A sudden burst of uncontrollable laughter broke the timid discussions of the gathering and set the tone for an actual reunion. Himangshu was desperately trying to control the outburst but eventually brought out the words, “those were really the golden days.”

Himangshu, Amol, Nitin, Ronit and I were finally able to arrange a day out in Mandaramani. We booked two adjacent cottages in a resort facing the sea .

This weekend trip of my old schoolmates was being planned for a long time but to our chagrin, it took more than a year to actually make it happen. Either our professional assignments or our personal commitments kept deferring it. However, we made it to this place, finally. 

We finished our dinner early and gathered at the beach late in the night. We started chatting. Slumped in the cold sand, we thoroughly enjoyed the breeze, the booze and the banter.

Remembering the college days, revisiting gossip, talking about romances, funny incidences and pranks was always the topic of discussion.

Time just flew and before we realized it was an hour past midnight. The beach was almost deserted. There was a nip in the air and the wind was picking up. The tall trees lining the beach had started swaying to the wind. The breaking of waves was the only sound around us. We realized all of us were lost in thoughts and the conversations had stopped for a while.

“Do you believe in ghosts?” Nitin asked.

There was a dismissive smile on everyone’s face.

Nitin looked at us and said I have experienced it.

It was a night I can never forget. My parents and I had gone to a village near Santiniketan for a family wedding.

The station is serviced by only two trains, one in the morning and the other in the evening. We had reached by the evening train and were the only people getting down. The platform was deserted and a thin fog was settling on to in, that cold winter evening. The house was a few kilometers away and we decided to take the lone rickshaw standing outside the station.

By the time we reached the festivities, it was dark and our hosts suggested that we take the same rickshaw and go the place where arrangements for our stay were made.

It turned out to be an old school building. The classrooms had been converted into temporary guest rooms with beds and blankets, a jug of water and a table. Given the modest settings, this was a grand arrangement.

We freshened up and decided to walk to the venue.

We finished our dinner and decided to retire early as we were tired and left early for the school building. The open expanse of the village was already covered under a thick blanket of fog. We had a torch which helped us find our way. The calm of the night was eerie.

Suddenly, a black cat appeared out of the thick fog and was standing right in front of us. An unusually big cat with dark green eyes that were shining made a spooky scene. My father tried to scare the cat away, but it stood its ground like a statue.

Unexpectedly, we could hear a woman wailing somewhere far away. The soft sobs floated in the expanse around us and appeared to grow louder and louder. We were very scared and by the time we could decide on what to do, the sound felt like coming from someone right next to us. Yet we could not see anyone. All of a sudden, a strong wind blew past us and cleared the fog in front for a few feet.

There she stood, a white shadow, an ethereal figure that seemed to float around with the fog…

The next thing I remember is waking up in my father’s lap on the train back to our city.

Himangshu, Ronit and Amol broke into a laughter saying that it was Nitin’s world of fantasy fiction.

I knew it was not, I knew about such experiences, I knew it could happen to anyone.

It happened to me as well, I said. There was a stunning silence and all of them turned towards me with a look of curiosity in their eyes.

It has been almost three years now and I have many a times tried to find an explanation but every time I fail to reach a logical conclusion. Renu and I were married for two months. My parents were off to the US to spend time with my sister. Durga Puja was around the corner and the whole city was exuberantly celebrating it with all its galore. I, on the other hand was struggling with my company’s sales target for the festive season. It only meant one thing for me, while the rest of the people would enjoy the festivities, go pandal hopping, dine out in the restaurants, enjoy the decorations, I would toil day and night at my office desk relentlessly jumbling figures and follow up with my sales executives. I was feeling hopelessly low. To make matters worse, it was our first puja after our wedding and Renu was spending a torrid time, confined to our flat marked by my prolonged absence. I called her brother Sunil and decided to send her to her maternal uncle’s house in Assam with a promise to join at the earliest.

It was only Dashami when I could manage to board the train to Assam. I was relieved that a well deserved break was coming up and was looking forward to the celebrations, or whatever was left of it. The train left Sealdah on time and was making steady progress. The first 6 – 7 hours were almost uneventful and I took a quick nap only to be woken by a sudden jerk.

The news doing round was that some 10 odd tankers had derailed somewhere ahead and the mishap had caused all trains to be delayed. After a halt of a few hours, the train started moving, though at a snail’s pace. Night had fallen so I had my dinner and retired to bunk. A couple of hours passed, I couldn’t sleep and fidgeted restlessly, glanced multiple times at my mobile and kept twisting and turning. Finally I decided to walk upto the door and get some fresh air. I noticed the time. It was 1:30 AM. 

The train was moving slowly, almost on the verge of stopping. I loosened the door latch and the gust of fresh cold air filled my lungs. The silence of the night was broken only by the rattling of the wheels.  I could notice an approaching station. Gaisal, it was. The name seemed familiar but I could not recollect. 

The vast meadows beyond the platform stretched all across till the horizon, had a fresh feeling to it and the full moon was making it look like an array of yellow beads, thick and tall, spread all over.

The wind picked up and it seemed like an approaching storm, I looked at the sky and could not see any clouds. Unexpectedly the bushes appeared torched. It seemed to have conjured out of thin air. I looked towards the engine to see how far were these burning bushes visible but was rather shocked to see a tinge of burning light approaching from a distance. The light appeared to travel fast. I could distinctly hear the honk, loud and clear, that of an approaching train. I thought to myself that it must be one of the high speed express trains.

All hell broke loose within me when I realised the approaching train was on the same track as my train. The trains were only moments away from a head on collision. I was stupefied and did not know what to do. I tried to scream desperately but words would just not come out.  I began to tremble with fear. I could see the approaching engine come closer and closer and then, there was a thundering noise akin to an explosion. I felt a jerk thinking it was the end, but realized it was too soft a jerk for that accident. I looked in the front, expecting a sight of corpses and blood, fire, smoke, cries and moans. Instead of the ghastly destruction, I witnessed an unusually calm night looking back at me, as if nothing had happened. Everything was quite and normal.  The train was moving now.

I wiped the beads of tears from my eyes and cheeks and walked back to my berth. I could not make any sense of what happened.  All the passengers were sleeping peacefully. One was even listening to music using headphones. Was it paranormal or was it a dream or a delusion?

I reached the next afternoon and was overjoyed to meet everyone. Renu and I had a great time.  After spending a week we finally boarded the train back home.  My mind again drifted back to the incident. The train, the accident and everything that vanished like a mirage. I was thinking about Gaisal war at that time and could it be a result of that? I took out my mobile phone and typed ‘Gaisal’ in the search engine. The first link that showed up was that of wikipedia and the subject  was ‘Gaisal Train Disaster’. I started reading…

“The Gaisal train disaster occurred on August 2, 1999, when two trains carrying 2500 people collided at the remote station of Gaisal, 310 miles from the city of Guwahati in Assam. The crash was at such high speeds that the trains actually exploded upon impact killing 290 people.”

The light of the dawn brought us back to the beach.

Himangshu shrugged and said, “I have never seen ghosts but I strongly believe that science and human logic can’t answer everything.” 

At this Ronit chipped in with his characteristic husky tone, “Not only ghosts, the world is yet to find an answer to many strange things like the creation of the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, The Bermuda Triangle,  the Voynich manuscript etc”

Think about the disappearance of MH370, I replied.back,

“Exactly,” He shot back, “Science is not an established manual. It is mankind’s continuous endeavour to know the unknown. A weakened spirit will dread even a shadow. A small squeak of the hinges of an old house on a winter night may sound like a scary thing for one and amusement for another.

We all laughed at that and started walking towards our rooms, yet I knew, that there is world beyond science, where logic and rationality fades into belief and experiences, the world of preternatural, something which is unusual and inexplicable.