A coward dies thousand deaths--By Moothedath Ramanathan Menon

A Coward Dies Thousand Deaths…

By Moothedath Ramanathan Menon

Out of curiosity, I just took a quick glance at my watch….It is 20:15….I have now about fifteen minutes to leave the interesting novel that I was reading ‘Strong Medicine’ written

by Arthur Hailey, and rush to the Coimbatore Railway Junction to catch the 21:20 West Coast Express coming from Madras and heading to Mangalore.

I bought a season ticket only a week ago to travel from Olavakkot Railway Junction to Coimbatore Railway Junction and viceversa. I leave my house at 6:45 in the morning to catch the 7:45 AM OlavakkotMettupalayam Passenger which normally reached Coimbatore at 9:45 AM. It is just 40 minutes walk from my house in Puduppariyaram to the Olavakkot Junction and 20 minutes walk from Coimbatore Junction to my office in Oppanakara Street, Coimbatore.

My office hours are 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. I worked as Junior Stenographer in Jayems Engineering Company dealing in workshop machineries.

Before buying the season ticket and traveling everyday from home and returning home at 22:15, I was staying in a lodge in R.S.Puram. Every Saturday evening I go home and return to Coimbatore on Monday morning by bus which was very expensive.

So, I preferred the everyday train travel to save the room rent and other expenses and at the same time I can be with my family every night and early morning.

Since last one week, I leave the office at 5:00 PM and reach the Central Library at Chidambaram Park around 5:15 PM. As I was a fan of Arthur Hailey, I pick one of his books and start reading until 20:30. From the library, I will walk and reach the Station

by 20:50. Usually my train arrives at 21:10 and leaves at 21:20.

I reached the Railway station as usual and went to platform No.1. I sat on the concrete bench and sharpened my ears to listen to the announcement about the arrival and departure of the trains. But that day the announcement not only gave me a shock but also some kind of an unknown fear.

My mind began thinking very faster….there is anxiety and fear that I could not control.

The train is late by one hour and is expected to arrive at 22:10 instead of 21:10. That means I will be reaching Olavakkot Junction at 23:20. By the time I reach my house, it will be past 12:00 midnight.

First I have to walk along the railway line and then cross the level cross….walk further about 4 furlongs where there is no habitation on either side of the road….then about one furlong where there are few habitations who mainly use lanterns and chimney lamps and blew them when they go to bed.

There were no street lights. My house was about 1 mile from the railway station.

From the age of 12, I was fond of reading horror and detective novels. As a result, after nightfall I feared the darkness. I imagined that a devil or a ghost or a thief is lurking in the darkness and waiting to pound on me and kill me. So without someone accompanying me to give me courage and security, I avoided going alone anywhere in the darkness.

Another reason is my elderly friends and cousin brothers who shared with me horror stories about the ghosts of people who committed suicide in our village, most importantly the ghost of an old man who

will be about ten feet tall with grey hair and long beard standing under the banyan tree in a hillock which is on my way to my home.

After midnight, if you happen to pass the banyan tree, he will stop you and ask for match box to light a cigar in his mouth. If you watch him closely, you can see that his legs will not be touching the ground.

In all the ghost and devil stories, they come out in the open at the strike of 12 in the night. And, I will be meeting all these scary characters on my way home tonight, and that gave me a shiver and a chilled feeling in me.

In the ghost stories, it is always mentioned that all these evils can be seen only when you are alone…that means two eyes….if you have someone with you, no harm will come to you….

The train at last reached Olavakkot. I got down and walked along the lines, crossed the level crossing and looked at the straight road that leads to my place. The time was around 23:50. After 10 minutes it will be 12:00 midnight and all the evils will come out of their hidings and will be roaming on the road.

I heard a sound of heartbeats and realized that it came from my body….yes, I am alone, I am scared and I have to walk more than a mile to reach my home.

There is an old saying in Tamil. For the eyes of a person who is scared, all kind of darkness will look like ghosts. About some 20 feet in front of me, on the left side of the road I saw someone sitting with his/her face covered with a white cloth so that one cannot see the face.

I stood there for a few seconds, utterly confused whether I should go back to the station or should I run faster in the direction of my home. There is an over-bridge. From Palakkad or to reach Palakkad all the vehicles have to pass through this overbridge. Luckily at this time a lorry is coming over the bridge and from its front lights I could make it clear that the thing that I feared was not a man but the mile-stone!

I began walking fast without turning back….in all the ghost stories it is stated that we should not look behind us if we suspect that we are followed by a devil or ghost…..every second seemed to me like an hour….meantime I began singing some old Tamil songs I could remember to give me little courage and convince myself that I am not that scared!!

After some time I came closer to the banyan tree on the hillock where I was expecting the old man who will stop me and ask me match box to light his cigar….Lo’ that moment what I saw made me shiver with fear and confusion…a tall dark figure is waving its hands nodding me to come closer to it…my mind is split into two sides …one side is telling me that it is nothing but the banyan tree at the hillock and nothing else, but the other side said that it is a ghost waiting for me….at this time instead of walking I ran faster to reach the point where I have to take a right turn from the main road and walk on the narrow muddy path leading to my home.

Then I remembered another story. There is a ghost or devil of a young girl crying and begging you to take her home as she is lost on her way home.

Once upon a time this devil was a bubbly young girl who committed suicide near a primary school which is adjacent to my house.

This path is a mixture of sand, mud and pebbles. The width of this path may be around 5 feet…in both sides there are small and big houses with fencing, some are made

of iron and some are made of bamboo thorns.

In few minutes, I recounted all the happenings from the time I got down the train to the time I had fallen on the floor of the veranda of our house unconscious or semi-conscious.

To make everything clear, my dad who was a retired police inspector, picked up a knife and a torch and took me along with him in that midnight to the place where I was stopped by the ghost. To our surprise what we saw was a few lengthy bamboo twigs that protruded towards the muddy road….because of no light and I was scared too much, I might have walked very closer to that bamboo fencing and the protruding bamboo twigs might have come into contact with my shirt collar pulling me back.

As soon as I started walking on the mud path I heard a feeble sound as if someone is following me very closely. I increased the speed of my walking and the sound that I heard was also very close to me. To make sure if anyone is really following me, I just stood in one place without walking forward, that time it was utter silent.

Again I began walking forward, I heard the same sound again behind me….all of a sudden I got a shock of my life….someone caught my shirt collar and pulling me back…I quickly used all my energy to set myself free, I ran towards my home, jumped the small gate and I reached the main veranda and fallen unconscious.

After few minutes I was told that my dad after hearing the noise at the wee hours switched on the front light and saw me lying there motionless….he brought some water and sprinkled on me…then I opened my eyes to see my dad which reminded me that I am alive and kicking. The devil or the ghost which pulled my collar could not get me…I was happy….

After making things clear that there was no devil or ghost but only the bamboo twigs, we returned home.

First thing in the morning my dad torn off my season ticket. We both went to Coimbatore by bus, and I once again joined

the same lodge R.S.Puram.

‘Rama Bhavan’ in

What I learned from this ‘encounter with the devil or ghost’ is that when we are alone in wee hours, in utter darkness and if we are fully scared with such negative thoughts or fear, there will be a clash between our consciousness and sub-consciousness to decide the situation whether we are safe or we will be hurt. Whereas, if we have someone with us, at least we can ask his or her opinion to make ourselves clear of the situation on the unknown things that come across in our way.

It proved in my case that ‘A Coward Dies Thousand Deaths’ !!