Category: Spooky

The year 2004, Gurgaon.
Graveyard shift was the name given to the shift timings that began at 3:00 am IST at the call centre. It was Mona’s favourite of all the different shift timings that existed in the company, as it gave her more time with her daughter. She woke up at 1:00 am and after taking bath sat for her prayers and meditation. The cab arrived at 2:00 am. The watchman was sleeping as usual. She had to call loudly to wake him up. He grumbled as he opened the gates of the apartment. The cab was near the entrance. The dogs were barking. One of the dogs started to howl.
She sat in the cab and was surprised to see only one gentleman sitting beside the driver. Usually, there were more people in the cab and one odd pick up would be done after she boarded. The cab started towards Sushant Lok. In those days, the GPS was used to track the cab by the cab operator. However, the addresses of the employees could not be located as they can be done now.

She liked the night. Darkness intrigued her. Trees always fascinated her. They looked all alluring tonight. They looked silent and still in the chilly winter night. Inside the cab the music was loud. The heating was on. It was what she enjoyed the most while travelling – darkness, music and trees.
The cab was speeding fast towards the next pick-up. Abruptly the driver spoke nervous and excited as they crossed a lady walking along the road. “Don’t look back its a ghost”. Mona and her colleague obeyed.
Her colleague had noticed the ladylike being more than she had. He began to tremble in spite of the fact that the cab was warm. Suddenly, the headlight of the car dimmed. They were not fussed but very very dim. This made them all nervous. The cab driver tried to put some religious music on, but now, the music system failed. All began to pray loudly. Although the driver wanted to race through the street, he could not pick up the speed above 50 Km/hr. They reached the locality for the pickup, quite grateful that the ghost was left behind (hopefully). There was the construction of apartments going on. There were potholes on the roads and sand and pebbles lay on the sides. The entire block for almost half a kilometre was desolate. The driver took the right turn. Then again two more turns. To their absolute surprise, they came back to the same place of construction. The driver struggled to find a way out of that locality. It took good forty minutes and lots of prayers to get out of that vicious circle of whatever it was. Everyone was visibly relieved.
As the cab sped at the speed of 90 km/hr, the headlights were beaming through the darkness. Mona felt a paradox at that moment – loud music could be relaxing to the senses. She wanted things to feel as they always did. Dark, still and silent, enigmatic, yet beautiful!
Suddenly a cloud enveloped the car. It was white. Smoke or fog or what, it was not apparent. The driver had to cut down the speed. They couldn’t stop as the driver was not certain if the cab was on the side or in the middle of the road. Stopping could invite a disaster. Slowly the car kept moving covered in that cloud. The music was switched off. More Prayers followed. After about five to seven minutes the cloud disappeared. Vanished. The sky was crystal clear as before. Stars dimly visible due to glaring lights of the high raised buildings.
The car entered the parking area and all gave a sigh of relief.
Someone might want to give remarkable logical and scientific reasons for what happened and why.
For Mona, it would always remain a phantom memory!