“Almost GHOST”  OR  “Really GHOST”?   

  

Even after coming across many instances which could be linked to ghost sighting, I still cannot confirm if I see real ghost. Let me tell some of the few instances.

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ONE INSTANCE

(Even ghost could help?)

Two years ago life was so stressful to me. To overcome it, I went to mankind! But I found that we, men are in a “relationship-game” that conforms on turning our ever changing “space and time” for our own selfish-benefits. Nothing seems real enough at all! We created strangers and acquaintances, friends and foe. One is likeable or unlikable, agreeable or disagreeable in our own world---selfishly created. Just as many men are in my own world. 

You go to men to overcome stress; you will end up being a clown.

And then I took to taking a regular “long aimless” drive, by the countryside. It was rewarding indeed. I went to the scattering blue light, the yellowish ponds, the moving green leaves beneath the sun, the shades of nature, and the calling birds. Everything seemed so real! The reality weighted me down to love this one particular spot----this favourite spot of my nature.

It was a 2 hours drive from my home, about 60 Kilometers away, remarkably away from the city and mankind.  The lushness of the spot, the varieties of birds and the evergreen trees made me feel at home. I made it a point to take a long drive to my favourite spot whenever I felt bad.

But then I end up maybe seeing a ghost.

That day, it was already 4 in the afternoon. Boredom overtook me. I felt I was butchered and eroded by my survival altogether. So I drove out to my spot and sat under my “regular” tree watching the dusk as it descended down the sky.  Seven o’clock, and came a perfect darkness. With it, the sky grew upheaval with clouds and storms. Stars and the full moon disappeared beneath them quickly. Still then I sat on and on, for the changes were such a reality.

But then, heaven awaits for no men. There was a quick downpour and I was fully drenched in no time. I rushed towards my vehicle, tried starting the engine, but it won’t start. I tried five, six times maybe, but the comfort the vehicle could give dwindled with every passing moment. Much worse, the right tire explodes, BANG! It was a such a big sound! I had heard the word, “LABOU!” in younger days. That night, it sounded  clearer and more meaningful.

The downpour was unimaginable. It was mixed with forceful winds, and sorrowful lightning sounds. Much more than my expectations, some trees fell and some got uprooted. The whole view was poisoned by the ghostly sound “Vouu! Vouu!Vouu!”

I sat still behind the wheels, doors fastened, trying to team up with my coming death. And then, my  “deadly” thought was proven more correct by the sight of a big, strong man that walked towards me with a lantern.  The lantern was vigorously swaying in the forceful winds. But he did not seem to care. He did not seem to care anything---rains, thunders, the falling trees.  He came walking, looking straight at me. He looked macho, fully mustached, with red eyes. I repeated words in my mind with fright. “Voodoos are true!” I just looked at him, helpless, counting on my last valuable minutes. I closed my eyes, fighting to accept the fact that the night was for my end.

Closing eyes for the last chapter of a life, in front of an impending ghost was distressful. And more agonizing when that ghost called out your name.

He knocked the windshield calling out my name.  “What are you still doing here? I heard a bang and came out with a lantern. You are not having problems…right?”

I asked him, “W-W-Who’rrre you? Are you a g-g-ghost? How do you know my name?” My jaw was shaking.

He did not talk.

He beckoned me to get out of the vehicle. As I get out,  I was shivering beneath his 7 foot structure. His hands were as dreadful as the night itself---long nails with mud. He appeared to me as someone coming out of a tomb. More than of the living, he smelled a deadly ghost.

He changed the punctured tire professionally. During all his acts, I looked across the side of his face asking myself, if I knew him. I did not know him. I have the firmest of proof that I have not met this ordained ghost, ever before.

I was in and out of fear and senses. I kind of get back to real senses as I drove away. I could see him and his lantern, waving at me through the rear mirror. I hit a small boulder and took of my eyes for a fraction of a second from the mirror, to see the opened road. When I looked at him again, through the mirror, he was no more.  

*****

THE NEXT INSTANCE

(We did not choose a course. The course chose us?)

For 6 months I was in training, swamped with surprise questions, surprise exams and a promise that if we clear the training and exams, we were safe. Training looted me, and in the course of my training, I and my wife almost ended up seeing a ghost. Or maybe a real ghost?

Training was draining. It made us take a long drive of 600 Kilometers 6 times in 6 months. It is more draining when you undertook the journey with only the two of you, in the jungles, whose inhabitants none you know. And the worst part that came with that fact was that, you did not expect anything good on every twist and turn on the way. By faith or by faithless, you just inspired  yourself  unto the Almighty.  

The highway passed through thick jungles and tall mountains. Villages were sparse. You would come across villages only after every 5 or 6 kilometers or so. Daytime was okay. But it was during the darkness that was intimidating. Who would not think of a ghost if you see a hairy naked man sitting by the highway, looking across your headlight, in the middle of a dark night?

In one of those trips, we started from the town at 3 in the morning.  As there were no traffic jams, we reached farther in the jungle much sooner. The morning light was still not there. We only came across lorries at long intervals, enveloped each one of us by dark pre-dawn night as black as coal. And then the expected, but quite differently from the way I had expected start to unfurl.

We drove down the mountain slope and we reached on a lowly place full of “flowing clouds.” The clouds flowed like water across the road.  At once, I realized that I was driving over a smoking sea, only instinctive cowardice could halt. But maybe I did not have the cowardice, I kept on driving. She was pinched with fear. I looked straight across the front glass of the vehicle. All I saw was pouring clouds against the headlights in the middle of darkness and nowhere.

And then I saw a human form, formed within the clouds. It was a long structure, frowning at me, beckoning me to carry forward. But then, the situation was too ghastly, yet again. I stopped right in the middle of the road. She was gasping for air. I was gripped by fear, only to get me back to sense by the honking from a big lorry behind. With the help of that strong headlight beam of the lorry, we could cross the sea of clouds.

Till today, I would ask! Was it a strain eyed “human-cloud-form”? Or was it really SOMETHING, just as I had expected something of that sort?

*****