July 16, 2011
While going through some articles about ghosts I got an idea of living my dare once again. Although there are almost a bunch of scary places in Mumbai, my friend and I decided to try out this one as it was backed by real stories.
My mom’s going to kill me if she reads this one.
During those days I worked with Wipro Spectramind doing night shifts, taking calls from US customers. Well, there was a technique by which we would tamper the system and as a result of that we would get the whole night off. I’ll write more about the tampering technique later.
I had read about the scary places and wanted to try at least one place to know whether ghosts really exist or not. Well, we had lots of “Khujli Keeda” in our body back then. So after tampering our computer system, my friend Roshan and I thought of exploring Madh-Marve ghost. We started our bike journey from Powai Hiranandani towards the narrow road which leads to Marve and Madh island.
People say that the road is haunted by a spirit in bridal attire. She distracts the drivers which lead to accidents. Dozens of sightings have been reported too.
Almost 25 yrs ago a bride was brutally murdered on her wedding day and her body was dumped into the isolated mangroves in this area. The spirit is seen especially on full moon nights and is still looking for her murderers.
So everything looks just perfect for us that night – it was a full moon night and as per the newspaper that day the moon will be seen max at 2:28 am.
2:03 am
Thinking about a spirit on a narrow road for 6 hrs gave us goosebumps but at the same time we were very excited to check the place out.
We've never been to that place at this hour and I can imagine a narrow dark road covered with trees and the moon shining in all its strength and it’s dead silent. Wind starts blowing and makes the scariest sound you've ever heard.
Sounds very dramatic.....
The full moon starts at 2:28 am and we have to be on that road at that time.
The uneven road leads to a narrow bridge with water on one side. It's dead silent, moonlight makes it possible for me to see what’s around.
The bridge leads to a junction... its bright with street lights all over so I know I have to turn left.
The road was pretty isolated but there were small houses on one side of the road. The road was broken and we passed through a bunch of workers making the new road. They look pretty normal. No expressions of being scared by the story of the spirit.
2:28 am
It's time, it's full moon now. We’re alone on this road, riding, but we don't see anything, although wind is doing its part of making scary noises pretty well.
The road was not dark as I imagined but who says spirits can't be seen under street lights. We were still waiting for her.
Riding at speed of 40 kmph we passed through a patch of wide open ground. The silence was broken by a scream which we heard from within the trees. It was scary. For a moment I thought this is it. I stopped to look around but I saw nothing. It was not windy anymore and everything was silent. Roshan got down from the bike to pee. I too joined him but couldn’t pee. No, we weren’t scared in our minds with that scream. Probably our lower body was!
We rode ahead and reached the end of the road. I turned around and started riding back.
The place also has a big sea facing hotel. I thought I should stop and talk to the security guards. I saw two guards patrolling the gate. I asked them if they had ever seen or heard anything about this lady.
Umesh Pant, one of the guards said that "Fereira Uncle" used to see a lady standing every night right outside the hotel close to those trees. The Uncle was scared of her and believed she was evil. He eventually stopped coming to the area. No one else ever saw that lady.
Rajesh Mhatre, the other guard said that he had heard many stories but had never experienced anything.
According to Umesh if you come prepared to see a spirit they will never be seen, which I think is true to some extent.
I started riding again but this time I was not able to see or hear or feel anything. Maybe he was right. A spirit will not confront you if you are prepared. It'll surprise you when you are least ready for it and scare you to your core.
Although, I wasn't able to see anything I will remember that scream for a very long time.
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