That terrible night dear the Gomti River

It was the night of November 30, 1994. It was about 10 pm. The Gomti river was nearby. My girlfriend Pooja Sheshadri’s house in the Gomti River Colony near the river. I said good night to her. She gave me a nice hug and then went inside her house. I smiled as I looked at her. I had to ride my motorcycle to East Charbagh Colony, which was more than 15 km away. My house was there and my parents and younger brother were waiting for me that night.

I rode my motorcycle on the road adjacent to the river for more than a kilometer. Suddenly the motorcycle stopped for no reason. It was not starting. I tried starting it with the kick-start many times but it did not work. I was worried. It was so late to go to a mechanic’s shop. I was going to walk to a friend’s house in order to get some help. His house was about 3 kilometers away. I did not want to bother Pooja or her family that night with my problems.

I started walking towards my friend’s house. The time was about 10:29 pm. I looked towards the river and then looked towards the road as I walked on. There were a few lamp posts so the road was adequately lit. I heard a hissing sound. I was startled but ignored it. I then heard it again. I looked towards the river. A 8 foot dark blue monster came out of it and started running towards me. I could not believe my eyes but started running.

The monster looked like a scary man wearing old and torn clothes but he was light blue in colour. He ran towards me and at first was about 10 feet behind.

He screamed, “Aa jaa!! Aa jaa!! Come! Come! I will kill you. You don’t know but in our last life you and I were soldiers and you had killed me on a battlefield. In this life you were born a human being. I was not born. I have come back as a monster to finish you!!”

Of course I did not believe what he was saying. I was just trying to save myself and get to my friend’s house as soon as possible. I ran as fast as I could. So did the monster.

Soon, he caught up to me. He pushed me. I fell to the ground. He screamed and then started choking me. I felt I would die. I somehow mustered some courage and punched him very hard in the stomach. It worked. He stopped choking. I pushed him and got up and started running again. He followed me.

That night there was hardly anyone on the road. I ran by a temple at around 10:45 pm. Suddenly, a barnyard owl from a nearby barn flew very close to me towards the temple. At that time the priest was inside doing the last prayers and started ringing the temple’s bells. He rang them a few times vociferously. On hearing the temple bells the monster stopped running and ached in pain and put his hands on his ears. He yelled, “Nahin! Nahin! No!! I can’t listen to this holy sound!!” I was about 20 feet away from him. I was ready to keep running but wanted to know what was going on. After two minutes or so the monster just turned into blue smoke and vanished. It seemed it was in a lot of pain. The temple’s bells were a miracle for me. I don’t know why it happened but it just did. I had a big sigh of relief and kept running towards my friend’s house.

My friend Jatin opened the door when I rang the doorbell. He knew I was very scared so he asked me to sit down and offered me a glass of water. I told him the story quickly. I also used his phone and called my family and then Pooja to let them know that I was ok. Jatin took out his car and drove me near the river where my motorcycle I was lying. I kick-started it. This time it worked. I thanked Jatin. Jatin then drove back to his house and I rode my motorcycle to my home. By the time I got home it was nearly midnight. My family was relieved to see me. I told them what an incredibly scary night I just had near the river. Before I went to bed that night I prayed as I did each night. This time I thanked God a lot - he saved my life that night.