A Night At The Room No. 310

It was the month of June 2009, the month of hot waves, humidity, and little showers. I was working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics. I and my HOD, Dr. Ashima Ganguli went to Technocratic Engineering Institute Durgapur to attend a three days workshop on “Nanotechnology” on 24th June. It was the first time for me to be out of home alone without family. So I was a little scared. But the company of Dr. Ganguli gave me confidence and strength. About a hundred participants including lecturers, Assistant Professors, Research Scholars, and others from Engineering sectors across the country from different institutions came to participate in this workshop. The college management arranged our stay in the guest house generally used for the visitors.

All A.C rooms were equipped that day so the caretaker of the guest house arranged for us in a non-AC room. Anyhow, we passed the humid night. The next day after the workshop the caretaker arranged an A.C room, Room no. 310 on the 4th floor. As I stepped into the room I felt some unusual vibes. The peace in the room was actually creating horrible noises which could be heard by me only because Dr. Ganguli looked very cool. The infrastructure was as we saw in horror movies: large bed, mirror, curtains, chandeliers, etc. At that moment I was actually thinking of my family and my home as the safest place in this world. Before shifting to that room we thought that tonight we would enjoy the sleep but it was absolutely wrong. 

After dinner, we went to bed at about 11 pm. The electrical switches were inbuilt on the wooden wall attached to the bed for our comfort. One dim light and A.C were running so no need for fans. At about 1 am suddenly I was shivering due to the cold. Dr. Ganguli thought that I switched on the fans because the switches were near my bed so she asked me to put them off. I told her that I hadn’t done this. I thought that might be the switches were touched by mistake. She ignored but I couldn’t. Then after half an hour a new shock, the tube lights lighted by own. But still, the same question who did this. As the night was passing my heartbeats were fluctuating faster. But the extreme case happened at about 2:45 a.m when Dr. Ganguli called me in a frightening voice, she asked me whether I had gone to the washroom a few seconds back. I nodded my head saying ‘ No' because my tongue was frozen in fear. Dr. Ganguli had seen a shadow going and coming out of the washroom that was in front of our beds. The scenes of horror movies were crossing one by one in my eyes. The whole night the unknown shadow was roaming here and there that I could feel by the unusual sounds of footsteps. The lights and fans were running randomly and frequently themselves. The lights and noise of blades were so terrible that I had thought that a sudden major heart attack would end my life and I would never meet my family again. Dr. Ganguli was undergoing the same thoughts. It was the unseen terrifying power of the unknown image. We had understood that nothing is in our hands. That night I witnessed the reality of the power of souls which I had heard in stories and in movies. Dr. Ganguli told me to pray to God, it would help to sleep calmly. I don’t know how she sleeps or acts like sleeping. But it was absolutely sure that I couldn’t sleep anymore. I was only waiting for the sunrise so that I could move out of the room and ran away to my home. I had closed my eyes so tightly that it couldn’t be opened to see any horrible face that I had assumed in my thoughts. I was extremely shivering and sweating to such an extent that I was in the rain 

As the sun rays reached the room through the windows and heard the birds chirping I took a deep breath consoling myself that I am out of fear now and pray that today we could get another room. We decided not to share this incident with others because others might not believe us and would make fun of us.

 At the breakfast table, the caretaker asked me how was the last night. Dr. Ganguli replied that we had a nice sleep. He repeated the same question several times. At last, I broke and cried. Dr. Ganguli holds my hands and in annoying sound, she asked him why he provided us that room, Room No. 310, and shared the whole incident of last night. On the request of Dr. Ganguli, he had arranged this AC room. Now he told the fact behind these incidents. 

About 10 years ago in 1999 in the month of June parents of Shalini Das, a student of B.Tech ( Electrical) had come to leave her to the hostel. That day her 2nd Semester result was declared. She got supplementary in two papers. She couldn’t bear the failure and she hanged herself on the fan in that room where we were staying. And her parents were in the next room. The next morning, they found their daughter hanging. It was their greatest loss. It is heard that both of them committed suicide at their residence in the same way within three days. From that day whoever stayed in that room couldn’t sleep calmly and many of them left the room within 2-3 hours. It should have declared haunted but the college management didn’t believe what people horrible experiences. So it was still kept open for visitors. 

The uncertain deaths of the whole family actually represent the unbearable stress of students and youth. Not only Shalini there are numerous students of every age group who are undergoing stress of competitions, studies, and best performance in exams. Nobody is prepared to face failure. Either he/ she commit suicide or engage himself /herself in criminal activities. I have passed through the same circumstances and still under extreme pressure. Souls of Shalini like students are still waiting for their companions because our society is pushing the children to such mindsets. It doesn’t mean that the parents & schools don’t be strict about the studies but should create a friendly environment around the children so that they could share their issues and difficulties without any hesitation. Competition is definitely good for the growth and development of students but it should be healthy that is it shouldn’t promote negativity.

This horrible experience of a night is not as terrifying as much as the present scenarios. That night is immortal in my memories and wishes that it would never be experienced by anyone and no family would suffer the losses of their children.