THAT FAVOURITE TOY

The short story is set in a circuit house (a dark bungalow generally used by senior government officers for short stays). It is situated in Bundi, a small town in Rajasthan . Two visitors, the author Shankar and his childhood friend Jaidev have come to explore Bundi, and are put up in the guest house. Jaidev works in a newspaper office and the author teaches in a school. After so many misses, they have managed to get a time slot when they could go out on a journey together.

They are having tea in the circuit house. Jaidev appears lost in some thoughts. The author inquires to know what bothers Jaidev so much. He replies by saying that the faint memories of his first visit to Bundi are rushing into his mind.

Jaidev ’s father used to work in the Archeological Department. His work brought him so many times to Rajasthan – the repository of India’s ancient monuments. Although he was a young child then, the sojourn to Bundi had not quite faded from Jaidev ’s mind. The magnificent building stood still there. A few items of furniture he saw then are there too giving an impression of timelessness of the place. Jaidev becomes nostalgic as he recollects the tall rooms, the ventilators tethered to strings, the rose plants outside. The trees stood tall giving refuge to parrots and so many other birds. Jaidev remembered these vividly.

The two friends stepped out sightseeing. They go to see the famous fort of Bundi standing aside the hills. 

The decrepit fort in Bundi rekindles Jaidev ’s old memories …

Time seemed to stand still in the Fort’s vicinity. Everything looked so antiquated, belonging to the bygone era. Only the electric pole standing by the road declared that the old times had yielded place to new age. In the old buildings along the roads, there were unmistakable signs of the old Rajputana’s fabled craftsmanship. The doors and the balconies had intricate designs made on them. The old golden age of master craftsmanship appeared to come alive.

Jaidev was an emotional man by nature. After he landed in Bundi, he seemed to be unusually quiet, and somewhat absent-minded. Perhaps, the sights and sounds of Bundi had stirred a delicate chord in his heart. Jaidev’s palpable sadness didn’t escape Shankar’s notice.

Jaidev reminisces about the large rooms and the over-sized chairs of the circuit house. He used to sit cross-legged on those big chairs. Now, everything seems to have shrunk in size. Shankar dispels his confusion by stating that he has grown in size over the years and that makes him feel so.

The oak tree unveils its treasure of mystery …

Jaidev and Shankar decide to take a stroll outside in the open. After a while, Jaidev seems to be struck by the memory of a oak tree that used to stand around that place. He looks somewhat bewildered, and looks around to find the tree. He finds it after a few moments and appears quite excited to discover the oak tree there.

Jaidev’s euphoria takes his friend by surprise. Jaidev fixes his gaze on the trunk of the tree and looks into it searchingly. He exclaims that he had an encounter with an European here. The author’s surprise mounts.

Jaidev struggles to recollect what really had happened then.

The two friends return to their room. Dilwar is there to cook food for the guests. Dilwar was red-eyed, with a scarred face, but in culinary skill, he was quite adept.

Jaidev had in the meanwhile re collected a fair portion of his faded memory – about the place and the ‘European’.

The Swiss doll Fritz enters the scene …

It emerged that Fritz was a doll brought from Switzerland by his uncle during his visit to a village there. Fritz was an one-foot tall Swiss gentleman attired in Swiss clothes. It look so real as a living being. The stuff it was made of rendered it very flexible and elastic. One could bend it or twist it at will.

Jaidev, as a child, took great fancy with Fritz. He treated the Swiss gentleman as his friend. Jaidev ’s parents frowned to see their little son so attached to the doll. 

Shankar heard out his friend’s infatuation with the Swiss doll amusedly.

 Fritz torment the emotional Jaidev ….

Jaidev was however deeply engrossed in his memories of Fritz. A shocking tragedy befell Fritz. On one occasion, Jaidev had kept him on the floor while taking tea. For a moment, he had taken his eyes off the doll. A group of stray dogs came from nowhere and snatched the doll. They bit and dragged Fritz with savage force. Poor Fritz endured the excruciating pain silently. By the time Jaidev saw Fritz again just minutes later, Fritz had been ripped apart badly. He was scarred and bruised beyond recognition. With great disbelief and shock, Jaidev looked at his dear Fritz, and assumed he was dead.

Jaidev decided to bid his friend a final good-bye. He arranged to have him buried in the compound of the Circuit House, under a oak tree.

Shankar, now, realized why his friend was so agitated about speaking about the oak tree.

The two friends retired to their beds as the night deepened. 

The night proves to be very disturbing…

The author slept off as he was tired after the long walk during the day. Sometime later, he woke up abruptly to find that his perplexed friend sitting on the bed. Apparently, he had switched the bedside lamp. Tension was writ large in his face. He didn’t answer to Shankar’s query.

Quite abstractly, he asked the author if the bungalow had small creatures like rats and cats. Jaidev had felt a small creature walking over his chest when he was asleep. This had woken him up. No doubt, he was frightened.

He told the author that this was the second time he had got up from his sleep. He had heard an unusual shuffling noise the first time. At this, Shankar looked around the room to spot the nocturnal intruder, but the search was futile. Jaidev was still disturbed. To prove his point, he showed his pillow that had some faint marks pointing to the fact that a small animal had walked over it.

Shankar assuages Jaidev ’s fears…

Shankar felt his friend’s anxiety exaggerated. He told his friends some reassuring words to soothe his nerves. After a bit of coaxing and pleading, Jaidev went to sleep again, so did the author.

A visit to the fort..

Next morning, they finished their breakfast by 9, and went to the fort. Jaidev again seemed immersed in his old memories of the place. He looked excited to re-discover the statutes of the elephant, the royal throne and the beds. All the while, he appeared a bit lost too. 

The two friends began to walk back very leisurely. After a while, Jaidev had quietly slipped and gone to the corner of the terrace. With a little effort, Shankar found his friend, but the latter seemed to be fully plunged in some thoughts. He stood absent-minded.

The two friends decided to return, although Shankar (the author) had wanted to stay in the fort a little longer. Jaidev was perturbed by some unknown thoughts. He was not at all his usual self.

Jaidev delves into his friend’s mind …

Jaidev asked his friend persistently to tell him what lay behind his disturbed mind. After a of effort, Jaidev opened up. He told that Fritz, the long-lost doll, had come to their room the night before. He ascribed the marks on his quilt to Fritz’s footprints.

The author was beginning to feel annoyed at his friend’s irrational fear. He thought, he needs to be given some medicine to calm his troubled mind.

Shankar suggests to exhume Fritz ..

Shankar hit upon an idea that could dispel the fear of the ‘dead and destroyed’ Fritz from his friend’s mind. He felt exhuming Fritz’s remains from his grave would rove to his troubled friend that the doll had simply vanished into the oblivion. After thirty long years in contact with soil, everything of Fritz would have been eaten up. At the best, rusted and corroded remains of his metal buckle would be there. This should convince Jaidev that Fritz is gone for good from the face f the earth.

The idea of exhuming Fritz appealed to Jaidev . With the help of the gardener of the bungalow, they went to the exact spot where Jaidev felt his Fritz was buried.

Fritz emerges leaving the two friends shell-shocked ..

After not much digging, the gardener hit upon the object the duo were so keenly looking for. But, a nasty surprise awaited them. What the gardener retrieved from the soil was not some rusted metal piece, but a tiny human skeleton of a foot length. It was so real, but so frightening. The two friends recoiled in horror in seeing a foot long human skeleton.