The Black Clouds of Death.

The following is based on the events that took place in Uttarakhand, after the disastrous cloud burst that took the lives of countless pilgrims, villagers and rescuers..

The black clouds of death that struck with bad fate,

Marks the beginning of Lucifer's merciless estate.

For the passel of people dying, the food is found nowhere,

The water running over the cold corpses is stained red everywhere.

In the cold, icily numb winds of the Himalayan ranges,

A little frost bitten girl descends the slopes steep and estranged.

To those countless pilgrims who could never see the new day,

The light faded from their eyes, forever ending their way.

A lonely father weeps for his loss that he cannot measure,

His lovely daughter being his life's sole treasure.

In the debris, the children are still buried deep and cold,

The gorge reverberates with the pain of souls, evanesced and sold.

Near the distant horizon, the black clouds finally settle down,

Marking the events of the act of God, that ended life in a town.

The hair raising cries of anguish and melancholic despair,
Shall forever echo in the destroyed valley, where deaths are beyond repair..

The Encounter...

Well, I don't know what kind of an Encounter would people expect, reading the title, but I ensure you, it's not the one with any celebrity, neither with Michael Jackson, nor with Barack Obama ! tongue sticking out!  No, this is a real-life, "Based on a true story" wala encounter.  So, here we go! 

It was 2:15 a.m. by my watch when I departed after a hang out with my friends. Yes, it was much late than the time at which we usually say good-night! (For the people who don't know, I am a strong believer of Spirits and the Supernatural.) There was an eerie silence on the lane as if no-one had lived there for over a decade. There were no street lights working. That added to the strong feeling in the back of my mind that I am being followed. I knew then, that I was not alone. It gave me a nauseating feeling in the pit of my empty stomach...It was one of those nights when you don't really expect anything to go astray from the routine. But then, I forgot that it was me, nothing goes as planned ! 

So, I was driving at a slow speed of 20-25 km/hr, because of the bumpy roads and narrow lanes. Had I known what was coming, I would undoubtedly have been faster! Then it came.. I saw one of the most remarkably unusual things ever: A man, walking alongside a toddler, who was learning how to ride a tricycle. (Well, come on, which 4 year old kid learns a tricycle at 2:15 a.m. ? And yes, there was a deserted piece of land with the ruins of an old house just next to where they were.) 

I could see the back of the child and the man, quite vividly in the beam of my Activa's  light. And now, starts the 1 scariest minute of my life. My Activa's engine, due to some unknown reason, stopped. So for the next 5 seconds, I was engulfed in total, complete, terrible darkness. I could hear the rustling and crunching of the old fallen autumn leaves. The noise that came from those leaves gave me one of the creepiest feelings ever. In the heavy silence that followed, I could hear the child chuckling and whispering, like the one who is possessed by a devil. The tricycle's wheels were making a noise that sounded like they had been rusted for decades, like a door which requires oiling in the hinges during the winters..

The vehicle started moments after the sounds ceased. The light turned on again. What I saw then, gave me goosebumps all over my body. The man was still there walking beside, the tricycle was still running at the same pace, but there was absolutely no sign of that kid riding it. 

I stared in horror and amazement at the sight, and cold sweat broke out from my forehead. My heart skipped a beat and my stomach was turning from the insides. My senses stopped working and suddenly I was stiff scared, for the little boy had disappeared in thin air. I figured  out that the only one thing to do was, run! pronto! And, that's what I did; taking a U-turn, I accelerated like I had never accelerated before. I just drove, without any sense of speed or direction, without even looking back at the man or the driver-less tricycle. I drove until I came on the main road. It was then I knew I was safe. 

I finally reached home at 2:40 a.m. 

Till this day, I have never been able to travel by that road alone after it gets dark and the human traffic stops! I have never been able to actually figure out what I saw, or what happened to the kid. That evil laugh and the crumbling of leaves and the Sound of Silence, still echoes in my ears when I come to think of it. Was it something related to spirits, the paranormal? Did the child actually belong to that ruined and deserted place once, maybe long ago? I am always left totally clueless and speechless when it comes to this little encounter. Why did my Activa stop just at the same moment as I saw them?

Sometimes, some things are best unseen, unspoken and unheard of...