slapped by the unseen

For decades the Sainik school road in Khurda area of Bhubaneshwar had earned itself a spooky reputation particularly among men. When Abhishek had joined an engineering college in early 2001, it was his turn to learn about this haunted road. Coming from Balasore, Bhubaneshwar was not just a newer and bigger place but it suddenly opened up possibilities for him- largely of exploring newer areas, hanging out late in the night at friends’ places and enjoying a late night snack. All these had been forbidden in his 18 years of life when he had to play the role of an obedient son, who the entire family doted upon. He was dropped off to school, to tuition classes, his father would accompany him for his football coaching classes and his mother’s life revolved around cooking up the healthiest meal for Abhishek.

Within a day of being dropped at his hostel, Abhishek had started exploring all that Bhubaneshwar’s college life had to offer. Soon he had a group of close buddies who would hang out together after college hours. This particular Thursday night, he had been alone in his room after coming back from college. Unable to concentrate on studies, he closed his books. He realized that time was moving rather slowly this evening. He lazed around and at 8.30 went to the hostel canteen to have dinner. He was startled not to find any of his newly made friends at the canteen. Two decades back mobile phones were still a rarity and although he had one, none of his friends had mobile phones. 

Giving up on the idea of finding them, he went back to his room and prepared to get into the bed early. And then, his phone finally rang. Three of his newly made friends had made a plan to spend the night at Manikanta’s house, near the Mancheswar railway station.

He had a good one hour bike travel ahead of him and the Khurda road was pretty empty and dark. not a soul was in sight but Abhishek was enjoying the cool breeze swishing past him making the ride even more enjoyable. He sang on top of his voice- the 80s hit Bollywood song- tumse milne ki tammana hai- and remained happily lost in his thoughts. He was dreaming about a possible love story that might be awaiting him in his college but a tight slap on his face jolted him awake from his dreamland. 

He looked around perplexed. Who could slap him when he was riding a bike and why? But when he saw all around there was nothing except the eerie silence. The road too was dark except for an occasional streetlight after 500 meters. He accelerated his bike, sensing trouble and then it happened again. This time the slap was harder and he couldnt hear his own scream for a while. He rushed through the stretch accelerating futher and finally reached Manikanta’s house with a red face. 

There he narrated his experience and all the boys said in a single voice, you should never take that road at night. Many men have had similar experiences on that stretch. It is said that decades back, the road was a secluded one and occasional cases of a woman’s body being dumped their by murdered, rapists had come to light. While this was hearsay, many instances of boys and men having similar experiences is local forklore now.