her eyebrows in incredulity and replied : " So you mean to say that those who reside in those forests are not living beings. Okay! So does that mean that those creatures are ghosts or spirits?"
Driver smiled sensing the cynicism in her voice and replied : " No Madamji. They are neither ghosts nor spirits because they are not dead in the actual meaning of the term. They are dead yet they are very much alive. They are the "living deads".
Nandini was now confused and as she turned to the forests she muttered to herself in a barely audible voice : " The living deads!"
She could see the tree tops swaying due to the light breeze but otherwise the forests appeared to be really tranquil and serene. She shook the weird thoughts that were clustering in her mind and a smile of determination crept up onto her beautiful, rosy lips.
She turned back to the old man and replied in a sweet and polite voice : " Its okay baba. If you cant come I think I'll have to manage on foot. And I think I can make it. And I'm not at all worried to cross the forests since I don't belive in all these superstitions. I am not disrespecting your belief but still I wont be able to believe it till I come face to face with it."
A dark shadow abruptly loomed over the aged man's distorted features as he listened to her words. He replied in a shaky voice : " What have you done Madamji? What have you done? The moment when you expressed your desire was the moment when a desire to meet them always gets fulfilled. But I really pray that you never ever meet them. Or else your life will be changed, changed forever."
Nandini chuckled in disbelief and waved off the old man's admonition.
Nandini : "Its okay baba. If you don't want to come, I'll go by myself. But I have to reach home by evening. After all today is my mom's birthday. And I cant miss it for the world."
She waved a goodbye to the old man and was about to leave when the old man called out to her.
The driver smiled : "You seem to be a very stubborn girl. You are like my daughter and hence I cant let you go alone and that too through the forest. Fine I'll take you. We'll see if anything happens. Come. Get inside."
Nandini smiled warmly at him and got inside the cab. With a loud roar, the engine sprang into life. Nandini was mesmerized with the beauty of the landscape passing by the car as it sped up. Her eyes were glued to the window of the car. There was a strangely familiar feeling of belonging that she was experiencing. However, this rapturous feeling came to an abrupt halt along with the car which stopped on its tracks with a jerk, pulling her out of her reverie.
Nandini looked inquisitively at the driver and asked : "What happened Baba? Is there any problem?"
The driver turned back to face her and she could feel that he was quite tensed and apprehensive as it was some kind of premonition.
Driver : " I don't know Madamji. Umm…maybe there's some problem with the car. But when I checked it in morning it was perfectly okay. (Much to himself) I really hope its only mechanical problem and nothing else."
Though he muttered the last part in quite an inaudible voice but it didn't escape Nandini's sharp ears. She smiled to herself and got off the car, shaking her head and thinking how much more prejudiced these people can become. Little did she knew that everytime the beliefs that the inhabitants nurtured were not mere prejudices but sometimes they could be something more than that.
As Nandini stepped out of the car, a gush of chilly breeze blew from the direction of the forests and as it came in contact with her, she shivered a little. She took a deep breath in the fresh air. She looked around and to her utter glee, she was surrounded by the exquisiteness of nature. She glanced at the driver who was engrossed in checking what went wrong with the car. All of a sudden a cute white rabbit with beautiful light pink ears caught her eye. It was sitting on the edge of the forest. The very sight of the rabbit awakened the mischievous,childish spirit in her. Nandini jumped in excitement and became oblivious of everything else. Without giving it a second thought, she tiptoed towards the rabbit who scuttled away as soon as it sensed her approaching. It scampered away and entered the forest. Oblivious of where she was heading, Nandini too darted towards the forest and soon entered the forest while chasing the rabbit. After sprinting through the dense forest for quite a few while, she reached the interiors of the forest. She came to an abrupt halt as she looked around. It was that part of the forest where rays of sun did not perforate through the dense clusters of leaves of the colossal, ancient looking trees. Hence even though it was noon, that particular part of the forest had was dusky. Though Amrauli was a place which remains cloudy most of the time but the outskirts of the forest were not as dusky as the interiors. As Nandini turned back she found out that the rabbit had dissapeared somewhere in the dark, dense forest. It was at that moment that a fright crept up into her heart. Her heart began to sink in trepidation. She gulped the lump that formed in her throat. Once again she took a careful inspection of her surroundings through eyes. The murky and dusky surroundings, however, added to her trepidation. And to add cherry on the top, she hadnt noticed at all the direction from which she entered the forest in her excitement of catching the rabbit and as a consequence, she was totally clueless about in which direction she had to go if she had to get back to the main road.
Nandini bit her lower lip in anxiety and pondered aloud : "Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! What should I do now? Where should I go? Girl! You are trapped. Please someone help me out to get out of here. What if there are any wild beast domiciling in this forest? Ther are not gonna spare me, are they? Serves you right! You moron! Who told you to sprint into the forest like a blind? At least you could have seen from where you came and where you are going. (She took a deep breath to calm herself down) Okay Nandini! Don't panic okay! Don't fuss over what's done! Calm down okay! You are brave girl right! So come on you have to find your way out."
However, the tranquility that enveloped the forest sufficed to shatter the serenity of her mind and the ability of rational thinking into pieces. However, she was a tough nut to crack. Instead of breaking down in front of the situation, she composed herself and decided to find the way out of the forest herself. She took a deep breath and then turned to the direction which was, in accordance with her opinion, could probaly be the correct direction and headed forth in that very direction. After walking for a few minutes, some rustling noises that were coming from a nearby bush startled her badly. She gulped and stared for a moment at the bushes. Once again she heard the same rustling noise and this time she was genuinely appalled and increased her pace with her eyes still fixed on the bush. She strode forth while checking over her shoulders whether anything was chaing her, being unaware of the fact that danger was not chasing her but was awaiting her arrival with open arms. In her trepidation regarding the unseen danger, she was completely oblivious of the visible danger awaiting her as she headed forth without noticing the deep and wide abyss that formed in between two valleys. Nandini headed towards ineviatble death even without realizing it. As soon as stepped at the very edge of the chasm and took another step she lost her balance as her foot found no solid ground to lay its weight but only empty air.
She stumbled forward and shrieked in horror as she sensed the approaching death, closing her eyes tightly.
Book Talk
Aami Daakini
