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Sunday, September 6, 2015

No Accident-A Short Story

It happened on Walker Hill on a beautiful summer afternoon. The accident that people talk about till today and just can’t understand how it could have happened.

Or why?  

But for some of us who know better, it is clear- it was no accident. The Honda car that was involved in the accident had gone over the protective iron railings and of the three men, travelling in that car, one was dying and the other two gravely injured with multiple  fractures and severe bruising. And in the moments that Jatanbir breathed his last, he told his father Harjit and brother Amandeeep, ‘It finally managed to get us. I knew all along that this would happen one day, the only thing that I didn’t know was which day would be my last. Look after yourselves and please….please look after my children.”

A tortured breath escaped his lips, his eyes rolled up and he finally found the peace that he had been craving. Finally, in death, if not in his entire life of 43 years.

On a beautiful summer afternoon

For that I will need to tell you a little about Walker Hill. And later, I will tell you how that accident happened. Or at least, the version that Harjit and Amandeep told us.

A small town on the outskirts of Shimla, Walker Hill is built on a hill, 5 km west to the Shimla Ridge and is a part of the seven-hill cluster.  In the past, Walker Hill has been used as a residence for Mahatma Gandhi, who stayed here at the Georgian mansion of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur during his Shimla visits. These pine and deodhar laden slopes have many quaint residences, like the one belonging to the family of painter Amrita Shergil (1913-1941).Besides being a popular tourist destination, the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (established 1965), housed in the former Viceregal Lodge, which was built in 1884-88, is on the nearby Observatory Hill. Today, it hosts the Himachal Pradesh University, which mainly offers post graduate programmes in Humanities, Commerce, Science, Management, Law and Languages, and was started in 1975.

In the early 1930’s,  a wealthy landlord from Punjab, Sardar Tarlok Singh Sachhar bought an estate called ‘Oakley’ from Brigadier David Bryant, an Englishman who had made India his home after retiring from the Indian army. Sardar Tarlok Singh knew he had managed to get that estate at a real bargain. With over 20 acres of land, apple orchards and a large, beautifully built main house with 5 bedrooms spread over two floors, indoor plumbing, water and electricity, it was an absolute delight. And so it became the annual summer retreat for the entire Sacchar clan, including his bachelor son, Manvinder and three daughters Kulvinder, Sukhpreet and Amrita who would congregate there for the summer vacations bringing their children with them. It was an idyllic time for all and they absolutely adored the fabulous weather, the picnics in the orchards complete with teatime treats- including clotted cream and strawberry jam sandwiches, scones and fruit cake, or at other times, a packed lunch with delicious dry ‘chicken masala’, ‘sookhe aloo’ and ‘paronthis’ as they were called in Punjabi.  

And they had a free run of the entire estate, all except the old garden shed in one corner of the estate. Sardar Tarlok Singh had made it clear to all that it was the one area that they must never venture towards as that was the reason why he had managed to buy Oakley at such a bargain. Just before handing signing over the property to him, Brigadier David Bryant had shared the reason why he was selling the estate that he had grown to love so dearly and moving back to Oxford in England. He was convinced that his son Captain Jason had met an untimely death at the hands of Kamalini, the innocent and beautiful gardener’s daughter who he had enticed, impregnated and finally deserted when she had insisted that he must marry her. When he had outright rejected her and his unborn child, she had gone to the garden shed in one corner of the estate, locked  it from inside and hung herself on the wooden beam that ran from one end to the other.

By the time her father, the gardener Roshan Lal finally managed to break down that door with the help of the other servants, it was too late. She was dead, as was the five  month old baby boy she had been carrying.

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It was only a few days later that Jason started to look terrified. When his father asked him what was bothering him, all he managed to stutter was that he wouldn’t be around for much longer and that no one should have any doubts as to what had happened to him when they came upon his dead body.

For Kamalini had come to him on the very next day after her death and promised him, that she would have her revenge.

As it happened, both Jason and Kamalini were right because they found Jason hanging at the very spot that Kamalini herself had been found. Some of the servants thought that it might have been a case of suicide, but Brigadier David Bryant knew better. For he too, had seen the dead Kamalini walking through the gardens in the early hours of the morning, and knew that it was a mere matter of time.

Which was exactly what he shared with Sardar Tarlok Singh when he sold him the estate and the gentleman still went ahead and bought the estate. You see, he knew that he would never be able to get such prime property for such a low price.

Time passed and after his death, his only son Manvinder inherited that estate. Or so everybody believed, as he occupied and started spending his summers there while he continued to live in Jalandhar in Punjab managing his farmlands during the rest of the year. Since he was a bachelor, there really weren’t any complications and he had a very efficient estate manager, Hukam Chand who kept his life stress free and the estates in Punjab and Himachal running smoothly.

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1995

Things have a way of changing and sometimes they tend to take an ugly turn. As is exactly what happened when Harjit, (Kulvinder's son) found a loophole in the their dead grandfather's will and decided to take matters into his own hands. Accompanied by his sons Jatanbir and Karamjeet, one fine day, they drove straight into Oakley in their 4WD, broke the front lock and after gaining entry into the main house, set up home and hearth  in the estate. Harjit was an alcoholic and had three sons of whom Jatanbir was the oldest. Jatanbir was also the most cunning of them all and despite not having had the opportunity of a college education as he was always busy trying to pick up the pieces left behind by his drunk father, he also had the responsibility of providing for the rest of the family, which by then comprised of the ‘Gen next’ as well, as he as well as his brothers were married and had families of their own by then.
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From here, a chain of inexplicable events begin to unfold and things soon begin to spiral out of control. Weird things happen and one day a Honda car is seen by eyewitnesses as “ flying high up into the air, almost as if it  had been thrown up like a giant ball.“

This was followed by a loud bang after which there was only silence.

Followed by the groans of the grievously wounded and dying.

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It happened on Walker Hill on a beautiful summer afternoon. The accident that people talk about till today and just can’t understand how it could have happened.

Or why?  

But for some of us who know better, it is clear- it was no accident. The Honda car that was involved in the accident had gone over the protective iron railings and of the three men, travelling in that car, one was dying and the other two gravely injured with multiple  fractures and severe bruising. And in the moments that Jatanbir breathed his last, he told his father Harjit and brother Amandeeep, ‘It finally managed to get us. I knew all along that this would happen one day, the only thing that I didn’t know was which day would be my last. 

"Look after yourselves and please….please look after my children.”

















    





4 comments:

Unknown said...

Divine justice - don't know if it really happens. Nice story

Indrani said...

Great narration. Kept me hooked till the end.
Sometimes I do believe in SN powers.

Unknown said...

Awesome and nail biting....loved it...very interesting read Sunaina :)

sunaina serna ahluwalia said...

Many thanks Somali= Im a great believer in Divine justice...
Indrani- Glad you liked it!
Shweta-Many thanks!