An Encounter

I was a N.C.C. cadet when I was studying in college. Once we went to Kodaikanel, a hill station in Tamilnadu district for our basic leadership course. We were the selected 25 cadets from different colleges of West Bengal.It was amazing that despite being all girls, we mingled with each other quite well. We got along not only with Bengal girls but endeared with  the other states' girls also. Our mother tongues, our cultures were so different from each other. Despite this we communicated through part-Hindi and part-English ! We passed those 26 days of rigorous training that included parades, martial arts, different races,disciplines and nursing.               

                          

During our return journey we had booked an entire coach of an express train. Our lady instructor was our botany professor DD-Dolly Dutta. She was a very strict and disciplined lady. We had always been afraid of her. We boarded the train at night. As we occupied our berth she locked the door and ordered us to shut down the windows and change our outfits and get ready to sleep. Just then we heard a bang on the door.

''Who's there?" "Who's there?" DD shouted. In the mean time the latch got loose and the door opened! We saw in horror as two heavily built men, with handlebar mustaches and wearing lungis lifted up to their knees trying to get inside. DD went berserk. She started to shout at them with in her unique 'hindi'-"Hey! itna shashosh tumhara ? Ekhanko kijonyo aa gaya ? Ye pura hamara meyelogka kamra hai. Shob reserve kora hua hai. humlog NCC ka log hai, NCC boojhta hai ? Millitary hum meyelog millitary hai?  Boojhta hai ? bhago ekhanse nehi to ami ekkhuni whistle baja dega aur RPF aake tumhare ko pakarke le jayega !"

                     

Those fierce looking men looked typical Tamilian, they could not understand a single word of DD's but it seemed that they got frightened by her terrible expressions. They started pleading with folded hands in their native language. The only word we could understand was ' HAWKER ' It seemed they were hawkers and came to sell their stuffs. As the train had already started moving was impossible for them to go to any other compartment. But our DD did not want to allow them,she said,"nehi jayega to dhakka mar dega. "

                                                                                         

They got out of our coach after hurling some abuses in their own language. As they hung on to the small staircase outside the door, DD went locked the door at once and told us,"Girls! Hurry up! Bring your trunks here and keep them against the door like a barricade!" We obeyed her order. When this barricade got high enough DD said, “It’s enough, now we have no danger. Go to sleep now but don't change out of your NCC uniforms, it would be helpful for us. We will have to keep our guard up the whole night. Who will do it?" All of us raised our hands because we wanted to be awake the whole night, as we were too excited to sleep anyways. Luckily,  DD chose me and Nivedita for guard duty and went to the upper birth saying that, “I’ll not sleep, 'll just lie and keep a watch from the overhead. So don't get frightened, okay?" "Yes Ma'am" we said together and started chatting.

After about 15 minutes, as the train was leaving a station, we heard the familiar bang on the same door. We were frightened a little bit, and called,"Ma'am ! Ma'am ! They're back again!" But DD was sound asleep, she didn't wake up! All the girls had woken up hearing the noise. We panicked  .Then I shook DD,"Ma'am they might have returned ! What do we do?" DD opened her eyes and suddenly jumped from the birth and blared frantically, “Knife! Knife! Take out your knives!" We looked at each other, from where do we bring a knife?? DD went crazy, “You are disgusting! Why don't you keep any knives with you? Come on; find out any sharp or heavy object from your handbags! Let me see who they are!"   

                   

DD stepped out with a suitcase chain in her hand. We were waiting with a great thrill. Suddenly the  trunk on top of the barricade fell down due to the constant blows from outside. We forgot all the courageous lessons which we had learnt for the last 26 days! We screamed in chorus,"Bachao Bachao!" And started running towards the toilet. At least 12 to 13 girls were packed in one toilet; it was so uncomfortable for all of us. Anyhow we managed to close the door. Suddenly someone tried to force open the door from outside. We started screaming again,"Oh my God! It’s them!" We pushed against the door as hard as we could.

Then we heard DD's voice,"It's me it's me! Let me in! Let me in Please!”We tried to open the door but she couldn't enter as there was no space even for an ant!! Still, we tried to pull her in. Amidst our commotion we heard ,"Come out girls come out! They have left! Nobody is here anymore!" It was Nivedita ! She was a Tomboy and was well-known for her daring acts .Having her assurance, we breathed again and wanted to come out. But then we faced another problem! By this time, DD was jammed between the door and the girls, and was reluctant to come out. She couldn't rely on Nivedita. We felt suffocated there and couldn't stay there anymore. Then we all shoved DD aside and came out. We saw there was no one there, only the top trunk had fallen off. We picked it up and put it on the top again. We all shouted,"Come out Ma'am,no one is there,we are safe."

Then she came out with a blushing face and pretended that everything was normal. She started,"Don't panic! It's okay! I am here to protect all of you. Never think that I was scared, no, I just went to see whether you were safe there or not! I wanted to encourage you people!"We were looking each other with mischievous smiles.

Later we came to know that the stranger whose banging got us so frightened was actually the ticket checker who came to check our tickets, not the lungi-clad Madrasi Gundas !!!

Posted in: Short Story