Haunting Bombay by Shilpa Agarwal

Author:Shilpa Agarwal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2009-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

Earlier that evening back at the bungalow in chaos, Pinky had noiselessly made her way out to the green gates in search of the ghost. Unexpectedly, a young woman had stepped forward into the faint pool of light cast from the front verandah.

“Lovely didi?” Pinky edged back towards the bungalow, a chill working its way up her spine. “What’s wrong?”

“Come!” Lovely beckoned, almost frantically.

Pinky stared at Lovely. She was dressed not in a cotton sleeping salvar kameez as she should have been at this time of the night but in a chiffon one, now soaked and badly ripped. Her silk dupatta clung tightly to her chest, accentuating the outline of her full breasts, the golden bird nestled invitingly in between them. Her thick tresses, usually tied back, cascaded down her back like a torn shawl; her normally bare lips were smudged with gloss, the color smeared across her chin like a lesion. A canvas satchel hung heavily at her hips. But something else struck Pinky as strange. Her voice was gritty and strained.

“Are you unwell didi?” Pinky asked. “Is everything okay with Auntie?”

“Please come!” Lovely urged, stepping toward Pinky, her eyes staring yet eerily unfocused.

A stray street dog sniffing the gutters for garbage backed away from her, growling with teeth bared.

“Come inside,” Pinky said, starting to turn back to the bungalow.

“No,” Lovely said as she took Pinky’s arm and pulled her onto a red motorbike that was idling in the nearby darkness. “There’s no turning back now.”

Pinky’s pink gum boots pitched into the air as Lovely gunned the throttle, landing in a puddle by the green gates. Lovely plunged the bike down the steep hill, away from the verandah’s light glowing forlornly in a fog of flying insects, and towards the ocean.

“Didi! ” Pinky shouted, clutching at Lovely’s waist. “Where are we going?”

“To freedom,” Lovely replied, as their homes on Malabar Hill dissolved into a glittering canopy reaching out as if to touch the stormy sky.

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