Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

The first incident took place on 7th October 2004 in Mr. Gidani’s office who is a well established stock consultant. The office is situated in central Bombay. One day after the markets had closed for the day, Gidani was sitting in his cabin with his key client. All of a sudden , he started to feel that he was  finding it difficult to stay tuned in to the conversation. He was not able to focus on any thought. The client noticed it as well. Gidani told him that  it must be due to the fatigue. When the client left, Gidani drank some water and tried to relax. But he  still failed to focus or concentrate.  Eventually he almost blacked out. Then a single thought flashed through his mind with great force. It was as if a message was being sent to him. It told him to come to one of the railway stations near his home at 11.30 PM.  For around 30 seconds the same thought kept on echoing in his mind. After that Gidani started to recover. He was back to normal in few minutes.

This experience shook Gidani a bit but he decided to ignore it, hoping that it was one off hallucination caused by working round the clock. Nothing happened for the next two days but on third night when Gidani was having dinner with his family same thing happened again. Only difference was that the physical symptoms were very strong. After the thought or the message cleared from his mind, Gidani was shaking all over and he was out of breath. He had same experience  next morning and this time Gidani was forced to lie on bed to recover his breath.. Now quite worried, Gidani visited his family doctor. He refrained from mentioned the message and explained only the physical symptoms.

He was asked to get admitted to the local hospital which he did. There was another attack with the same message that told him to come to the particular railway station at 11.30 PM. This time it was so severe that it showed on the ECG monitoring. During those 4-5 minutes blood circulation was getting hit and the result were the symptoms that Gidani was facing. He was an intelligent man who had seen the world. He realized that he may not be able to survive more than couple of attacks and this was becoming very serious now. So when in the midnight he underwent similar experience, Gidani tried to push the message with thought of his own. He promised to come to the station at 11.30 PM the next day. The attack receded almost immediately and left no physical symptoms. Gidani had to argue a lot with the hospital staff and his own family for taking discharge from the hospital..There were no attacks during the day. Gidani finally started for the railway station at 11.00 PM.

Here, few lines about Bombay metro railway lines would be in order. Even though 11.30 PM is late, as far as the metro goes it is quite crowded. One  cannot get a place to sit, if boarding on the intermediate stations. Waiting benches are still full even though the main rush is over. When Mr. Gidani reached the station he was not sure what to do next. The station had two platforms and he started walking from one end to another hoping to get a clue as to what to do next. He had walked almost half the distance when he saw a man sitting on a bench reading financial newspaper. What surprised Gidani as he was the only person on the bench whereas on all the other benches were fully occupied. Suddenly the man on the bench folded the newspaper and looked straight at Gidani. A cold shiver ran down Gidani’s spine. He recognized the man as Shailesh, an upcoming  broker though he could not remember his full name. Shailesh had died ten to eleven years back on the same station in a railway accident. In the news it was mentioned that he was standing on the edge of the platform like most of the commuters do. When the train was about to enter the station, he lost his balance and fell on the track.  It was a very bloody and messy death. Gidani though scared out of his wits, could not understand why Shailesh’s ghost should contact him of all the people. He knew Shailesh but their conversation had never crossed the boundaries of small talk. Whatever was sitting on the bench beckoned Gidani to come and sit near it.

When Gidani came near the bench, he sensed a very strong odor. The clothes that Shailesh was wearing looked all right from the distance but when looked at from close, one could see that they were rotting. A white fungus was developing all over the sleeves and trousers. His flesh has greenish tinge. Gidani sat next to him somehow controlling a strong urge to throw up and get away from the place. Shailesh or his ghost did not speak. The newspaper it was reading was eleven years old. From the fold of that newspaper Shailesh pulled out a very old crumpled paper. He handed it over to Gidani and pointed his finger to the paper. Gidani could see few numbers scribbled on it along with some notes. The paper itself was very old and the writing was fading away. The apparition then waived it’s finger at Gidani as if warning him first and then did an action which was more like “Watch carefully what I am doing now”. Gidani was transfixed with fear and did not react. The “ghost” quietly walked towards the railway platform and looked back at Gidani. It again pointed to itself and then gave clear indication that it was going to jump on the tracks. Gidani suddenly realized that the train was rushing into the platform but before he could react the ghost had already thrown itself on the track.

Gidani was expecting passengers to shout and raise a cry. But nothing happened. No one seemed to have noticed the act. Perhaps only Gidani could see Shailesh ? When the train left, Gidani gathered  courage and walked to the edge of the platform. There were no signs of train overrunning any one. Gidani looked at the paper in his hand hoping that even that would also be a hallucination but it wasn’t.  Still badly shaken up, he called up his son and went back home with him. During the early morning hours once again the symptoms reappeared and he got the message in his mind again. This time he could not hear or sense any words. It was just a feeling of extreme urgency. The feeling disappeared quickly as usual and the after effects were quite mild compared to what Gidani had suffered from previously.

The next day after studying the paper and giving some thought to the “meeting” with Shailesh’s ghost finally Gidani started to see light.  As per the calculation on the paper Shailesh was in big financial hole before he died. The money that he was using belonged to a single customer who out of the trust on Shailesh had given him very large sum in cash. There was no evidence of any transaction. But these deals are made quietly and work on mutual trust. Few major investments done by Shailesh using this money had not done well and the client who was not aware yet had incurred huge loss. Gidani was familiar with the way equations work and finally realized that Shailesh had ended his life rather than facing humiliation of bankruptcy. Gidani then went to meet the family of the deceased. They seem to be doing extremely well. Shailesh’s son was in a prominent position in the local bank. Shailesh’s wife point blank refused to believe what Gidani was saying. They did not owe anyone any money and the large sum that insurance after Shailesh’s death had brought in had helped the family to survive with ease till the son grew up and started earning. Gidani was a very good judge of human nature and quickly realized that Shailesh’s wife was fully aware of the facts. She must have known that her husband was in a fix and no doubt she was approached by Shailesh’s client for the refund to which she must have pleaded ignorance and refused. There was nothing Gidani could do. He came back home and immediately suffered the worst attack yet. The ghost wanted him to take some action and Gidani had no clue how he can deal with the situation. In that state of mind he visited my Guru.

The advise given by  my Guru was simple. He asked Gidani to visit Shirdi Temple and stay in that town for a week to wash out the evil influence on him. Gidani did that and was never troubled again. When I came to know about the entire incident I was not very happy with the way my Guru seem to have suggested. I had quite a few questions. Why it took eleven years for Shailesh ghost to appear and why did he select Gidani ? What is that the ghost wanted from him ? The answers given by my Guru did not satisfy my fully but then it must be because I am ignorant.

He told me that the time is a concept only specific to our world and we do not really know what happens after someone dies. While some souls take only a few seconds to get “cleansed”, some may take centuries. Concept of years is irrelevant in this context. Also when the deceased comes back from the other world, only few percent of its original personality remains and resemblance to the one who had died can be very superficial. Something else comes back with the deceased in the other world and that often is the reason of underlying wickedness that one associated with the ghosts. Shailesh wanted to prove that he had committed a suicide and he was in debt. Perhaps that was required for the soul to become free. But that would have meant a financial hit to the family who would have to return the cash and also let forgo the insurance claim that covers only the deaths by natural causes. If the family was wrong it will pay for its deeds sometime. Main fact was Gidani was innocent and needed to be protected. There was no answer to the question why Gidani was selected by the ghost. It is very difficult for both the existence from the other world and what comes with it to break the natural protection wall between the two world. Something that Gidani had done previously may have weakened the wall and provided an entry point. One would never know.

Names changed for obvious reasons and also the location.

Written by Mangesh Naik, Copyright 2009