I still shiver

I work in one of the leading banks of India and major part of my work is either done on laptop or in meetings which means I stay indoors all the time of the day. But 9 hours of sitting job in a cubicle including 30 minutes of lunch was not the thing for me. No one in my office had time to talk to each other or share anything. Work work and work was the motto of our office lives and you can’t expect much from people living in a city like Gurgaon. 

Months went by and my patience to deal with this routine was getting over. Sometimes I used to daydream about traveling and roaming around without any work or any mental pressure. One day I was writing an email when suddenly Sunit barged into my cubicle and without saying a Hi or a Hello directly asked me “dude! You wanna drive uphill??" I reacted with a big surprise, what????... “I am totally bored of this routine and as the summer season is here, let’s go to some nearby hill station and relax for a few days. Puneet is already in for the trip. We three can have awesome fun together" he said amusedly. With an enthusiastic smile on my face, I said “yes, take me anywhere. I want a break. Yes I am game. We are going". My voice kept on increasing with every word I said until I heard “shhhhhh!!” from the neighboring cubicle. 

I realized it later that without knowing where we have to go and how we are going - I agreed for the trip. The confusion ended when Sunit and Puneet came to my cubicle in the evening with a plan. Puneet said “we are going to Lahaul Spiti Valley". Initially I didn't even understand what he said but when he showed me some pics of the valley, I got amazed. Guys, How are we going? I asked with a smile on my face. The answer was given by Puneet -“My Innova”.

We started after a hectic week on the evening of 26^th June. Our plan was to stop for the night at Chandigarh for which I had already contacted my friend Baggy who lives there and proceed to Himachal Pradesh the next day. We reached Chandigarh at around 9 in the night and called Baggy. He told us that he was in Sector 16 with his two friends and asked us to meet him at Kala Bhawan. We three along with his pals went to the best café of Sector 16 “Books and Brews” and after long fun talks we decided to go to the Haunted House in Sector 16.

Generally it is believed that the haunted houses are always in an abandoned area, but we were surprised to see that the house is in a proper posh locality of Chandigarh. Baggy and his friends were moving ahead if us in their Safari and stopped just in front of the haunted house. Baggy immediately jumped out of his car and signaled us to come out of our car without making much noise. At the first site, the house looked just like any other Bungalow on the street. I studied the structure for a while – white walls which had turned grey with time, old dusty broken window panes and the huge main door adorned with creepers grown on it from all sides. Standing under the moonlight the house looking like a gloomy neglected old man with grey hair.  The place definitely had an eerie feel to it and staring at it for that long gave us chills down our spine.

Baggy continued telling us the story of the house and the boy who got burned alive in the house which made us anxious and after listening to the story suddenly Puneet who was continuously staring at the place started climbing the locked main gate without saying anything. All of us ran and grabbed him immediately to which he gave us an anxious look saying in punjabi “I want to meet a ghost tonight. I have heard a lot about them. I wont’t leave one tonight.” Laughing on the other side of the road Baggy said “You wanna meet ghosts, let’s go to Dakshai then!” ….. “Where’s that?” Sunit asked surprisingly. “It’s in the Himalayas opposite Kasauli and Puneet you may get lucky tonight as we have a graveyard in Dakshai … Angrejo k zamane ka graveyard” Puneet jumped with great enthu and replied “Bhai, Gaadi mai chalaunga (Bro, I will drive th car)”.

It took us nearly an hour to enter Dakshai when suddenly Baggy’s car stopped and we saw a sardar guy running towards the car. I heard him asking Baggy about the way to graveyard and Baggy hand signaled him to follow our car. Sardar guy jumped with joy and started shouting towards a dark road “they know the way. Follow that Innova” which looked very awkward but suddenly the road lit up with the headlights of nearly 6 SUV’s which changed the aura from awkward to amazing. “What is happening yar! This is not the kind of trip I expected!” Sunit cried from the back seat but both of us ignored him as we were having a great time. Now there were nearly 8 cars moving in the dark and when we stopped it looked like a shot from some Tollywood movie where the head of goons come in a big motorcade. 

We got an adrenaline rush in our bodies when everybody came out their cars and turned off the headlights. Suddenly it was pitch dark and everything funny looked frightening. There was pin drop silence and we all were moving like an array of people holding beers in our hands and then some intelligent person amongst us shouted “Switch on the lights of your damn phones”.  Slowly everybody’s phone was glowing except people like me who had all their battery drained putting pics and statuses on Facebook and twitter. Frightened, Sunit was trying to hold hands of everyone but no one entertained him that time as all were trying to concentrate on the rocky way following Baggy. 

Finally we entered the graveyard. It was a very dicey situation for me. From inside I was scared thinking about what was going to happen, but to save myself from getting bullied, I had to pretend that I was enjoying the moment. We kept walling as Baggy told us the stories about the graveyard. All of us were shit scared and used to get terrified at every small creaking or rustling sound. After Sunit pleaded to leave the graveyard for like the 10^th time, the six of us moved out of there leaving behind the Sardar guys. It was nearly 4 am and we decided to drive ahead to Shimla while Baggy left with his friends for Chandigarh. Puneet drove the car and after having the best paranthas in Kandaghat we reached Shimla at around 8 in the morning and stopped at a local hotel there. Shimla was nowhere in our plan but after that thrilling and scary night, we decided to make a pit stop for the much needed sleep.

We left Shimla at around 2 in the afternoon and decided to stop at Narkanda for the coming night. Our Journey of 5 hours to Narkanda was majorly distributed in listening to Punjabi songs and discussing the experience of the last night. The discussion ended when we reached Narkanda at around 7 in the night with Puneet saying “There are no ghosts guys! We entered their place, sat on their graves, talked but we didn’t see even a single ghost! Hence Proved”. Brushing aside the thoughts of how scared we were the previous night, we agreed with Puneet unanimously. The next day we had an early and fresh start and the feeling of travel started coming as the traffic was getting less with every Kilometer covered.

Now the plan was to reach our destination i.e the Spiti valley by tonight but after a long drive of 9 hours we got stuck in a traffic jam somewhere near Poh. After waiting for a long time we went out to enquire about the reason and found out that 2 trucks had a head on collision and it would take a lot of time for the jam to get cleared. Soon the sun had begun to set and daylight was getting replaced with dense fog and with every passing minute our frustration was increasing exponentially. There was a point where the visibility was so poor that we were only able to see the back lights of the car stranded in front of us. 

Suddenly Sunit turned down his window glass and started waving his hand in the dark. “What are you doing?” Puneet asked him in anger. “There is some man passing on the other side of road, I am signaling him” Sunit replied and then asked the man going “O Bhaiya!! Koi or raasta hai kya yahan se!!?” to which he just raised his hand and signaled to his right and moved away. “Weird guy”, said Sunit. “What a Shmuck!!” said Puneet sounding really frustrated? “Couldn’t he tell properly?” he added. I asked him to calm down and then both of us got down of our car to find the way he advised. 

 “Did you find any way?” Sunit asked scared. “Yup bro! There is a way into the jungle. I think he must be pointing us that way only. I hope it’s a shortcut” I said relieved. In some time our Innova was off-roading on a total dark path with all of us praying to reach our destination at the earliest. I was going to ask Puneet why he was driving so fast on that rough path when suddenly he applied the brakes so hard that Sunit jumped off his seat and was in the air for some time as our car was skidding on the muddy road and stopped just at the edge of the cliff. We got down with sweaty and scared faces and sat down on the other side of the road. “What happened Puneet!! What the hell was that?” I asked him after catching my breath. “I don’t know bro! I saw someone crossing the road and applied the brakes. Must be some drunk guy” , he replied terrified. “What the crap man! What are you saying? We are scared already. I think you are tired. Let me drive the car” I said angrily. 

It was already 9 pm now and all of us were damn scared of everything. “What the hell! Where are we??” Sunit cried from the back seat. “No idea bro! Even the phone has no signal. Its better we keep on moving” I said giving him some confidence. Finally after the rough patch we reached the road and saw a dhaba on some distance with some vehicles parked outside it. On enquiring the dhaba owner told us that we were on the correct but long path and advised us not to drive in the night as we may get stuck again. Fatigued, we ordered dinner and decided to stop there for the night and move ahead in the morning. 

While having dinner sitting outside the dhaba we saw that a truck was getting reversed on the other side of the road on some distance from us. There was a guy at the back of the truck and assisting the driver to take reverse. Sunit said “Look! I think that guy at the back of truck is the same guy I asked the way in that traffic jam!” Puneet glanced at him casually but his eyes stopped “Heyy, I think this is the guy who was about to come in front of my car. This jerk got us almost killed”.

We decided to ignore him and concentrate on our dinner. Suddenly, we heard a loud screeching sound. To our horror, we saw the truck was half inclined with its rear tyre stuck at a rock on the edge in the cliff. The three of us jumped from our places and started running towards the truck shouting. Everybody in the dhaba came running behind us and somehow we all managed to pull the terrified driver out of the truck.

“What the hell man! Are you crazy??” Everybody shouted at the driver as soon as he came out of the truck “And where is you assistant? Is he blind or what” we asked the driver furiously. “Assistant! No sir that guy is not my assistant. I thought he was a passerby and was just helping me” driver nervously replied. Surprised we looked for that guy but he had disappeared. Sunit exclaimed “who is that guy! We saw him earlier also” but all of us were as confused as Sunit. “Sir! Was the guy looked drunk and had reddish eyes?” asked the dhaba owner standing beside us. “Yess! How do you know??” asked Puneet exchanging horrid looks with Sunit. “Actually sir he has been sighted in this area many times. Rumors are that he was a tourist who took a shortcut in a jungle advised by a local and his car fell in the gorge some years back. Now his ghost haunts this place and misguides the tourists here. His nuisance has caused many accidents in the past here”.

Listening to that story nearly gave me a heart attack. Sunit totally lost his mind “I talked to a ghost! I asked him the shortcut!” He said terrified adding “He showed us the shortcut to death but we are safe. He again tried to for the second time by coming in front of the car, He will come back for us. I am scared guys! I don’t want to stay here for even a single minute. Let’s leave this place ASAP.” That was the most terrified moment of my life. Thinking that a ghost will come back for you and will cause you an accident made me lose all my senses. Without a second thought we loaded our stuff back into our car and started. Puneet sat at the back of the car stunned. When Sunit shook him and asked “you ok?” he said “This is our own fault. We disrespected them! We disturbed them in their graves in Dakshai. Please God save me from them. I never want to meet any ghost now”.

I was in the most ghastly situation. There was fear in my mind and two maniacs chanting weird stuff continuously in my car. Slowly in the next 20 - 30 minutes both of them were out of their energies and slept but I was left alone driving in the dark. I tried to keep myself sane but all the things happened in our journey were circling in my mind which was trying to co-relate all of them. Suddenly it sounded like someone was honking from behind but when I saw in the rear view mirror there was no vehicle moving at the back. I said to myself “My mind is playing with itself. Keep calm and move” The sound came again after 5 minutes and frustrated I again saw through the rear view mirror and this time I saw the red eyed guy sitting next to Sunit at the backseat staring directly at me. Terrified, I shouted, I screamed, I cried but couldn’t help myself and lost control of the car.

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It has been nearly one year that we came alive out of our big accident. People say we were lucky that our car hit the mountains and didn’t fall into the gorge instead. But, the happenings on that trip have somehow become deep seated in our minds. At times I wake up at night because of nightmares from that day haunting me. Unlike before my heart has stopped flying. Now I like being indoors. I don’t know whether what we saw that day was reality or just a delusion but whenever the memories of that trip drain down into my sub-conscious mind, “I Still Shiver”

Amazing Story. Must Read