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The Haunting Mystery of Kollihills(Hills of the Ghosts)

I sallied out for the first time in 1980
with my friend, skillful to cut jokes,
on a sinuous road with curves and bends
to Kollihills well known for herbs and rills.
When the bus rolled down a little
and crawled up on a hair-pin bend,
we were speechless with fear-laid eyes.

We were off the bus at noon
and looked at the way down
leading to the famous water-falls.
“ Shall I come with you? ”-a fair lady
of our age in a sable sari
and a bunch of jasmine on her head
asked and smiled at us.
We looked at each other and grinned:
“ Oh, you’re welcome”
We put on frills to our speech
and queried if she wasn’t feared.
Smiles were her silent answer.

“ There are no secure footholds,
you take my hand”, we both yelled
and stretched our hands in glee.
“ He is like your brother. Don’t worry.
Hasn’t your husband come? ”
Before I finished my words,
my well-built friend eyed me with shock
and gave of fraternal fumes.
But the charmer began to cry
and shed scalding tears.
I put a salve somehow on her hurt heart.

The precipices failed to alarm us
as we were sailing in the sky.
“Look! The monkeys screech”,
I tried to divert her mind.
But she never looked up at the trees.
We felt that our knees were breaking
and gasped for speech.
But she was hoping down with ease.
We’re thrilled by the shrill sounds of birds
but she had no ears for them.
When we got a peep at the falls
that was pouring down from sky high hills,
we cried cheers to all.
But she wasn’t stirred a bit.
My friend rushed to have a bath
And I let loose my flowery speech
but found hard to enter into
the sanctum of her heart.

“ You too go and come back soon.
I’ve to hurry up to meet my lover”,
when she spoke unfalteringly
I ran to dip and clean my mind.
When we were climbing up,
we worshipped an idol on the way,
but she kept away seeing somewhere.
“ Sister, you seem to be rational”,
when I blabbered slowly,
my friend bobbed his head
and whispered: “ You poor sap! ”.
For us, it was a long pull to the top of the hills,
but she wasn’t the least tired.

We called her to have some drinks.
She refused and sat on a rock.
We went and sipped some herbal drinks
and turned up soon to see the rock blank.
When we were looking here and there,
the shopkeeper smiled and said:
“ Oh, you search that lady,
you can’t find her again;
She came here a decade back with her lover
but she was left alone to roam here.
She appears here at noon to visit the falls,
but not found anywhere afterwards”.

We were shocked to hear his words
and sauntered towards the bus waiting.
When I visited again the Kollihills and falls
with new friends of new schools,
climbing down or up was easier for me,
for I was carrying her in my mind
till I left the mysterious hills,
where the souls of the sages of Siddha cult
said to be roaming to save people from the ghosts.
----
Note: It is in Namakkal District, TamilNadu, India.

poem by Rajendran Muthiah
Added by Poetry Lover
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