Sunday, October 9, 2016

A haunting during a college project

Dear Readers,

Welcome back!!! Thanks for the great response to this blog and for your generous support. I hope to continue receiving your feedback to improve the quality of my articles.

Today, I am going to tell you about a ghost story. This is a real life incident which happened to one of my close friends Tejas. This incident happened in the summer of year 2009. Tejas is a mechanical engineer. As part of his final year project he had been to a famous Steel Plant in the state of Odhisha. He had been accompanied by four other classmates. They had applied for a summer internship on the recommendation of their Professor. They were very happy to receive an Internship in such a well known industrial plant.

They arrived to the plant during the summer vacation time. As such most of the plant was deserted due to the long vacation. They were supposed to be there for three weeks. The campus was huge and spread over several kilometers. The steel plant was in a seperate industrial area and far off from the main city.

The guys were received by the manager who had granted them the internship. After finishing the joining formalities they were taken to the industrial quarters were they would be staying. The quarters were mostly deserted as most of the employees were on vacation. The five guys were accomodated in three different rooms. One of Tejas's classmate was from Nepal. His name was Shyamu. He was put up alone in one of the rooms. The first day went off in exploring the campus. In the evening the guys had an early dinner and retired to bed early as everyone was very tired.

Shyamu was fast asleep when he suddenly heard a loud noise. Since, it was summer time it was very hot. He had switched on the fan before sleeping. But, now he felt that the fan was not running. He assumed that there must have been a power cut as it is common in India to have lot of power cuts in the summer owing to heavy loads in electricity. He kept tossing in the bed unable to sleep. Suddenly, his eyes opened and he screamed loudly. He could see that the fan was shaking heavily. There was no wind at this time of the year. He started sweating profusely unable to move from the bed. But, his scream was overheard by the other guys and they all rushed in. But, by then everything had ceased to be normal and everyone just made fun of him assuming that he had seen a bad dream.

Next day, the guys were taken to to the steel plant. They were shown the machines which are used to manufacture steel. There they met a gentleman called Ajay. They respectfully called him as Ajay bhaiya (elder brother). Ajay was a Brahmin and wore the sacred thread janeu across his chest and applied Tilak (Vermilion mark) on his forehead. He was an  orthodox religious person and was polite with the guys. He spoke softly but his eyes were stern. The guys respected him and he became their project guide. Ajay lived in the officer quarters a little distance away from the three quarters in which the guys were put up. In the evening when the guys were parting to their rooms he asked them to be watchful and left without saying anything further.

This night the guys had finished their dinner and  were having fun playing cards in Shyamus room. It was around midnight time. When suddenly they heard a woman crying. They rushed outside and froze on seeing a woman's shadow near the parapet wall. The woman was sitting with her head bent down on her hands. She had long flowing black hair and was wearing a white Saree. She was sobbing sofltly now. Suddenly she turned her head towards the guys and stared at them in the most horrible and angry way. The guys who were already very scared ran towards Ajay bhaiya's quarters. They told him the whole story. Ajay bhaiya became serious and asked the guys to spend the night in his room. He said it would not be safe to venture out.

In the morning, they all went to Shyamu's room. Shyamu had got high fever after the incident and he was in a very bad state. A doctor was called and he was given some medicines. The guys now asked Ajay bhaiya as to what was happening. Ajay bhaiya became quiet and thoughtful for a minute. He asked them to accompany him to the quarters block just opposite to Shyamu's room. He pointed to a room from a little distance. He said that about an year back a lady employee was brutally raped and murdered in this room. Tejas later told me that this was a deserted block. There was lot of dust outside all rooms except this room. Although, this was this room was sealed from the outside.

Ajay bhaiya gave all the guys a copy of the holy book Gita and taught all of them a sacred enchanment to ward off the evil. Tejas also brought a poster of god Hanuman from the city and hung it in his room. The guys started chanting Hanuman Chalisa before sleeping each night. Since, Shyamu's fever did not come down even after four days. Tejas called up his parents and he was sent off home in the next available train.

After that, the ghostly incidents stopped. The guys started working on their project and began to forget these incidents. One night, Tejas was taking a walk alone in the campus after dinner and came to a stop near a mango tree. He saw an old man perched in the tree plucking mangoes. He smiled and Tejas smiled back and he walked back to his room. As he was returning, he met the watchman. They started a conversation. The watchman told him that a week before an old man from the village had died trying to pluck mangoes from a nearby tree.

I hope you liked this article.

With Love,
Gunjan.

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