CHENNAI: Partha Sarathy, a resident of Villivakkam who works for a major IT company in Anna Salai, was returning home after work late one night last year when his heart almost stopped beating. Though he was taking his usual route through New Avadi Road, that night he felt as if someone was riding pillion with him. It was around 11.30 pm and he had a feeling he knew who had boarded his motor-bike, from the smell of the jasmine flowers. Partha’s mother had been advising him not to take this road. As a chill ran down his spine, Partha, without turning back to take a look, rode home as fast as he could. He has never failed to follow his mother’s advice since. He is not the only two-wheeler rider who avoids that stretch of road at night. Kavitha, who has lived on that road for the last five years, attributes the ghosts to a vacant two-acre ground opposite her house. Overgrown with thorny bushes, the fenced premises belong to the Integral Coach Factory. The grounds hold a well which has been used by at least three persons to commit suicide, she says. It is also the spot that some men chose to murder a local resident some time ago. “We too hear the wails of a woman only to find no one around when we look through the window,” Kavitha says.Pedestrians passing through here have shared experiences of hearing anklet sounds at night although no one is seen in the vicinity. Some people have even fallen ill after they were frightened by such encounters.An auto driver here adds that though many believe that the ghosts appear from a nearby cemetery, they actually emerge from the well inside the vacant plot. Wherever the ghosts are from, the fear they elicit ensures that the road is deserted after 10 pm, which has turned out to be a boon for anti-social elements, particularly muggers.
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