KOP BHAWAN
PART 2: RELUCTANT GHOST
BY ANAND PRAKASH
Imagine dying by accident, only to find yourself snatched by a pair of tea-drinking, soul-reaping Yamdoots named Jitender and Samundar-minions of Yama, the god of death-on a soul-harvesting shift as casual as a 9-to-5. Our narrator didn't plan on leaving Earth, let alone winding up in the company of two underpaid spirit guides eager to clock out early for Diwali. But here he is, bound in an eerie jelly-like sheath, watching as his former body garners more attention than he ever did in life.
The Yamdoots duo offers him a disturbing glimpse of what the afterlife holds, flipping through ghastly reels of spirits who thought they could beat the system. There's the vetal, trapped by occultists, forever slaves to their whims, or the pishach, cursed souls growing ever more monstrous. The choice before him: embrace the bleak bureaucratic drudgery of Hell, or risk turning into one of these wretched souls if he refuses to move on.
Witty, macabre, and filled with sardonic reflections on the choices we cling to-even beyond death-Reluctant Ghost, explores the brutal humor of inevitability. Our narrator must decide if he'll drift into the waiting arms of reincarnation or stay, stubbornly clinging to memories, trapped by his own refusal to leave a life he never quite loved.