Read Online The Narrow Road to Palem by Sharath Komarraju - Free Book Online

put her on a diet had come to nothing. She had been a track and field athlete in college. After graduating, she had taken up salsa, and until they had gotten married they had gone dancing and cycling three times a week. But ever since –
    ‘Where are you from, sir?’ The old man was setting his mirrors back on his sheet, faces down.
    ‘Hmm? Hyderabad.’
    ‘Oh, the big city. You came in your car, did you?’
    Vikas nodded, and felt his back pocket for the keys. He did not find them.
    ‘Where is it?’
    ‘Hmm?’
    ‘Where is your car?’
    Vikas started to answer, but the words would not come. He realized for the first time that morning that he had no idea where their car was. They must have woken up early and left the car parked somewhere around here, before they set out for their walk, but he remembered none of it.
    The old man looked at the road by which they had come. Vikas followed his gaze. A straight stretch, covered on both sides by black and green trees. A white Maruti Dezire sped past them in a flash, windows down, driven by a tattooed young man with shoulder-length hair.
    ‘That road,’ he said, inclining his head in that direction. ‘Where you came walking. They call it Kanakangi road. They say that Kanakangi was a prostitute here in Palem a few years ago. She had a son – nobody knows whose – and she left him on the steps of the Shivalayam. But after taking a few steps away from the boy, she found that she loved him too much, and she ran back for him, but he was not where she left him. From then on, they say she walks up and down this road, looking for her baby.’
    Vikas looked at the wet road. Ritu’s grip on his hand became tighter. ‘There’s always a story like this in every village,’ said Vikas.
    The old man continued to stare. ‘If you hold up a mirror, close your eyes, and say ‘Kanakangi’ three times, they say you will hear the sound of a baby crying.’
    ‘Vikas, let’s just go from here.’
    Vikas looked at the old man, a thin smile playing on his lips. ‘Let’s test this.’
    ‘No, Vikas, please.’
    He picked up one of the old man’s mirrors in one hand, and shielded his eyes with the other. Ritu’s fingers clawed at his jacket sleeve. ‘Kanakangi, Kanakangi, Kanakangi,’ he said. His breath had quickened, he noticed, and he felt ashamed. For all the bravado, something in him had expected to hear that baby’s cry.
    He handed over the mirror. Then he opened his eyes and said, ‘Where?’
    The old man nodded, and raised a finger to his lips.
    After a second, the pristine morning silence was broken by a clear, ringing wail of a baby.
     
    * * *
     
    Ritu clapped her hand to her mouth. Her eyes bled tears. She listened to the sound coming from deep within the green woods, and it seemed so much like how Nimmi would have sounded if she had not been suffocated to death in her womb.
    ‘This is ridiculous,’ Vikas was saying. ‘You set this up, didn’t you? You set this all up.’
    The old man met Ritu’s gaze and asked softly, ‘What did you see in the mirror, my dear?’
    ‘I am talking to you , mister. You stay away from my wife, all right?’ He pulled her up to her feet and pointed a finger at the man. ‘Is this village full of tricksters like you, huh? Scaring away women with tales of ghosts and babies? Your tricks won’t work on me, you understand?’
    The old man did not say anything. He just kept looking at Ritu with a sad smile. Ritu turned her head away from the glass eye, and said to Vikas, ‘Let’s go. There is something creepy about this place.’
    ‘Sir, madam,’ said the old man, ‘your home is here. In Palem.’
    Vikas took a step forward, ready to argue, but Ritu took him by the hand and led him away. She did not know where they were going, because she did not remember where they had parked the car, but she knew they had come walking up the road. They just had to walk back.
    ‘Such charlatans, everywhere. That’s why nothing will ever come of