Picnic Adventure Part---2

We were going deep inside the jungle with a cheerful and careless mood, some like me were singing, some others were collecting pebbles and driftwoods, throwing them in different directions to show their skills of hitting the target.  Garima and Christie Sir were busy in a discussion about the correct pronunciation of daily use words. Some were busy in chit-chatting and so on…at a point we saw a huge wall, starting near a clump of trees. The area we have crossed until then was completely desolate, so this wall (that too in the middle of jungle with no other supporting walls or such structures) has obviously raised our curiosity and made our fertile brains highly active. Everyone started making his/her own speculations,

“this is a GHOST wall, I can bet, it is”.

“Oh shut up, nothing like that, may be it is a boundary of some private premise.”

“Private premise?? Huh…that too in the middle of jungle??”

“No it is a ghost wall…or may be the boundary of a graveyard.”

Need not to say that this graveyard idea rang several bells in our minds. However, before we  could have reached to any other lofty conclusion, Christie Sir interrupted, “it seems we are near to a colony, relax kids”, he said with his hallmark smile and with these words, he started singing a Caribbean song and moved ahead.

“Humm..Kids”.

We were walking besides the wall, but there were no signs of  where it is going to end, nor its other end was visible. Even it was too high to see what is happening at the other side of the wall. Meanwhile, another thing that increased our anxiety was those musical sounds that were coming from the other side of wall. Now the idea of Ghost wall and “Bhooton ka Dera” got the official confirmation. Anyway, that fear too could not stop us and finally we reached to the end of wall, but no it was just a turn. However, from this turn, the height of wall decreased, though still it was enough to hide the activities of other side that were now not limited with some “musical sounds” but also giving clear indications of “Band Baja”. One more thing we noticed that now we were in a colonized area; a few houses, cattle etc. were visible on the way ahead.

Although, speculations, rumors and hubbub about “Ghost Marriage” were on the peak. Suddenly we saw a door, a closed door in the middle of the wall, everyone quickly ran towards it. It was half-open and the wall at the both sides of door was quite low, so we all began to peeping  through the door and over the wall and guess what we found…there was an open verandah full of well-dressed people ( usually “ghosts” do not appear in such good cloths).  In the middle of it, the Bride and Bridegroom were sitting on a small stage. However, our curious and keenly watching eyes did not please the guests and both families as well (though I do not know who were from family and who were guests). Therefore, before they do some attempts to drag us out from there, we ourself buzzed off from there.

“What is the name of this area?” I threw a question in the air.

“Brahmpuri, one of the most remote areas of the city”, Pandit Jee replied in a loud voice.

“Hahaha...So Lord Brahma himself lives here...is that so...” That was Sandeep.

Anyway, after crossing across some dusty streets and roads of Brahmpuri, we again entered in
the forest area. Soon we reached to a small temple like place. Huge pictures of some sacred men were embossed on walls and on the large trunk of an old tree. A few priests in saffron

cloths were sitting upon a cemented platform under the tree.

That time I did not notice that they were grinding something. The whole atmosphere of temple of was quite mystic, there were no as such formal statues of any god, only some paintings, as I mentioned above.  In which, a very strange looking Saint was shown in different postures. We spent some half an hour over there and then again moved ahead.  We hardly walked few steps, when Manoj came running from behind, he was calling us... We were not aware of that Manoj has been left behind!!! Anyway, the moment he reached, we started inquiring about it. But he asked us to take “Prasaad”. Now what is this..?

We asked him from where he got it. He told us that those two priests were grinding “Bhaang”, when he asked for Prasaad (in a temple one can obviously expect for Prasaad); they gave him a big ball of Bhaang.

“Have you gone nuts? Are you crazy?”

 He looked at us with a cunning smile and everybody in our group stretched their hands to take the Prasaad. I was still confused and was standing on a side but how can someone escape from the sharp sight of Manoj?

“You too have to take it.”

“Me?? Err...Emm...no it could be harmful”. I spoke in a meek voice.

“Prasaad can never be harmful, don’t make silly excuses and take it”.

“Ok”. But only a small amount of it.” Luckily, Manoj did not make any further argument and gave me a small ball of Bhaang, a green colored, moist ball of a strange ingredient.

Anyway, I somehow ate it. Surprisingly Yogita took the biggest chunk of it, now she did it knowingly, unknowingly or willingly nobody knows. Soon Bhaang started showing its effect on Yogita (was that our mere imagination or reality...I do not know). Anyway...as we were reaching near to Bhooteshwar Mahadev van Khand...

To Be Continued….

Image Courtesy : Google