I think now is a good time to tell another experience which happened with me.
The year was 2007, working mostly in night shifts, it was very common for me to travel at odd hours.
I was used to this and in fact preferred the night travel compared to the day time chaos which reigns over Hinjewadi.
Those were the courtship days with my wife and being accustomed to night shifts she wasn't and still isn't averse to night travel.
Once in a while I would drop her home or to her friends place both in Pradhikaran. Its fun to ride a bike in the night.
On one such occasion, I was to drop her to her friends house in Pradhikaran, for the ones who are well versed with the area- the Society is next to a School.
Didn't know then, that this particular night would be remembered and for what reason!
Before we proceed ahead, let me give you a brief description of the said building and its surroundings so that the reader may be able to follow.
From the main road one has to take a turn to enter the lane where the society is situated. Once you enter you will notice that the road declines as we move ahead and that there is a school building to its left and the Society buildings to its right.
This particular building however, is not on the main road, and you need to take an approach road to reach the gate of the society.
This approach road is roughly around 50-75feet long.
The society also has a watchman, albeit a very old uncle who is very small and fragile and wears thick glasses.
This gentleman is a very good natured person and knows my wife from her school going days.
From the iron gate which is about 5'10 Feet High, there is immediately a building to the right, where there is a car parking where the Old Gentleman would sit in the night. After this building there is an open area and then there is the second building.
From the start of the lane, you can see the boundary of the society to your left which runs till the end of the society after the second building. And to your right you have some view of the buildings and the open area.
Attaching a rough sketch of the place.
The area is/was not that well lit but did have lamps.
Okay, so now having acquainted you all with the setup let me recount the happenings of that night which was incidentally and with a great deal of coincidence the fabled Amavasya or New Moon.
My wife had finished her shift at 2am, and I managed to leave early in order to drop her and also have our regular quota of night riding.
We left at 215am and precisely after completing the 20 minute ride in double the time, we reached her friends society.
Now usually I would enter the building and drop her near the staircase. Since it was an unearthly hour, we didn't want to disturb the residents hence I dropped her on the road and like always, I would wait there till she entered the house.
I saw her walking down the lane leading to the gate of the building, then she opened the gate and then looked to the right towards the parking and greeted the Old Uncle (watchman) who used to sit there.
Nothing unusual, post which she turned back to close the gate, and walked further towards her friends building. That was another 10-15 meters away, and she had to take a right to go towards the staircase. The right turn was my last glimpse that I would get of her, before she went out of sight.
At the turn, she turned back to look towards me to give the customary 'Bye-Bye' and she walked out of my sight and then... ... ...
The moment she had turned right, all of a sudden a HUGE man came from the side of the parking of Building A (exactly where the Old Uncle had been sitting) and turned towards me and kept both his hands on the Gate and was looking at me.
I froze!
A lot of thoughts came flying to my head, didn't know what to do, the place where he was standing was pretty dark, my bike was on high beam, could not clear it totally. I put it on low beam so that 'HE' could see me. Was he a thief? Cop? Resident? Questions were getting answered by themselves
If a cop, then wheres everybody else?
If a thief, then why is he not concealing himself?
If a resident, then what the hell is this man doing at 300am?
I was on guard, now I just wanted to be sure, that my wife reaches her friends house safe and sound. Those few minutes seemed like hours and all this while I could get the eerie feeling of being stared at, though I could not see his face, all the time he did not move and kept looking at me from the gate.
Suddenly, I get a call from my wife. She told me that she reached, i asked her if there was any issue, she replied in the negative and I said OK; I will also leave now.
I cut the call.
I looked very hard at the man, couldn't see nothing. Revved my bike and went home.
I reached home in another 5mins, called my wife to tell that I was home. She was about to cut the call, when I asked her whom did she talk to while entering the building (though I knew the answer) she told me it was old uncle.
Me: Hmmmmm, was there anyone else around?
Wife: No, there wasn't anyone? Why? What Happened? You're scaring me
Me: No, no, I have no such plans, it's just that the moment you turned, this huge man came and was staring at me
Wife: Now I am really scared, no there was no one in the parking of both the buildings, uncle was sitting alone.
Me: Hmmm, he might be lying, I hope he's not hand in gloves with thieves, as at his age, he can't even defend himself, leave alone the building
Wife: Agree, but why would the robber show himself?
Me: True, I had similar thoughts. Anyways, be careful while going there in the night, tell your friend as well.
Wife: Ok, don't worry
Now, with these thoughts I went off to sleep.
Once, up and ready got a chance to drop in to meet my wife.
Surprise surprise, last nights incident had created a wildfire!
While it was confirmed that there was no one in the compound. The question was- who was that person, I was given the following explanation
There was a man named 'XYZ' who used to reside in front my wifes friends flat. He was a loner and didn't interact with anyone, definitely not the friendly type.He also despised visitors to the society.
On many occasions, he had actually carried my wifes scooty from the parking to the road outside, as he did not like visitors parking inside the compound!!!
Due to this, he had many altercations with my wife and her friends family.
One fine day, he just died, and no one knew about it, until the neighbours complained of foul smell emanating from his flat. That's when the cops came and found him dead, later found out that he died of a cardiac arrest.
This man was HUGE! If You want to guess his strength, imagine carrying a Scooty for around a 100 feet.
Now everyone was convinced that 'XYZ' was the one who was seen by me, why me because I am already infamous for having experienced 'them' before. And furthermore, it was
Amavasya or new moon day,
unearthly hour and the spirits came calling.
I couldn't believe it, I went to the society and spoke to the watchman, first nicely then roughly for I was convinced that it was a thief
(though I had my doubts on that theory). Old Uncle maintained that there was no one in the compound and he remembered me dropping my wife and she talking to him post that as well.
My wifes friend and her parents would swear by the description I gave of the person, that
it was definitely 'XYZ'. Frankly speaking the person whom I had seen was of gigantic proportions and the big gate looked small in his grasp as he put his hands on top of it while staring at me.
I still can't say with confidence of what/who the man really was. But when I look back and think about the overall description, the time of the night, the new moon phenomena and the man himself. I feel glad that nothing untoward took place and that all three of us (wife, old uncle & me) were left unharmed.
Maybe, 'XYZ' is still upset with visitors coming to 'his' society. Perhaps, the truth we shall never know. But it just creates a whole bunch of mystery on the presence of that huge man that night.