If you travel from Kolkata to Malda by car, you will come across a stretch of few KM without any apparent habitation. Many people, rather drivers, used to say that while driving alone in that stretch, a young girl used to sit on the side seat of the driver on the running car and she used to stay in the car for ten/ fifteen minutes and then she used to disappear into the thin air. Few drivers used to meet minor to major accidents as soon as the girl used appear all on a sudden in the running car. However, the incident had been so publicised that many drivers who were frequent to that route used to ignore the very existence of the spirit of the young girl. Everyone, who experienced the presence of that girl used to say that she had been harmless to everyone.
When a Bengali friend told me about that girl, naturally I became interested to meet the girl. After my frantic search for a driver who had firsthand experience of meeting the girl, through internet, I was able to contact one of them. He is a doctor by profession, had to travel by his car alone through that route once to visit a ailing relative when he met the girl. Though he was aware of the existence of that spirit, he was about to meet an accident when actually he saw her sitting beside him. Somehow he managed to continue his driving and she vanished after 10 or 15 minutes to his relief.
I wanted to meet this spirit to know if she had any intention to convey any message to someone close to her heart when was alive. ‘Or she also might have wanted to get justice from someone.’ I thought.
Before meeting the spirit I wanted to meet the doctor who hails from Kolkata. After taking an appointment, I visited the house of the doctor at Sealdah area . He welcomed me and narrated his story of meeting the ‘girl’ for 10-15 minutes. As he was aware of the girl who used sit near the driver, the doctor was driving at a very slow speed (around 40 KM per hour) so that he could avoid any major accident. His strategy came handy as the moment he realized that the girl had occupied the seat, his hands started trembling. With great difficulty he was driving the vehicle as his heart was pumping at an astronomical speed with deafening sound. As soon as the girl disappeared, he was relieved and he stopped the car at the next eatery.
The dhaba (eatery owner) asked the doctor, ‘Sir it appears, you have met the girl. Take water and tea and forget about her. She is harmless.’ The doctor drank two glasses of water before opening his mouth.
‘It was a horrible experience when a young lady sits beside you on your running vehicle and then disappears to the thin air without uttering a word.’ The doctor concluded.
‘Did you try to talk to her?’I asked the doctor.
‘Are you mad? I was speechless for next thirty minutes even after her disappearance.’ He rebutted me.
‘Do you want to meet her again? ‘I asked him.
‘Never ever I want to meet her. Many people met her and nobody wants to tell about her as they are still scared to tell about her. I muster the courage to tell my experience when you tried to meet me. I had lost many nights sleep after the incident. For two to three months, at night when even my daughter came to my room, I used to be scared and sometimes I screamed also. So please, do not ask me any more question, please.’ He wanted to run away from me.
I left the place thanking him for giving necessary and valuable inputs.
Then my immediate requirement was to get a car to travel alone in that stretch. Finally I rope two persons from my own service, who would provide me their cars for the purpose. As per the plan, I would drive a car alone to pass that stretch and in the other car, both of them would follow.
On the stipulated day, I drove the car through the stretch after 10 O’ Clock. It was a disappointment for me as the girl did not appear. I stopped my car at the dhaba where the doctor stopped the car after meeting the girl. After half an hour my friends also joined me and I told about my disappointment of not meeting the girl. We took tea from the dhaba and discussed the matter with the dhaba owner. After a thought the dhaba owner told us that probably, the spirit might be travelling in a different car during the period when I was also driving in that stretch. I saw reasons in his statement.
I told my friends to stay in that dhaba for the night and in the meantime I shall pass through the area, if necessary two or three times.
In my second and third attempt also I failed to meet the girl. Finally, in my fourth attempt the girl appeared on the seat beside me. I glanced at her and asked, ‘Why you appear and disappear to the lone drivers in that stretch?
With a surprised look she asked me, ‘Oh God! You can communicate with a spirit! After waiting for so many years to tell my sorrow to someone, finally I meet you who will be able to tell my parents what happened on that night.’
I stopped the car to hear her story.
On that fateful day, she eloped with her boy friend who happened to be the driver of their family car. But unfortunately, the car met an accident and she died on the spot and the driver fled to Mumbai from the scene leaving the dead body of the girl behind. As luck would have it, a leopard took away her dead body and on the next day though blood stain was seen on the car, no dead body was seen nearby. The driver did not come back till today and therefore the parent of the girl thought that the girl had eloped with the driver and never came back.
‘Do you want now; your lover should be punished for his misdeed?’I asked her.
‘I would have loved that. But God has already punished him by snatching his both legs in another accident! I just want, you kindly tell my parent that I was dead long thirty years back!’She sighed.
She gave her parent’s address which I noted on my note book.
When I went to her home some fifty KM away from Kolkata to tell about the accident thirty years ago, at first they were very angry and told me that they did not want to see her face again, thinking that she was still alive. But hearing that on that very day she died in the accident (car was towed to their residence on the next day), both started crying. They promised me that they would perform all rituals for the departed soul.
After few months, I got a letter from the dhaba owner stating that from the day I met him, no body used to stop at his dhaba for water and tea, resulting loss of his regular income from the scared drivers. At the end of the letter, he said the ghost girl was better for his business than me who came as a bad omen for his business.
I could not find any word to write back a letter to the dhaba owner!