That Night In Chikmagalur…

Agree or not, we all have this crazy fantasy of going on a bizarre trip that you see only in movies! A bunch of youth…into the wilderness…in a haunted-ish house…loud songs…going crazy…and THEN…THEN TANAN TANANANA! 😛 (You almost sang it in that tune, nai?! 😀 ) And don’t lie now! Either you’ve already been on one or you really want to! And the kind of lucky character that I am…out of no where…very late in life…without any warning…IT BLOODY HAPPENED…

…that night in Chikmagalur…

Will start from the start! So, in a rare event, Ram made me meet his office folks; a fun bunch! (He either figured that they are fully capable of putting up with my lunacy or they’re lunatics themselves! 😛 ) And it has been a fun ride! We’ve partied, been on day outings and night treks, doing all the adventure stuff that I would never be able to do with Ram! (He isn’t a fan of adventure sports! On a trip with the same bunch…while we were doing kayaking and jumping off boulders in deep water (with life jackets of course!)…Ram SLEPT in a shed! Yup! True story!)

But we hadn’t been on a weekend trip with this gang yet! Reason being, we gotta take our kids along! (the few times we/I went with them, either the kids were with my parents or Ram!) We also feel it would be a pain for people without kids…putting up with them! But turns out…it is actually the opposite!  The best part about traveling with a bunch of youth is that they are not done with kids yet! They actually like them! Unlike people like us with families…we’re too tired of our own to play with others’! (Unless they’re toddlers! Gowshhh I looove toddlers! How chubby are they! How very edible!! Damn!!) So for us, it was a first trip with a group of friends, along with our kids! They had fixed everything and all we had to do was just pack our bags and go!

The Horror Mania

Let me give you a bit of background! I’ve always always been a fan of horror genre…wouldn’t miss even a single episode of Ramsay Brother’s ‘Zee Horror Show’! 😛 Credit goes to my brother (a cousin!) who takes pride in making me a ‘seasoned’ (fearless) viewer! He made me watch all 90’s horror movies like ‘Evil Dead’ & ‘Brain Dead’ at a very young age! But that was when I was a kid.. IDK how and why, things changed big-time when I got married! I guess now I had something to lose…it was the same with Ram! We saw ‘1920’ together and both of us were…let’s just say…not up for it anymore! IDK how we ended up watching ‘ The Possession of Michael King’ but that was the last nail in the coffin! We completely gave up on the genre!

For the longest of time I hadn’t indulged until just a while back not just one, but two of my besties suggested, ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’ and then I gathered a little bit of courage to watch ‘The haunting of hill house’! Gowsh! I fell in love with Mike Flanagan’s work! (My friend and I still argue which one’s better! I personally think ‘Bly Manor’ was a masterpiece and the bugger doesn’t agree! 😛 )

The Keeda Tribe

And when you have one keeda, you tend to find the others with the same keeda! One of my besties and I make sure we exchange all supernatural stories; spooky dreams, previous births and ghost stories WHENEVER we meet! And as it turns out, a few in THIS particular gang too had the keeda! Of course they did, right?! What do you talk about at bloody 3am in a dark cave on a night trek or around a bonfire on a hill, waiting for the sun to rise?! (They actually had a really ducked up experience in their previous trip! SHIT CRAZY STUFF! 😛 ) This time, over all, no one expected it…but who doesn’t love a bit of cheap thrills?!

We had Garba night in our community so we slept at 2 am and were all set to leave by 5 the next morning. And by 1 pm we were in clouds! Gowsh, never knew that Chikmagalur was so scenic, serene and untouched! Such pristine beauty! Words won’t justify and so wouldn’t pictures!

The Day at the Homestay

This is where it got interesting! The property was more than 100 years old and one of the guys had already been to the place with his office team and kept talking about all the chills and feels that the place gave him! And sure, the property was majestic and old! Grand entrance with bulky wooden pillars, huge paintings of some gurujee on the porch, beautiful old Kerala style architecture with a stunningly green courtyard in the center, tiny doors where everyone has to bend in enter (Not me! I fit in just fine!  ) and the most charming feature was the antiques displayed on the walls and shelves that included actual swords!

Along with rounds of chai and neembu paani…time flew just bullshitting…clicking pictures…playing cricket…the property was huge and green with zero concrete structures/houses around for miles…which meant we were the only people there apart from the cook/helper’s family! 😛 Lunch was yum! Home cooked Karnataka village style food! It was so different from what we usually have! Over all…had chai, lazed around, had lunch, lazed around, had neembu paani and…lazed around!

Evening was mostly wasted trying to ignite a bonfire because everyone wanted to do a bonfire but no one knew how to do it! We gathered around fire…and that’s when the leeches attacked! I actually wondered why was a fully grown man wearing nail paint on all his toes!! Turns out the man was bitten and that was blood on his feet! Damn! Many were bitten so we decided to wind up the outdoor adventure and venture back in! (All this time Ram was super glad that the kids were not bitten even when they played cricket bare feet the entire afternoon! He’s the protective one & I’m the carefree fun one…or at least that is what I believe!  )

The Night

That’s when we got the party started! Put the kids to sleep early and the banter begun! Let’s just say…as the night proceeded…people got very happy! And what do ‘happy’ people do? Express their happiness by singing ‘happy’ songs! *Chingaaarii koi bhadkeeeee* And at some point…some people wanted to sing different songs! So at the same time….simultaneously…two different songs were playing! *Tanhaaaaiiiiiii* sang group A and *Chingaaariiii* continued group B!

After a while….every song had *Chingaaariiii* playing in the between! Ah! You know that’s what I love! Synchronized Chaos! No asking anyone to switch songs…everyone is in their own zone, doing their own thing…and yet! Together we made symphonies! (Okay, may be I was a bit happy too! ) I had my teary-eyed-moment like always, where I thank God profusely for everything! Thanked him for being so kind and patient to/with me and giving me such awesome gang that I vibe with!

Mujhey zor se dance aaraha hai!

And then some SOB got an idea! “Mujhey zor se dance aaraha hai!” 😛 The line itself is as contagious as omicron!! Now everyone wanted to dance but no one had remembered to carry a Bluetooth speaker! And the homestay sure had an entertainment system, which looked a bit like this! 😀

Everyone was desperate to dance and however hard we tried, it was not easy to sing and dance at the same time! 😛 And then one Edison’s bulb just got lit! TING! Our cars have stereos! But the house was on a hillock! Do you think it is safe for a happy person to drive up a hill in pitch dark at midnight? Nope! Hence, the guy went and got the car! Against the odds of getting bitten by leeches, we went outside and damn! Did we dance! 😀

Just when we thought we had won the Battle of the Leeches, they freaking attacked with double force and we were clearly outnumbered! Yet, bloodied and wounded we danced! Hell, even Basanti would have been proud us, had she been there! And then fortunately, by mistake, some bugger got back into senses and blew sense into all of us! We retreated! We went back inside and almost like we had never left, we got back to singing happy songs! 😛 (At least the itch to dance was satiated! 😛 )

Tansen’s Revenge

The ‘mehfil’ went on for quite sometime and at around 3 am….WE Heard A HUGE METAL THING BEING BANGED ON THE DOOR HARD! *EVERY ONE FROZE!*  Then there was no *Chingaari* or *Tanhaai*…only Sannata! After few minutes…the ‘happy’ people thought it was just…nothing! They totally ignored it and went back to their zones…voicing out their souls in a harmony! AND THEN IT BLOODY HAPPENED AGAIN!

HUGE THUDDING AND BANGING ON THE DOOR! And no one had guts to get up and check the bloody huge wooden door locked from inside! AND THIS TIME IT JUST WOULDN’T STOP! (We could almost hear that slow ripping sound from multiple places 😛 …for once, thankfully everyone was singing just one song in their heads…Jai Hanumaan Gyaan Gun Sagar….) 😛

Now some gutsy guy said, “I’ll go and check” but others just wouldn’t let him! “Nai Bhai…Tu Baith Bhai!” No one was gonna risk that movie-like situation where one guy goes missing after the other…so we all held our grounds and waited for it to pass…thankfully it did after quite a while of pin drop silence!

The Back Story

Aren’t the back stories the most interesting part in the horror movies too??!! So after a while, the caretaker of the property comes and joins us…and we tell him about the door banging and he casually said....”Arey kuch nahi…bas ek pagal aadmi hai…jo raat ko darwaza khat khatata rehta hai”!

FAAAAAAAAAAAKKKK! THIS WAS CREEPY AS HELL!! Sitting in a property with no soul around for miles…n then there is this ‘pagal aadmi’! An actual lunatic in the wilderness! The caretaker probably wanted to continue the story…but then someone changed the topic…I guess no one was interested in why the crazy guy was vehemently knocking doors at bloody 3 am! IDK WHY! 😛

The Fight

What’s a story without some action, right hon? While a bunch of us proceeded to dining hall for the dinner…Out of no where…Ram and another guy from the gang started sparring! A bout of jab…jab…touch-and-pull-back fight started! While the other guy was super fit…Ram has his own strength! HIS WEIGHT! If he jumps and sits in someone’s lap, the bugger wont be able to move! 😛  Normally I would enjoy a scene but it was too much action for one night! 😛

With “Babaji, iss raat ko boring banado” going on in my mind I kept asking them both to stop! But by that time, both were intensely into it…giving their best…seriously trying to compete! (I wonder why I faintly remember we all did a ‘plank’ contest before that! Gowsh! I still need to find which ducker suggested that! 😛 ) Eventually, with all my might just like holding a trunk of a tree, I held Ram and pulled him along to the dinner table where the others were!

And another…

Turns out…the night was not just ready to be boring yet! On dinner table, as I expressed my displeasure in people indulging in non vegetarian food…one of the guys supported me with solid data saying, ‘human bodies are not made to consume animals’! And then I heard a normally super calm and composed Ram disagreeing loudly! “HUMAN BODIES ARE MADE FOR HAVING NON VEG BECAUSE THEY CANNOT DIGEST THE CELLULOSE FROM THE PLANTS!” (Our personal ever-so-hot topic to fight on! Veg Vs Non Veg! Looong story saved for another day… 😀 )

Before I ask him to take it a notch down, one of the guys came up to me with AN ANTIQUE GUN! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL! He mumbled something like, “You guys are fighting, I think you should have this gun! It is just a pistol, no one will die if you shoot!”   It was a shit task to convince him to keep the gun away from this really high…nah…happy bunch! And then my prayers were heard…as the food went in, people got sleepy! 

Wait, Why are the most scariest experiences of our lives, the ones we remember most fondly!

You know why? I just figured it out! Because WE BLOODY MADE IT OUT ALIVE!  Thankfully no one got really hurt that day; leeches, guns & ghosts couldn’t hurt us, dost! 😛 (Yay! That rhymed! 😀 )

The Morning After

Next morning, few khurafati ones went and checked that wooden door…turns out…we had next door neighbors…who probably would have been utter disgustingly disturbed by our performance and were expressing their discomfort…in some really weird…violent ways! 😛 (At least that is the story I heard…may be they made it up to keep it simple! Honestly, in some other universe…I would have loved to open that wooden door at 3 am and get that lunatic in and ask for his story and experiences! How awesome would that be! May be we would have gotten another Supernova!  )

The Trip to the Waterfall

Luckily for me, the bunch loves waterbodies as much as I do! Ram stayed back home to complete his beauty sleep while we all along with my little monsters, ventured out to find the mighty waterfall that people talked about! Long story short…we couldn’t make it to the waterfall…it was far…road was bad…we had less time…so we settled for a stream and trespassed into some random personal property with a beautiful flowing stream…then some gundas came…screaming at us for trespassing…fortunately two sane people had gone and taken permission…so it was all cool and we played in the stream happily ever after…okay…for a long looong time!! 😀

Winding up!

Just like you throw up a kid in the air and he screams *again, again, again*, I am absolutely yearning for a trip like this! I seriously cannot wait to go on crazy adventures and experience creepiest shit! While it was freaking scary back then…now it feels like…a night to remember…that night in Chikmagalur! Any less action and it wouldn’t have been the same!

Okay! You always hear my stories and save yours! Have you experienced anything supernatural?! Shoot the stories in comment section! Mighty excited to hear about it and getting goosebumps already! Much love!