Torna trek – The journey of lifetime that left us with some unforgettable traumatic experiences

India is a nation having numerous forts and palaces distributed mainly in the northern and western belts. Many of those have their existence since time immemorial & have played an important role in shaping the history of the country. The country has been ruled by a number of rulers within the nation and outside the nation. Many of these forts leave good as well as bitter memories of past of bloodshed and glory. The state of Maharashtra located in the western half of India is house to many such forts. Many of these are located in the Shayadri Mountain ranges and are a trekker’s paradise especially during the monsoons. Since these forts have been the scene of large scale death, destruction and damage during battles between warring factions for supremacy, some of these forts also have a reputation of being haunted. I as most of us all didn’t believe in any such paranormal activities before but that night changed our lives like forever. We three friends still feel someone is following us as dark falls. I never repent in my life until now for any of my actions but after that very incident I often ask myself “Was the night stay at Torna Fort necessary?”

This incident happened some two years before in 2012 when I had just returned from a vacation. It was the month of September and it was pouring more than usual that day. Three of us namely I, Arun & Kranti decided to go for an overnight trek to one of the old deserted forts to unwind, relax and enjoy nature. It is after all a different experience to spend the night in the lap of nature and natural beauty. We had heard some stories and rumors of the fort being haunted but nevertheless decided to carry on just for the experience.

This fort is situated around 70 Kms from Pune and is around 1400 meters above sea level. If you have a prior experience in trekking then it is approximately a six hour trek to the fort. We started at around 7 AM in the morning & were fully geared up to spend the night on the fort. As usual I always carry a match box along with me for lighting fire. We had even planned a barbeque for the night time once we reach the fort. We got the bus to Bhor bypass and from there we reached the base village  in approximately an hour. We were carrying sufficient food with us (including biscuits, chips) and water. As we were heading towards the mountain we noticed a man approaching us. He pointed his fingers at us and directed us to go in the other direction, the one which moved over a bridge and was connecting to the mountain at a distance. As per his experience it was an easy way to climb the rocks. We went in the advised route but after walking for a while it appeared as if we have been misguided by that man. We finally managed to sneak through the paddy fields near the mountain base to catch the lane that directed us on the right way. With constant effort we reached up to a level where the same bridge which was appearing some meters before, appeared merely some centimeters now. The air was wet, fresh and we could feel tiny droplets of water over our faces. There were a couple of other trekkers like us on the way to fort. They were very friendly and we soon began chatting. They told us that they had trekked to the fort a couple of times before but always left before sundown. When we told them of our plans to stay there overnight, they looked concerned and told us about reports of spirits and haunting which were reported earlier. When they found that we were determined to spend the night there on fort, one of them insisted that we stay in the temple located at the entrance of the fort which was considered safe by locals. Arun in specific was too much inclined towards paranormal activities.

Till this time we were pretty much casual about the unknowing incident which we were soon to encounter. There was a sudden bifurcation of the path one of which looked very narrow and the other which was moving through the dense forests appeared pretty much wide open. We choose to move in the second pathway. After an hour of walk we finally decided to rest our feets. We could see few rocks on our way and what can be a better place to rest our feets. After having some snacks we decided to move on, when Arun and Kranti spotted the paw of a leopard on the muddy soil and it looked pretty fresh. The western half of India not to mention is a place where we have a good population count of leopards. I was a bit worried about our safety measures because a leopard can be more powerful than any other spotted cat family members like cheetah and is potentially dangerous.

Additionally we weren’t carrying any weapons to defend us. What I said to my friends was to keep a good watch at their back (leopards mostly attack from back) and then move forward. Though a leopard would never prefer to attack humans but incase accidentally we confront a leopard, then we must shout at top of your voice and clap at it raising your hands. It gives a scope to scare off the leopard as per the forest experts’ experience. After moving for a while we could hear some frantic growls from a distance accompanied with squeals of a pig. It looked like the leopard got its kill, we decided to speed away from the sight at the earliest. It was a terrifying forest where it appeared to be dark in the morning hours due to gigantic trees every where around us. The path in which we were heading eventually narrowed and getting more and more inclination. The sky turned grey by now and it looked as if it could rain any moment. We decided to speed up but at the same time we were extremely watchful as we were at a height of almost 1.4kms from the base.

Everything appeared like a miniature from that height. It was like Guilver’s world where everything gigantic appeared small but here the height was the factor. We were walking carefully taking the support of the thorny bushes to our right and there was the wide open valley to our left. Any miss from here could lead us to a great trouble. Everything which was appearing fine until now appeared to be worse when we realize the path which we were following was misleading and it ended up into the deep valley. We stopped and thought for a while about our next strategy and by now it has already started pouring. The path was steep and narrow, over this the rain further spoiled the conditions by making the path muddy and ultimately leaving behind the worst experience for us of our lifetime. Just a few meters above the place we were standing, there was a huge tree with no leaves and only a wooden framework left. We managed to move up and were extremely careful as a miss from here would drag us to the hell. Kranti climbed first and provided us support to climb. My shoes were wet and slippery. It added to the misery as I wasn’t getting much grip on the ground. We continued our climb; I wasn’t able to climb properly because of my shoes and was left behind in the race and the path that was having grasses and thorny plants until now slowly turned into a muddy lane. The inclination was approximately 70 degrees. I wasn’t able to see a distance even few meters above me, only what I could hear was the voice of my friends who were wailing and warning me to move back. I was puzzled what could have caused that, and was concerned too as I was only able to hear and not see anything above me. The inclination was a bit too much. The more I was trying to move up, the muddy slippery soil tend to pull me towards the valley.

The only thing what I could do is to lie on the muddy ground to get more friction and to avoid slipping further towards the valley. I decided to stay calm for a while since when we get agitated it worsens the situation. “My situation was similar to a duck which looks calm outside the water while it paddles like hell underneath the water.”

My face was covered with mud since I was lying flat over the muddy lane. I could see one small red crab crawling across my face. I didn’t move a muscle as it could have scared the crab which could have given a vicious bite on my face and a small wound could have disrupted my balance which I had somehow maintained until now. I let the crab go to the other end and it was moving with a lot of pride as if that very day was a crab’s day. I prayed to almighty and as a last hope I decided to move upwards as moving downwards could have been lethal for sure. I dragged my body slowly but steadily atleast for a few meters, it was a rough path so I got some deep wounds and bruises but it didn’t matter me that time since my only priority was to reach to the safer zone. I heard the voice of my friends, this time they were waving their hands on the lane upwards and pointing at me to move straight upwards. I got hold of some shrubs and finally got up over my feet which were slightly bleeding by now. Finally I reached the apex of the mountain after a long struggle for hours. We took some pictures of the panoramic view of the mountains around us, the surrounding was mesmerizing and as rightly told by someone even words and pictures fall short of the mark to express the beauty of the nature.

We could see yellow, violet and red flowers which appeared just like carpets of the nature welcoming us to the Torna Fort. The scenery from the fort was breathtaking. We could see the fort a in a range of a few meters. The fort was huge with a lot of items of historical significance. We saw many inscriptions of the historical times. We also located a small water pool which would fulfill our requirements for water required for washing my wounds, drinking and cooking. I covered my wounds with bandage just to prevent exposure from water. It was 7.00 PM and the sun had nearly set. We had already kept our stuff near the temple where we could cook & spend the night after dinner. We were carrying maggi packets and a bundle of dry grasses and wooden pieces. I found a safe and dry area to light the fire near the fort and cooked the maggi soup for the night time dinner. My friends suddenly got a crazy idea to throw some pebbles in the water pool as we do in childhood. Both of them were competing who can create more ripples on water. All of a sudden Arun fell into the water and started gasping as he didn’t knew how to swim. I came running and with the help of Kranti, we managed to pull him out of the water but after coming out of water he looked a bit shaken. As per Arun someone pushed him into the water from behind and there was no possibility that Kranti could have done this as distance wise Kranti was standing way behind Arun to do such an act.

We decided to stay inside the temple at night and started moving towards our camp. Upon reaching the camp we were all stunned and gazed at each other clueless since our cooking earthen pot containing the soup was broken deliberately by someone. The only question that came to our mind was who could be behind this act. We were getting a scare factor by now. We then decided to eat whatever biscuits and chips we were left with in our bags to kill our hunger. Arun was carrying a couple of candles which we lit after entering the temple and the lights enlightened the temple. We had sufficient space to accommodate three people inside the temple. By now night had fallen, the breeze outside was turning violent and we could hear dogs barking outside. We could feel long fetch of winds were spiraling outside the temple. I told my friends “Certain things in life cannot be predicted: Job, money and opportunity.”

It was around 11:00 PM when we heard a door knock and eventually the door knock turned into door bangs. Someone was waiting for us outside; all of a sudden Kranti shouted “Who is there at the door?”. After a few minutes the door bang stopped and then we could hear a male voice (sounded like an old man of late 60’s) repeating the same words what Kranti said “Who is there at the door?” . The voice turned horse, rude and repeated the words over and over for almost 6-7 times, it sounded as if the old man standing outside was going to diddle us all. The intensity of the door bang kept on increasing each time and then suddenly it was complete silence. Everything looked motionless and unmovable for a while. We couldn’t hear any sounds of storm or wind; it appeared as if everything got frozen. Our colors had almost turned pale by now and we were kind of getting goose bumps. All of us had become nervous wrecks. It seemed that the only thing which was preventing the evil entity outside from coming in was the presence of the deity inside the temple. None of us could manage to sleep and were staring at each other. We then heard the voice of an old lady outside the temple. Her voice was feeble but was enough to be audible. We froze into terror when she called us by our names. It is hard to express what could be the feeling of some one when he/she faces such a situation as we were facing now. Kranti and I were whispering softly: “How could she know our names? . Oh man!! Are we going to encounter with these spirits today. What a bad day is today, we got injured, lost our dinner and now it is the terror night”. The lady was giggling at us and saying “I have been here since hundreds of years and have asked for food those who can hear me. So, won’t you feed a hungry old woman”.

I summed up all my courage and answered back “We are tired and sleeping inside but we have some cooked food inside a pot near the water pool location, you can have it if you are hungry”. I was under an impression that after knowing about the food she would leave and this can end this terror night. Just when we felt that the worst was over, it started all over again. This time the banging of temple doors continued with increased intensity and abuses for around forty five minutes before it finally ceased. It was around 3AM by now and trust me none of us could sleep. All of us sat around the deity and prayed hard in such a way that we had never done before. Getting out of the fort safely was the only thing going through our minds at that time.

It was 6:00AM by my watch and we could hear the birds chirping outside. Gradually mustering up our courage, I opened the window and was relieved to find that the situation outside was calm. I woke up Kranti and Arun who were taking a small nap. Arun was feeling bit feverish and claimed to have terrible back pain. When he insisted, we lifted his shirt to find out the reason for his agony but what we saw froze us. We stood still almost puzzled for a couple of minutes as there were two deep marks of palms at his back. We decided to leave the place immediately and end the ordeal without any further damage. On the way we saw the cooked maggi- soup was eaten by someone, hopefully the hungry spirit. Arun was wailing with pain all the way while we were descending downhill. We reached the base village in a couple of hours, booked a cab and reached Pune and rushed immediately to a hospital where the doctors suggested to admit Arun since his condition had worsened by then. Arun’s bruises was healed after regular medications but it took him almost three weeks to come out of the trauma of the deadly experience in the Torna fort. After this incident many of my friends witnessed, Arun staying aloof and often speaking to someone when they couldn’t see anyone around him. As per doctors it was all because of after affects of the trauma. Such incidents not only affect our body but also leave a deep wound in our minds and I suppose time will heal him completely.

To share this experience it is hard to say but there is obviously an invisible world around us where spirits and demons stay. They are everywhere around us. Also there is another world where almighty stays and now it is choice of an individual whether to choose the world with positive energy of almighty or the world with negative energy of evil spirit. We must respect their territory and should not try to intrude into it because no-one can be held responsible for the consequences of our actions.