A Date With Ghost

This is a real life story, of course, with a little color to enhance the thrill and curiosity. Read on.

This happened in the 1970's when I was into motorcycle business. Promotional parties were regular. During one such party ghost talks featured. I had a lot of coffee planters as my customers and coffee plantations are situated mostly in deep forest areas, which adds lot of grist to ghost stories. A friend of mine, Kiran Kumar (name changed) over a couple of whisky told us that he had encountered a ghost. A couple of whiskies was just a preliminary dose to Kiran. So when I asked him if he was not yet drunk and what he said was crap, he fumed and said it was for real and threw a challenge that if anybody was interested, he would take him to the spot where he met the ghost, a female siren (Mohini). None of us pursued the matter and it was dropped there.

Next day when Kiran came to my showroom on business, - he was a general insurance agent, - I picked up the previous night's topic. He was serious and insisted that he had really encountered the Mohini near Bellur cross on Bangalore highway. The spot was very familiar to me as I was making motorcycle trips to Bangalore, a 195 Km. stretch, quite often those days. I was a rational thinker right from my younger days. So out curiosity and eager to bust the myth, I asked him if his invitation of previous night was still open. He said yes, but it should be a new moon night and we should be there at 12 midnight on stroke. I agreed, perhaps to his dismay.

We started in my motorcycle, an Enfield Bullet 350, the only four-stroke heaviest, most stable and trusted machine in those days, on the next new moon night. We started by around 10 in the night. Bellur Cross was a place almost exactly half way through to Bangalore. The name came because a side road led to Bellur a big town. Except a couple of coffee shops and tender coconut vendors, there was nothing else at the place. The entire stretch of about 20 Kms was totally lonely. The spot Kiran mentioned was about a couple of Kms from the cross and the road had a long curve of about a kilometer on a gradient. On the left was a small hillock with lots of big stones. The curve was around this hillock.

By the time we reached there, it was pitch dark. Kiran had already downed a couple of quarts of rum sitting on the rear, but I did not want to get influenced by alcohol when in such a sort of adventure. It was nearing 12 and I stopped and asked Kiran where to go. I felt he was already gripped by fear. Then he revealed that he was simply joking in the party and the next day wanted to fool me further; he did not encounter any ghost! OK, having made me come so far in the dead of the night, I asked him to follow me and I would show him  Mohini, with whom he might enjoy all night! He started shivering because there were rumours and quite some stories taking rounds about a female ghost molesting truck drivers at the spot and the ghost lived among the cluster of huge stones. He begged me to leave him and go alone. Nothing doing and I practically dragged him to climb the hillock.

I had carried a powerful flash light. Also I tuned the bike to face the hillock and switched on the head light. Night traffic was very little those days and most of the night drivers avoided the time between 12 and 3 not only to take rest but also because of such superstitious beliefs. Slowly we reached the top. All the way Kiran was chanting some Anjaneya mantra to ward off ghosts! We sat on the top of a big stone and then I pulled out a bottle of whisky which I had kept in the pannier carrier of the bike and slid it in the flash light shoulder sling while starting the investigation. I cooed at the top of my voice and invited the ghosts, if existed any, to join me in the celebration party! We sat there discussing about ghost stories for two hours and when nothing happened, we started to climb down at two am. When we reached the road, my motorcycle battery had run down! I should have kept it on idling for keep the battery charging. Light of the flash gun was not enough to cruise. We had to wait for another half an hour when a night bus arrived. We flagged him to stop and explained him that I had some electrical problem causing headlight failure and would follow him till the next town came in about an hour. To follow him at 80 Kmph in that pitch darkness was the real adventure. I swore the mythical ghost and and my friend who had passed out on the rear seat resting his upper body on my back! That was real ghost on my back, I mused.

We reached home safely by 4 in the morning. Kiran's conspicuous absence in the next party gave me the freedom to explain the adventure to others!

Today the entire area at Bellur Cross of about 20 Sq Kms is having a Medical and Engineering college campus buzzing all day and night with students and new township people! I wonder where the Mohini is hiding!