Location - Viman Nagar, Pune
Date - Early March 2005
This is one of few experiences which I have witnessed in Pune. Often I wonder why my 7 months stay at Pune has so many numbers of unexplainable experiences. Sorry, no offence but I often find this city to be witnessing lot of visitors from past. Today I will narrate my last experience at Pune which happened somewhere around early March 2005 just a day before Holi (an Indian festival of colors).
September 2004, I joined a famous IT company in Pune based on Nagar Road and rented a fully furnished apartment in Viman Nagar, Pune. This apartment complex was relatively very small and has somewhere around 60 flats. This was fifteen story building which had a lift which was of very old style which you have to close/open the gate yourself however it was ok for that size of apartment complex.
Back to apartment now where I was staying. Apartment had two bedrooms along with living room and balcony. This house belonged to another IT person who went to United States for three year project. I was not supposed to use one of bedroom which has most of almirahs and other trunks which belonged to this guy. Room was not locked however I was not supposed to use it because those almirahs and trunks were locked and had clothes and stuff belonging to owner. Before Pune I was staying in Bangalore in semi furnished house and had to buy my own TV and washing machine. This flat already had a TV so I decided to keep my own TV in bedroom and living room had owners TV.
Let me try to describe layout of the house because it is very important for others who will read to relate and understand what really happened. You will enter the house into living room and this living room had balcony just outside the room in way that you can see the balcony from entrance of the house and you will enter balcony with door from living room. Living room had a sofa set and centre table and small bed. Kitchen was on left side of the living room on small hallway to master bedroom which was in the end. Owner's bedroom or now kind of store room was left to kitchen. This flat was on 5th floor so it was convenient. Sometimes I used to walk up instead of taking lift.
Before moving into this house I stayed in company guest house for 2 weeks also based at Viman Nagar, Pune. During two weeks stay I met some guys who also joined this organization in same week as I did. All of them were very nice however I clicked in particular with Brij and Prateek who were of almost same age as me. These guys are still my close friends however they both are in United States and I am in Kuala Lumpur since early 2006.
Often where ever I stay I always keep small temple in house. This practice I am still following until today. I also kept a small temple at this house. I stayed in this house alone for almost 7 months and nothing noticeable happened. I got another offer from a multinational corporation based in Mumbai and decided to join that company. Joining was in Feb. 2005. I had to depart for Mumbai only with my clothes where I will be again staying in company guest house for two weeks before I can come back to Pune and take all my belongings like TV, washing machine etc once I am able to find a house in Mumbai. Since, I mentioned all things were at this house including Yera Glass Cup Set which was very nice looking and relatively important in this incident. This set had 6 glass cups.
For those who know Pune will understand that for any rental house you have to pay deposit of 10 months rental which will be returned to you once you vacate the house. However Brij was looking for house at same time and he got the house lease from me and I got my deposit from Brij.
I have to describe little bit about Brij here. Brij used to drink alcohol almost every evening even alone because whenever he was alone, he was very emotional and used to miss his mother who died due to cancel few years ago. He had no girlfriend and unless he was with friends he was alone staying in same house I did. Most of the time he had dinner and drinks outside home. This was seldom that he used to drink at home and looks like he never did. I also never took any alcohol inside house for my entire stay.
Few days before Holi Brij and Prateek called me and asked me to come to Pune for Holi celebrations since I was relatively new in Mumbai and hardly knew anyone. I liked the idea and drove back from Mumbai to Viman Nagar, Pune. That evening something else also happened but I do not think they are related so I will skip that part and will narrate in another story. If I recall correctly that day was Friday and I left office after work and it took me almost 4.5 hours drive to reach to Viman Nagar and I reached there around 11 Pm in night. Plan was to stay with Brij in same house where I stayed before. Brij's other friend Prem Prakash was also there.
Brij offered to celebrate my homecoming with drinks since I was tired of long drive. However on that evening there was day and night cricket match and India was almost about to win. So, we said let's wait for match's result. Bottle which was still sealed along with three glass cups from my Yera Set were kept on glass centre table in living room. Since I was tired, we decided to watch remaining match on my TV in bedroom instead of one on the living room.
Almost 15 minutes later we heard blast kind of sound from living room. We three ran to living room to find what exactly happened. By then security guard also came up to flat because sound was very loud. What we saw that one out of three glasses on table was shattered and table was full of glass pieces. First we thought that some cricket ball has come from balcony which has hit the wine glass however that was ruled out because balcony door was closed. We all looked at each other faces in question mark however not clear what really happened.
But cricket match was still on so we decided to watch rest of the match. Security guard also went back. However within 5 minutes we heard another similar blast sound and we came to living room to see another glass cup also shattered. Security guard also came up again due to loud sound however no one has any clue what really happened. However we very too busy to concentrate since our focus was to complete the remaining match however before we can turn back to bed room last glass cup on table shattered in front of our own eyes. We all four saw it happening really in person and not just experiencing shattering sounds. Room was full of glass pieces and almost in mess. We had to be really careful to find places not to set up on those shattered pieces and injure our legs.
By this time I realized whatever happening in house has do with alcohol and whichever entity behind this does not want anyone to consume any alcohol in that house. I prayed to that entity and said we are very sorry for our behavior and will not drink here. To our surprise nothing noticeable happened in next three days I stayed in that house. I celebrated Holi along with all our friends and we all had lot of fun before returning to Mumbai.
This experience has helped Brij to give up his excessive drinking so I find this entity to be good in nature and not a bad one.