Sudeep Kumar hoped that the day would never end.

It was already evening and the light was getting

dimmer. He felt as though the sun was sliding down the slope of the sky a

little faster than normal. As if it intended to go explicitly against Sudeep?s

wish.

But dark though it was getting, for Sudeep the evening

has been pretty bright.

There was a convention of a regional political party

held in a nearby auditorium. More than a hundred people had attended the convention-

both men and women(though more of them were men). Owing to the time of the

convention(held at 3 in the afternoon, it was to celebrate the first

anniversary of the party?s existence, according to a flex board that Sudeep has

seen), Sudeep got more customers at his small tea shack than usual.

Way more.

The party was an offshoot of a bigger party with its

headquarters in Delhi. They were a staunchly pro-globalization group and the

regional party was formed particularly in the backdrop of the state government

not doing enough to encourage more number of Big Businesses to enter the Kerala

market.  

This pro-market agenda was also reflected in the

party?s mascot-which too was featured on the flex board for the convention that

Sudeep saw.

The mascot was an androgynous looking man with round

eyes, broad forehead, sallow skin, his mouth slightly parted, almost

cartoonish, looking like an ?O?- an expression somewhere between glee and

surprise.

The net effect was that the man looked artificial.

The androgyny of the mascot represented a new type

of human- one that is modern, unlike any of the moderns that have come before.

At least, that?s what Sudeep has heard a party worker telling someone else

while they were at his shack, having tea and cigarette.

As for Sudeep, he felt that the clenched fists the

mascot triumphantly raised in the air not only looked over-large, but also as

if he hid something within the fists.  

**

Whereas on a regular day, Sudeep would have trouble

selling all the uzhunnu vadas that his wife made- there would at least be ten

of those left over by the time the stall closed at 9 PM- today, though it wasn?t

six yet, Kaumudi was already making the second batch of vadas.

For many party workers who attended the convention

came over to the stall just fifty meters away from the auditorium for a light

snack and tea(made Sudeep wonder if they weren?t even served snacks as part of the

celebration). Cigarettes also turned out to be hot selling item this evening.

Even though smoking in public was banned in not just

Trivandrum but all of Kerala, nicotine apparently lent itself to heated

political discussions.

Presently, Sudeep was walking towards his stall,

holding a small plastic kit containing cigarette packets of different brands.

Having run out of cigarettes- he stocked very little number of them since due

to the ban, few people brought them anymore- he had  to go to a nearby wholesaler, not more than

half a kilometer away for replenishment.

The walk to and fro took hardly fifteen minutes, but

already, the crowd near the stall was cleared.

Even as he neared the shop, he could hear an

announcement spilling out of the speakers in front of the auditorium, onto the

street.

An urgent-sounding male voice exhorted the attendees

of the convention to ?calmly proceed to their respective buses for the buses

would leave in ten minutes.?

Sudeep couldn?t help but think how the announcement

sounded so much like the one that he heard at his daughter?s school, asking the

kids to ?move calmly to the assembly hall? when he went there to pay her school

fee last month. (Sudeep?s 8 year old daughter- the apple of both his and Kaumudi?s

eyes learned in one of the better schools in the city, and Sudeep took

particular pride in the fact that though he was a lowly tea shack owner, he was

able to send the kid to such a school).

?So, they have all left?? Sudeep said to kaumudi as

he got in the stall(barely wide enough for both of them). He couldn?t keep the

disappointment out of his voice. He was looking forward to more business.

Smiling, Kaumudi nodded, though she didn?t take her

eyes off the vadas that she were frying in the oil.

?Anyway, I am sure that the regular customers would

now begin to come in and we would have plenty more money in the purse before we

close for today!? Suddep said with a sigh, as though it was Kaumudi, and not

himself who has expressed the disappointment at the political workers leaving.

The ?regular customers? he referred to were mostly

youngsters who worked at a nearby building that housed about a dozen small

offices. Almost all of these companies were IT firms, specializing in one or

other form of software development.

And the coding geeks who stopped for a smoke and tea

at Sudeep?s stall were given to discussing about codes while they were at the

shack.

Neither Sudeep nor Kaumudi would understand a word

of what they spoke about. In fact, more often than not, Sudeep thought that

they talked an alien language even though he could discern Malayalam words in

their speech.

Listening to them, he would feel thoroughly

alienated- as though he didn?t have any reason to exist on this earth, which

rightly belonged to people like these youngsters who could talk about exotic

computer-related things so easily, like how Sudeep and Kaumudi might talk about

the rain or the day?s income they had garnered from the shop.

At the same time, he would also feel a swell of

pride in his chest, thinking of how Kirtana- his daughter would one day grow up

to become a part of the world that the young office goers inhabited- a world in

which people spoke in tongues.

**

?Who is that?? Kaumudi?s voice was filled with equal

measure of curiosity and eeriness.

It was past nine in the night. The couple was shutting

their shop.

Kaumudi was transferring the cash from the small

wooden box that she kept to collect the money into a small plastic pouch which,

after zipping it close, she would keep deep within the cup of her bra until

they reached home.

She was just about insert her hand with the pouch

into her blouse when she felt the gaze of someone, watching her intently. At

first, she dismissed it as just a feeling, without any basis on reality.

But then, something caught the edge of her eye and

she looked up.

Her fist tightened around the plastic money pouch

when she saw the man who stood on the opposite side of the street. He stood in

front of the small Hopcomps vegetable shop. The shop was shuttered every

evening at around seven.

He stood in the shadow of a tree the branches of

which blocked the light from the nearby street lamp from falling on him.

This meant that the person in the shadows looked

more a part of the shadow itself, barely discernible from the darkness around

him, than a three dimensional human being.

 But there was

no doubt in Kaumudi?s mind that it was a man and not a woman.

He looked bulky, judging by his outline that she

could make out. He was also tall- six feet, perhaps more.

But what made Kaumudi afraid about the figure was

the stillness.

The man stood with both arms pressed closely to his

sides. It was possible that his hands were clenched in fists, though she

couldn?t be sure, not from this distance. His legs were pressed close together,

as close as possible while he held his head steady, facing the direction of the

tea shack.

In fact, aside from the rather horizontal manner in

which he held his head, the man?s posture was akin to that of someone hanging

by the neck.

Kaumudi has seen one such person- when someone in

their neighborhood committed suicide, and she, like many of her neighbors went

to see the dead body hanging by a rope through the open window in the house.

A spectacle that you don?t come across every day.

The sight of the man in the shadows put in Kaumudi?s

mind the memory of the hanging man.

And this too, she thought, is a spectacle that you

don?t see every day.

The absolute stillness with which the man stood,

like a predator waiting for the prey to come close enough so that he could

pounce on it.

Sudeep, who was busy bolting the latch on the

metallic shutter of the stall, locked the shutter with a padlock before he

stood up and followed his wife?s gaze, across the street.

At first, when she mentioned that someone was

watching them, he thought that it must be a customer who was passing by on a

motorcycle who has stopped to see if the stall was still open, so that he could

buy cigarettes before getting home. The lane where they had the shop was not traffic-heavy

after eight in the night, but they occasionally got such late customers.

But one look at the figure in the shadows and Sudeep

knew that it was no prospective customer he was looking at.

?Did you see him before?? Kaumudi said, her voice

even more weighty with fear than before.

?No,? Sudeep whispered. He took hold of her hand,

pulled her closer to him, as though fearing the predator would pounce on them

any moment. ?No,? he repeated, trying to keep the fear he felt from his voice.

What  troubled

him the most was that neither of them had heard the man coming to that spot.

He could see no motorbike or any other vehicle near

the man, so he must have come by foot. But even so, there were dry leaves from

the trees that lined the side of the street on that end.

 Surely, if the

man walked over them, they must have heard the footsteps. Sometimes, stray dogs

walked over the leaves and owing to the deserted nature of the street in the

night, the couple would be extremely sensitive to such sounds.

But neither of them has heard a sound.

What?s more- Sudeep was there on that side of the

street just five minutes ago, when he went there to take a leak(the shadows

that the trees cast made for a convenient space for relieving yourself).

And he was quite positive that there was no one

there then. All he saw then was a rat shaped thing moving along the open sewer

line.

?Who is there?? he called out, his voice loud in the

stillness of the night.

 He hoped that

some vehicle would pass by, casting light on the stranger, illuminating his face,

if for nothing else, at least so they would know that it was indeed a man, a

human being that they were looking at.

As it was, the continued stillness of the body and

the eerie calm that surrounded him gave him the appearance of a phantasm.

Sudeep looked to either side of the street. But he

couldn?t see any oncoming vehicle. As for the man in the shadows, he remained

still and silent, not answering Sudeep?s question, not moving an inch.

Sudeep repeated the question but to the same result.

He was beginning to get exasperated. He had half a

mind to go over to the other side and give him a piece of his mind.

Kaumudi, as though reading his mind, whispered

hurriedly into his ear, ?Come on, let?s just go home..He is probably just a

drunk!?

Sudeep stood staring at the man, though he heard his

wife?s words. ?Come, let?s go?.Kirtana would be waiting at home!?

At the mention of his daughter?s name, Sudeep

stirred, he looked at Kaumidi. Sighing softly, he nodded at her.

He didn?t let go of her hand as they began walking. He

kept looking over his shoulder every now and then, imagining footsteps

following them.

But no one followed them.

When  they

came out of the small lane and entered the main road, the headlights of an

oncoming car caught him squarely in the eyes.

He squinted, and once the car passed them by, it

took a few more seconds for him to re-adjust his eyes to the dim light of the night.

Immediately, he was possessed by the irrational fear

that in the preceding seconds when he was blinded by the light , the figure in

the dark had come after them and taken his wife away.

 He could feel

his grip on her arm, but still he had to look to see that she was still there,

by his side.

Seeing the cloud of fear passing over his face like

across the moon, Kaumudi threw him a questioning glance. Forcing a smile onto

his face, he shook his head.

?Nothing,? he said, though in the core if his heart,

fear stirred like a beast from slumber.

**

The next afternoon, when they came to open the

stall, Sudeep and Kaumudi were understandably weary.

Though the bulk of their customers come only after

five in the evening- after office hours, the couple opened the stall by three

so that they would have time to prepare the snacks and tea and coffee before

the customers started coming in.

But even as they went through the motions of

preparing the snacks- Sudeep cutting up the onions and other vegetables that would

go into them, after readying the flour, she cleaning up the stove and the

plates before they were put to use- both of them kept throwing furtive glances

towards the opposite side of the street, as though determined not to be caught

unawares by the presence of the still persona.

But, there appeared no one there, except for the

people who came to buy vegetables from the Hopcomp vegetable stall. An

occasional stray dog passed by-stray dog problem in the city was widely publicized

in the newspapers- but no predatory man interfered to ruin the couple?s peace

of mind.

And when the afternoon turned to evening and the

first of the office workers began to come to the shop for a quick bite and tea

before going home, and they began to get busy serving the customers the

delicacy that they demanded(in the ten odd years they have been doing business,

the couple had become very good with their preparations), Kaumudi and Sudeep

began to forget all about the man in the shadows whom they saw last night.

Indeed, as the evening deepened and twilight draped

a shroud of darkness over the sky, Sudeep even began to feel that the man in

the shadows was just a figment of a dream . A vivid but disturbing dream.

**

Unlike the previous day, this day, the business was

dim.

Nothing unusual about it- business was always dimmer

on Fridays.

For on Fridays, a large number of office workers

left straight from office to a bar or a pub, where they would drink away the

fatigue of the entire work week, ready for a blissfully lazy weekend in which

they would do nothing but sleep and watch the television(perhaps, if time

permits, they may go out for lunch with family or friends).

Whereas due to the unusually high volume of business

that the political convention brought yesterday, Sudeep  had hoped that the day would never end and

would continue bringing more customers his way, on this sultry Friday evening,

as almost a quarter of the snacks were still in the steel containers(with mesh

for a bottom to drain the oil away), Sudeep had no such wish.

In fact, as the twilight sky left behind its swatches

of colours and sky turned an even dark blue and then grey, and the Hopcomps

opposite was closed for the day and the street lamps came on, once the sound of

the crickets began to get louder than the sound of traffic from the main road

adjacent to this street, Sudeep suggested to his wife that they might as well

shut shop earlier today.  

But Kaumudi, taking a look at all the vadas and

banana cakes that were still in the containers, said that perhaps, they should

wait for another hour-until eight- before they called it a night.

?You know how some kids come out drunk from bars,

and would be looking to eat some snacks! They are out greatest customers, for

when they are drunk, people eat a lot!? Kaumudi grinned.

Sudeep agreed with her though he didn?t have much

hope of gaining too many customers anymore in the day.

 It would only

be on Sunday, when a large number of visitors came to the nearby Museum and Zoo

complex when they would have good business again. He even thought of skipping

the next day- perhaps they should take Kirtana to the beach tomorrow?

For the next hour, Sudeep sat in a plastic stool

smoking beedis.

He had turned on the radio, an old transistor radio

which he has brought when he used to work in Dubai as a manual laborer.

Foregoing the news, he settled on a film music

program. In his forty years of existence on earth, Sudeep was yet to find any

greater consolation than music, and family.

He listened as Kaumudi, sitting beside him, narrated

to him how when ?Our Kirtana kutti is grown up and become a computer engineer,

she would take care of us and we would not have to work anymore!? Thinking of

his little girl as a working woman brought a smile on his face.

 He felt the idea

at the same time a little funny and also a reason for pride.

**

By eight O?clock, most of the snacks they hoped to

sell in an hour still remained in the steel plates. But they both decided that it

was late enough. They both wanted to get back to their daughter-who would be

waiting for them at the neighbor?s home for their return.

Before closing the stall, as Kaumudi was locking up

the stove and plates inside the small compartment on the backside of the

stall-which had a latch and lock all of its own, Sudeep trotted to the opposite

side of the street to take a leak before setting on the fifteen minute walk

home. (One among the consolations of being a man was that you could pee just

about anywhere by the streets. Not unlike dogs).

It was while he was turning around, after having

relieved himself and zipping his pants up, that he saw the man from last night.

Sudeep stopped in his tracks and his eyes widened at

the sight of the man.

The stillness of the man, the bulky body, the six

feet plus height- it was all the same as last night. The only difference was

that this time around the man was standing on the side of the street where they

had their stall.

In fact, he stood right behind his wife, who seemed

to have not noticed the man behind her.

As there were no trees to block the light from

falling on the man this time, Sudeep saw him clearly- round eyes, broad forehad,

sallow skin, his mouth slightly parted, almost cartoonish looking like an ?O?-

an expression somewhere between glee and surprise- it was the man from the Flex

board! The mascot of the political party that had the convention here

yesterday!

Sudeep wanted to call out to Kaumudi, but his throat

felt constricted., even as a fear enveloped him like icy cold blanket. He felt

sure that the man- if a man it was and not some scepter- was about to do something

terrible to his wife.

Looking up, Kaumudi saw fear in his eyes.

Sudeep was standing half submerged in the shadows,

but his eyes gleamed in the street light, and they gleamed more than with the

light.

Kaumdi sensed the man?s presence behind her.

 But before

she could turn around, the mascot raised its clawed hand and slit her throat.

 Red hot blood

gushed out of the wound that exposed her naked trachea, a glint of whiteness

could be seen, the hint of bone.

Kaumudi went down even as Sudeep angrily ran towards

the mascot.

The Mascot disappeared in a blink. It was as though

it was never there.

**

When he reached home late in the night, after repeating

his incredible tale to the officers at the police station  n number of times, Sudeep knocked on his

neighbor?s door. The elderly woman who opened the door told him that Kirthana

has fallen asleep, after waiting for him for long.

 ?Let her

sleep here tonight!? the woman, who was a close friend of Kaumudi?s, said with

a smile.

However, seeing the haggard expression on his face,

the smile disappeared from her face.

Something in his expression told her that he wanted

to be with his daughter right then.

But when she went to the room where Kirthana was

lying asleep, she saw the child lying in a pool of blood, her throat slit haphazardly,

her neck almost completely cut off from the rest of her body.

As the woman screamed, Sudeep hesitated just a

moment before rushing into the house, dreading the worst.

And when upon seeing her daughter dead, like a wind

invading a house with open windows, came into his mind the words: ?The winds of

change!?

And he began laughing at that, the craziest sound

that anyone in the neighborhood has ever heard.