This is a true story...This story goes back to the summer of 1983. My best friend Pradeep and some of our very close friends decided to make a trip to the forests of Bandhavgarh in the month of May. Bandhavgarh at that time was not a developed tourist spot as it is today, now it even boasts 5 star accommodation at the maharajah's palace...
At that time there was only one lodge, with a small restaurant besides a flour mill and a general store on the ground floor and 4 rooms on the first floor. An elderly couple owned and ran the place. There were 8 of us, we took 3 rooms. My friend N K Singh (Neki) and I were to share a room in the far end and the rest would share the 2 rooms in the middle.
The lodge itself overlooked a rivulet and luscious green forests behind us and the only road that passed through the village in front of us. Dusk was fast approaching and we were tired from the 200 km ride over rough road in an old Willis petrol jeep belonging to Pradeep's elder brother, that had brought us there. We quickly ordered dinner and prepared to freshen up over some rum and water... yes, that was our favorite drink during student life!
With a couple of pegs, or one more or one less :-D we had dinner and took a small walk in the dark along the dusty road till we decided it was time retire!
Our room was small, it had two tiny cots, one cupboard built into a wall, one small window, a fan, a tube light and a night lamp, and of course the sole door that lead to our room. The night was dark and the forest sang its expected song which lead us to keep the night lamp on and the fan of course, it was peak summer time.
Not much time passed before we were fast asleep... then, somewhere in the middle of the night I felt a soft caress on my leg!
Fully expecting the naughty sardar in mischievous drunken stupor, I turned over to face him... and found him fast asleep!
Well, it must have been my imagination, I thought!
Soon I was asleep! But this time I felt a slight but cold touch on my cheek, that jolted me into an upright posture with a long drawn scream that catapulted Neki right out of his bed straight at me. Seeing the expression on his face, it looked like he had seen a ghost - out came another involuntary scream from the depth of my lungs... and that of course drew an equally agitated yet inquiring scream from Neki!
The came the deathly silence, mouths agape! And then the obvious question...
"Why did you scream" asked Neki. So I told him what had happened. He assured me it was not his work and I believed him.
We turned on the tube light fully expecting a cat inside the room. Checked everywhere, the window too had a fine mosquito mesh on it that was secure and the door was bolted from inside! There was absoutely no way anyone or
more importantly anything could have got in, touched me, and exited
With that came another obvious statement form Neki, "...must have been a ghost, heh, heh" ending in a nervously polite subdued laugh!
I tended to agree with him, but I'm not one of those who accept the existence of ghosts publicly, at least not then since it was my maiden encounter in first person.
"No, thats rubbish, it must have been the rum" I said to him, "now lets sleep"
This time it took us much longer to fall asleep, but we did finally!
We woke up in the morning with Pradeep banging on the door. It seems he had heard us scream around midnight and had come to inquire if we were well! How nice of him, couldn't the rest of the guys have asked us how we were when we were screaming? Bah!
Er... they were too afraid they said, "Your screams scared us enough, we could not gather the courage to step out of our rooms" Just great! So much for friendship!
And then when we finally caught up with the owners as we went down to the restaurant for breakfast. The elderly gentleman asked us if we had a good nights sleep, I grew suspicious and immediately asked him what he meant by that?
"Well, you see, sometimes, in that room on the far corner, you have unusual things happen. There was this young couple that had stayed in that room about an year ago, they committed suicide. I heard some screams last night and knew they had been visiting my lodge again!"
Again?!
Neki and I exchanged glances. The rest of the boys too didn't like the sudden change in atmosphere. We decided to pack our belongings and head home on the double...
