My Surreal Experience by Yagnesh Chokasi (best book clubs txt) 📕

My Surreal Experience.

This happened to me five years ago, when I was working in Ahmedabad. At that time I lived with friends in a dormitory. My family lived in a Village called “Adariyana”. It is about 150 Km from Ahmedabad. Since I was living in Ahmedabad I often went to my village during weekends as well as other holidays. This surreal experience happened to me five years ago during the Diwali festival.

Generally, during Diwali, many staff goes on extended leave as a result of which I had heavy work load as I decided to avail only the mandatory holidays this time, so I was given addition work of the staff on vacation. I was unable to finish my work on time on the last day before Diwali vacation was to commence. It took three extra hours to finish work that evening before I could leave for my vacation as a result of which I missed the last bus.

I still get goosebumps as I remember that night which is known as Kalichaudas night. After leaving for the day, I went to my room and I looked at my wrist watch. I saw it was 10 pm. I had two option either I wait till morning or I go on my bike. I analyzed the situation, if I wait till the next morning to catch a bus, I will miss the early morning puja which is held at my house every Diwali day. Since I didn’t want to miss the puja, I decided to go on my bike.

As I rode my bike on the highway towards my village, initially there was heavy traffic and I had to concentrate on my driving. After sometime, the road cleared and my thoughts kept returning to the rumors I heard as a child about Kalichaudas night. I was often told by family members that this is the night of spirits. Villagers don’t go out of the houses after twilight on this night. I personally didn’t believe in spirit till this surreal experience.

I ate dinner at a road side hotel after two hours of driving. After finishing dinner I looked at my wrist watch and saw it was 1 O’clock. Now I had to drive one more hour to reach my village. I started from the road side hotel and after driving for around half an hour, I reached Vadgam. My village is around 12 Km from Vadgam and is connected by a narrow path with farms on either sides of the path.

It was a dark night. As I rode my bike, I could hear the creepy voices of the night as the wind rustled the trees, bats flapped around me and crickets chirped in the farms. As I rode down this spooky road, the rumors ran riot in my mind. This road was different from the hustle and bustle of the highway as it was narrow road and lonely. But I drove on as I was excited to reach home since I had not visited my family for a long time.

I was just a few kms form my village when I saw someone standing on the road. It was however a blurred vision. As I came closer, I clearly saw a lady wearing a red Saree standing on the road. I stopped my bike and politely asked her “What you are doing alone in this dark night as it is past mid night?” She smiled, looked at me and said “I came with my husband for Kalichaudas puja at my farm but my husband had some work in the nearby village so he left me alone and told me he will return very soon to pick me. I waited for a long time but he didn’t come so I decided to go home. Since it was midnight of Kalichaudas I didn’t expected any help so I stared walking and I saw you.”

I looked at her; she was very beautiful with fair skin. She looked very gorgeous and appealing in the red saree. I could smell the beautiful fragrances emitting from her body. I suddenly felt the dark night become hot. I offered in a kind voice “Would you like me to drop you home”. She nodded and gave the name of her village which happed to be my village. When I told her I was going to Ad…., she settled down behind me on my bike and we started driving toward my village. While driving I asked her name. She replied “Madhu”. I introduced myself as Choksi. Then I asked her about her family and she replied she was married to Mahesh. I asked in a surprised tone “Mahesh? The fair, tall and handsome son of Nanalal” She said “Yes.” I was surprised and told her “Mahesh and I are childhood friends. I wanted to attend your marriage but I was on a business trip so I couldn’t attend it.” I then asked about family and other things. We discussed a lot during the 15 minutes it took to reach my village. We were about to reach Mahesh’s house when Madhu told me to please stop the bike “I will walk from here and reach home.” I stopped the bike as I knew Mahesh’s house was just in front of us. I told her “it was nice meeting you and I will see you tomorrow at your house.”

She replied “It won’t be possible as I am going to my farm tomorrow. If you want to meet us you can come at our farm.” I replied “Fine, I will see you tomorrow at the farm. Goodnight Madhu and tell Mahesh you had met me.”

Next morning I woke up and joined my family for the Puja. After the puja as I was drinking tea with my father in the balcony my father surprised me by saying “Your friend Mahesh has a problem.” I inquired “what problem?” He replied “His wife Madhu was missing since last two days.” I was stunned and exclaimed “What! I met her yesterday night.” “Where?” my father asked. I replied “She was standing on the road between V…. and A….., next to the pond near Mahesh’s farm. My father shook his head incredulously and said “What are you saying. She is missing since last two days. The Police and Villagers have been frantically searching for her.” I then told my father “I think I should meet Mahesh immediately and tell him about last night’s incidence.”

I reached Mahesh’s house. I saw there were lots of villagers and police team. I searched for Mahesh and told him everything that happened to me last night. He didn’t believe me. One of the police constables heard our conversation and he asked me “Can you take to us that place.” I replied “ok let’s go.” The Police team, Mahesh and I went to that place. Mahesh’s farm was near that place so we went there and we found contoured soil at one place. The police immediately got suspicious as this was not the season to plow the farm plow. They started digging that place. After some time they found Madhu’s dead body. We were all shocked to see Madhu’s dead body. The police scanned the area around the body and found her mobile in some nearby bushes.

One of constable started checking the mobile. He found one audio clip was saved in it. He played the audio tape which shocked all of us. The Audio recording was of Madhu and Mahesh fighting. Mahesh quarreled with Madhu as he came to know about her extra martial affair. From the Audio tape we understood that Madhu had a relationship with her old boyfriend she didn’t want to break it.

During the quarrel Mahesh become very angry and crossed his threshold limit. He picked one big hard rock and wounded her on her head. The audio recorded everything up to the point when Mandu suddenly stopped screaming and the tape become silent. When the audio stopped, Mahesh confessed his crime as he realized his mistake and surrendered himself. After that night I started in believing in spirit. I realized Madhu’s spirit appeared in front of me for a reason otherwise, Mahesh’s crime may have been suppressed for every. But still presence of spirits is a debatable matter!!

Publication Date: 11-03-2016

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