The Prey It was some time in ‘80s, the long distance bus was far from full as it headed for Digha at nearly mid-night. The emptiness wasn’t a routine occurrence, considering the fact that Digha beach was the most favoured and affordable holiday destination for any Calcuttan, especially the low key honeymooners; but then it wasn’t a regular day either. The month of Monsoon had typically been avoided for such long nightly drives and the incessant rain of past two days had particularly put the city life in standstill. A young couple sitting at the centre-left, the only family passengers among the lot of men were too engrossed in each other to sleep. The man no more than twenty five with stubble and heavy glasses carried a naive gentleness in his face, his pretty wife unaccustomed in a sari looked surprisingly young with short hair and large eyes with thick eyelashes. They were indeed on a honeymoon; weather had failed to dampen their spirit. An elderly man with white beard and skull cap occupied the adjacent centre-right seat, owner of a fast food stall at Digha beach he travelled to Kolkata on business trip. There were two serious looking men sitting together at the front, both teachers at a school in Kolkata; they were on their weekend trip to hometown Kolaghat, halfway to Digha. Few other men sitting around were mostly related to hotel business and preferred the night bus to save a business day. All these men were looking forward to a peaceful nap stretching at their seat. Inside of the bus was sleepily silent; sound of rain was the only cacophony around. Shibu, the young conductor signalled for start when a tall heavily built man jumped on the bus at the last minute along with his two aides. Conspicuous in gold chains, bracelets and gems studded rings; somehow he lacked the air of a gentleman. The man was noticeably dressed in a bright green shirt and maroon corduroy, his crew cut hair along with a weather beaten face gave his appearance a kind of ruthlessness. The sturdy looking allies dressed in yellow and red T shirts also created quite an impression in contrast to their coarse dark complexion. ‘We haven’t paid to sit at the back, you understand?’ the man in green shouted at Shibu, refusing to take their designated seat. The rough voice slashed the silence brutally; the girl shrank in nervousness. Shibu tried to explain but in vain; the man surveyed the interior, then demanded the seat adjacent to the couple already occupied by the elderly man. This time his cronies completely ignored the bus conductor and forced the old man to leave his seat. A shadow of uneasiness clouded the faces of fellow travellers, though no one found it wise to protest. The loud conversation of the trio burdened with cuss words and revolting jokes shocked the entire population; the couple clung to each other in aversion. It was beyond doubt that the journey would be anything but peaceful. It wasn’t long when the girl started coughing badly; her husband offered her some water with helpless despair. Everyone stared at the unwanted passengers; they were puffing cigarettes inside the AC bus causing stuffiness. The girl murmured something to her husband, he quietly appealed to the conductor. ‘Smoking is not allowed inside the bus’ Shibu declared to the guilty party. Green shirt, clearly in a mood of aggression stood up, ‘Who says?’ he was mocking. ‘It’s written here’ Shibu indicated the notice. ‘What if we can’t read?’ the man continued playing with words. ‘The passengers are suffering due to the smoke’ Shibu argued. ‘Hello! Is anyone suffering here?’ this time Green shirt addressed the crowd. Everyone remained silent with deadpan face, his allies burst out in shameless laughter. Green shirt looked back at Shibu and slapped him hard on face, the poor guy stumbled; his nose bled. The husband jumped off his seat to Shibu’s rescue, his face pale in remorse. ‘All these chivalries for Madam, it seems!’ red T shirt made an indecent gesture, ‘Do you think they are married?’ yellow one contributed. ‘Of course not!’ green winked. ‘How much she must be costing?’ ‘Can’t be much, look at the man.’ The lewd comments continued with provoking laughter. The girl broke into silent sob burying her face on her husband’s shoulder; the man froze in utter disgrace. The bus came to a halt at Kolaghat for fifteen minutes, the only stoppage in the journey. Shibu and the driver left for some refreshment at the nearby tea stall, few of the passengers disembarked to attend nature’s call. The teachers left with their baggage as their journey came to an end. The aides of green shirt also headed for the tea stall with much enthusiasm, their boss was in short supply of cigarettes. As everyone got preoccupied, the couple looked at each other with great understanding, a silent message passed between the two. They took their bags, got off the bus and quietly disappeared in the darkness, though it didn’t go entirely unobserved. Green shirt was keeping an eye throughout; he landed a little later and shadowed the couple with the shrewdness of a cat, his eyes shone in brazen lust. Shibu gave a final call for resuming the journey, everyone took their seat. Red and yellow T shirts hurried inside with their purchase, only to find their boss missing. They assumed him to be out for relieving himself and stopped Shibu in time. Red T shirt went down to look around; his friend remained inside to ensure the bus didn’t leave. Fifteen minutes passed, neither of the men came back; Shibu refused to delay anymore. ‘Enough of your bullying, I won’t tolerate the humiliation anymore! Start the bus’ he shouted. This time the passengers supported him; yellow T shirt alone and nervous gave up and got off himself. Both the aides waited at the tea stall patiently, after all they realised that the couple were also missing from the scene. ******* Two days later, a small piece of news appeared in the Newspapers of a partly decomposed body of a man floating on the Ganges a little further down to the Kolaghat Bridge. His identity could not be established due to lack of any wallet on the body, a neat slit on the throat was referred to be the cause of death. The face was distorted due to bites from fish; no watch or valuables were retrieved from the body, only a torn shirt of some shade of green and a trouser of the colour dark brown or maroon. ******* ‘It came in the paper today’, the older of the two young men spoke inside their dingy room at a petty hotel at Contai, a small town about 80 kms away from Kolaghat. Without the heavy glasses, his eyes shone with cunning brightness. ‘Never dreamt of such a windfall midway only; he followed us too easily,’ his clean shaven face flushed in satisfaction. ‘Often the bullies are the unwise ones; I was too pleased to bump off the bastard!’ the younger man with a petite frame and delicate face sputtered, his large eyes with thick eye lashes flared in fury. At the late hours that night, an old man with salt and pepper beard and round glasses left the hotel accompanied by his young granddaughter. ***** *****
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 03:35:00 +0000
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