The Blue Maruti - III
Please read Part-I, Part-II for a recap...
The cell phone rang again. With one hand on the steering, Kawal removed the vibrating grey device from his pocket. Suddenly, the engine coughed, spluttered and died. His car slowly rolled to a stop just 10 mts ahead of the blue Maruti. The tune of ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’ continued ….
The man who sat in the blue Maruti was motionless. His hands were on the steering. His head bent forward a little, eyes staring blankly at the car which had rolled to a stop in front. The color of his skin was white. He looked like a ghost … really.
Two minutes passed. If silence were a goddess she would have chosen this moment to be born on earth.
The man in the blue Maruti had now started the engine. The first gear smoothly synchromeshed into the teeth and the car started moving. The man drove effortlessly with the same deadpan expression. First gear then second then third then fourth the blue Maruti sped away. It was almost two hours later that the brakes burnt the rubber. The checkpost of Mandrail.
He got out and ran to the pot-bellied hawaldar sitting inside a very small room. He spoke with fear, his face still white . “Saheb .. just two hrs ago my car broke down near the Niphaad turn. I was about to get out when a car turned around the corner from the opposite side and stopped some metres ahead. There …there … was no one in the car”
The hawaldar spoke, a little shaken “But no car has passed towards Hindon since morning and there is no way any car could have entered the highway without going through this checkpost”
The man was now shaking and the hawaldar offered him a chair and a glass of water from his earthen pitcher. Putting a reassuring hand on the terrified man’s shoulder, the hawaldar spoke slowly
“The car which you saw, which stopped in front of you, which no one was driving …” there was a pause “that car .. was it a blue colored Maruti ?”
The man replied, “Yes”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bibliography & Acknowledgements:
Most of the characters and places mentioned in this story are real, however the events are entirely fictional. I wrote this story about a year back.
Hindon-Mandrail road: There actually exists a very very weird road between these two towns. I have done my best to describe it. This is till date the most scarry road I have ever travelled on. As I stood on the back of the Tata pick up, the wind blowing in my face, I felt like I was on Mars. While returning it was late night, and my! we saw foxes crossing looking at us. We had decided mutually we will not stop till we reach Hindon, come what may.
Kawaljit Ahuja: Ha ha.. an absolute character from my college.. In my stories, I always immortalize people whose company I have enjoyed, people who I may never meet again in this life. This is my small way of 'giving back'
Nokia cell - 'Kal Ho Naa Ho tune': During my three months in North Rajasthan (circa 2004), I had a Nokia phone with that ringtone :-)
Tata 207 DI: My first girlfriend! :-) I was selling this vehicle back in those days and used to take sooo much pain for its 'well being' that my sales executives used to call it my wife. Miss you dahling!
The Blue Maruti: Bang on Moi! I needed a color which went with the quaint feel of the story. Incidentally when I was writing this I had joined a driving class. I used to drive this primitive Maruti 800 model which was blue colored. So that was the inspiration.
The cell phone rang again. With one hand on the steering, Kawal removed the vibrating grey device from his pocket. Suddenly, the engine coughed, spluttered and died. His car slowly rolled to a stop just 10 mts ahead of the blue Maruti. The tune of ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’ continued ….
The man who sat in the blue Maruti was motionless. His hands were on the steering. His head bent forward a little, eyes staring blankly at the car which had rolled to a stop in front. The color of his skin was white. He looked like a ghost … really.
Two minutes passed. If silence were a goddess she would have chosen this moment to be born on earth.
The man in the blue Maruti had now started the engine. The first gear smoothly synchromeshed into the teeth and the car started moving. The man drove effortlessly with the same deadpan expression. First gear then second then third then fourth the blue Maruti sped away. It was almost two hours later that the brakes burnt the rubber. The checkpost of Mandrail.
He got out and ran to the pot-bellied hawaldar sitting inside a very small room. He spoke with fear, his face still white . “Saheb .. just two hrs ago my car broke down near the Niphaad turn. I was about to get out when a car turned around the corner from the opposite side and stopped some metres ahead. There …there … was no one in the car”
The hawaldar spoke, a little shaken “But no car has passed towards Hindon since morning and there is no way any car could have entered the highway without going through this checkpost”
The man was now shaking and the hawaldar offered him a chair and a glass of water from his earthen pitcher. Putting a reassuring hand on the terrified man’s shoulder, the hawaldar spoke slowly
“The car which you saw, which stopped in front of you, which no one was driving …” there was a pause “that car .. was it a blue colored Maruti ?”
The man replied, “Yes”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bibliography & Acknowledgements:
Most of the characters and places mentioned in this story are real, however the events are entirely fictional. I wrote this story about a year back.
Hindon-Mandrail road: There actually exists a very very weird road between these two towns. I have done my best to describe it. This is till date the most scarry road I have ever travelled on. As I stood on the back of the Tata pick up, the wind blowing in my face, I felt like I was on Mars. While returning it was late night, and my! we saw foxes crossing looking at us. We had decided mutually we will not stop till we reach Hindon, come what may.
Kawaljit Ahuja: Ha ha.. an absolute character from my college.. In my stories, I always immortalize people whose company I have enjoyed, people who I may never meet again in this life. This is my small way of 'giving back'
Nokia cell - 'Kal Ho Naa Ho tune': During my three months in North Rajasthan (circa 2004), I had a Nokia phone with that ringtone :-)
Tata 207 DI: My first girlfriend! :-) I was selling this vehicle back in those days and used to take sooo much pain for its 'well being' that my sales executives used to call it my wife. Miss you dahling!
The Blue Maruti: Bang on Moi! I needed a color which went with the quaint feel of the story. Incidentally when I was writing this I had joined a driving class. I used to drive this primitive Maruti 800 model which was blue colored. So that was the inspiration.
Labels: short story, The Blue Maruti
9 comments
Despite ur disclaimer for all ur posts let me say that I need a li'l more time to decipher what really happened here ....i'm all addled in my brain right now abt this whole Blue maruti.....i shall jog my grey cells a little and see if it dawns upon moi!!! unless of course someone wants to help me out with this one!!!
Amazing story..I was expecting something like this...thanks no more Darna Mana hain or Darna Jaroori hain..
BTW..really first time i saw wrong usage of words like girlfriend or wife from you. How can you say you were selling them??
really weird
I was expecting a totaly different ending! Well, does that mean that Kawal was the driver of the blue maruti and was a ghost??? :)
Reminds me of a scene from a bollywood movie where Nana Patekar picks up Vivek Oberoi and they have a discussion about ghosts...and one of them (th eone you least expect to be) truns out be the ghost!!! It sacred the hell outta me (haven't watched the movie, but saw this scene on a show!). "The Others" also come to my mind.
Jas: thats my question exactly!!!:)
That cant be the ending, can it? Sorry for being a moron, but I wanted to double-check: So it was a ghost then?
PS: I loved the line abt 'if silence were a goddess...' :)
ok, I'm puzzled and despite the disclaimer I'm not sure I'm entirely lacking a brain :):), loved the description of the road, it completely spooked me. has a sakiish feel to it, I just hope I figure out the right end :)
Arent you going to reply to all these questions abt that ambiguous ending? Come one, the suspense is too much!! :)
I agree Radha, 666 needs to put an end to the suspense! :)
Knock, Knock!!! Anyone there ???
Open!!!
Blog Police here !!!
:DD Awlright that was cheesy....but come back sir...whats wrong with u and jas........both seem to have vamoosed from the scene!!! :)
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