Driving him crazy

THE NONSENSE FILE
By The Colonel

I must tell you a story that I heard, which was so chilling in concept as to put even Alfred Hitch cock's Psycho in the shade. This happened a month ago near Dehradun. A young Army captain on leave was driving from Ambala to Mussoorie and decided to take a side road to see the beautiful countryside of the Shivaliks. The inevitable happened and his car broke down in the middle of nowhere. Having no choice, he started walking, hoping to get a lift to the nearest town. Soon it was dark and it started to rain. He was drenched and shivering and as the night rolled on, he was almost in panic.

He saw a car coming towards him. It slowed and then stopped next to him. Without thinking, the captain opened the door and jumped in. Seated in the back, he leaned forward to thank the person who had saved him when he realised that there was nobody behind the wheel!

Even though there was no one in the front seat and the engine was quiet, the car started moving slowly. He looked at the road ahead and saw a curve coming up. He was scared to death by now. He had barely come out of the shock when, just before he hit the curve, a hand appeared and moved the wheel! The car made the curve safely and continued on the road to the next bend. The captain, now paralysed with terror, watched how the hand appeared at every curve and moved the car just enough to get it around each bend.

Finally, the captain saw lights ahead. Gathering courage, he opened the door of the slow-moving car, scrambled out and ran as fast as he could towards the lights. It was a small town dhaba near Rajpura.

He stumbled into the dhaba, asked for a double large, a Patiala peg at that, and broke down. He was the cynosure of all eyes as he related his horrible experience. In the gaps between his monologue, there was sepulchral silence, as ghost stories were rampant in the Doon Valley.

And that is when Santa and Banta Singh walked into the dhaba. Santa announced: "Look Banta. That is the weird guy who got into our car when we were pushing it."

(The Week, 02:08:2009)
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