Blog: The Crazy Crazy Night

• Birendra Chand

And thus began the Friday night.

At first, they couldn’t recognize the face clearly when they saw Ravi standing out at the university gate. Ravi had to shout when they were passing by, “Hey, Kailash!”

It was late evening. Still Kailash couldn’t be sure who it was. He wanted to continue his journey but Raghav suddenly identified Ravi’s face with his glass-wearing eyes and stopped abruptly.

“Oh my God, Ravi!” he said, “Where have you been, huh? You were absent in class for about two/three weeks!”

“I was killing myself.”

“What?” The waves of surprise moved across Raghav’s face. “What do you mean?”

“Ha! I’ll explain it later. You tell me how you guys doing?”

“You always make us scared and confused.” Kailash spoke for the first time in the story.

For a few distance ahead, the three friends walked like this. The evening was surrendering itself to the powerful night. Raghav refused the cigarette offered by Ravi but Kailash joined in. Ravi decided to speak puffing the smoke slowly between his teeth, “What would you say if I asked you to spend tonight out here under the open sky.”

There was no answer for about eleven seconds. Perhaps they couldn't believe what was just said. Then Kailas released a soft smile and said, “You mean out here in the street!”

“We’ll just keep on walking without any destination. The night will travel into our souls and we into it. Once the night passes, we may take leave in the morning.” Ravi said so easily.

Raghav felt queerer about this proposition. He looked at Kailash’s face. They exchanged a few glances, and finally Raghav destroyed the silence, “Hey, listen! I’ve got some money for supper. We’ll buy some food, and let's make this night memorable forever.”

There was a usual agreement among those friends. However, they felt very strange about it. They were not much worried about cold since the month of May has already started.

Kailash bought a pack of cigarette. “This will help to kill the cold,” he added. Raghav bought some bread and vegetable soup. “But I want eat tonight, though I’ll join you, my friends!” said Ravi when they were moving their strides.

The shutters on the both side of the roads had covered the buildings from top-down. One can see few vehicles on the road. The light from the vehicles was so blur that these three friends could rarely see each other's face. They rested for a while on the bars at the roadside and started to talk.

Kailash, Raghav, and Ravi were friends since their college level. They have been good friends even after they joined the university in Kathmandu. They were studying the same subject but their aim was different. Raghav wanted to teach the students in his village. Kailash had planned to go to some European countries and Ravi used to say that he had thought nothing about future.

“The whole night is ahead of us, so which book’s story are you going to tell us?” Raghav said to Ravi, sitting on a bar, catching a small plastic bag that contained the materials to reduce their hunger. Ravi remained silent. He wanted to say that he had just finished Norwegian Wood and couldn't explain the story well but before he said anything, Kailash breathed out the words, “Well, Ravi! why don't start writing yourself? I'm pretty sure you can give it a good shot.” This time Ravi said, “You know, about all the things in the world have already been written. If you want to write something new, you need to travel to another world.”

Hadn't the cops arrived; their conversation would have been continued. They checked the three friends whether they were drunk or not. Finally, they suggested them go to their respective houses. Their answer was “okay” but they moved towards the small garden that was at the end of the university premises. When they reached there, Raghav opened the plastic bag. After a few moments, they were chewing the bread and sipping the soup. The night was intensifying its darkness. The occasional noise of crickets and far away vehicles were the proof of intense darkness.

It wasn’t a pre plan to spend a night like this. The sudden appearance of Ravi had changed the whole course. He hadn’t been attending his classes at the university which had raised some questions in mind of Raghav and Kailash. They wanted to talk to him about this but when they looked at his very pale and tired face, eyes moving in an eccentric way, they could easily guess that was that it was because of his sickness.

Kailash lit another cigarette after finishing a slice of bread and said, “Every individual in society is free.” Ravi just nodded in agreement. He continued after a pause. “One should go in his own path. I could never be bothered, if my father saw me smoking. I mean, you should do your work and forget all around.” Everyone was listening to him. The moon in the sky was not much bright. Raghav cleared his throat, changed his position and said to Kailash, “Don't ignore this society too much. If society ignores you, you will be irrecoverably alone.”

Ravi was listening to their conversation. Later, he asked them about various complications of the world. At some places, their talk was turning philosophical. But as the night passed, they started feeling sleepy. They were talking but their sentences were incomplete. Once Ravi said, “Friends, come with me to travel in this world.” Hearing his words, Kailash spoke in half asleep, “Sure!”

Raghav's body had become stiff because of cold air in that open space. He was also saying some words, but he himself wasn't sure what he was talking about. Ravi heard Raghav saying, “The aim of my life is very simple - to be an old man sitting on a chair, watching my grandchildren playing in the garden.”

Kailash handed the final cigarette to Ravi and kicked Raghav, “Hey old man! Get up now! It’s cold here. So let’s go out in the field and lit the fire.”

His idea of burning some wood turned into a great occasion that night. When they burned some small and dry twigs, they felt very warm and burnt more and more pieces. Once Raghav was ready to throw his university notes in the fire to make it bigger, but Kailash stopped him. They started to sing. Ravi sang on Nepali folk song, others followed. The moment was quite unexplainable. It was neither campfire nor picnic. Just three friends were out there, sitting around the fire and singing songs in their irritating tone. They sang and sang until the daybreak. They became tried at last and silence prevailed for some minutes. Then Ravi said, “Let me bring some more firewood.” And he never returned.
Raghav and Kailash waited till the sun was over the green hills, but Ravi didn't come back. They were astonished with such selfish type of behavior from Ravi.

The next day, they met Ravi’s uncle in the market and talked about the last night they had spent with Ravi. Ravi’s uncle twisted the wrinkles on his forehead, leaned towards them and said in a deep voice, “It can be possible.” “Why?” was the common curiosity from Raghav and Kailash. Ravi's uncle said, this time in a deeper voice than the previous one. “Don't you know that Ravi had hanged himself 19 days ago?”

Now they realized why Ravi was absent for so many days. Mostly, they were frightened to remember that night and especially Ravi’s those eyes’ movement. They also recalled him talking about his travel into another world. Nevertheless, they could never forget that Friday night, a ghost night, an illusory, grotesque and the crazy, crazy night.