Just when I am thinking that I am getting into deep sleep, my phone rang. I had to force open my eyes, pulled myself to reach the phone to cut the call. It rang again in the next minute.

“Dad!”, I rubbed my eyes to get rid of, left over sleep, picked the call.

“ What, Papaji! You know that I come from late night shift, Let’s talk in the morning Papa”, I was almost furious.

“Beta, you have to come to Sri Lakshmi Charity Hospital in MG Nagar , right away.”

That’s not dad, my mind was racing with thoughts.

“ Beta, your dad was admitted here, because of severe chest pain. He Is in ICU”.

God knew only the pace, how did I reach my car and to the hospital in the next 15 minutes, 45 kms away!
Just as I reached the reception to find out the way to ICU, I spotted dad’s friend, Vasu Rao walking down the hall towards me.

I was searching for minute expressions of sadness or any bad news, he is about to reveal. I was praying to god at the same time.

He came closer with a relief on his face, “ Dad is fine, just a mild heart stroke. Let’s go see him.”
A load of some 100 tons has been lifted away from my heart, as I followed him to the ICU.

Dad is on the bed, seemed weak, but is responding to doctor’s questions normally. I was waiting for the doc and medical crew to clear the space. Just as they leave, me and Mr. Vasu Rao reached dad.

“Dad, how did this happen, Told you, not to take any more tensions?”

“ Krishna”, my dad replied slowly, taking a deep breath, as me and Mr. Rao are waiting for his reply.
“ You might not believe, what I will say now, but trust me, the incident happened a while ago, but yes, I am the witness of what my eyes saw and my eyes are the witness for what I saw.”

“What is the time now?, Dad asked.

2:15, me and Mr. Rao, both replied.

“ I started from the late night meeting at 11:45, the route from MG Road to our home takes a solid 1.5 hour, so I took a short cut, which I thought it will cut 30 min. I was sleepy, but was fully alert with music on in the car. Just as I got into the main road from the corner of Old Ganesh Temple, the road is a free way, so I picked the top gear.

After a 15 minute drive on the road, I stopped at a corner to pee, had a smoke and slowly started again and this time no music on and kept my window open for some nature’s air.

A continuously ringing cycle bell, disturbing my focus on the road. This is abnormal, the sound of the bell is more louder than a normal bell. I agree that the sound will be more clear on a empty road and a night, but this is different.

I looked at the cycle and rider of it through the rare view mirror. It is a 15 year old, with a uniform on and a cap. The uniform is of a store or a hotel. He is full of sweat, but his eyes are wide open, so that he can focus on the road, amidst the bright lights of the heavy vehicles coming from opposite direction.

Just as I give him the space to go forward, an SUV ridiculously hit him from behind, trying to take over and moved forward in a whisk of second. The next moment, the boy and the cycle crashed under my car, as the boy lost control and my car got over him and I could feel the crush of his bones underneath my car.

I applied sudden breaks and the car stopped at the divider, narrowly hitting the edges of it. I hit my head to my the steering, as I rub my head, trying to get out of the car, what I witnessed is the horror of my life, the boy stood up without any scratches on the body, hurriedly collected the money, which was spread on the road, from his pocket, picked up his cycle, came to me and shouted on my face, “Looks like all of you, will never allow this Chintu to cross this road and go home.” His eyes turned blood red and gave an intense look and disappeared from the road.

I was shocked and numb all through this time, with my eyes wide open. With sweat all over the body, I was gone unconscious. When I woke up, I am here.”
Dad closed his eyes, while me and Mr. Rao stood there for the next 5 minutes in utter disbelief. While I am sort of guys, who don’t believe in the existence of spirits and ghosts, I cannot rule out my dad’s experience too.

Two days later, my dad was sent home and doctors instructed for a bed rest for couple more days. I decided to take leave and take care of him, along with mom.

Life is back on track till when I read that article in the Sunday Magazine.

THE HAUNTING ROAD OF MG HIGHWAY.

As I read through the story, I understood that MG Highway, on any given day is a busy road, with vehicles from both sides, not much of the civilian place around, as it is surrounded by barren lands around. Till 1 year before, there use to night hawkers selling apples or the china toys at the main signals till mid night, till Chintu, the boy Ghost started haunting that road.

As the clock strikes 12:15 midnight, this ghost appears from nowhere on cycle, with a jet speed, trying to overtake the vehicles, with ringing the cycle bell. The shocking part is, the ghost either falls under the vehicle, gets crushed or hit the divider, due to cars or vehicles not giving it the way to move forward. As the ghost rose without any scratches disappear in front of their eyes, most of the witness succumbed to severe shocks, heart strokes or the worst of it, paralysis.

Till now, 11 witnesses or the victims have shared the same experience. The astonishing part is, all of these incidents happened either on 5th or 10th of any given month.

I folded the paper and kept on the table and went into a deep thought. For the first time, I started believing the existence of the ghosts and I believe this ghost called Chintu is doing for a strong reason.

Why does he subject himself to get himself killed, every time?
Why only on 5th or 10th of any month?

Who is this Chintu?

My mind started asked me more questions, as I looked at the calendar for the nearest 5th or 10th.

10th March, 3 days to go!

“Let’s find this Chintu”, I told myself, as I woke up to get ready for the office.

– Writer Ghost