THE GHOST OF INDORE MARATHON

Jaspreet sat on a plastic chair in the centre of a long straight road in the city of Indore. It was three in the morning and there was not a single soul in sight. Yet he sat there with a blue plastic table in front and an umbrella opened above him.

He was one of the many volunteers who were helping the core operations team of IIM Indore’s marathon run that was conducted every year by IIM Indore’s student community. Sometime back, Atul, his batchmate and also head of the marathon’s operations team had given Jaspreet and four other students the task of placing the drinks kiosk at five different locations on the race route. The kiosk consisted of a chair, a table and an umbrella. Before the commencement of the race next morning, water bottles would be placed on the table and one volunteer would sit on the chair while a second volunteer would distribute the water bottles to all the racers passing through that point. All this under the shade of the large umbrella overhead.

Jaspreet’s task was to not only place the kiosk on the checkpoint but to also to stay put till the time the next group of volunteers took over the station. And so Jaspreet sat at this secluded place at this odd hour observing his surroundings.

It seemed like a routine task when Atul had asked him to do it, but now that he was sitting all alone in the dark road with all but one street light dimly lit, he was questioning his decision and cursing his enthusiasm. For he was afraid of the darkness, of the unknown, of the aloneness of the situation.

He wanted to leave the kiosk and reach a place where there were more people but he could not because, one ,he did not have any vehicle ( a truck with the kiosk material had dropped him there) and two, he did not know where he was. In the era of Qwerty phones when maps were whatever area your brain could remember, he was stuck in a place his brain had no recollection of.

He looked to his left and he looked to his right and then an idea struck him. He could call Atul and ask him to get him picked up. With the agility of a katana swordsman he took out his Sony phone from his pocket and started searching for Atul’s name in the directory.

“I Atul”, the name and number were right in front of him. All he had to do was to press the green button and the call would go through. But something inside him hesitated.

“You said you would help.”

“He is counting on you.”

“What would he and others think if you called him now?”

“ Are you really that big a coward?”

“You are a brave man, Jaspreet, you can handle it.”

“Yes, I am a brave man. I can handle it. What is a little darkness in front of me? After all, another couple of hours and the sun would rise.”

Jaspreet raised his hands and crossed them behind his head and rested his head on them. 

“There is nothing that can harm me. I am untouchable.” He thought with a smirk on his face.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Though the place he was stationed at had always been this quiet, he only experienced it once he was able to quieten his inner voices after closing his eyes.

For a moment there he felt free, he felt on the top of the world, as if nothing in this world could harm him. As if there was no one, as if he was the only man in the world.  He had never ever before felt in so much control.

“Rattle!! Rattle!! Rattle!!” Jaspreet opened his eyes. It seems he heard something. He looked around and there was nothing. So he closed his eyes again and rested his head against the palms of his crossed hands while he sat on the chair.

“Rattle!! Rattle!! Rattle!!” He heard it again. This time it could not be a false alarm. He stood up. Alert. His head swaying left and right. Looking for the source of the sound that he heard. But there was nothing. All he could see was a desolate road with nothing but one dimly lit street light.

He was about to lean back on the chair again, assured that the sound he heard was nothing but a figment of his imagination, but that is when it happened again. 

“Rattle!! Rattle!! Rattle!!” He stood up frightened. His heart beat pumping. Adrenaline and Cortisol racing through the body. He looked left and then he looked right and that’s when he saw it. The dark four legged, two horned black animal that was slipping along the left turn that it had just taken on the road.

“Rattle!! Rattle!! Rattle!!” Its hooves making this sound against the asphalt of the road. The animal slipped as it took a sharp left turn towards Jaspreet. But it soon recovered. Jaspreet froze. His body hard as a rock. As if under Medusa’s spell. He could only watch.

The animal regained its balance after the initial slip up. And then it came straight towards him. The lone man standing between a table and a chair and under an umbrella, frozen like a woolly mammoth.

Jaspreet could see, it was a buffalo. But only a baby buffalo. Probably lost. Probably looking for her mother. Or father. Or family. He was not sure. He could not think. All he knew was that he was alone and that IT was coming towards him and that he could not move. He prayed. To all the gods that he could name. All the gods he could visually recognize. That they save him from the wrath of this animal. He prayed that it would not harm him.

“Rattle!! Rattle!! Rattle!!”. The animal moved forward swiftly. 10 feet. 9 feet. 8 feet.7 feet. 6 feet. He prayed to god to keep his family safe after he was gone. He prayed to god to help his soul attain nirvana after he was gone. 

5 feet. 

He remembered all the misdeeds that he had done in his life. He wished he had not spoken to certain people in a certain way.

4 feet.

He wished he could have been more useful to the society.

3 feet.

He wished that he had more time to live.

2 feet.

He closed his eyes.

“Rattle!! Rattle!! Rattle!!” 

1 feet.

He could hear the sound as close as his own heart beat.

-1 feet.

“Rattle!! Rattle!! Rattle!!” 

The sound now seemed to have gone past him.

“Rattle!! Rattle!! Rattle!!” 

-2 feet.

The sound was now receding.

The bull calf had passed him. Realising that the animal had just passed him, Jaspreet opened his eyes and he could see a bull calf run past him. He could now sense that the calf was probably more scared to see him than he was to see it.

Jaspreet took a breath of relief and sat down on the chair. And soon enough a vehicle from IIM Indore arrived to pick him up and place an alternate team at the station.