It happened on Walker Hill on a beautiful
summer afternoon. The accident that people talk about till today and just can’t
understand how it could have happened.
Or why?
But for some of us who know better, it is
clear- it was no accident. The Honda car that was involved in the accident had
gone over the protective iron railings and of the three men, travelling in that
car, one was dying and the other two gravely injured with multiple fractures and severe bruising. And in the
moments that Jatanbir breathed his last, he told his father Harjit and brother
Amandeeep, ‘It finally managed to get us. I knew all along that this would
happen one day, the only thing that I didn’t know was which day would be my
last. Look after yourselves and please….please look after my children.”
A tortured breath escaped his lips, his eyes
rolled up and he finally found the peace that he had been craving. Finally, in death, if not in
his entire life of 43 years.
On a beautiful summer afternoon |
For that I will need to tell you a little
about Walker Hill. And later, I will tell you how that accident happened. Or at
least, the version that Harjit and Amandeep told us.
A small town on the outskirts of Shimla, Walker Hill is built on a hill, 5 km west to the Shimla Ridge and is
a part of the seven-hill cluster. In the
past, Walker Hill has been used as a residence for Mahatma Gandhi, who stayed
here at the Georgian mansion of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur during his Shimla
visits. These pine and deodhar laden slopes have many quaint residences, like the one
belonging to the family of painter Amrita Shergil (1913-1941).Besides
being a popular tourist destination, the Indian Institute of Advanced
Studies (established 1965), housed in the former Viceregal Lodge, which
was built in 1884-88, is on the nearby Observatory Hill. Today, it hosts
the Himachal Pradesh University, which mainly offers post graduate
programmes in Humanities, Commerce, Science, Management, Law and Languages, and
was started in 1975.
In the early 1930’s, a wealthy landlord from Punjab, Sardar Tarlok
Singh Sachhar bought an estate called ‘Oakley’ from Brigadier David Bryant, an
Englishman who had made India his home after retiring from the Indian army.
Sardar Tarlok Singh knew he had managed to get that estate at a real bargain.
With over 20 acres of land, apple orchards and a large, beautifully built main
house with 5 bedrooms spread over two floors, indoor plumbing, water and
electricity, it was an absolute delight. And so it became the annual summer
retreat for the entire Sacchar clan, including his bachelor son, Manvinder and
three daughters Kulvinder, Sukhpreet and Amrita who would congregate there for
the summer vacations bringing their children with them. It was an idyllic time
for all and they absolutely adored the fabulous weather, the picnics in the orchards
complete with teatime treats- including clotted cream and strawberry jam
sandwiches, scones and fruit cake, or at other times, a packed lunch with
delicious dry ‘chicken masala’, ‘sookhe aloo’ and ‘paronthis’ as they were
called in Punjabi.
And they had a free
run of the entire estate, all except the old garden shed in one corner of the
estate. Sardar Tarlok Singh had made it clear to all that it was the one area
that they must never venture towards as that was the reason why he had managed
to buy Oakley at such a bargain. Just before handing signing over the property
to him, Brigadier David Bryant had shared the reason why he was selling the
estate that he had grown to love so dearly and moving back to Oxford in England.
He was convinced that his son Captain Jason had met an untimely death at the
hands of Kamalini, the innocent and beautiful gardener’s daughter who he had
enticed, impregnated and finally deserted when she had insisted that he must
marry her. When he had outright rejected her and his unborn child, she had gone
to the garden shed in one corner of the estate, locked it from inside and hung herself on the wooden
beam that ran from one end to the other.
By the time her father, the gardener Roshan
Lal finally managed to break down that door with the help of the other
servants, it was too late. She was dead, as was the five month old baby boy she had been carrying.
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It was only a few days later that Jason
started to look terrified. When his father asked him what was bothering him,
all he managed to stutter was that he wouldn’t be around for much longer and
that no one should have any doubts as to what had happened to him when they
came upon his dead body.
For Kamalini had come to him on the very next
day after her death and promised him, that she would have her revenge.
As it happened, both Jason and Kamalini were
right because they found Jason hanging at the very spot that Kamalini herself
had been found. Some of the servants thought that it might have been a case of
suicide, but Brigadier David Bryant knew better. For he too, had seen the dead
Kamalini walking through the gardens in the early hours of the morning, and
knew that it was a mere matter of time.
Which was exactly what he shared with Sardar
Tarlok Singh when he sold him the estate and the gentleman still went ahead and
bought the estate. You see, he knew that he would never be able to get such
prime property for such a low price.
Time passed and after his death, his only son
Manvinder inherited that estate. Or so everybody believed, as he occupied and
started spending his summers there while he continued to live in Jalandhar in
Punjab managing his farmlands during the rest of the year. Since he was a
bachelor, there really weren’t any complications and he had a very efficient
estate manager, Hukam Chand who kept his life stress free and the estates in
Punjab and Himachal running smoothly.
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1995
Things have a way of changing and sometimes
they tend to take an ugly turn. As is exactly what happened when Harjit, (Kulvinder's son) found a loophole in the their dead
grandfather's will and decided to take matters into his own hands. Accompanied by his
sons Jatanbir and Karamjeet, one fine day, they drove straight into Oakley in
their 4WD, broke the front lock and after gaining entry into the main house,
set up home and hearth in the estate.
Harjit was an alcoholic and had three sons of whom Jatanbir was the oldest. Jatanbir was also the most cunning of them all and despite not having had the
opportunity of a college education as he was always busy trying to pick up the
pieces left behind by his drunk father, he also had the responsibility of
providing for the rest of the family, which by then comprised of the ‘Gen next’
as well, as he as well as his brothers were married and had families of their
own by then.
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From here, a chain of inexplicable events
begin to unfold and things soon begin to spiral out of control. Weird things
happen and one day a Honda car is seen by eyewitnesses as “ flying high up into
the air, almost as if it had been thrown
up like a giant ball.“
This was followed by a loud bang after which
there was only silence.
Followed by the groans of the grievously
wounded and dying.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It happened on Walker Hill on a beautiful
summer afternoon. The accident that people talk about till today and just can’t
understand how it could have happened.
Or why?
But for some of us who know better, it is
clear- it was no accident. The Honda car that was involved in the accident had
gone over the protective iron railings and of the three men, travelling in that
car, one was dying and the other two gravely injured with multiple fractures and severe bruising. And in the
moments that Jatanbir breathed his last, he told his father Harjit and brother
Amandeeep, ‘It finally managed to get us. I knew all along that this would
happen one day, the only thing that I didn’t know was which day would be my
last.
"Look after yourselves and please….please look after my children.”
4 comments:
Divine justice - don't know if it really happens. Nice story
Great narration. Kept me hooked till the end.
Sometimes I do believe in SN powers.
Awesome and nail biting....loved it...very interesting read Sunaina :)
Many thanks Somali= Im a great believer in Divine justice...
Indrani- Glad you liked it!
Shweta-Many thanks!
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