I was watching a podcast on YouTube from where I heard this true story that gave me chills down my spine !!
The incidence is from Madh Islands, a bunch of islands in the outskirts of Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra.
Madh islands are still not very well developed. It is still considered a remote place with roads built around forest areas. Not all parts of the roads are well lit by streetlights; some don’t even have them. Only very few residential properties are there. Many stories and rumours surround a specific stretch of the road in the island being haunted.
Around 20 years ago, a female friend of the narrator (I don’t remember her name so let’s just call her Pooja) went to visit one of her friends who used to live in Madh island. It was around 1:00 am. Luckily, she found an empty taxi passing by. She sat down at the backseat.
The driver seemed to be weirdly silent. It felt like something was off, as if something wasn’t right. Pooja felt a very strange, weird, eerie vibe. She didn’t want to get late anymore so she decided to stay in the taxi and not take another. But the moment she stepped inside the taxi, something felt really off. Little did she realise, she soon came to know why.
After a few moments of driving, Pooja noticed that someone was sitting besides her. An old lady, with a big, creepy smile on her face, dressed up in a white saree ( a traditional dress of Indian women) sat besides her, but not looking towards her but staring in front, not looking towards Pooja. Pooja noticed all this with the corner of her eyes. She could not believe if this was all real. She did not dare to take a look; as if if she did, all this would become real. She didn’t know and frankly didn’t want to know what will she do if she dared to look at the lady and she turned her head and looked directly towards her. She could see that the lady was smiling not even by looking at her, just from her peripheral vision.
Pooja was frozen; her face grew pale, not knowing what to do, fear growing every moment that what would happen if she turned her head to see her. At this point, tears rolled down her eyes. Praying to god that her destination arrives soon, she kept her eyes straight the whole time.
Nobody talked throughout the journey. Pooja dared not even to look at the driver, let alone, this old lady.
A few minutes pass by and she reaches the destination. The taxi stops outside the frontgate of her friends villa. It would still take a minute’s walk to reach the doorbell as it was a huge villa. Pooja tells the driver to drop her inside, in front of the door. For some reason the driver hesitates but gives in as Pooja insists him, now crying. She is unable to take it anymore. She just wants to jump out of the taxi and run as fast as she can but does not wants the driver to leave her alone.
The car drops her in. The old lady is still sitting, smiling, but not looking at Pooja As soon as the car stops, Pooja jumped out of the car and gave the driver the money, still not looking at the lady, still crying.
But as soon as the driver took the money, he looked at Pooja. With a blunt face, somewhat scared, he asked her,” excuse me, ma’am”? Pooja turned,” yes”? He said,” You saw that lady, didn’t you?”