...Hauntings..

...The Closet...

THE CLOSET Indore, India (2011)

House hunting could be a difficult task if you are new in the city. It was the same scenario with Tushar Bisht. A young boy of 23 who had just been hired by one of the bigger e commerce companies after his masters and sent to Join the office in Indore, his home town being the state of Varanasi in UP.

After three days of burning his hard earned money on budget hotel rents he finally had found a one-bedroom accommodation for himself at a price he wanted to. The one bedroom flat was inside a well-known apartment complex with close proximity to markets and services of everyday use; a boon that Tushar was much thankful to god for.

After settling in, Tushar suddenly realized he had a lot of things which would need to be kept secure in a closet. From wallets to passports to clothes and more. Without any more ado the next task for Tushar was to find a closet that suited his pocket since he had practically spent everything in finding the house of his choice

After searching for hours and hours he came by a small carpenters shop around the corner of the street that ran straight to his apartments. The shop was descent, lot of woodwork at really cheap prices after haggling with the vendor for what appeared to be half a day; he finally agreed to give a small closet to Tushar.

He guided Tushar to the extreme back of the shop where in one corner was a small double door closet; about ten feet high, teakwood, brass knockers. The price was brilliant. Tushar immediately called in for a rickshaw and with the help of the merchant and the driver, loaded it on top of the auto.

Carrying the closet to the room was much of a challenge, first it would not fit through the doors, then it gave problems in fitting through the bedroom door. In the end, after a lot of huffing and puffing by Tushar and the auto driver who was kind enough to help. The closet was placed in one corner of Tushar's bedroom

Tushar's worries were gone, he finally unpacked and neatly arranged his clothes and other essentials in the closet. Setting up the rest of the house took the entire day. The kitchen ws not yet ready so Tushar went out to a small tiffin café for dinner, had a few sandwiches and came back home.

Before going to bed Tushar had a final look at the closet. For a bachelor, having a closet was a luxury or the clothes are always around the place. Tushar finally reached for the light near the door tucked him-self in and went off to sleep

It was an early day. First day in office, the bedside alarm beeped off at eight in the morning. Tushar woke up yawning and went to the wash closet to brush his teeth as he walked out with the brush in his mouth and his eyes glued to the morning news headlines on his android, he noticed a strange thing; the door of the closet was slightly open. The young lad scratched his temple for a while, he was very sure that he had locked the cupboard and had safely kept the keys under his pillow.

He walked up to his bed and turned over the pillow, the keys were still there. He thought and thought till he realized he could not recall half the events of the previous day, he must have by mistake left it open.

After getting ready for office Tushar made sure that he locked his ever so precious closet. He not only tested the key twice but also tugged on the heavy teak door to reduce doubts. It was shut like a nailed coffin. After doing the regular checks on keys wallets and phones, he walked out of his apartment closing the door behind him

On his way down he handed the key to the security guard and told him that he would be collecting the keys on return.

The first day of office was routine, no work except making paper plains some boring induction sessions, surfing the net, ogling a few chicks in min skirts and finally packing up and leaving for home