Tuks and spirits

                                                              

Tuk drives are always entertaining, bumpy, dusty rides. But at times, they offer a little bit more than what you bargain for.

If you’re abroad and missing home, one of the first things that you will probably start to miss about your paradise island is the taste of a spicy, freshly made pol sambol with roast paan and parippu. Nothing beats that. Except for maybe kottu. Followed by the all-authentic tuk experience. 

The three seated box like transportation device is the sight-seeing genius of this century. Hop on it and trace your way through the winding roads of the city without hassle, especially if the driver is knowledgeable. It’s cheap, compact and fast so a handful of friends can easily scoot about in it. It also so happens that normal vehicle laws don’t apply to these things in the sense that tuks can take U turns on roads that can’t and in fact don’t allow vehicles to do so. This is done at the discretion of the driver and passengers but done nonetheless. The uncovered sides let the people inside get an eye full of the uncharted view of everything outside, while exposing them everything outside, including the elements of dust, rain and vehicle fog. 

During the night, the local tuk experience is equally entertaining but more to the dodgy side. There are not many people on the road, and the lights in the few cars that pass your tuk, cut straight through your vision as the cool night air whooshes past your ears.  It was a quarter month moon that night. The stars littered the sky like glitter dust, piercing each inch of the dense, black blanket with little specks of burning light. 

Theekshana travels at this time because his job is on shift basis. He doesn’t mind. In fact, he prefers it to traveling during the day. He avoids harsh sunlight, stuffy busses that play biscuit kudu music, clogged roads, dusty pavements and people running about like hamsters in their wheels. At times there would be no buses so he would hail one of the few darting tuk tuks. Few of which would actually stop to take a wiry passenger. There’s no fixed point where he would hail one, so sometimes he’d have to actually go looking for one. On that night too, he wondered off into the thick darkness starring up at the sky occasionally, and ogling the few odd characters that were his fellow commuters at this time. Save for the rare 24/7 saiver kade , every other shop is fast asleep by this time.  He kept on walking for a while, noticing how peaceful the eerie quiet was when he spotted a tuk in a quiet corner of the road. 

It was resting next to a closed shop by the road, almost hidden because its lights and engines were off, unless someone was specifically combing the area looking for a one, this tuk was dead to the night. Theekshana happened to be that one person who was specifically looking for one. He saw a feeble light seeping in from a half opened door a few yards away from the sleeping tuk, and assumed – no - hoped that whoever the driver was, was inside and would be willing to hitch him a ride. He had already braced himself for the high rates that were sure to be pelted at him because he knew that the prices in the night doubled to that in the morning. He thought he would hang around until whoever was inside the dim lighted room came out so he can ask if they would take him. His own impatient shuffling about annoyed him to the extent that he thought it would be okay to sit inside the tuk and wait for the voices inside the dimmed room to stop. And wondered which was ruder, to go knock on their door at the dead of the night and ask if the tuk was for hire, or go sit in it and wait for them to come out. 

He mentally opted for the second one and found himself at the back of the tuk tuk waiting for something to happen. And something did happen, quite unexpectedly too. As soon as he was getting comfortable in his seat, Theekshana felt as though he was being strangled. He felt clammy hands wrap themselves around his neck and the further he struggled to unlatch himself from whatever thing he was, it tightened its grip around him more and started to choke him. Tears fogged his vision as he flayed his arms and battled against the invisible clutches that held on to him so forcefully. His cries were muffled by his own thrashing around and as suddenly as the mayhem started, it stopped.

Theekshana scrambled out of the tiny interior and ran for it, without giving much thought to finding out who or what that had tried to assault him. 

Epilogue 

Theekshana had later visited the vicinity to get to the bottom of things. Apparently, someone had murdered the owner of the three wheeler to get it. Since then the vehicle is known to have been haunted. Whoever gets inside is attacked by an unseen entity. They had tried to sell it but no one would ride it, let alone buy it and eventually they allowed whoever to take it for no payment but still no one would go near it. A monk who had been called in to bless the vehicle had been able to communicate with the spirit and that was how the murder was revealed.


Original print on Ceylon Today on 4th of October 2014