Thursday, August 25, 2011

Toilet Terror part 1 of 1

Warning: Highly random!

“Machaan, anything but a horror film da. I won’t be able to sleep if I watch a ghost movie now!” said Mahesh.

Myself (Raghu), Mahesh, Avinash and Aditya were roommates living in the hostels of one of those million engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu. It was our final year in college, and as all final years did, we had a hell a lot of time to waste, and we usually wasted it by watching movies or talking random shit. Today, we were in the mood for a series of horror films, but it was under threat from our coward roomie Mahesh Sundar, also known as Kanni Ponnu. He was one of those rare species among boys who appeared to be a macho but would piss in his pants at the very thought of anything to do with ghosts or spirits. It was no surprise for the rest of us that Mahesh was unwilling to watch horror films, especially after 6 PM. It was not the first time either. (He had once threatened to pull out of a trip to Coorg, as we jokingly threatened to scare him by talking real life ghost incidents)

“Dey don’t start the same shit again. Mooditu vaa, nothing will happen if you watch a film. Stop being a spoilsport. You look so huge, aren’t you ashamed to be scared of such non existing stuff??” I asked.

“No da not only that.... carry on. I’ve got some project work to do. Have some assignments also. Will do them and then study for the cycle tests.”

That was the funniest thing we’ve ever heard from Mahesh in the last 4 years. Looked like even the mention of a horror movie would drive him to do scarier stuff.

“Hahahahahahhahaha. Nadikaadha da. Nee yaaru nu enakku theriyum, naa yaarunu unakku theriyum.. shut up and join us..”

We were in no mood to understand. He had been doing the same for the last 4 years and it was high time he changed. We were adamant, and after a lot of coercion, we finally got our way.

“OK! But just one film. And not the ultra scary ones..let’s just watch one of those movies which are supposed to be scary but end up being funny,” said Mahesh.

It was for the first time in 4 years that he had actually accepted to watch a ghost movie with us. Now that he had agreed, we didn’t want to stop with just one film.

“Ok machi. I’ve got this Tamil movie called Sivi in my laptop. Heard it is one of those failed attempts to make a scary film. We’ll start with that..” said Avinash.

“Start with that? End with that!” corrected Mahesh.

“Yeah yeah..start and end with that” said the rest of us, and shared a smile.

Most tamil horror films had a clichéd storyline – Rich boy rapes girl. Girl dies. Her spirit returns to haunt the boy, and finally takes revenge in the climax. Sivi was no different. The movie was exactly as Avinash had said it would be: a failed attempt to make a scary movie. In Sivi, the male lead (the rapist) has an unusual and persistent neck pain problem, which even the doctors are unable to cure. He struggles with pain throughout the film, and finds out in the climax that the spirit of the girl he had raped was actually sitting on his neck, causing the pain. The funniest (supposedly scariest) part of the film is the ghost itself - a poor young girl with a lot of powder on her face sitting on the hero’s shoulders. The climax also carries an explanation for the title; apparently, Sivi is the name of the snake on Lord Shiva’s neck! While Avinash, Aditya and I were ROTFL for wasting our time on this movie, Mahesh sat silently, with a stern look on his face.

“Machaa! Don’t tell me this film scared you!” we screamed together.

“Hah. No da. Not scary, not scary.. ok da.. gotta wake up early tomorrow. Let me sleep.. gnite..”

“Haha.. wake up early and pluck what? Be a sport and stay awake. Let’s watch a few more.. don’t act like a girl..” said Aditya.

After a few more rounds of Yes and No, Mahesh agreed. This time, we decided to step up the intensity and move on to real horror films. Sivi was followed by another tamil film – Uruvam, which was much better and more scary than Sivi. Now that we were well into the horror mood, we followed it up with 2 more films – Exorcist, and Ring. By the time we finished watching the 4 films, the time was already 1 30 AM.

As it usually happens, the horror-movie-watching session was followed by a horror-story-discussion session. If watching horror films was scary, discussing them in a hostel room had its own thrill factor. We switched off the lights, and started sharing various 'real life ghost' incidents. Avinash started, with his experience in his apartments in Chennai, a few years back. We listened carefully.

Avinash: It was around 3-4 years back. I was in an apartment in Adyar, and had a good friend called Kaushik. We were pretty close for quite some time, but I remember that he changed a lot after a trip to his hometown. I could sense a lot of changes in his character after that. He suddenly became aloof, and stopped mingling with the other boys in the apartment. Often, we would hear a lot of noise from his house, noises of his mom screaming and crying, and his dog barking continuously. It was quite difficult to comprehend the problem, especially for me as I was too young then. One night, when I was studying for some exam in my terrace, I saw Kaushik sitting on the wall, facing the road. "What are you doing there? Move in! It is dangerous!" I yelled.

He turned, and spoke with a rough voice "Avi, I know I am acting weird these days, but I think I have got a power."

"Power? What power?"

"I am talking to ghosts"

These were the last words I wanted to hear in the night on a deserted terrace. Not knowing how to react, I quickly turned and ran down as fast as I could. I rushed back home and closed the door. I barged into the kitchen to tell what I heard to my mom, when I heard loud noises from outside once again. It was Kaushik's mom's scream. We were used to it by this time, but now that I had heard what Kaushik said, I wanted to find out more. I informed my mom, and she gathered more people from the flats before rushing to Kaushik's house. They broke the door open, and saw something which I can never forget. Kaushik was holding a cricket bat in his hand, and beating his mom, shouting "Naan dhaan dee Uma vandhirukken. Enga dee un purushan? Naan dhaan dee Uma vandhirukken". A few uncles tried in vain to stop Kaushik, but finally with the help of some Vibhoodhi and a broomstick, managed to control him. It was later learnt that Uma was a girl in Kaushik's dad's hometown. Apparently, his dad was engaged to Uma but eloped with Kaushik's mom, which drove Uma to suicide. Now with help from psychiatrists and saamiyaars, Kaushik is fine.

By the time Avinash finished, all our hearts were beating much faster than normal. But we were not finished. Aditya continued with the Sin Jin story. Sin Jin apparently was a friend of his sister.

By now, the time was already around 2 30 and we were terrified beyond limit. We decided it was enough for the day, and went to our beds, when Mahesh spoke.

"Machis. For the last 3 years, I have been dodging and avoiding watching horror movies with you guys. I know I have been missing out on a lot of fun, but it is not because I am a coward or anything. I have a problem, which I am going to tell you guys now. It is high time I did." and continued "I lived in Delhi when I was a kid, till my 6th standard or so. Exactly one floor above mine in our apartment, a young coupled moved in. For the first few weeks, everything was normal. But with time, we heard a lot of shouting and screaming. It was almost clearly audible especially from my room, and it looked like they were continuously fighting. I informed my parents, but they kept telling me it was normal for newly married people to fight and asked me not to worry. One night, the screaming was abnormally loud and scary. I couldn't sleep, so switched on the lights and saw something through my window which I can never ever forget in my life. It was a momentary scene, but I can still remember it as clearly as I did when I saw it. The girl was flying down, and thudded into the ground. I put my head out of the window and saw the bloody scene. Too scared and too young to know what to do, I switched off the lights and went to sleep. There were some investigations after that, and the police concluded that it was a suicide." The fear was visible in Mahesh's eyes. I even thought I saw a few drop of tears in his eyes. He continued "A few days after the incident, I kept getting dreams about that girl. Every single time, she would appear and say the same thing. She would cry, and whisper into my ears 'you know the truth. Help me. Help me. You know the truth'. I have never known what to do with the dream. I have not even told my parents, but I still get the dream every now and then." Mahesh was indeed sobbing. Now, we didn't know how to react. We went up to him and after a warm group hug, retired into our beds.

Just when I was getting into a deep sleep, I was woken up, by none other than Mahesh himself. I opened my eyes, and saw the clock. It was 3 30 AM.

“What do you want at this time da?” I asked.

“Machaan.. I wanna piss da. Too scared to go alone..please come.”

"Ok you go, I'll follow you" I said, and Mahesh left.

I woke up Avinash and Aditya, and told them we needed to lighten up the mood. It was time for a prank, to make Mahesh smile and forget the hard night. I told them exactly what to do, and being roomies and best buddies for 4 years, they were instantly excited by the plan and welcomed it with a lot of enthusiasm.

We rushed to the toilet, and took positions. Aditya went near the switchboard, while Avinash and I hid right behind Mahesh, who had just begun emptying his bladder. We had already scared the hell out of him by forcing him to watch horror movies against his will, and now it was time for a laugh. 3 30 AM, a deserted toilet and a frightened Mahesh in it. It was set up perfectly for us, to execute our prank, though it was extremely childish. I gave a nod to Aditya. The lights went off. The 3 of us (Avinash, Aditya and I) screamed on top of our voices in an attempt to scare Mahesh. We expected him to get petrified and shout his throat off, but to our astonishment, we didn’t get any sort of response. The plan had clearly failed. We burst into laughter for making a fool of ourselves at this time in the night and switched on the lights, and saw something which put an immediate end to the giggles.

Mahesh lied on the floor, scared. And dead.

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