This story, which I've come to learn from my Ma, happened to my Baba a while back. Possibly when I was still a baby. We live in the outskirts of Dhaka city, and this was during the time my parents and my grandparents first moved here. The place was mostly a dark forest with tall trees and very few buildings. Nowadays there's a lot more industrialization, buildings, playgrounds and whatnot.
But anyways, this was when my Dad used to run a restaurant in the city, so it was understandably very far away. He used to bring back the leftovers home after closing. One such day, Baba was walking back carrying some fish and rice, leftovers as usual, so we can eat them instead of throwing them away. He was taking the help of an uncle of mine who we'll call Ratul, one of our neighbours. Not blood related, so as to say.
As they were walking, the two were doing their usual old man catching up. It was almost nighttime by then, so it was dark around. Ratul was ahead of him, holding a large saucer pan over his head. Dad was behind, carrying the aforementioned fish. Suddenly he noticed that Ratul had ended up walking a bit far ahead. So he attempted to catch up.
At that time he could only see the back of him, and as they continued walking my Dad was starting to suspect that they had gotten off track. Instead of following the path they were diving into the trees. Ratul had stopped speaking at this point, so the only sound was the crows and the ruffling of leaves.
Baba then began to notice a smell, not something nasty or rotten. It was pleasant, soft, faint but as they progressed deeper into the woods it became stronger.
It smelled of soap.
"Oi Ratul bhai, doesn't it smell like soap here?"
No response.
"Don't you think we're walking a bit far off?"
Not a single sound.
It was then that my father realised something was terribly wrong.
He watched as Ratul walked off to a clearing, and was about to follow until he heard a voice call him from behind.
"Oi, Bhai! Where are you going? Over there's a river!"
It seemed as if my Baba was suddenly snapped back to reality, he turned around to see Ratul carrying the saucer pan on his head, just a few feet away. He claimed that my Baba suddenly began walking ahead of him and into the trees as if "in a trance".
This story never occurred a second time, but ever since then, even the locals have reported that area near the river smelling of soap for weeks after.
The locals where we reside in are villagers, so they are very superstitious. When he went home and told the story, many said it was because he was carrying fish which the "Shakchunni" and "Petni" are known to enjoy. Although I've done some research and came to know about a ghost, Bengali folklore of course, known as the "Aili" or "Gaili" ghost. They're known to lure people towards rivers via hallucinations to drown them.
Something to think about.
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