We had a Scout Guide camp. We all girls were so excited and going by the bus. We were chatting and singing in the bus.
There was a village fifty kilometers from our school. Our camp was organized there. It was a four day camp. We all took things with us. Food items, clothes etc.
We were accompanied by two Madams and a Sir and a school Peon. The driver took the bus on a slightly longer road without taking the usual road, on which Sir asked him the reason,
"Hey! Gajubhau! Which way is this?" He said,
"Sir, that road is haunted! Most of the time, there are accidents of vehicles passing through that road, or the vehicles will stop suddenly, so I thought will run even if it is a little long, but it is better to reach safely."
"Is that true? Never heard of it!", Sir said.
"I have a lot of friends' experiences, Sir! and I haven't been on it since," the driver said, rubbing his ear.
"Maybe! What to say?", Sir said waving his hand.
Both of our Madam's faces turned white with fear, but they soon recovered, some of girls immediately began to tell each other their experiences of haunted places.
A classmate said, "Girls! What can I say! Once my brother went to his friend's field. And wandered for four hours in the same place. Everyone kept looking for him. Then his friends saw him lying unconscious near the well. After a while he regained consciousness."
Another classmate said, "Oh, it's nothing. My brother was driving a car one night. He saw a woman in a red sari on the street, with her long loose hair. She came right in front of his car. Survived an accident. "
"What's going on girls? Don't talk like that! Carry on your game of songs", Raje Madam got angry.
So the girls calmed down and our singing game started again, 'Naina Barse Rimjim Rimjim' hey! Sing song starting with letter M,' a friend said.
'M, yes, mai ek paheli hun barsose akeli hun , 'H’ came ,' said another friend. Then, after the song from 'H', 'G' came, my friend and I started to say,
"Gumnam hai koi badnam hai koi" From 'E' someone sang a song from another group, we got the letter 'K', one of our group members sang,
'Kahi Deep Jalen Kahi Dil'.
Then Peshwe mam said to Raje mam,
"These girls are just impossible! See! Which songs are singing!" Then we came to the camp, we all got off with our bags They all set up three tents. All the girls were sorted into two groups.
A group and Raje madam in one tent. The second tent was for the second group and the Peshwe Madam. And in the third tent, Pradhan Sir would be staying with peon. The driver was going to sleep in the bus.
We held our place in the tent and placed our bags on it. And when we were fresh, we came out of the tent. Today, we started preparing for the cooking because our group had turn to cook.
While working, the conversation started. We came back to the same topic in a conversation.
"Is it true what Gajubhau said?", Smita said.
"May be! Don't know! Have you not heard what Sandhya from other group told in bus about her brother's experience ? Probably may be true.",Pooja said.
"Does Chakwa(ghost) have inverted legs?",Suchita asked.
"Who's seen it? They say in the movie, the rest we don't have any experience!", I muttered.
"Leave it that discussion ! Otherwise we won't be able to sleep in such a new place in tent. Let's finish this work hurrily and will go in tent. See! that terrific tree, it's looking so horrible in night",Medha said by pointing towards a tree which was far away from our place.
"I can touch that tree at night, I will go tonight and show you that everything is false and rumors", Sakshi said contemptuously.
We all watched. That tree would be about a hundred feet from our tent. It shone in the moonlight. The branches of that tree were moving crazy. The sound of an owl could be heard. Some bats were hanging on that tree.
At that moment, the bird Titwi screamed and flew over our heads.
"Sakshi! Don't do any stupidity! We have come here to the camp. We have to do only the activities that madam will tell us, we don't need to do anything else", I said seriously.
Sakshi started laughing and said to me, "Oh Neha! I am going to touch that tree, why are you so scared? You need not to be. And I will go at 12 am once the madam sleeps. How mam will know then? You all have to stand here and just see, nothing else. "
I said, "Oh! at 12 am! then please don't wake me up if I'm asleep. Because I love my sleep and I will be so angry when someone disturb my sleep. You can tell me tomorrow that Sakshi touched the tree, I will believe on you."
The Sakshi smiled and said, "Do you love sleep? Or scared to go out at twelve o'clock night? Let the sleep get disturbed one day but you have to come to see how I go and touch the tree in two minutes."
"Ok let's see at night," I muttered.
"What's going on, girls? Need some help?" The organizers have immediately invited everyone to give instructions for tomorrow's event. ",Raje Madam said.
We all gathered on the ground. Organizers outlined the second day's event from the mic on stage. Then some school groups performed some folk songs. That's how the program ended and we packed up and went to bed.
At midnight, the Sakshi set the alarm in her wristwatch. I could not sleep, so I heard it. The Sakshi got up immediately. She woke up a couple of girls. A girl was covering her face. So the sakshi removed the covering over her face to wake her up. And alas! She was not a girl but a madam.
Mam got up immediately and said to Sakshi, "How do you wake up so late at night? do you want to go to the bathroom? let me come with you."
"No, no, Madam, I'm sleeping," Sakshi came to the place and fell asleep. The rest of the girls (including me) heard Madam's voice and lay down in their beds.
Sakshi's plan was ruined. Madam stayed awake all night. Madam might be unable to sleep due to new place.
The next day, each school group presented a program. There were some folk songs, some folk dances, some one-act plays. Many outdoor sports competitions were also held. Then cooking without using any utensils became a unique competition.
Our school group won in that competition. Thus ended the day's program. After hearing the outline of the next day's program, we returned to our tent.
Today was the second group's turn of cooking , so we all sat comfortably chatting.
"Oh what I was upset yesterday, but I don't want to repeat same thing today. I want to get up quickly and touch the tree before mam getting up", Sakshi said.
"Oh God! Will you still do the same stupid thing Sakshi?",I said.
"I don't want to argue. It's just a matter of two minutes. I don't want to discuss on it at all," Sakshi said.
"Okay but first see where Mam will sleep today!", I said.
As night , everyone fell asleep at the usual time. Madam also started snoring with a rhythm. Twelve am alarm rang in Sakshi's watch. And we all got up after her.
Sakshi said, "I go and touch the tree in two minutes." Sakshi started walking towards the tree. We all started holding our breath. She reached the tree and she touched the tree. At that moment, the bat fluttered away from her head. She looked up at the tree. She stared at it for a while as if she were drowsy. And.....
suddenly she jerked like an electric shock. Instead of turning back, she hurried on.
Oh God! Sakshi was moving on. What to do now? It's hard to stop her. If we shout loudly, everyone will wake up. But if we don't shout, don't know where she will go. We all were worried.
Whatever it may be, at this moment we need to make turn her back.
"Hey! She's moving on. How can we stop her,? Sakshi! Where are you going? Come back", I shouted at her.
"What to do now? Should we go after her?", Suchita
"Hey, what happened to this Medha? She seems dizzy. Look, you take her inside and call Madam immediately. Until then, me, Isha and Sushma go a little further and try to stop her.
Let's go! Hurry up! ", I said hurriedly.
Sakshi went on and on ahead. Going a little closer to the tree but a short distance away, we began to shout at the Sakshi. But she could hear nothing. She kept going too far.
The rest of the girls called both Madam, Sir, the driver and peon.
"But why did Sakshi go there?", Sir
"And what were you all doing here in the midnight?", Peshwe Mam
We all bowed our heads and confused what to say.
"I think she was haunted by something, sir. She was haunted by Chakawa(ghost) , sir! She must be!", The driver said.
"Let's get on the bus and find her as soon as possible instead of talking here," Raje Madam said. And we all got on the bus and headed in the direction she had gone to find her.
We kept looking around to see where Sakshi was. Next the jungle began. We were searching her in every direction by calling her name loudly but she was nowhere.
Madam and Sir were constantly scolding us.
"How could we show our face to sakshi's parents now? Your parents sent you all to the camp on our trust.And see what happened!," Raje Madam said.
"Who told you to do such a trick and stunts for no reason? What reward would you get for your bravery here? Whose useless idea is this to touch the tree?", Sir said.
"Not ours sir, it was Sakshi's idea , I explained a lot to her but she didn't listen",I said.
"Oh, but why do you come out of the tent like this at night? You should have told us in advance that Sakshi will be going to do such foolish stunt.",Peshwe Mam said.
We put our necks down again. And began to listen silently. There was no other way. Where will Sakshi be? What could have happened to her? Could she have been bitten by a wild beast in the forest? I couldn’t even bear that thought.
Thoughts did not stop for a moment. Our minds were so disturbed. Nearly for an hour, we were searching her by moving bus in every direction and looked for her, but she did not see. After some time we heard an unusual voice of someone. Who was speaking irrelevantly. We moved bus in direction of that voice. "Keep silence, there's a sound," the driver said.
Someone started making irrelevant grunts. Our bus started moving in the direction of that sound. Slowly the sound grew louder and reached to the height.
Sir, Driver and Peon got off the bus. They saw the sound coming from a bush. They went ahead with fear and looked at the bushes. And what they saw was a shock and they moved back a little.
We began to look out of the windows. Sakshi was sitting on a rock. Her hair was loose and tangled. Her eyes were wide and watery. She was blabbering constantly by staring at one direction. There was no one in front of her. Didn't know who she was talking to? Her language, her voice was unrecognizable.
It was as if someone else was talking inside her. Her voice was getting so loud that the next minute she was making a strange noise in her throat.That her voice was going to be picked up again the next minute. We all the girls and Madam staring her by holding our breath.
"Sir, We have to sprinkle some water on her face", so the driver took some water from a bottle and sprinkled it on her face. So she looked at the driver angrily. The driver pulled over with fear and backed away a bit.
At that moment Peon Sadubhau said, "Sir, it is said in our village that if a person who has been haunted by a chakva(ghost) comes in contact with the leather in any way, his chakva will go away.
If you give me the leather belt that you have, I will put it around her neck so that the chakva will go away."
Sir had no idea. He removed the leather belt and gave to Sadubhau. As Sadubhau was about to go behind her and put the belt around her neck, she turned around and looked at Sadubhau angrily. And picked him up with force and threw him away.
And she fell unconscious by loud screaming. Sadubhau was picked up by the driver. Sakshi was brought in the bus with fear. And led her into the tent.
Organizers of the camp were called and gave them all information about the incident. Then Doctor was called. The doctor immediately asked her to be admitted to the hospital. We all rolled up our things and luggage by canceling all Scout Guide events.
Sakshi was hospitalized. Everything was told to her parents. They were very shocked. Two days later Sakshi came to her senses.
Today, even six months after the incident, Sakshi has not fully recovered. She has constant fear of darkness in her mind. She avoids going anywhere at night. She never lives alone. Someone is constantly with her. The doctor strongly warned everyone not to get any kind of stress on her head.
Sakshi now comes to the school but does not speak as frankly as before. Sometimes she becomes suddenly serious while speaking. Then we have to turn her mind to other things. That night has had a profound effect on the minds of all of us. After that night, our school stopped participating in the Scout Guide Camp.
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