Episode 2: The shortcut

Two paths diverge in a darkened jungle, and one leads to a brush with death. 

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
When you really stop to think about it,
there are just so many reasonsto be afraid.
Ghosts, demons, ghouls, goblins...
...dainis,rokkhosh, khokosh, sankachurnis, jinn...
The list goes on and on.

(00:25):
In this episode, we'll give youone more reason to be afraid
to go to sleep tonight.
So put on your headphones and settle in
as we take you on a journeyinto the paranormal...
...wherethere’s only one question that matters:
Are we scared yet?

(00:53):
It happened in the early 1960s.
I had just started college in the city
and I was having problems with my family.
I needed to move out.
I've been saving up what I could,but in South Asia
as a pre-graduate in that time,it was difficult to find a job.

(01:14):
I was
good at studying and performedwell on my exams
so I was qualified to do one thingand that was private tutoring.
Nobody in my village had enough moneyto spend on a private
tutor though,so I had to find work in the city.
And since, as I mentioned, I couldn'tafford room and board in the city

(01:35):
just yet, I had to commute toand from home in the village
every day.
With the time I would be done tutoring,it would be eight or nine
o’clock at night.
If you've ever been to a village,then you'll know that villagers
tend to go to bed with the sun.
So by the time I’d get home,even at those hours,

(01:56):
the whole village would be asleep.
One particular
evening I finished tutoring a little laterthan usual, and the mother of my student
invited me to stay for dinner.
After the dinner was finished,I began my route home
and it was well past 10 pm when I set out.

(02:20):
Now, the cityand the village are divided by a river,
so my usual commute includedriding my bike to the ferry yard
and then taking a boat acrossbefore riding another two kilometers home.
But on this particular day,
my bicycle was in the shop for repairs

(02:41):
since I had to stay lateand had an exam coming up -
and since I was without my bicycle -
I decided to take a shortcutthrough the shamshan.
A shamshan is where
Hindu cremation happens.
They usually are located by the riverso the ashes can be spread

(03:02):
and distributed by the water.
I generally avoided this routeat all costs at night
because there's somethingabout this shamshan in our village
that just feelsoff when the sun goes down.
But the
shamshan route would cut my remainingwalk home in half.

(03:26):
I took a bus to the ferry
station, found a boatman to get me across,and after disembarking
I suddenly felt so tired.
You know, it'd been a long day, but ...
I was just grateful in that momentthat my students mother had fed me

(03:47):
because I feel likewithout that fresh sustenance,
I might have just collapsedright there on the spot.
And so, tired as I was,
I gathered myself and resolvedto march through the shamshan.

(04:07):
Although I was afraid,I had my prayers with me and I felt -
still feel - that nothing bad could happen
as long as I kept reciting them.
I had a habit of reciting ayatulkursi whenever I was alone.

(04:28):
After one deep breath, I braved up,
began my recitation, and started to walk.
The very moment
I stepped foot on the shamshan grounds,
a black cat emerged from the shadowsin front of me,
staring directly toward mewith unnaturally bright

(04:51):
green eyes.
The path was lit with some moonlight,and that helped me to see.
But it was as if the cat's eyes
were lit by the noonday sun.
The cat prowled toward me.
At first it was confident,but then it hesitated

(05:12):
when it reached earshot of my whispered
prayers.
At that point,it began hissing and baring its teeth.
As I took a step closer,
the cat inched back,but it hissed even louder.
It put its back and its tail up,

(05:33):
and for a moment I could have sworn
I saw the glint of the rubyred moonlit blood
dripping from its teeth.
I continued reciting the ayatul kursi over
and over, louderwith each passing recitation,
and I kept my eyes locked on the creature

(05:56):
as I continued to plod forward.
Suddenlythe sound of nupur fueled the night.
The jingling of the anklet
bells was then joined by giggling.
From my peripheral vision, I saw a woman
running at the edge of the treeline in a red sari.

(06:17):
She was beautiful, enticing me
to avert my gaze from the path ahead of me
and to follow her into the jungle.
I nearly looked away from the black cat,
but something about the hungrylook in its eyes
kept my attention.

(06:38):
It somehow seemed to grow largeras I approached,
even as it was backing away from me.
I kept walking forward, one foot
in front of the other, with great effort.
The sound of the nupurand the giggles continued rhythmically.
It became more difficult to focuson my prayer with every passing moment.

(07:01):
I felt as if I was drugged.
My thoughts slowed.
My breath came in gasps.
The bright red sari,the jingling bells and the throaty,
giggling voice of the womanoverwhelmed my senses.
Only my fear,and the thin slice of my mind

(07:23):
that remained conscious of how strange
this whole thingwas, kept me focused on my prayer.
I focused my mind
on the pressing need to escape this spell.
And deep down, I had a sense
that my life depended on it.

(07:48):
I was more terrified than I've ever been.
My wordsbecame a swirling jumble in my mind.
And if not for years of recitationthat made my prayers
as much a habit as breathing,my mouth may not have kept moving,
and the words may not have kept
pouring out.

(08:11):
As soon as both of my feetlanded outside of the shamshan,
I felt as if a beltthat had been tightening around me
snapped loose.
With every passing step,the sound of the nupur faded
and the black cat slinked back
into the shadow from whence it came.

(08:34):
It took everything in my powernot to run the rest of the way home,
but I could still feel an evil presence
lurking just out of view.
So I continued my prayer as the shamshan
faded into the darkness behind me.

(08:59):
I don't remember making it homethat night.
Later I was told that my sister wokein the middle of the night
to use the outhouseand she found me lying senseless
in the middle of the yard.
She said that I was tossing and turning,
still babbling the ayatul kursi.

(09:21):
I had a fever so highthat my mother said approaching me
was his walking toward a bed of coals.
It was a feverno one thought I would come out of.
A fever I remember nothing of.
But soon enough,

(09:42):
I began to recover.
Even weeks later, though,the breeze through our yard carried
the scent of brimstone.
The village chiefs and the elderswere all in agreement that if I hadn't
had my prayers with me that night,I surely would have never made it home.

(10:07):
If that entity posing as a beautiful woman
had succeeded in distracting me,
I may not have survived.
Needless to say,that was the last time I ever took
a shortcut.

(10:44):
Hey, folks.
Thanks for listeningto our second episode.
We hope you got the chills.
If you like what you heard,then you'll want to stay tuned
because we have plentymore spook to share.
We would appreciate itif you would take a moment to like
and subscribe on YouTube, followand read this wherever

(11:05):
you get your podcastsand follow us on Instagram.
But whatever you do, do yourself a favor
and stay scared.