I was born and raised in the village. My Aajoba (grandfather) used to tell us stories when we were young, especially at the night when there were power cuts, the stories of Ramayana, Mahabharat, his life experiences and, also the horror ones. There's this one story narrated by my Aajoba, when I was probably in 6th or 7th std, that remained stuck in my head. It was the real incident that happened in the 1970s era. The story's so thrilling and horror, it will send chills down your spine. I will try my best to present it, exactly the way he narrated it to us.
Borkheda is a small village nearly 8 km from our village. In that village lived a farmer, Sadashiv Pawar. He was a very prosperous farmer, had an abundance of farmland and animals. Despite being illiterate, he was well respected in the village. For any disputes and problems, villagers always consulted him for opinions. He lived with his wife Rukmini bai, son Prakash and daughter Vandana. Rukmini bai was a housewife, a simple lady. Prakash was in school, studying in class 9th. Vandana was 20 years old, was pursuing the B.A.
Vandana was a scholar student, she always topped in the school. She had also topped the matric exam (which was a university entrance exam, which typically held towards the end of secondary school) and hence got permission from Sadashiv to pursue further education. At that time girls had many restrictions and barriers in society. Girls were not allowed to study further, because the family members had fears to pay large dowry sum to the groom's family. Their life decisions were mostly taken by their parents and after marriage, controlled by the husband. She was currently in her second year of B.A. Along with her education, she also helped her mother cook food and do other chores of the house. Daily she used to travel to college by bus, which was situated in the nearby city. She was a very hardworking and ambitious student.
In college, she became friends with one of the boys from the class. The boy was also a scholar and hardworking like her. Sharing similar ideologies and understanding, gradually they fell in love with each other. The boy belonged to a lower caste or generally referred to as "untouchables". The untouchables were given a very low position in society. There were many restrictions imposed on them by upper caste people. The lower caste people were restricted from villages, they had to live on the outskirts of villages. They faced many public indignities because they were denied the right to use the services of public utilities like wells, visiting the same temples, or using public transports. Their children were made to sit at the back in classrooms.
Due to these barriers, they initially tried to remain segregated from each other. Tried many times to remain apart. But couldn't resist until some point, because the bond between them was way too strong. Telling the parents about this was not even an option for them, telling them would create catastrophe and depredation. They made the boldest decision to get married without the consent of the family. The first step was to run from the house then get married and finally after everything starts to cool down, tell everything to the family in hope that the family will understand. So after planning everything, both of them fled from their homes and married secretly.
Here in the village, Sadashiv along with the family members and villagers were desperately searching for the missing daughter. They had absolutely no clue what has happened. They immediately lodged a complaint to the police. Several search operations were conducted by police personnel with the help of villagers. The complete family was devastated, they were trying every way possible, but still couldn't find the whereabouts of Vandana.
Many days passed, as things started to cool down a bit, they finally showed themselves to the parents and told them everything that had happened. After hearing everything, Vandana's family became very furious, thrashed both of them with sticks, and paraded them in the entire village. Also thrashed the parents of the boy and registered a police complaint against the boy for the abduction of his daughter. The news spread like wildfire, soon everyone knew the whole incidence. People started talking behind the back and shaming the family. Women in the village stopped talking to Rukmini bai. Prakash also faced criticism in the school by other children. Everyone in the family faced humiliation. Vandana was locked inside the house and was not allowed to go out. Things were much more difficult for her. She was constantly harassed and beaten.
They started putting pressure on Vandana to marry a man from their community. One day, the family members had a heated argument with Vandana on this matter, following which they beat her so much, she fell unconscious and died immediately. At midnight when everybody was sleeping, they secretly carried the body to their field and dumped the body in the well. They waited till sunrise and told everyone in the village that Vandana had done suicide by jumping in the well. They removed the body from the well and later it was cremated by the family members without informing the police.
The boy’s family informed police about this matter, due to lack of evidence and strong political connection of the family, the case was ruled out as suicide. They tried many times for detailed investigation but always got rejection.
Several days, months passed everything became normal. It was the month of March, Rabi harvesting season was in full action. Sadashiv also had planted wheat on his farm, now it was being harvested. The whole family used to stay late till evening doing the chores on the farm. The farm was a few km from his house.
One day, in the evening after finishing the day's work everyone in the family started returning home. Prakash just remembered, he had forgotten something on the farm. He told Sadashiv about it and immediately rushed to the farm. Till the time he reached the farm, it was pretty dark. Everyone had returned home. The chirping of birds had also stopped, it was quiet everywhere. He collected the object he had forgotten and started returning home. He noticed that someone was following him, he immediately turned back but there was no one. He thought some animal could have passed, so he continued walking. Again after some time, he heard some weird sound coming from behind. This time he stopped and slowly turned back but again there was no one. He was terrified this time, he went back a little and started checking the area. He noticed that the sound was coming from the well, this was the same well where the body of his sister was dumped by the family. Near the well, he saw something that left him petrified. He saw an image, approaching toward him very fast. He ran as fast as he could with all the energy he had in him and somehow reached home.
He explained the whole incident to the family. After listening to everything from Prakash, Sadashiv called some of the villagers and immediately rushed to the well. They checked everything near the well. But there was no sign of anything. This incident put the whole family frightened. Sadashiv strictly told everyone in the family to return from the farm early every day. Also told them to always accompany someone while returning.
One day when everyone was sleeping, Rukmini bai heard a large scream that came from the Prakash’s room, she informed Sadashiv and both of them immediately rushed to check. To their surprise they saw Prakash crying and panting, he looked very frightened. He was also sweating so much that his complete shirt was wet. Rukmini bai immediately hugged him and started patting his back to calm him down. After he was calmed, he explained that he saw his sister in the dream, she looked very frightening and terrifying and was trying to put him in the well.
Prakash started having these seizures daily. He was very terrified after this whole scenario. He would not sleep at night. He stopped going to school and farm. He stopped talking to his friends and neighbours. He would not leave the house. This behaviour of Prakash worried him. He had already lost his daughter, he didn’t want to lose his son. So with a heavy heart, he sent Prakash to another village to live with his brother for few days.
After Prakash had gone to live with his uncle, they were both left to do chores of farm and house. They also had to take care of the animals. The animal shed was build just behind their house.
One night, Sadashiv woke up hearing the noise of the animals. Rukmini bai was sleeping. Without waking her, he went to check the animals. The animals were aggressively moving and making continuous sounds. He figured that there must be some wild animal, so he immediately rushed to the house, brought the torch and stick. He started checking the area closely, but couldn’t find anything. He decided to spend the night out, so he could keep eye on his animals. So he went back inside and brought Charpai(bed) outside. He set up his Charpai and went to sleep. After some time, when he was deep in his sleep. He noticed that someone had held his legs, he tried to wake up to see. Before he could see anything he was pulled from the bed and dragged in the fields.
The next day villagers found him near the well in an unconscious state. They immediately took him to the hospital. He remained unconscious for more than two days. The third day when he regained his consciousness, he tried to speak, but couldn’t utter a word. His voice was gone. Villagers had never seen anything like this before, they were all terrified by this incidence. A few days later Sadashiv died a mysterious death. Doctors also couldn’t find the exact reason for the death.
Rukmini bai was saddened by the death of her husband. She sold the farm and house and moved to another village with her son.
Series of mysterious events happened to other people in the village too. The incidents were mostly near the well and the surrounding areas. So villagers sealed the well with the help of Tantrik. But still, nobody in the village was allowed to go near the well. Also, villagers were restricted to roam near that area especially at night. To date, the well has been remained sealed, nobody dares to roam that area at night. Everyone in the Borkheda, from children to elders everyone knows the incident. Outsiders are also warned about areas.
Also Rukmini bai, Prakash, anyone from their family never dared to set foot in the village later.
Hope you liked the story. I tried my level best to explain it the way my grandfather explained it to us. He would explain us the stories with so much of the enthusiasm and energy. He is no more with us. But the stories he told us will always remains with us.
Thank You.
