Bon voyage !!

Snow covered mountains,sandy beaches, lush green fields, isolated islands are some of the key destinations of Every traveller’s wish list. I too had similar places in my mind when I started penning down my travel bucket list. While the world is filled with tourist places, being an Indian, the first place we think of going is GOA. And let’s be honest, I was no different. 

I was so excited to go on my first journey with few of my friends. We booked tickets, googled everything we could and mind u, all this was a month before we actually had to travel.

One day before the travel, all 4 of us went for drinks. We were all so excited. Anil was the only One who could drive. Aditya, Salman and i were beginners but on scary roads of Delhi we couldn’t afford to drive with immature experience. That too, one day before Goa. We went to a bar, had a few drinks. We had flight the next day at 11:00 am. Anil was too drunk to drive but we didn’t had any other option. As we were coming back, a drunk truck driver came from the other lane, and rammed into our car. Aditya, an experienced driver, was not able to hold the steering. We were also going at 120 km per hour. due to this sudden push, we moved to the other end of the road and my head struck the handle above the door window. I started feeling a bit dizzy. A car was coming from the same lane towards us. We missed them by an inch and they drove right past us. As my eyes were getting dark, I saw a family, a father, a mother, a girl and a boy. I was having so much pain but I was relieved that a big accident has been avoided. 

I woke up at 8:00 am the next day. I saw my 3 amigos standing outside, cursing me for nodding off. I asked what happened. They said if I would have not Got up, they would’ve killed me for ruining the trip. I asked what happened in the night? They said we were saved by An inch. The truck driver got arrested after 2 kms. The car was also fine. I had a little bump on my head but that was not stopping me from going on my first trip

We went to airport. The 4 Musketeers, boarded the plain and landed in the state of dreams. Go Goaaaaaaa!!!!

We boarded a cab exactly As I saw on google few days back. Even the driver was same. I was so surprised. What a coincidence ! He drove us to the hotel in north Goa which we had booked earlier as per travel guide’s ratings. It was exactly as i saw on the net. I was happy that first time in our lives we were getting what was promised

The Bagha beach was 5 km away from our hotel. We hardly stayed 15 minutes in the room and went directly to Bagha beach. Amazing, simply amazing. Exactly as I imagined and saw on YouTube.This trip is turning out be my greatest adventure till date. We sat in A beach restaurant, drank, had food. 

I witnessed the most amazing evening. The setting, the music, The people everything was fantastic. All three wanted to go back to the hotel but I stayed. I said I’ll come back in a bit. I was sitting alone. I ordered a beer. The waiter came. His name was Max. He was a local. I started asking him about Goan culture and everything. Since the rush was not much, he also extended the courtesy and started telling me about Goa and it’s history. I thought everything I have googled is true as a local resident of Goa is telling me the same things. This is the first time internet has been honest. We conversed for like 2 hours

I read somewhere about a catastrophic event in Goa called “Nayugi”. It’s basically used to happen in the time of Portuguese rule. In it, nobody will come outside of their house after dark. No shop will open. Not a single beam of light will be there. It is said that on the day of “Nayugi” all the people who have died and descended into hell will come To life and kill anyone who will look into their eyes. They will take one alive prisoner from this world with them on their ship. These people are called “Netu”. It is regarded that on the night of Nayugi, only Netu people will be roaming outside. They will only leave once the first ray of natural light will come from the sky. I was listening to this very carefully. And the local started laughing while telling the story. He said sir you should look at your face. This is all superstitious nonsense. It never happened. People used to tell this story to avoid going in night. I laughed and the conversation went on

I went to the hotel room. We had two rooms. I was staying with Aditya and Salman was staying with Anil. I was tired and wanted to sleep, rest of them wanted to go out. 

Aditya was after my life to watch 3rd season of breaking bad. He always treated me like his brother. He loved me more than my real brother. Nobody can even touch me if Aditya was there. Even his family members treated me like their own child. I too had similar regards for him. We were inseparable from the age of 5. He once almost lost his life saving mine.

I so wanted to sleep. Instead, I told him the ancient story of Nayugi. He got bored. And I went to sleep. It was 9:00 pm in the night. I set an alarm at 5:00 am to go for a run on the beach in my mobile

I woke in the night at 1:00 o’clock. The electricity was gone. Aditya was sleeping on the next bed. I opened my mobile. Low battery pop up came. I switched on torch and went to the loo. I came out and thought I should look outside. It was pitch black and silent. Even the ocean was 5 km away, you can hear the sound waves. In our hotel not single soul, not even a security guard was visible

I came back frightened in the room and and woke aditya up. The whole concept of Nayugi was right in front of my face. I told aditya that It is the same as the waiter told me. Aditya never believed in this shit. He said I have gone mad. Yet I was sure that something bad is happening. The setting was so similar as I saw on google about this whole phenomenon 

He told me not worry. He’s there for me. We wanted to check on Anil and Salman as they were in next room. We somehow went into the room and saw nobody. the door was open though. We went to the lobby. Nobody was There at the reception. We checked every corner but all the rooms were locked and nobody said anything. We tried breaking into one room but when it was opened, nobody was there either. We rushed back to our room. Then I remembered salman saying, they wanted to go out. May be they went out and now they must be hiding like everybody else.We didn’t knew what to do. Aditya suggested that we should go outside and look for Salman and Anil. But I was hesitant. I said they must be ok. There mobile phones were in their room and discharged. I knew something bad was happening

Aditya was trying so hard to convince me to go outside. I was not at all agreeing. He said if you will not go, you will regret this your whole life that you couldn’t help your friends in need. I asked what about us and he said -“ you will always be my brother. I will never let any bad thing happen to you. I will always be there for you no matter what”.

I said let’s go but let’s be discreet. We went Outside and I was literally frightened to the core. The entire lane was totally blank. Not a single person, dog, not even a rodent. We started walking towards the main road. As we reached to the main road, we saw nothing but sound of waves and pitch black darkness. The door / gate of every house was closed. Not even a single ray of light.

We started moving but we weren’t sure where to go. I said they wanted to go to the beach. So we started going towards the beach. As we started, we started hearing deep humming sound of a group of individuals. We were very frightened and started moving towards them.

The humming Sound was coming from the beach. As we moved a bit further, we saw, after 100 feet, the fog has staarted and now the sound became more audible. It took all of our strength to go into the fog. Aditya kept motivating me. He kept saying I’ll never let anything happy to you. That was the only thing that was giving me confidence.

I kept moving into The fog and after some time the fog was over. And we couldn’t believe our eyes. There were around 5000 people assembled on the beach. Every single person looked like the same. There description was exactly what I read in that article about Nayugi and Netu tribe. They were huge men with eyes on fire. They all had long hairs. There face was covered with masks. They all had big weapons.

My worst nightmare has just gone real. I was frightened and was not able to see Salman and Anil. I didn’t wanted to go further but Aditya was insisting. we were sure that something bad has happened. All those giant monsters were looking towards the see.

We couldn’t believe our eyes as we’ve seen the biggest ship asecending towards Bagha beach. We were near an ATM and it took few minutes for us to actually believe what we’re witnessing. The ship was similar to the black pearl in pirates of Caribbean movie. The ship came to the shore and we saw all Of them going in the ship

As we were watching this unbelievable scene, suddenly a hand came through ATM cabin and we were pulled inside. It was Salman and Anil inside the ATM. They were more frightened than us. But there was a sigh of relief now as now we knew we all were safe

We started looking towards the ship and trying to understand what we were witnessing. A lost ritual, thousand years old , was unfolding in front of our eyes

We didn’t realise but I had my phone with me. It was now 5:00 am in the morning . Suddenly the alarm went on which I had set earlier for jogging

I tried to shut it but the Monsters had heard it. Around 2000 of these monsters started coming towards us. They came into the atm cabin and dragged us out. They started beating us. They cut down one hand of Salman and broke Anil’s leg. They chopped two of my fingers. I was bleeding. We were so afraid that we weren’t able to utter any word. They started talking to each other that how come these 4 have left. They have slaughtered everyone in Goa. Now we understood why there was no one in entire hotel or streets of Goa. These monsters had killed everyone. Only we were left.

As they were dragging me, aditya kept telling me not to worry. He will keep me safe. He won’t let anything Bad happen to me. Salman and Anil were both unconscious and they thought they were dead. They threw them on the beach. They dragged me and aditya into the Ship.

The darkness was now starting to vanish very slowly. They took us to the ship. As we were standing there, they said we only had to take one of them alive to the other side of the world and kill other soon. The light was coming. They were hell bound to take me with them and kill Aditya. We were standing on the deck while they were talking. Aditya looked at me and said “remember what I said, I won’t let ever anything happen to you”. He smiled at me with teary eyes and pushed me into the ocean. As I was going down, I saw my friend smiling, saving my life by giving his own. I cried with my whole heart as I was falling from this mighty ship. Before I could touch water, I saw the ray of light coming through the ocean and the ship, the Netu tribe and Aditya started to vanish slowly into thin air. The moment I touched the water, they were all gone

Aditya, I cried. Waking Up in a hospital with bandages on my forehead and eyes. I couldn’t see because of the bandages. I started yelling. The nurse and the doctors came and tried to calm me down. I kept asking for Aditya. They didnt said a word. They gave me sedative and I went back to sleep

I woke up again next day. I asked where am I. “You are in a hospital” – A voice murmured. It was Salman’s voice. I couldn’t believe my ears.he came and hugged me. Anil came after 5 minutes. I was never happier in my life. Though I still had bandages on my eyes. I didn’t ask about Aditya as I knew what has happened.

I was happy that Salman and Anil were there and well. The doctors left and we started talking. I said “some trip” guys. And they said what? I said – “Goa, man”. They said -“what Goa. We never went to Goa”

I literally went into a different state. I didn’t knew how to respond to this. We were destroyed in Goa. I lost my friend there. What are these people saying. I said “ guys what are you saying, where am I, how long I was out? What about Goa, Nayugi? Aditya?

As they started talking, I went into a state of madness !!

” you are in AIIMS, New Delhi. It’s been a week that you were in coma. Remember the accident we had before going to Goa ?? I said “ what accident, we were lucky that we survived. It was a minor accident”

Salman said – “you might not remember It but it was one of the worst accidents of recent past in Delhi. Anil was driving the car, drunk. the truck driver pushed us in a different lane. We got to the other side of the road and crashed into a van. The whole family of 4 died on the spot in the van. We then rammed into a scaffolding on the side of the road. You and Aditya were stuck. We got out. We tried to get you and Aditya out but the scaffolding started to fall. Aditya pushed you aside and the entire scaffolding came on to the car. He died saving you. You lost your eyes. I lost my hand. Anil lost his leg.”

A very disturbing fact was about to be unravelled now

everything was clear to me now. All the things which I was seeing about the journey of Goa were actually made through the visions I had from the pictureS and YouTube videos I had seen earlier. Even the whole concept of Nayugi was written in an article. The entire thinG was my imagination as subconsciously in my mind, the accident never happened. 

Everything I saw was exactly the way I had imagined before going for the trip. Even in my imagination, Aditya was the one who saved my life.

After A few days my eye bandage was removed and I could see everything. I saw in the mirror that the colour of my eyes was different. I was a bit surprised. I came to know that my eyes were totally damaged and they had to replace my eyes with a donor

Salman came in the room. I saw him. He started crying and said “welcome back my friend”

He then told me the donor of these eyes was none other than “Aditya”. Even after he is dead, he kept his words of not letting anything happen to me…

With teary eyes I remembered him smiling on the ship. I will always be in his debt. I looked up in the sky and said “Bon voyage, my brother”…