A strange encounter at Ratnapark

When I looked into the man’s big eyes, it was as if he wasn’t seeing the reflection of the world that I or anyone else saw, but something beyond.

It was a boarding school, and of the kind which allowed students to leave its premises only once a month, that too for a period of two nights and three days termed officially as leave weekends. There were exceptions, however, especially for senior students who could make excuses like, “Sir, we need to buy chart papers for the quiz competition we are organising next week, and it is a very rare variety of charts that can only be found in Asan bazaar.” It was for some absurd reason like this that my friend and I had ventured into the capital for a day.