Whoosh...

It was a lovely summer evening, the crimson sun had just set and I was there in the jungle by the forest lodge overlooking a melodious rivulet that I loved so much. Nothing feels as good as the evening breeze that rushes through old undisturbed trees and grasses as tall as little children swaying and playing to the wind... bringing in a whiff of that very smell of nature that we have forgotten living in the concrete jungle built by us.

Nearly a forgotten pleasure to be an audience here, standing silently and hearing the trees talk to their friends and the crickets gossip while a lone distant wolf declares his importance! Oh! I could stand there all night and just listen to the jungle... there is nothing that pleases me more!

It was then that I felt a gentle nudge, it was more of a feeling of someone passing by. Very close indeed, enough to make me reflexly balance myself! Though I'm sure I would not have fallen. And it was as if all the flora and fauna around me had suddenly stopped to look at this little "accident". The sudden silence was chilling!

And then after a few baited seconds, the symphony of nature began humming its tune again, completely forgiving contact by mischance between man and spirit...

Whoosh!

(this being the second and final brush that I had with "spirits" click here for the first)

Khaari Baawari

There is a place, slightly off the road on the Jabalpur-Katni highway (NH-7) called "khaari baawari" by the locals. Its not a place one would like to be on a dark, lonely night. You would likely kill yourself in frustration if you be a hunter! Or so they say...

The name literally translated in English would mean a "salt water well" or a "well with water that is salty to taste"... its an abandoned well in a moderately dense forested area about 80 meters off the road. There is a small old shed by the road, dilapidated, made of stone and rotting timber, no roof now.

But as the story goes, when hunting was rampant in the state of Madhya Pradesh, and that was only a generation ago, this was a place open for a peculiar challenge! And the shed would be a place for the hunters to rest and curse their luck!

There are a lot of spotted deer that can be seen around this place even now. And the challenge was to be able to injure or kill a deer in that area. A number of hunters tried and failed. No one could hit a deer (or any other animal) in that area.

The locals say there are spirits that protect animals there. In fact they claim that on "amavasya" (no moon) nights the spirits appear as shadowy deer around the well and can be seen frolicking around it...

So is the legend of "khaari baawari"...