This Is Baba Roga From The Solo Creator

By Vishnupriya ST

In a newly built apartment complex in New Town Kolkata, 3 groups of people buy their very first house in their 20s and move in. The builder was very surprised with the ages of these 3 groups- Kashvi and Kailash Biswas were newly married; Jeniffer and her live in partner Kamal finally, Rimpa Dimple and Monisha who were IT professionals and wanted to have a safe space where they all can live together. Jennifer and Kamal stayed in the first floor no other neighbors, They were quite relieved, no nosy neighbor’s. Rimpa , Dimple and Monisha were staying in the 3rd floor. Kashvi and Kailash had selected a house in the fourth floor for better views and the terrace access.

The community was beautiful and well equipped. The 3 groups became friends in a really odd entangled story. Jeniffer was Kailash’s EX- Colleague who has helped him with finding a good property and eventually became best of friends as they were all couples and created a comfortable space with each other. They helped each other in getting each other’s amazon packages and lending some kitchen ingredients when it lacked in one another’s kitchen. The usual just like helpful neighbours should.

Rimpa, Dimple and Monisha bumped into Kashvi during the Diwali celebration. The girls missed their family so much and Kashvi invited them over for dinner and became a big sister to all of them. She had commended how sensible they were with their finances and had made a lovely investment in the developing part of New Town. They shared each other’s stories and had become a fun bunch of friends who would hang out as much as possible during the work week. They also started trusting each other and their bond had become strong and unbreakable by now. All it took was a small mistake to damage their bonds and break their trust.

It was rainy Sunday evening and Jenifer had a letter at her door, the power had been cut and Kashvi was walking up the stairs completely drenched. Kashvi unintentionally stepped on it and the envelope and letter got smudged. Kashvi wanted this mistake to be buried so she just walked off and never mentioned about it to Jennifer during their conversations. All hell broke loose when Jennifer marched into Kashvi’s house and started shouting” Did you know what you had done? It costed me my new job and my life. You jealous wretch how dare you drench my new appointment letter?” Kashvi was stunned. She has never experienced such hate from a friend and started tearing up. She said it was dark and she did not know it was her appointment letter. She kept apologizing to Jenifer but the damage was done already. With a heavy heart Kashvi looked upon Jenifer who would not make eye contact and blocked her number in whatsapp. Jen was deeply hurt that she missed a huge opportunity to work a project in Dubai.

Jennifer spitefully spread rumors about Kashvi being jealous of her and how she had destroyed Jen’s chances of moving to Dubai in the neighborhood. Jen’s friends from the E block where disgusted at this nobody from the building association wanted to talk to her. This made life difficult for the couple and severely affected their mental health. Kailash wanted to do something to get back at Jennifer so he ruined her reputation in his previous workplace spreading rumors that she had anger issues. This created friction and the once best of friends were nobody in each other’s lives. Rimpa, Dimple and Monisha supported Kashvi and now there was a turf war situation in their building.

It was Jenifer who received invite in Google play store first to test the beta version of the app -The Solo Creater. The antique look and forest themed interface caught her eye and she was curious to know more about it. The app was designed in a way that made the introduction and theme personalized for each person. AI they both thought. Kamal had also received the notification by now.

The app was very engaging and spoke about Nordic folklore and value system of humans. It was bizarre for them to find an app that spoke of values in the digital age the moto of life was money and the adopted concept of life was survival of the fittest.

Jenifer found the introduction clip for her to be based out of Malevolent from Disney. She was secretly jealous of Kashvi because of her generous nature and the amount of money she made. The app made subtle threats that made Jen scared and forced her to understand what she had done out of sheer envy. The dosage of threats and her own conscience gave her jump scares. She wanted to undo the damage done but the rumors spread like wild fire and got to know what Kailash had done too.

For Kamal the theme was slightly different, it was an animated video of a set parents being unsupportive and dishonest to each other followed by cheating which made the relationship messy. Initially it made no sense. There was a clip in the video that had his childhood collection of Pokémon cards in a box he had made. This made it clear that it was a short summary of his own childhood. He started having sleepless nights and started believing that he should have stopped Jen from talking trash about Kashvi. It hurt his feelings a lot and now with this app being a constant reminder of how he could have been a better partner and a human being was making him helpless and he yearned to make amends with their friends but his ego did not let him. He heard from Jen about the rumors Kailash had spread in the workplace and it broke his heart. He realized how it was childlike behavior that led once instance to another. He wanted things to go back to normal. He missed the happy hangouts. Loneliness was the only constant. There was this battle between his ego and his conscience, not knowing what to choose he became aloof and silent.

Meanwhile, Kailash got a notification from the same app and ignored it for a while. The unset reminders for this app kept his phone buzzing and confused him a lot. He installed it with a distracted mind and the theme given for him was a large snake and it kept hissing and spoke about the historical figures who had betrayed their friends and sabotaged their lives. Slowly he understood the hints and felt miserable. After all Jenifer and Kamal had helped his family find a beautiful house. He had been house hunting for months and it hit home when the app played the song Look what you made me do by Taylor Swift. He was devasted. He needed to tell someone but felt that nobody will believe him.

A name appeared in the app that sent chills to the spines of Kamal , Jen and Kailash. BABA ROGA. A witch from the Serbian legend.

The witch who destroys jealous and devious minds with a flick of her long nails and put people in coma. They had heard about this legend from a youtube video. The scariest part was Serbians believed she was real and could sniff evil contorted minds from thousands of miles.

The personal lives of the 3 were destroyed. All they could do was to pray and ask for forgiveness from God. It impacted their mental health, work , food habits.

They received an email from a Serbian travel company that they have been selected for an experimental travel experience , it was fully funded and they would be in Serbia for 4 days. The tickets reached all the 3 houses at the same time. The 3 groups met each other at the security while receiving identical envelopes that had the name – The solo creator travels.

They looked at each other utterly surprised and slowly started sharing what happened over the past few weeks. Kashvi and Jen made up and apologized. Kamal and Kailash poured their heart out and acknowledged each other’s behavior and seeked forgiveness. They were all taken aback when they learnt that Rimpa, Dimple and Monisha have a show on an OTT platform with the name Baba Roga filled with violent animal attacks, they saw wolves and hyenas. Their fear had been confirmed hearing stories from the others. They confessed making memes and sharing the misunderstanding on social media. Kashvi felt disgusted when they showed her the polls they had put up on Instagram between Jen and her.

They all vowed to get to the bottom of this and save each other. On the next day 3 black sedans were sent to their houses and asked them to pack up their stuff and leave for Serbia. The tall Serbian chauffers looked similar almost 7 ft in height and 4ft in width, they were all jacked. Bodyguards everyone thought. Kashvi was surprised that she had not gotten an invite to the app but was given tickets for the trip along with the others.

Kailash and the others thought she was hiding something from them. Kashvi sensed everyone else staring at her. It was overwhelming where they were all headed. She thought to herself, if she ever made it out alive in one piece, she would go to Kalighat and offer prayers to Maa Kali. Her mind kept reciting the Gayatri mantra as a stress response. They hardly spoke a word to each other but their minds were screaming at everything in silence for a response. Who is Baba Roga and how does she know their deepest darkest traits. Why would they be warned? What happens next? All of them just spiralled in silence and hoped nothing bad would happen.

Their flight was a private jet with no attendants. The pilot spoke to them using a robotic voice and his instructions were concise and curt. Don’t try anything crazy. You guys are here for a reason.

All of them were sweating and held each other’s hands during the flight. It landed precisely at the said time in Morava the next day.

The Serbian bodyguards helped them outside the airport and took them to a 5 star hotel for their stay for the next four days. All 7 of them were not allowed any type of communication with the outside world. The local language was a hurdle too for them. The food and refreshments were sent regularly to their rooms by the body guards themselves. An itinerary reached their emails at lunch.

The jet lag, fear and the mental conflict kept them awake all day. Their bodies were tired and occasionally one of them cried to vent their emotions while others comforted. They decided to be better with each other.

After lunch, they got a call from the reception in their intercom to board the black sedans waiting for them. They got ready said their prayers. The sedans took them to the IT tech city of Cacak. The high rise buildings were beautiful smart buildings that had huge led screens all powered by solar energy. It was a sight to behold.

The sedans swerved and took them to the construction district just behind the tech parks where it looked unappealing with metal sheets on both sides of the streets. There were no people there. The air was freezing cold. Their nose started getting red and nothing prepared them for what was going to happen next.

The sedans dropped them under a bridge partially constructed bridge swerved left and left the spot hastily. The women’s jaw dropped while the men yelled at the cars to come back. Radio silence. After hours of waiting for help they heard a mysterious music. They looked up and could see the introduction video that they saw on the solo creator played on each of the sky scraper played one by one. They were all shell shook.

They heard the sound of thick boots walking out of the construction rubble. The figure had strips of gauge wrapped around the face neck and hands. There were heavy snow boots covering the feet. The torso had a green leather coat with brass star buttons. The pants were made striking matt black leather material with a running stitch detailing on both the sides. The face had large black sunglasses.

The figure waved at them, that was when they noticed the 3 inches long jagged nails with gold tipped edges. Monisha whispered “Is that Baba Roga” under her breath and almost fainted.

The figure noded as it walked towards them. “Yes, it is me indeed.” Kashvi and the gang could not move their legs. Fear had the better of them now.

Baba Roga walked around the trembling group and scanned them from head to toe.There was pin drop silence, none of them were breathing. They all felt as if their soul was being scanned their conscience pierced through it all recollecting all their faults. Their heads started spinning.

She asked Kashvi is she married to Kailash, she says no and hid her mangalsutra from the witch. She lied to save her life Kailash could understand this but is slightly irritated at Kashvi.

In a swift hand movements she elevates the scared group except Kashvi and puts them on top of the partially constructed bridge. Kashvi screams and apologises but baba Roga just pushes them down like pebbles pushed from a mountain.

Kashvi passes out seeing this and enters a realm where she is living in the movie Dumbo and sees the circus workers imprison dumbo and her mom in an iron cage and exploit them all. Eventhough some of the workers know that this type of animal exploitation is wrong and they could do other things to save the circus, they just accept the owner’s instructions killing their own conscience for satisfying their hunger. She is in the middle of the performance arena where Baba Roga is standing tall at 7 ft. She sobs and admits to lying to save her own life. Baba Roga is disgusted and reminds her wedding vows. Kashvi is distraught , her conscience has come alive and she feels ashamed of herself.

Weeping at the witch’s feet, she swears on her life that she would never abandon her beloved husband in any situation.

Baba Roga clinks one of her brass stars and all of them land safely on the cold roads of Cacak. All of them had a near death experience. Dimple just hugs them all ,tears streaming down her cold cheeks. They had finally survived this nightmare.

Baba Roga asks them to be kind to each other. Humans are meant to survive in herds and never abandon each other under any circumstance. Each member of the herd, must help each other out without jealousy as they have specific roles to play and they are all irreplaceable. She condemns the ways of weak humans showing authority towards the soft hearted and exploiting them for their own gains. Equity is the goal and she insisted that only such people can uplift humanity and themselves for the short number of years they live on the planet.

She later explains how she was cursed by the Gods of the forests and the only way her spirit can rest in peace was to correct the behaviour of selfish humans.

Jen and Kashvi hug each other and reconcile putting away their differences and forgiving each other. Dimple , Monisha and Rimpa confess their guilt to everyone and vowed to never put any one’s information on the social media without their written consent.

Baba Roga starts turning into flecks of light and disappears in front of their eyes. The community friends are once again thankful to be alive and start walking back. A large SUV appears in front of them and the driver says he would drop them back to the hotel.

The next 3 days the friends enjoy visiting Serbia, They choose the slow travel route where they volunteered in soup kitchens everyday. During the evenings they went to clubs partied hard. They also collected the fresh unconsumed food from the club’s kitchen and distributed it to the homeless.

Their trip was very wholesome. The app -The solo creator gets deleted from their smartphones and everyone is beyond relieved. This experience changes their perception of a normal life. All of them start behaving more sensible and show kindness to everyone around them, even the mean ones. Baba Roga might still be around for the mean ones, they thought.

By Vishnupriya ST