We came out of the factory about 2:30 PM after a whole day’s effort, putting all our knowledge and experience to rectify a fault in a machine, but all our efforts were in vain. The machine responded for some time and again the problem started. Me being the official expert engineer  from the manufacturers service department and Sourav from the Design wing with two of the factory engineers and their supporting staff, were just draining all our energy without any positive result from the morning. There was a lot of pressure from the company management to get the machine rectified early as they were losing their revenue for every hour the machine was out. Sourav and I went out of the factory for a walk after 6 pm to get some fresh air but no one was talking about anything. Deep thoughts were going on in our head about what to do and suddenly almost at the same time, both shouted to each other, finding the same solution in both our heads. We ran to the machine and instructed the tired workforces the idea we had just  discovered. It was completed around 10:30 PM and the machine was restarted. It started smoothly with a normal sound (sound is a very important indicator of the health of the machine) and we felt this time it should be ok, however there was fear in our mind. But luckily everything was fine and at around 2:30 AM we started for the guest house which was quite far off. 

The single lane road from the factory to the Guest house was bad with a lot of potholes and I started the gypsy provided to us with a tired but relaxed mind that we will be able to go back if nothing more happens till morning. The road is passing through a deep jungle on both sides of the road, without any street lights or any traffic. Our vehicle may be the only vehicle plying on this road at that time and we are to cover a distance of nearly 30 km. There was total silence except the chirpings of the insects and the lightning bugs with their conspicuous production of light made our journey very frightening. It was a cloudy night and there was total darkness, no stars or the sky was visible and drops of rain were falling.  Sourav was very terrified and his face was worth looking at. He put the music system on and I drove very slowly, to avoid the potholes and in a very relaxed way listening to the ghazal being played.

Suddenly Sourav shouted at me to stop, I was surprised, what had happened. He angrily told me why I did not stop as a man had just crossed the road luckily without any injury. I was looking in shock at the face of Sourav, where he had seen the man crossing the road as I had not seen anything with the vehicle lights on and I had not seen anything. But Sourav was very sure, a man had crossed the road. We waited for sometime there and after a lot of persuasion, I was able to convince Sourav to proceed to our destinations. After a kilometer or so Sourav again shouted to stop as the man this time crossed from his side to my side and vanished. This time, I was also worried though I had not seen anything. At that time an owl moved over our head hooting “knew knew” and making the situation extremely terrifying for us. We were not talking and looking at each other’s faces. But now we are in the middle between the factory and the guest house, either way we had to travel almost the same distance and may face the same situation. I came off the Gypsy keeping headlights on and found a bottle of whiskey kept in the vehicle . Both of us took some and felt somewhat better and started again. We moved only a few kilometers when the headlight stopped working. This was a  brand new vehicle and all my disbelief about supernatural things vanished. Frightening situations started to come to my mind. Sourav was already so scared and did not utter a single word. My condition was similar to his now but externally, I tried to show Sourav that nothing had happened. I was too scared. The owl hooted again to terrify us further. With the help of my torch, we checked the vehicle and the headlights were on again to our relief. We moved on.

The single lane road meets the two lane state road around 10 km from the Guest house and we were about to reach that point, when our engine stopped automatically. Fuel tank was filled before we started from the factory, but the engine stopped. I was now really speechless and startled. I have seen two people of medium size in front of the vehicle in white attire, and one approached me and told me that they will push the vehicle from the back and should try to start with the jerk. Accordingly they pushed the vehicle from the back and after a few meters the engine started. Smiles came to our face. The man came again to me, and put his hand forward. I also place my hand on him to shake as a courtesy. But, what is that – his hand was cold like ice and as I was about to say thank you, both the people vanished. The sound “knew knew” was again coming from nearby.

We are sitting there in the vehicle with the ignition on, my hand in the steering. Sourav started crying, he was married just last year. My condition was also very bad and I still fet the coldness of the person’s hand.

We finished all that was remaining in the bottle and started again to the guest house. Luckily nothing more had happened but the day’s exhaustion.

Next day we find ourselves lying in bed with high fever . The incident on the road last midnight made us sick and both were running with high fever, the next morning. The company doctor was very helpful and later he told us that such incidents happened earlier also. Some other officials told us so many terrifying stories about those places

We had to postpone our return by a day to recover from the shock and decided not to come to this place any more, whatever may be the circumstance.

 This, supernatural (?)happenings made me start believing in such a thing which I earlier read for entertainment only but now I understand something must be there. A man crossed the road twice which only Sourav had seen, no headlights suddenly and finally the engine stopped. Two people reached to help us in the middle of night and the freezing  coldness of his hand. During all the incident on that fateful night, the owl was shouting “knew knew” from nearby, making us more terrified. I do not know how I drove that last 10 km of the road and reached the guest house. Even now if I remember the situation, I start shivering.