I don’t believe in ghosts. What I do believe is that to make sure man remains faithful to God there had to be a negative force on this universe. But what I was not aware is that God was set to bend my thoughts into reality. It was Friday the 13Th of March the date which coincidentally is considered to be the mother of all bad omen.On my annual vacation to India I was in Mumbai to meet my friends and relatives it was a weekend so I just thought we (me and one of my friend) will visit the hair salon at Juhu Tara Road. To reach there we had to go through the cooper hospital gali just to avoid the mad jam on the main road. From what I have heard this road is a hangout place for the souls from the land of no return. We were in an autorichshaw. We were having a talk about how Mumbai has to change a lot to be a shanghai, like any other fellow in mumbai. As we approached the lane there was a chilling calm in the air. From the rick I could see trees along the footpath forming a demonic looking shadow on the road. Then in a split second there was a cool breeze blowing and to break the silence of the night, we could hear rustling of leaves. Of course all this was accompanied by our rickshaw Trrrr.. trrr …trrrrrrrrrr.
Trrrrrr…trr in all this there was just one thing going on in my mind how do people stay here. Every body knows that all the train accident victims and the accident cases land up in this hospital. At times you will be able to see the ward boys carrying bodies to the morgue in a cart, without even covering them. I don’t understand how humanity can be so cruel to the dead. I don’t really know whether the dead would actually know whether adequate respect is being given to them or no.But there is a lot of research that is gone into this, world over which says that the soul of dead can actually sense the way the body is being treated. Based on that the soul reacts and decide to either stay back on earth or to take the stairway to the gatekeeper.
Trrr…Tr rr then suddenly the rick slowed down and we came to a halt. The driver told us that he needs to take a leak. He left us in the middle of the road right next to the cooper hospital exit. The open side of the rickshaw was on the left side of me and I was looking at the entrance on the right. There Was this husky voice that got my attentation “Bhaiji lighter hai?”. I turned left and I noticed a man dressed in off white shirt and formal white pants with pleets, kind of archiac style. I noticed a cigarette in his hand. I just said “Nahi hai yar?”. As i looked up I couldn’t see his face it was dark. The man just walked away from me casually. Our rick driver came running, jumped into the rick and hastily drove away. He was perspiring and was muttering something. I asked him “Boss kya hua?”. There was a minute of silence before he broke into tears. And then what he was muttering became clear, he was reciting the hanuman chalisa.
His wired behaviour was scarry “Boss side me rok dho apka thabyath theek nahi lag raha hai.” I said. He pulled over and then I moved out of the rick and told him that “mai doosra rickshaw le letha hu”. I could see his eyes absolutely frozen glued to the road and tears rolling down his cheek. He said “wo aadmi.. wo aadmi…”. I asked him again “kya hua?”. “Woh aadmi ka sar…. apne dhekha nahi?” We had come a long way from there I looked back casually to check if that man was still there. He was there I could recognise his white shirt any where. He was standing there leaning on a tree. THe rickshaw driver told me “Woh admi ka sar nahi tha.”. I was bamboozled by his statement. Immediately I looked back and there was no body there.
I looked at my friend for confirmation and his Fear struck eyes confirmed the statement auto driver had made. A shiver went down my spine and I told him to immediately get us out of there. There was pin drop silence in the rick. God has finally shown me the force he uses to pull people towards him. I think the defence mechanism of human beings is an attribute designed to unite people and bring them to a single platform. This is the instance when human beings cry out in unison “god help us”.
after that we ride to the saloon safely, paid the auto rickshaw driver, he left. But what a remarkable impression does that evening has endowed on three of us...it was truly amazing.. i must admit i too was got scared..and i guess wont able to forget that "incident" God had bestowed upon us, ever in my life...After that I realized that God has created human and we have divided ourself in religions and at the time of such calamities we only turns to the same "one power" irrespective of believing any religion...
