The Pearls of Catharsis Times Issue 04, July 2017 | Page 72

the accident took place! The freaked-out police again took the motorcycle,
emptied its fuel tank and locked and chained it. Thwarting all the attempts,
the bike disappeared again and any guesses where was it found?
Yup, in the accident site again! (No brownie points for that.)
What seems like a spooky tale turned out to be a miracle for the locals who
actually began worshipping the ‘Bullet Bike’. In no time, Late Om Singh
Rathore became ‘Bullet Baba’ or ‘Mast Baba’! Urr.. what’s so ‘mast’ in
colliding your Bullet in a tree and haunting your bike after your death?
The story doesn’t end here. On an absurd suggestion by a Balongi resident,
a shrine was built where the motorcycle was kept inside a huge glass cuboid
and since then, every day, devotees flock this “temple”. I have even seen
people wear lockets of Om Banna and humming folk songs dedicated to
him!
With no offense to anyone’s religious sentiments, I strongly believe that Om
Banna is nothing but a product of what happens when people confuse
religious doings with the supernatural. Instead of praying for the Late’s soul
to rest in peace, people chose to make him a godhead and worship him.
The next on the list is Chittorgarh. Considered as a history lover’s paradise,
this place has its own share of hair-raising tales. The Chittorgarh Fort, once
used to be a place of one of the most excruciating practices-Jauhar. In the
medieval times, the ‘ranis’ of the defeated kings used to perform Jauhar or
the act of self-immolation by jumping in ‘Jauhar kunds’, the special rooms of
fire. The sole aim was to protect themselves from capture, slavery and rape
by the conquering enemies.
Rani Padmini (or Padmavati), queen of Ratansen of Chittor, performed
jauhar in 1303, within the periphery of the Chittorgarh fort. Centuries after
this painful act, Padmini’s restless soul is still believed to be trapped in the
fort.
Recently, a group of friends reaccounted their spine-chilling experience on
visiting this fort. It was late evening and these friends were loitering
around, admiring the grandeur of the fort. Suddenly, they heard someone
crying for help and when they turned around, they saw a woman dressed in
bridal attire staring at them with a completely burnt face!