The Unexplained – 2

The Bridge

This incident took place way back when I was in school. I was studying class 9 and sister was in 5^th standard. My father was transferred to a new place called Nowrozabad. It was no different from the rest of the places I had lived. I guess all coal areas are a lot similar except their names. We had heard about a lot of weird incidents happened in the past with the local residents. My father had never believed in those nor paid any attention to the tell-tales. Though, I was always keen to exchange words on ghosts with the locals. Once a school mate told me that she lost her cousin brother to ghosts. One day he was walking on the road and someone called his name from behind. He stopped and looked back. Since then things were never same with him again. He stopped eating and going to school. He started wandering in jungles and talking to invisible creatures. His voice sometime cracked and he spoke some unknown language. His health was deteriorating and then one day he never woke up from sleep. She said her brother was trapped by some evil spirit that sucked his blood. I was horror-stricken and i told my mother what she said. My mother said there is nothing like a ghost, only uneducated mind gives birth to these stories.

There was a big town on the other end of Nowrozabad. Apart from daily groceries, for everything else one has to go to that town. Generally people go there and buy things in bulk and store them for months. There was a stream flowing between this part of Nowrozabad and the town. One has to cross a bridge to reach the other end of the area. This bridge had a different story to tell. No one was ever seen walking over the bridge at any part of the day. People either ride on cycle or use some kind of vehicle to cross it as quickly as possible. There had been many accidents took place on the same bridge in past. Many jeeps and trucks fell in the river while crossing the bridge without having any technical fault. Many people lost their lives. Most of the accidents took place during the night. The locals avoid going to the town after dusk. Many people who have survived and witness the nightmare said, there was a lady walks across the bridge. Some said the lady stops the car and ask for a lift. Some said the lady with an unpleasant face knocks down the vehicles in the river. With so many stories heard I used to feel very scared every time I crossed the bridge. But nothing ever happened to us or any other officer who lived there.

One day we went to buy a CD player to the town and we got late. The driver was asking my dad to finish it early as we have to cross the bridge by a decent time. My dad never paid attention to his words. We started from the town around 10 PM. We bought some patties and cakes from the town as we rarely got them here. After 45 mins drive we reached near the bridge. The driver said, “Saab today is Amavasya. We should have returned early”. My father snapped him “Don’t talk rubbish and drive the jeep.” We were tired and drowsy. The driver told us, “Don’t sleep baby we are crossing the river”. I was looking outside the window and then suddenly my father screamed “Look at the woman she must be daring enough to cross the bridge by walk”. We all looked ahead. The driver slowed the jeep and started to blow horns several times. The woman was walking slowly at the middle of the bridge. She appeared to be one from the local tribe from her dressing. All these noises didn’t make any deviation in her pace and she continued strolling at the middle of the bridge. She was just few meters away, my father ordered the driver to stop the jeep. He replied, ”No saabji, let us not stop here. We have to run across the bridge ignoring her presence”. Then suddenly the driver ordered all of us to keep our eyes open and clutch the seat tightly and not to look back to the woman from the jeep. He blown the horn long and sped up the jeep and ran over the woman. In no time we crossed the bridge. After driving few minutes he stopped the jeep and said, “Saab we would have died today had I not acted wisely”.

We were bewildered and horrified with what we have just experienced. I was frozen with fear and trying to recall what has just happened to us. Then my father asked the driver, “How did you know it was an apparition?”. The driver replied, “Saab the ghost of the bridge is very common among the tribes. And for decades no one ever crossed it by walk. It was very unusual to have a tribal woman walking in the middle of the bridge on a night like this. So I trusted my intuition and gathered courage and the rest we know”. Then we returned home and prayed together and went to sleep. We didn’t have a good sleep that night and it took many days to fade away the remains from our memory.

When I shared the same story with my peers at work in Delhi, many like me came up with similar stories associated with bridge and ghosts. After hearing all these it seems that ghosts are basically nature lovers. They find home in trees, rivers, jungles, abandoned places and above all bridges [wink].

Madhurima Acharya

27^th Dec’ 08

The Unexplained -1

In the epoch of robots and science, where we have conquered moon and galaxies, everything has got an explanation. Why the apple fell down on the ground? Why planets are moving in fixed orbits and why don’t the change their way in go as u like manner? Why don’t we fall down from the earth? Why the rain comes after summer and summer after winter? There are so many questions like these that answer the word ‘why’. And why not? Everything has got a reason of its being. Our quest is not satisfied until we get the proper reason. The world is ruled by reason and logic. ‘This is illogical’ and ‘that is unreasonable’ is often received when one fails to explain something what he believes to exist. But living in the same place we often experience some events that are far from reasons. Their existence is denied by scientific brains and we ordinary people who witness these cases, what they call fable. Some prefer to call it supernatural which means not existing in the nature or subject to explanation. I call it ‘The Unexplained’.

The Anklet

It was late in the evening I was returning from a friends place, back in my home town. Those who don’t know how a late winter evening looks like in a small place like Pali, 200 miles from Bhopal. Pali was a beautiful place with its local tribes and migrants who have come here for their livelihood. Most of them are turned into miners and the rest were running small shops of daily goods. There weren’t many people in the town. The place was surrounded by mountains, meadows and lakes. Most of the people finish their work in daylight. The place hardly functions after the dawn. There was no public transport either. To commute either you own your vehicle or trust your leg, that’s simple.

So it was 7.30 PM in the evening and I was returning home from a friend’s-place who lived in a different colony 2 kms away. Her name was Mala. We finished our graduation together. After that I went to city for further studies and she did her masters from the same college. Whenever I come home visiting her was a must. This time I brought her a leather purse from the city and she gifted me a pair of anklets. Anklet is a very important piece of ornament worn by ladies around the ankle, in her community. We bengali’s hardly wear it. I was always very fond of the same as my parents would never let me buy one. I was very happy to receive my gift. It was exactly like one of those I always wanted to have. It was made with silver surrounded with lots of nupur, that makes distinguished sound with every step. Without wasting time I had tied it around my ankle.

It was falling winter, month of November. Her father had a night shift so there was no one at her home who could drop me to my house. But I assured my Mala’s mother that I can manage alone and I started back home. I was walking slowly swinging my purse and singing a song in mind. All the way I was thinking about the gift I had received. I was thrilled. Also I liked walking alone as I rarely get the opportunity to walk in a winter evening like this. There were hardly any people on the street but there were trucks and jeeps plying on the road once in every 3-4 minutes. There wasn’t much light on the street either. I was murmuring this hindi song and my anklet was complimenting its tune. The roadside shops are closed now and there wasn’t anyone walking on the street. I saw my watch it was 15mins past 8. It was considerable late and I wasn’t near halfway. If my parents come to know about my idea of walking at this hour then probably this would be my last visit to Mala. So I started walking little faster. It was dark, but I have been living there for many years and I have seen those lanes well in daylight. So it wasn’t difficult for me to track down the way. I was accompanied by the screams of beetles and other insects in an otherwise silence night. Not to forget my anklets, which was breaking the silence of the chilled night. The faster I was walking the harder the sound was. All these weird mixture of noises buzzed in my ear and all I wanted to feel was complete silence. I wanted to take off my anklet but I didn’t find it wise to stop in the middle of the lane at this hour. The journey seemed to be a long and never ending one and there wasn’t a single man I could see on the street. I wasn’t feeling well. I was frightened too. I wanted to run and break-free the awful journey. I started taking quick steps and my ears went numb with the noise of my anklets. I wanted to get rid of the noise and finally I ran. I ran away from the noise. I ran for my home. I ran for my life. Finally I reached my house. The back of my dress was wet from sweating. I was exhausted and went to sleep without changing. I could hear a woman’s voice asking me to get up and have dinner but I was too frail to do so.

The next morning I got up 9 am. I was still tired. Suddenly someone rang the doorbell and I went to answer. I was taken by surprise to see Mala there with a small box in her hand. I called her inside and asked for tea. She replied “No, I was going this way. So I thought I should hand over this box to you”. I took the box from her hand and asked “what is it?”. She replied, “See it, you forgot to take it yesterday from my house” and left. I came inside and opened the box, it was the same anklet she gifted me last night.

Madhurima Acharya
26th Dec' 08