An Encounter

It was rather a very gruelling and a long day at office. I had completed almost three-fourth of my project module probably with a few more corrections required and still left behind with one-fourth of my assignment. But my mind had reached its threshold limit for that day and I could neither think further nor had the endurance to complete my task. I looked at the clock on my system. It was 8.30 p.m. I shut my system down, packed my laptop and decided to leave for the day. As I reached the exit door my manager noticed me leaving and beckoned me inside his cabin.

“Ashwin have you finished the module? The clients were asking about the progress and I need to submit the project status report tonight.”

“I am almost there at the finishing stage Harish but I am too tired today and need one more day to complete the task. I am planning to login into office early tomorrow and I promise you that it will be done.”

“OK. No issues. Update me once it is over tomorrow.”

Harish was the coolest manager I have ever had. As he gave me that reassuring nod I left the office bay, took the elevator down towards the parking lot at the basement of my office campus. I started my car and decided to pace home as fast as I could. I could hear those growling noises from deep within my intestines. I was famished. But luck did not favour me and my fate wanted to play its own game.

 It was pouring heavily outside and there was minimal visibility on the roads.  Adding to my fury there was some mayhem on the main road, the 13^th Park Avenue road that I normally take home and the traffic was stranded leaving little to no room for any movement. I was determined to fight against this ruthless game of my destiny and decided to drive without stalling.

I took a major deviation from the main road and decided to take an alternative route which was a longer route to my house but one of the silent roads I have ever seen far away from all the hustle and bustle of the traffic. This road is so deserted that I seldom notice any homo sapiens walking around.

The rain was slowing down as I drove into the dark and gloomy road. A bunch of dogs were barking and wailing loudly adding to the eeriness. From far I noticed a little girl sitting at the corner of the road. I was appalled and baffled to see this young girl at a lonely place like this. As my car was nearing her I could hear her sobbing heavily. Although I was in a hurry to reach home probably some humanity in me prohibited me to drive further. I took a deep breath and stopped the car and decided to check on this little girl. I parked the car nearby and walked up towards her. She had buried her face on her knees and covered it with her little palms. 

“Hello dear! Who are you? What are you doing here in this dark? “I questioned her dubiously.

She heard my voice and lifted her face and looked at me. She must have been somewhere between seven or eight years old. Her eyes were puffy and face appeared frightened, extremely pale and sullen. She stared deep into my eyes as though pleading at me helplessly shaking my emotions.

“Uh... Is there some problem? Do you want any help”? I asked her courteously.

“I lost my way back home. I don’t know how to reach my place from here. Could you please drop me at my house uncle? Please?” as she requested me nervously in a sore and an agonizing tone I could not hesitate and apparently wanted to help her. I looked at my watch. It was half past 9 p.m. 

“Uh...Ahem...Sure...Do you know your address or some details about your residence?” I asked.

 As she nodded I lent my hand to her and lifted her up. Her palms were freezing cold and I felt this unexplained queasiness within me the moment her hands touched mine.

She gave me her address. Her house was in the opposite direction as that of mine. I could not leave this girl in this isolated place in the darkness. I helped her get inside my car and drove to her home. 

“What is your name?” I asked.

After a brief moment of reluctance she responded, “Mira”.

That was a very beautiful name that I have ever heard. Quite inquisitively I asked her a couple of questions like how she came there and where her parents were but she refrained answering to any of my questions and remained silent. I realized her discomfort of traveling with a stranger and thereafter stopped probing her.

Finally she halted my car and pointed at her house. She got down a little before her place.

“Do you want me to accompany you to your house?” I asked her politely.

“No uncle. I can walk from here. Thanks.” She told and flashed a smile at me.

I watched her walk towards her home from my car. As the door of her house opened she walked inside. With a sense of gratification I rode back home. That night I was thinking about little Mira and thanked God that I was able to help this poor girl who lost her way.

Next day morning I was gearing up myself for another big day as I had my project submission. I was wading through the newspaper and gobbling my slice of bread. Suddenly my eyes popped out when I came across a particular news column.

          Family dies as their two- wheeler was hit by a water lorry

A family of three, a father, mother and their child were killed on the spot in an accident last night in the 13^th Park Avenue main road at around 7.30 p.m. as their bike ran into a fast speeding water lorry. The lorry driver was arrested immediately and his licence and vehicle were seized. The deceased have been identified as Albert Varghese, 35 years, school teacher at the St. Bethlaham High School; Sara Varghese, 32 years, homemaker and their 8 years old daughter, Mira Varghese studying in class II in the same school where her father was working. They were rushed to the Appolo Hospital in Church Street where they were declared dead at arrival. The bodies have been restored at the hospital for post-mortem and further enquiries and will be handed over to their kin in next 2 days.

                 

 

My heart skipped a beat and my hands were trembling as I saw the photos of the dead family put across the newspaper. I quickly gulped a glass of water and read the news again, again and again. Mira’s face was still fresh in my mind. Her innocent eyes were hounding my heart. I felt an air of spookiness lurking around me. I could not believe my eyes. I checked the time of accident again still unconvinced. I met the girl last night at around 9.30 p.m. which was almost 2 hours after the accident. It was this incident that probably caused the chaos to the traffic on the road last night that forced me to take the diversion. 

“Did I see a ghost or something?” as I asked myself I was gaping at the dead child’s photo on the paper. This was one of the most bizarre encounters that would perhaps haunt me for the rest of my life.

I was contemplating hard. Suddenly I turned philosophical left with a profound introspection into the spiritual world.

“There are always two things – Good and Bad, Happiness and Sorrow, Truth and Lies, Life and Death. If there is God then there should be anti-God too which you may call a paranormal, a ghost or by many other names. Every day hundreds of people die. Some may die naturally while some have an unnatural demise like suicide, accident, murder etc. What happens to all these people who meet their end unintended? Not all the souls reach the heavenly abode. Some still keep wandering around the earthly hemisphere searching for their unfulfilled dreams.”

I could not focus, my mind was unsettled, preoccupied with hundreds of unanswered questions. I washed my hands, drank water again, took my laptop and drove to office. At times I surpass Mira’s house. The “To-Let” board hanging on the door of her house sends a chilling and nostalgic vibration through my spine reminding me of that dreadful night.  And I never got the courage to take that uncanny road ever again!!!

22 Hours

I was lying on my bed indolently not wanting to move my torso even an inch away from my cosy mattress cuddling within those warm rugs provided at our hotel room in Manali. Ten days of my exhilarating vacation with my husband and my four year old son drew to a closure and we had to head back to our home in Chandigarh to get started with our mundane life.

“Nisha wake up honey! We will be late if we don’t start in an hour. Please get up. I will get Vihaan ready meanwhile” as my husband was trying relentlessly to get me up I was looking at my watch to read the time. It was 6.00 a.m. in the morning. The air was cold and bleak covered with fog all over adding to my listlessness. It would take approximately 7.5 hours by road to reach Chandigarh city from Manali but with a few pit stops for food and other things it would take almost 9 to 10 hours. My husband decided to head back home by our car in the morning as it would be a bit perilous to do a night journey especially with our little boy around while we had to surpass a large belt of hairpin bent roads on the hills which are quite steep, narrow and with scarcity for street lights.

After I got ready I did some last minute packing, checked if we had cleared all our stuffs from the room, locked the room and the three of us walked down to the dining to have our breakfast.

“Rishi I will settle the bill at the hotel desk meanwhile you load our baggages in the car.” I told my husband who carried our bags in the trolley towards the parking lot.

Finally we turned on the engine and geared towards the gate as I was bracing myself for the next 9 odd hours on the road. Vihaan dropped asleep a little later. I looked through the window staring at the mesmerising beauty of the scenic landscape and the serenity of the surroundings. The sun obscured behind the misty clouds leaving sparse visibility on the roads.

We were travelling through the Kullu hills with steep rocky walls on one side of the road and a deep gorge on the other side. I had packed some snacks for us and sufficient food products for Vihaan from our home in Chandigarh to manage the drive to and fro. We decided to have lunch in some Dhabha in Sundar Nagar in the Mandi district on our way back. I was trying hard not to doze off to help Rishi overcome the dreariness of the long drive and kept chit-chatting with him intermittently.

There were quite a large number of trucks lined ahead of our car and a few other vehicles were advancing behind us. Every vehicle was moving at snail pace. It was half past 9 a.m. Not too far from the Hanogi temple in the Mandi district on the NH21 we were travelling Rishi and I noticed a cloud of muddy smoke appearing from the rocky hills. It was not very clear as there were huge vehicles in front of us masking the view.

“Rishi did you see that smoke? What is that? Where is it coming from?” as I questioned my husband anxiously, he quite nonchalantly responded to me saying that it was nothing and asked me to remain silent as the noise might wake up our little one who was sleeping oblivious of things happening around him.

Suddenly huge boulders were collapsing from the mountain on the road into the Beas River besieging one of the trucks that stood a few yards away from our car. I was stoic as I witnessed that massive landslide that shook the mother earth, destroying a huge portion of the national highways we were travelling, leaving that truck in a battered state apparently taking away the lives of the driver and the cleaner who were seated inside.

I screamed, shrieked at the top of my voice waking up my little boy in a jolt who was petrified immensely by my wails and started crying copiously. Rishi who was also equally shuddered by that incident tried to console me and our child. I regained my composure and tried to hide the panic on my face from Vihaan and took him and embraced him providing him a sense of reassurance.

“What’s that mama?” my son asked me nervously.

“Oh baby! It’s nothing dear. It was some rocks that have fallen from the hills. Nothing to worry. Just calm down. Papa will drive us home.” I tried comforting him in a trembling voice.

The landslide lasted only for a few minutes but created a staggering havoc on the roads stranding all the vehicles on the highway on both sides of it.

“Both of you stay inside the car. I will step out and check the condition and see if we have some room on the road to sneak through our car.” Rishi instructed me and went down the road to inspect the situation.

A large crowd of people gathered near the debris to analyse how they could move their vehicles. I saw Rishi talking to a few truck drivers probably discussing the possibilities of removing our car from the catastrophe.

“Mama where has papa gone?” asked Vihaan.

“Sweetheart, daddy has gone to see how we can take the car out of this place. He will be back soon. Do you want some water to drink or anything to eat?” as I enquired my little fellow he hinted on wanting to attend the nature’s call.

I took him outside the car and walked him towards one of the hill’s corners. He was afraid after all that scene and feeling a bit coy about doing it in the public but I persuaded that there was no other option and convinced him.

After a while Rishi marched towards us. Vihaan was gobbling up some snacks that I had offered him.

“It looks like we are in a fix. It might take a long time to clear all this and provide way for the vehicles to move. One of them out there called the national highway authorities and some district authorities too. They are on their way. They will have to scrutinize the reason for this landslide and decipher the options for clearing the debris.” As Rishi spoke in a sullen tone I was gaping at him appalled.

“How long would that take Rishi?”

“Not sure. We will have to wait.” I realized that he was clueless as much as I was from that perturbed expression on his face.

Eight hours of incessant waiting surpassed as our car stood at the same point with three of us seated inside wearily. All the authorities arrived, examined the area, deployed some workers and installed huge JCB machines to clear the mess. Vihaan was getting cranky and twitchy. The noise from the excavators was irksome. Rishi and I tried to engage him to overcome the hiatus and the boredom of being stuck at one place. Food and water stock with us was also slowly running short. We were left with only 1 bottle of water for all three of us. I thought I could buy extra bottles of water at any food joint on our way to Mandi district and did not foresee the need to carry more bottles.

The anxiety within me doubled as we completed 16 hours of our waiting period. The sun came down leaving a scary darkness of uncertainty behind. The air was still and cold. The night was gloomy with minimal lights for the workers. Every traveller around were annoyed and worried about their movement forward. The silence of the hills was uncanny and haunting me throughout the night. My metabolic activities stopped. I did not feel hungry nor had the courage to attend my nature’s call in the eerie darkness outside. Vihaan could not sleep and was waking up too often disturbed with terrible nightmares. Except for some buzzing chattering noise of the travellers on the road there weren’t much activity.

The highway authorities provided a temporary relief by diverting the traffic from Chandigarh to Manali via an alternative Kamandi-Mandi route however people travelling from Manali had to stay in the same point on the road as it was not possible to move two-way traffic. Fate was really hard on us that day playing with and testing our endurance. Rishi was restless too. He stepped down the car too often to check the status of the clearance. A little later I dropped asleep unknowingly.

I opened my eyes. It was rather a bright sunny morning. I felt a sudden jerk from the car. Rishi was trying to start the engine. I woke up with a trickle of astonishment in my eyes.

“Rishi has everything cleared now? Are you starting the car?” as I asked him I looked around from the windows of our car. The passage was getting clear and I saw the trucks before us moving forward albeit slowly.

“Yes. The PWD workers joined the NHAI team last night to enable a faster clearance of the debris and regulate the traffic.” Rishi told.

His words reverberated an enormous sense of joy and relief within me. I looked at my watch. It was 7.00 a.m. We went stand still for 22 hours and finally the wait came to a stall. Vihaan was asleep. The roads were not perfect but repaired sufficient enough to restore our movement.

After almost 6 hours with immense urge to reach our home in Chandigarh, Rishi finally hit the city and drove to our residence. I sighed a great relief at the look of the facade of my apartment. Rishi parked the car and helped me carry the bags to our apartment in the third floor. Vihaan was too tired and exhausted. I opened the door, bent down and picked the newspaper and left it on the couch. Carried the bags and dropped them inside the bedroom. Rishi and Vihaan lay on the couch trying to relax after the gruelling journey. I visited the washroom, freshened up and went inside the kitchen to prepare something to eat and drink as all of us were starving.

Rishi picked up the newspaper from the couch and read the headlines on the main page.
“Chandigarh-Manali Highway Blocked After Major Landslide stranding huge traffic”

PS: On Dec 7th 2015 a major landslide occured on the National Highway 21 (NH 21) connecting Chandigarh-Manali in India. No casualities happened though the traffic was immensely affected for almost the entire day. The NHAI team restored the situation back to normal after 2 days.

Watch the video of this landslide under the following link

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/chandigarh-manali-highway-blocked-after-major-landslide-1251944
 

The spookiest moment in my life!!!

It was year 2000 and I was in my 10th grade. My board exams were to commence in a couple of months. I was preparing for the revision tests staying up late most of the nights.

A month before my exams my grand dad had passed away and things were not the same ever since then with my granny who was very intimate with him. They were married for 65 longs years and it was very hard for her to let go. I could remember vividly my grand mom sobbing in the nights reminiscing her wonderful days with my grand dad. My study room was right beside my granny’s room and I could hear her murmuring, whispering creepy stuff in those dark nights driving me crazy. It was one such night when I had to get outside my room to fetch a bottle of water from the refrigerator. I usually don’t do this since I had to surpass my granny’s room and I was very scared to see her awake throughout the night staring at the walls. As I was nearing the fridge I heard my granny call me. For a moment I stood still as I was not sure if I should visit her room.

Very hesitantly I went up to her and asked why she called me. She remained silent for few seconds and then enquired about my exams and why I was not visiting her room off late. I took a deep breath and just told her that everything was ok and that I was busy studying. When I was about to retire from her room she asked me to stop and speak a few words with my grand dad whom she believed was sitting beside her on her cot. I was appalled rather perplexed wondering if I heard her right. I returned to her asked her what she told again. When she repeated the same thing I thought initially she was hallucinating and my grand dad’s loss has worked on her brains too much. But I was wrong. My granny insisted that he was sitting right next to her and that even he was talking to me asking about my school. I stood pale, speechless. She was turning to her right and talking to my grand dad (probably) and telling him how busy I am these days. I did not utter a word after this and walked straight into my room, emptied the entire bottle of water I was holding in my hand and trying to digest the things that happened some minutes before.

It was after this incident the whole world around me changed and made me believe in paranormal existence. I never stayed awake late in the nights and never ever visited my granny’s room. J