I need to share a story, which happened not to me, but to one of my colleagues Hemant. He stays in Kalyan, which is a far-flung suburb of Mumbai and has had several paranormal experiences. It is said that some people will have several ghostly encounters throughout their lives, while others will not have even one. This depends upon their "gan", if the person has "rakshas-gan", he is doomed to suffer in this way, while a person having "dev-gan" will lead a peaceful life.
Now Hemant's father was an retired army man, who was absolutely fearless and his favourite hobby was hunting in the jungles at night. At one such occasion, it was a moonless night and he was hunting in some forests in remote Maharashtra. Hemant used to accompany him on such excursions and he was with his father that day. The woods in these places are so pitch-dark that you cannot see your own nose and they are full of game like wild pigs, rabbits and peacocks.
As a rule, while hunting in this places hunters carry electric torches, but do not prefer to use them for fear of scaring away their prey. The only way to identify animals is by the height of their glowing eyes above the ground. Thus, eyes glowing close to the ground could be rabbits while those at knee height might be wild boar.
Sometimes you will find several rabbits playing innocently in some parts of the jungle, but experienced hunters will beat a hasty retreat as they believe that there is evil in that place and the rabbits are not real, but bait to incite unsuspecting hunters to their death (this is also shown in the Bollywood movie "Kaal", where a character dies in a similar manner). Villagers in these places are a superstitious lot and they are well aware of the evil which could befall them while hunting, so they take lots of precaution.
To get back to the story, Hemant and his father heard some rustling coming from a bush which was on a small hillock. Hemant's father asked him to circle the bush and clap his hands loudly to bring out the prey. After positioning himself on the opposite side of the bush Hemant started clapping his hands loudly, at which there was a loud flapping of wings and commotion from inside the bush as if something was flying away, but nothing could be seen. This upset him considerably and when his father found him, he was shivering from fright, so they decided to return home and go to bed.
Sometime in the night, Hemant who was now feeling considerably foolish, had to go and relieve himself. He decided to walk a little way in the woods to shake off his fright and returned to bed thereafter.
He had fallen in an uneasy slumber when he was aware of an apparition standing next to his bed and shaking his hand to awaken him. Its head was swathed in black coarse cloth blanket (known as "gongdi") and his features were not visible. But Hemant was mesmerized as he stared at the figure, which was urging him to come with him in the forest and tugging at his hand. Fortunately Hemant blinked and the spell was broken, leading him to cry out loudly and huddle in a corner of the room. His other family members, some of who were sleeping in the same room, rushed to him and switched on the lights, but the phantom figure had disappeared. The mark of those fingers could be seen clearly on Hemant's arm and were turning blue, thus indicating that he was not dreaming or hallucinating.
It seems that Hemant had disturbed some supernatural entity in the forest which then followed them home. But due to his father's religious and fearless nature, it was not able to enter their house. However when Hemant stepped out alone, the entity took advantage of his disturbed state of mind to gain access to his room and would have led him to his death (or worse), if he had not inadvertently broke the creature's spell.
It is said that deep in such remote parts, there are entities like this, some of which are guardians of the forests and some guard the rivers and lakes. You should not disturb or cross them in any way. Even today, after several years, Hemant feels a strange eerie and disturbing sensation on moonless nights, though the effect is slowing fading away.
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