It was during the days when I was working as a lecturer in PDIT( an engg college ) in Hospet. A friend of mine was a civil contractor. Quite recently, he was on a road-widening project in the outskirts of Hospet. The place is called Anjaneya temple road. We used to meet often and one day he narrated a real incident which had happened in Hospet, a few years ago: There lived a rich family in Hospet. They were looking for a bride for their son. After a long search, a suitable match was found. She was good considering her educational background, looks and attitude, except for poverty. The marriage was beautifully arranged and well managed. Well, the initial few days of the marriage were good. But, the reality show started and was anchored by m-in-law. The reason was dowry and the bride was tortured and hit regularly. After few days, the bride was killed with plan with gas leakage, but was projected to society as a casualty. The lady was buried in the burial ground besides the Anjaneya temple road. So, my friend was suggested by other workers not to continue work after 6/7PM for everyone’s safety. ‘coz the lady had turned herself into a ghost and used to create problems of variety sort to the on-goers.And it was followed like that for years.
After hearing the story, I went home and slept. 2-3 days passed by and I was bit tempted to go to this place and face it!! Sorry! I don’t know what was running in my mind during those times! I shared it with Raghavan, a very close friend of mine. It was just a day before new moon night( Amavasya ). We decided to visit the place.
It was 8PM. We thot – we will just find out the exact place today and tomorrow, the night of amavasya, we will go at 12 mid night. We started on Raghavan’s Bajaj bike. I was holding a 3 cell powered torch. Soon, we reached the Anjaneya temple road. There were no street lights. No vehicles moving in that road. No houses nearby and in surroundings. Its completely outskirt of Hospet and it was day before Amavasya. It was pitch black. We could only hear the sound of bike’s gear, accelerator, break and the flow of wind. Raghavan’s concentration was completely on the road and driving. I was looking right, left and behind! There wasn’t yet anybody and nor was there any sign of burial ground. I was looking behind me and all of a sudden Raghavan applied break! Suddenly, I turned front thinking Raghavan saw something or else someone has appeared in-front of the bike. But, it was a pot hole. We had almost traveled more than half on that road with no results. Raghavan stopped the bike but it was still on. In neutral gear, he raised the accelerator and turned the head light left and right. On the left it was just a long ground with ups and downs. On the right was long wall of the LFS school. We were near the gate of the school. The gate was locked. When the bike’s light fell on it, we could only see the long bars of the gate. I tried concentrating behind those bars and tried to find some signs like any lady’s movements or at least a stand still in White saree. We both were looking at gate and it suddenly flashed to me that there isn’t anybody behind me. At anytime the lady can come behind me and stand. I suddenly turned around and torched. I saw left and right. There wasn’t anybody! After a while, we felt that we havn’t come to the right place. We decided to return with no results. It was a great relief for me as we started seeing the street lights and ppl to my left, right and behind after entering into the city!
The climax was yet to be seen. It was on the next day. We decided to visit the place in the noon and find out its location exactly. At 2 PM, we were again on the same road. Holding a binocular, I was looking here and there, but, aha! No results. Some Lorries were running on that road. We almost reached the end of the road. No option left and little disappointed, Raghavan took U-turn. Few meters passed by and there was bullock cart going in front of us. As we neared it, Raghavan slowed the bike and I asked the bullock cart guy – "Where is the burial ground (smashana) here. I need to meet someone!". He was shocked for a while. Re-gaining his posture he told – "sir, there isn’t any burial ground here. You have to go to the other side of Hospet for it". Raghavan and myself looked at each other. Uff…
Although, it pulled the final screen for the whole drama, a part of the climax was yet to come. By the time we reached the beginning of that road, there was police check up going on for every vehicle passing over there. The cop stopped us also and asked for driving licensee. Raghavan had kept it at home!! We bribed him 250Rs and escaped from the scene.
Poor lady- someone really wanted to meet her. But, guess, the address was wrong. What a bad luck!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
A kiss of death…
Heard of Yandamuri Veerendranath? He is a very famous writer from AP. Tulsidala is his mega hit novel. It is on black magic and witch craft. Its also available in Kannada. I was reading this novel and was in the finishing pages. The scene was:”It is 12 in the mid-night. There is a double storied house with a big tree in front of it whose branches are reaching the 1st floor. Its raining heavily and there isn’t much light in the surroundings. There is an electric wire near the door, intended for killing a person. The same person comes and is climbing the steps to reach the door.On the other side, sitting in a remote place, a witch is performing black magic on this same person. He climbs all the steps, came near the door, opened it and is about to place his foot on the wire…”
Oh!! What happened next….? A curious question, obviously. Isn’t it? But, what happened in my life, immediately after reading those lines was scarier than what happened in this novel!!
My house was in 1st floor. I was sitting on the cot. On my right, my sis is in deep sleep with the blanket covering from the tip of her toe to the top of her head. On my left is a window opened. There is no light outside and there is a big tree whose branches are extending till 1st floor. So, am exactly in the middle. Exactly at the point when the person opens the door in the novel, my sis got up, throwing the blanket towards her feet. She sat erect. Her neck turned left and with a neutral look in her eyes, she asked: “Who opened the door”. Wah!! What a question?! With the lovely shivering and the pale eyes, grabbing all my energy I mumbled – “Dear, no one has opened the door. And if you ever ask next question, for sure the door of heaven or hell will open for me”. For a second, everything was silent. She was staring at me, with those drowsy and neutral eyes. The other side, from the window there was cold breeze. As I was in the middle, I had almost turned towards my sister and so my back was facing the window. Now, her eyelids moved from me and were staring towards the opened window, which was behind me! It was mid night and completely dark. I didn’t dare to turn back and look at the window. I could hear the noise of my breath, the click-click of wall clock and the crispy-whistling noise of the leaves. Now, all of a sudden, her neck turned right. She grabbed the blanket, covered herself and went flat.
I summoned my courage and put my hands out of the window, pulled the latches of the pane and closed them immediately. Placing a book mark on the page, I closed and threw the book. Went out to the hall and checked the main door. Although everything was bolted, I checked them with my hands and tried opening the door! Went to bath room, emptied my bladder.
And the next day morning, I got up, 'coz someone was ringing the doorbell. I was sure again that - I had indeed closed the doors :)
Oh!! What happened next….? A curious question, obviously. Isn’t it? But, what happened in my life, immediately after reading those lines was scarier than what happened in this novel!!
My house was in 1st floor. I was sitting on the cot. On my right, my sis is in deep sleep with the blanket covering from the tip of her toe to the top of her head. On my left is a window opened. There is no light outside and there is a big tree whose branches are extending till 1st floor. So, am exactly in the middle. Exactly at the point when the person opens the door in the novel, my sis got up, throwing the blanket towards her feet. She sat erect. Her neck turned left and with a neutral look in her eyes, she asked: “Who opened the door”. Wah!! What a question?! With the lovely shivering and the pale eyes, grabbing all my energy I mumbled – “Dear, no one has opened the door. And if you ever ask next question, for sure the door of heaven or hell will open for me”. For a second, everything was silent. She was staring at me, with those drowsy and neutral eyes. The other side, from the window there was cold breeze. As I was in the middle, I had almost turned towards my sister and so my back was facing the window. Now, her eyelids moved from me and were staring towards the opened window, which was behind me! It was mid night and completely dark. I didn’t dare to turn back and look at the window. I could hear the noise of my breath, the click-click of wall clock and the crispy-whistling noise of the leaves. Now, all of a sudden, her neck turned right. She grabbed the blanket, covered herself and went flat.
I summoned my courage and put my hands out of the window, pulled the latches of the pane and closed them immediately. Placing a book mark on the page, I closed and threw the book. Went out to the hall and checked the main door. Although everything was bolted, I checked them with my hands and tried opening the door! Went to bath room, emptied my bladder.
And the next day morning, I got up, 'coz someone was ringing the doorbell. I was sure again that - I had indeed closed the doors :)
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
My destiny rocked me...:)
At last destiny targeted me to cross the Indian border. It was around 11AM. My PM called me to meeting room and I entered reluctantly worrying what’s in store for the day to listen! “Are you available completely for the 1st two weeks of Feb?” PM questioned. “Yes…” I responded thinking…Oh god! Some release or some training or some challenging (?) task is about to come on me. Before I could complete my thots…I heard…”You might have to travel to Helsinki, Finland. Hope, you don’t have any issues”. That was it. As expected, I responded positively and after few mins we walked out of room and after a few days I flied out of country :)
We were heading towards RADISSON SAS with a speed of around 70 kmph in a temp of around -10 degrees! Its Helsinki, capital of Finland. Suresh, my Tech Lead was also traveling with me. Sitting in the AC car, I was dumbstruck looking at the scenery. Snow covered every inch of the city: footpath, trees, roofs…what not? With a highly disciplined traffic it took just 30 mins to reach the hotel. Meet Shrini, called MAMA with love, who is staying here from past 2 months. He was almost familiar with important corners of the city and so saved our time of discovery :).
Going out every evening was the need of the hour. We(I, Suresh and Mama) used to get some juice, eatables and just roam around the place. The ice on the road was covered with crispy snow. We used to walk very casually till we met with a light casualty on our asses when we skid on the roads. In one scene Suresh and Mama had a hit on their ass in an attempt to save mine! while in another scene me and Mama saved Suresh from rolling down thru the steps outside of a church. And that was it. Never again we walked with long steps.
Wahl!! What a scene…passing thru a shopping mall I found a couple smooching. Well, it was for the first time I saw the expression of passion in public and so was that “Wahl!!” Days passed by and I got accustomed to reality show at staircases in metro, on footpaths…
My fortune complemented my air travel with a sea voyage. And the evening arrived on Friday. I, Suresh and Mama left the hotel at 5.15 and cruise was at 5.45. After a 5 mins walk I realized that I had left my passport in the room. In a split second I was all my foot heading towards Radisson SAS. Picked up my passport and was back with guys. It was 5.25. Only 20 mins left. “Could you please make it fast so that we reach by 5.45” Mama was requesting taxi driver. 20…15…10…5…4…3…there we were, like Leonardo in TITANIC, the last to run into the ship holding our bags. Entered our cabins, refreshed and lying in bed we rested for some time.
Solitude was at its best when I stood on the front side of the edge of our cruise and enjoying just being with myself listening to melodious and crispy sound of chilled air. But, that state of lovely loneliness was hijacked by nerve numbing negative temperature. I entered inside and there was plenty to enjoy for the itinerants…shopping mall, dance floor, restaurants, sauna, gambling games n’ many. Dancing floor was the place where I spent much time. It was an ambiance of romance while couples were dancing for salsa in each other’s arms. We three brownies were sitting single and ready to mingle. But, we saw only the butts; yes no one turned towards us :(. Well, why would they? And so nor did we :). B.t.w. how can I miss to write about the babe of the show?
White top with tight blue jeans
She entered the floor shaking her body and hips;
Music of the show got a dancing doll
Whose rhythm was the slave of alcohol
Our journey was to Stockholm, capital of Sweden. We visited Vasa museum. Vasa is world’s oldest ship which sunk in her first voyage during 17th centurary. It was discovered and lifted to sea shore in 1960’s and the museum was constructed around it. We were damn hungry and so entered Stockholm city and had some burgers before started looking for castles. At last we found them but by then we had lost much of our time. Without spending much time we started to port.
Helsinki team had planned to go to Espoo for skiing as a part of team building. We also joined them. By that time Prahalad, my PM, and Sujesh, my other colleague, had joined us in Helsinki. Espoo is 2 hours away Helsinki. Almost everyone in Helsinki team knew skiing and they usually start learning it from their childhood. They were quite eager to go for long skiing. This hilly place was covered with snow and using a raking machine it was leveled so that it is convenient for skiing. Jesper and Mika ( PM and division head respectively) helped us to stand on skateboard, gave some initial hints as how to skate. It was fun initially. We hired a lady teacher. She took us to a place which was suitable for a novice. There were 2 main sloping places which were separated by a slightly wide split in the ground. One side the slope was very less and we could manage to slope easily and after having few rounds we went to the other side. I and Suresh were accompanied by Jesper and teacher. We reached the top and now decided to ski down. Suresh went first and after moving few meters he lost the balance and fell down. Now, it was my turn!. I wasn’t very confident that I would ski this slope successfully. I started and “No….” in just few meters I also lost the balance and also control. I was heading towards Suresh!. I tried controlling my body and even before I could think what to do my skateboard had hit Suresh’s knees. “Sorry dude” I said. Suresh laughed “Don’t worry. We can’t help” :). The adventure was yet to begin! After few mins with help of Jesper and teacher we got up. Now, I decided to cover the rest half of the slope. I stood up and mentally prepared and started again. Not even a meter I was gone again, now in a deep pit of that wide split which separated the 2 sloping places. I was in snow upto my ankles. Everyone thot I have injured myself as there was an iron pipe nearby. Fortunately I hadn’t dashed it. Teacher arrived and tried to pull me up. I wasn’t able to hold anything for support as it was only snow over there. I was thinking…”now a big rescue team will come here to lift me up…” By then teacher found an ice cube and pulled me towards it. I grabbed it and lifted myself while teacher was pulling me holding my other arm. At last I was lying on the sloping ground like ‘ a heroine in well being rescued by hero in typical bollywood movie’. That was enough and sufficient for the day. For the rest of the time I and Sujesh were capturing the scenery in camera while Suresh continued his practice.
My excitement died just in a week and my tummy took up the management. I got fed up with the negative temperature, no good food, routine life style n’ all.
I started counting the days and at last sun set on Friday. My enthusiasm to return India was as good as while I was leaving India. Air hostess provided dinner.
I closed my eyes after having it. Few seconds passed by and I was hearing an announcement “Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We are minutes away from Bangalore. I hope you had a great time traveling with Lufthansa airways. Have a nice week end. Thank you”. It was captain of the plane and I realized I have slept for hours!! “And it was all like a sweet dream“, I told Veena at 4AM after reaching home.
We were heading towards RADISSON SAS with a speed of around 70 kmph in a temp of around -10 degrees! Its Helsinki, capital of Finland. Suresh, my Tech Lead was also traveling with me. Sitting in the AC car, I was dumbstruck looking at the scenery. Snow covered every inch of the city: footpath, trees, roofs…what not? With a highly disciplined traffic it took just 30 mins to reach the hotel. Meet Shrini, called MAMA with love, who is staying here from past 2 months. He was almost familiar with important corners of the city and so saved our time of discovery :).
Going out every evening was the need of the hour. We(I, Suresh and Mama) used to get some juice, eatables and just roam around the place. The ice on the road was covered with crispy snow. We used to walk very casually till we met with a light casualty on our asses when we skid on the roads. In one scene Suresh and Mama had a hit on their ass in an attempt to save mine! while in another scene me and Mama saved Suresh from rolling down thru the steps outside of a church. And that was it. Never again we walked with long steps.
Wahl!! What a scene…passing thru a shopping mall I found a couple smooching. Well, it was for the first time I saw the expression of passion in public and so was that “Wahl!!” Days passed by and I got accustomed to reality show at staircases in metro, on footpaths…
My fortune complemented my air travel with a sea voyage. And the evening arrived on Friday. I, Suresh and Mama left the hotel at 5.15 and cruise was at 5.45. After a 5 mins walk I realized that I had left my passport in the room. In a split second I was all my foot heading towards Radisson SAS. Picked up my passport and was back with guys. It was 5.25. Only 20 mins left. “Could you please make it fast so that we reach by 5.45” Mama was requesting taxi driver. 20…15…10…5…4…3…there we were, like Leonardo in TITANIC, the last to run into the ship holding our bags. Entered our cabins, refreshed and lying in bed we rested for some time.
Solitude was at its best when I stood on the front side of the edge of our cruise and enjoying just being with myself listening to melodious and crispy sound of chilled air. But, that state of lovely loneliness was hijacked by nerve numbing negative temperature. I entered inside and there was plenty to enjoy for the itinerants…shopping mall, dance floor, restaurants, sauna, gambling games n’ many. Dancing floor was the place where I spent much time. It was an ambiance of romance while couples were dancing for salsa in each other’s arms. We three brownies were sitting single and ready to mingle. But, we saw only the butts; yes no one turned towards us :(. Well, why would they? And so nor did we :). B.t.w. how can I miss to write about the babe of the show?
White top with tight blue jeans
She entered the floor shaking her body and hips;
Music of the show got a dancing doll
Whose rhythm was the slave of alcohol
Our journey was to Stockholm, capital of Sweden. We visited Vasa museum. Vasa is world’s oldest ship which sunk in her first voyage during 17th centurary. It was discovered and lifted to sea shore in 1960’s and the museum was constructed around it. We were damn hungry and so entered Stockholm city and had some burgers before started looking for castles. At last we found them but by then we had lost much of our time. Without spending much time we started to port.
Helsinki team had planned to go to Espoo for skiing as a part of team building. We also joined them. By that time Prahalad, my PM, and Sujesh, my other colleague, had joined us in Helsinki. Espoo is 2 hours away Helsinki. Almost everyone in Helsinki team knew skiing and they usually start learning it from their childhood. They were quite eager to go for long skiing. This hilly place was covered with snow and using a raking machine it was leveled so that it is convenient for skiing. Jesper and Mika ( PM and division head respectively) helped us to stand on skateboard, gave some initial hints as how to skate. It was fun initially. We hired a lady teacher. She took us to a place which was suitable for a novice. There were 2 main sloping places which were separated by a slightly wide split in the ground. One side the slope was very less and we could manage to slope easily and after having few rounds we went to the other side. I and Suresh were accompanied by Jesper and teacher. We reached the top and now decided to ski down. Suresh went first and after moving few meters he lost the balance and fell down. Now, it was my turn!. I wasn’t very confident that I would ski this slope successfully. I started and “No….” in just few meters I also lost the balance and also control. I was heading towards Suresh!. I tried controlling my body and even before I could think what to do my skateboard had hit Suresh’s knees. “Sorry dude” I said. Suresh laughed “Don’t worry. We can’t help” :). The adventure was yet to begin! After few mins with help of Jesper and teacher we got up. Now, I decided to cover the rest half of the slope. I stood up and mentally prepared and started again. Not even a meter I was gone again, now in a deep pit of that wide split which separated the 2 sloping places. I was in snow upto my ankles. Everyone thot I have injured myself as there was an iron pipe nearby. Fortunately I hadn’t dashed it. Teacher arrived and tried to pull me up. I wasn’t able to hold anything for support as it was only snow over there. I was thinking…”now a big rescue team will come here to lift me up…” By then teacher found an ice cube and pulled me towards it. I grabbed it and lifted myself while teacher was pulling me holding my other arm. At last I was lying on the sloping ground like ‘ a heroine in well being rescued by hero in typical bollywood movie’. That was enough and sufficient for the day. For the rest of the time I and Sujesh were capturing the scenery in camera while Suresh continued his practice.
My excitement died just in a week and my tummy took up the management. I got fed up with the negative temperature, no good food, routine life style n’ all.
I started counting the days and at last sun set on Friday. My enthusiasm to return India was as good as while I was leaving India. Air hostess provided dinner.
I closed my eyes after having it. Few seconds passed by and I was hearing an announcement “Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We are minutes away from Bangalore. I hope you had a great time traveling with Lufthansa airways. Have a nice week end. Thank you”. It was captain of the plane and I realized I have slept for hours!! “And it was all like a sweet dream“, I told Veena at 4AM after reaching home.
One night in Dusseldorf
I was feeling damn hungry. Wanted some fruit juice along with my veggie burger.
It was around 8PM. Meghana was very tired and her eyes were heavy. I waved her off and took the lift. When I came out, I saw it was quite dark and there were only 2 street lights at the cross. Holding the map in the hands I started going in the direction which would take me to the super market. It was a long street and there were no lights on either side. I was walking on footpath which had a rough surface and so there was a noise ‘chir…’, ‘chir…’ for every step of mine. At the dead end I met with the cross road and took a right turn. There it was the super market. I took the juice and started back to hotel.
I was on the same road. Everything was same, except that someone was following me. For every ‘chir…’, ‘chir…’ noise of my steps, there was another step exactly in sync making ‘chir….’, ‘chir…’ noise!!. I kept walking without looking back. I was almost exactly in the mid of that long road. I turned and for my nerve chill, there wasn’t anybody! I laughed at myself and said – Its all my stupid imagination or the sound of air. And I continued, and for my shocking-luck the sound also continued! I immediately turned right, no one was there! Two steps… this time, I acted a bit intelligently, I turned left and there still wasn’t anybody! There was a small cross road. I crossed it and a few steps passed by. A car went thru that cross road. Within a split second there was someone in dark color moved in-front of me!. Oh! My god-I stopped for a while. My common-sense spurted and I realized it was my own shadow which appeared due to car’s headlight.
I was almost at the end of the road and there were street lights. As the light approached me, I was also enlightened – since, it was chilling, I had kept my hands in jacket’s pockets. And I was holding the juice in my arm pit, horizontally. The bottle wasn’t full and so it was making noise for every step of mine.
Quite chilling. Isn’t it?. I had juice and dinner and had a brave sleep that night
It was around 8PM. Meghana was very tired and her eyes were heavy. I waved her off and took the lift. When I came out, I saw it was quite dark and there were only 2 street lights at the cross. Holding the map in the hands I started going in the direction which would take me to the super market. It was a long street and there were no lights on either side. I was walking on footpath which had a rough surface and so there was a noise ‘chir…’, ‘chir…’ for every step of mine. At the dead end I met with the cross road and took a right turn. There it was the super market. I took the juice and started back to hotel.
I was on the same road. Everything was same, except that someone was following me. For every ‘chir…’, ‘chir…’ noise of my steps, there was another step exactly in sync making ‘chir….’, ‘chir…’ noise!!. I kept walking without looking back. I was almost exactly in the mid of that long road. I turned and for my nerve chill, there wasn’t anybody! I laughed at myself and said – Its all my stupid imagination or the sound of air. And I continued, and for my shocking-luck the sound also continued! I immediately turned right, no one was there! Two steps… this time, I acted a bit intelligently, I turned left and there still wasn’t anybody! There was a small cross road. I crossed it and a few steps passed by. A car went thru that cross road. Within a split second there was someone in dark color moved in-front of me!. Oh! My god-I stopped for a while. My common-sense spurted and I realized it was my own shadow which appeared due to car’s headlight.
I was almost at the end of the road and there were street lights. As the light approached me, I was also enlightened – since, it was chilling, I had kept my hands in jacket’s pockets. And I was holding the juice in my arm pit, horizontally. The bottle wasn’t full and so it was making noise for every step of mine.
Quite chilling. Isn’t it?. I had juice and dinner and had a brave sleep that night
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