A SCARY NIGHT AT SID'S RETREAT

A SCARY NIGHT AT SID'S RETREAT!

We boarded the train for Kolkata the next day.The gardener and his wife were crying as we left.I was also very emotional. Tears rolled down my cheeks. My husband and I hugged them and gave them around 5000/ rupees to repair their shack.They were both aged around 50 years.They were refusing the money but we forced them to take.it.They told us that they felt very guilty because they knew everything about our room in the resort..They knew that our room was haunted as chote sahib stayed in that room only .They also told us that his name was Sidharth sood and his nick name was Sid and the resort was named after chote sahib and was called Sid's retreat.My husband said that every thing that they did to save me was enough to forgive their guilt

The couple was childless and I felt very bad for them.My husband told them that they should permanently close the room that we stayed in Sid's retreat so that no other person suffers the way I suffered. They promised us that they would inform the new owner about it.The train whistle blew and it started running slowly on the railway tracks.I waved my final goodbye to the couple and sat on the window seat.I was looking outside just blankly with a lot of commotion going in my mind.What a harrowing experience? ..One of it's kind.A never felt before feeling. I felt like I was loosing all my sanity.After having chai and hot pakoras I got up to brush my hair.I stood infront of the mirror in our compartment. I saw my face and I was taken aback.I had dark circles all around my eyes and my face had lost all its glow.I looked emaciated and malnourished .I couldn't recognize myself. Why me I thought? The whole experience was going on like a record in my head.My mind was on a rewind mode.I noticed a holy pendant on my neck.It was tied by the gardener's wife.I kissed it and thanked the gardener's wife in my mind.Ultimately they had saved me.We reached home and after having a warm bath I hugged and kissed my baby.I fed him and forgot everything like a nightmare. I never shared anything with my in laws except that I had a bout of fever and infection. My husband still believed that it was only fever and allergy.One day while reading a newspaper I saw an article about kalimpong .It was an old newspaper. It mentioned about Sid's retreat that how it was burnt down by a mentally unstable man a few years ago.I didn't want to go ahead and read it but now I was curious. I somehow collected the correspondent's phone number from the newspaper office and gave him a ring.At first he was least interested to talk to me but then I pleaded him for a meeting. He met me at a cafe.I took the newspaper cutting and asked him about the fire in Sid's retreat.He said that it was a very old story and why was I interested in that? I just told him to give me the information. He told me that around 3 years ago a son of the resort's gardener suddenly lighted fire in his room .Room no 302.He was in his twenties and his name was sidharth kaul .He was mentally unstable and was teased by people of his age especially the owner's son who was his age.He first pushed the owner's son in the valley and then lighted the fire in his room. He was basically teased for not having any woman companion in his life.Okay now I felt a pang of pain .A pain of hurt and betrayal by the gardener couple but I forgave them because they were ripped of their son forever.Things have moved on in my life but a place to travel always gives me jitters.We always carry our holy books and wear our pendants before entering any hotel or resort room.