I Think It Was During Last Puja That I Saw Her For The First Time. It Was A Perfectly Normal Day When We Decided To Go Pandal Hopping Late At Night.
Salt Lake - A Modern Suburb In East Kolkata Was Our Destination Of Choice. The Night Was Well Spent With A Drive Around Some Beautiful Pandals. It Was Around 3 Am In Morning When We Finally Decided To Call It A Day And Started Our Return Journey Back Home. Everyone Except Me Were Sleepy. 10 Mins Into The Drive And Still Very Much Within Salt Lake , I Noticed A Well Lit Pandal Gate. Block Ig, It Said. I Felt The Urge And Drove Into The Lane. Right Ahead Was A Nice Looking Pandal. We Drove Right Upto The Stairs Of Pandal And Sleepy Figures Rose And Got Out Of The Car. Apart From Us Only A Couple Of People Were Around. I Was Able To Have A Full View From The Car Itself So Decided To Remain Seated And Take In The View. When I Saw Everyone Almost Done With Their Tour, I Knew It Was Time For Me To Back Off My Car And Position It For Drive Back. I Usually Like To Do This When Car Is Empty And I'm All Alone In It. Don't Know Why. So I Located A Small By Lane And Steered Into It To Back Off Comfortably.
As I Moved Towards The Lane I Noticed It Was Very Dimly Lit, A Strange Thing When You Have A Vibrant Pandal On The Next Lane.
Anyways, I Moved In And As I Prepared To Put My Car On Reverse Gear I Noticed Something Almost At The End Of My Headlight Beam. A Figure, Unmistakably A Woman, Was Standing Right There, May Be 40 Ft Away. Her All Red Sari Was Draped In A Way As If She Had Hurriedly Came Out Of Bed When I Moved In The Lane. Her Long Hair Were Covering Her Entire Face And Fell At Least Till Her Hips. I Couldn't Hear But Could Easily Make Out That She Must Be Laughing Aloud In Her Hairy Veil, Her Entire Figure Shook In A Way It Can Do Only When You Have A Real Hearty Laugh. Did I Scared Her? Or Is She Trying To Scare Me? Why Is She Laughing? All These Questions Didn't At All Came To My Mind Until The Next Day. I Slammed My Car In The Reverse Gear, Turned Around And Backed Off, Petrified Like Crazy. From A Corner Of My Eye I Think I Felt The Figure Running Towards My Car, Her Body Shaking In Hysteria. I Quickly Turned Towards The Pandal Where Wife And Others Were Waiting. As They Were Boarding I Looked Back, Still Sweating In My Pants. Saw No One. Drive Home Was A Quite One As Everyone Dozed Off And I Was Lost.
Since Then I Have Seen Her Many Times. But Only When I'm Driving Alone On Lonely Stretches. I See Her Silent Hysterically Shaking Body, Hair Covered Face And Blood Red Sari. I Often see Her Head Following My Car As I Drove Past Her. Often It Felt She Is Running Behind Me Following My Car But Suddenly Disappears As I Come To A Populated Stretch. At Times I Think I Saw Her Glowing Eyes From Under The Veil. Green Eyes? On Some Lonely Narrow Stretches, As I Drove Past Her Figure, Her Hairy Veil Shook And I Saw Her Red Lips Shaped Up And Exposing Pearly Teeth. She Is Indeed Laughing? I Still Get Sweaty And Visibly Shaken Everytime I Have These Encounter. But Why Is It That I Can See Her Only When I'm All Alone? Why I See Her Only On The Road?
May Be She Doesn't Want Me To Be Alone. She Is Trying To Tell Me - Don't Be Alone.