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Full-moon fever on highway

On full-moon nights, many policemen in the western suburb of Kandivli go mad. Worse, they confirm it.

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On full-moon nights, many policemen in the western suburb of Kandivli go mad. Worse, they confirm it.

On these nights, they get themselves into a supernatural tizzy and lose their minds, in fear of catastrophes on a one-kilometre stretch of the western express highway.
The strip, between Saidham junction and Thakur village, the policemen claim, has been witnessing freak accidents on Poornima nights.

The latest is the case of a 21-year-old girl who on the full-moon night of November 2 was riding pillion on a bike. She was instantly killed after a three-wheeler brushed against her. “She tumbled down, her head banging on the road,” says an officer. “It was baffling because neither vehicle was moving fast.”

“There is something mysterious about this part of the highway,” another officer says, despairingly. This year, he says, there have been nine such mishaps, four on full-moon nights and the rest a day earlier or later.

“Utter nonsense and poppycock” is how some scientifically-bent policemen — and there are some — debunk the “superstition”.   Last year, Anant S Kenjale, a police inspector at Samta Nagar station under whose jurisdiction comes the road, himself fell victim to what he calls the “supernatural” phenomenon.

Kenjale, 54, says he was riding his two-wheeler at a sober 30 kmph when the bike skidded and he fell on his right, badly fracturing his hand. “There was no apparent reason for the bike to skid except that it was a Poornima,” says Kanjale, resting his arm, which is still to recover fully, delicately on the desk at the station.

On yet another full-moon night four months ago, Kenjale was patrolling the highway when he was horror-struck to see the sudden death of a man under the wheels of a truck. “He was walking towards the truck to take shelter from a light drizzle. The vehicle reversed without warning. He fell under it and was crushed.”

Says a dejected policeman, “As to why these freak things happen we have no clue.” Astrologer Pandit Janak Jha has one. “The souls of those who die unnaturally in any place roam the vicinity,” he claims. “On Poornima, Amavasya and Astami days these souls attack people intruding into their jurisdiction.”

“Oh! Really?” ask sceptics in disgust.  Prof Ashwin Karia, president, Gujarat-Mumbai rationalists’ association, called it “utterly illogical.” Whenever accidents occur, people get scared; and whenever a particular day is associated with mishaps, they get even more paranoid, he said.

“Accidents are a matter of pure chance. Besides, some stretches of roads are perennially bad. They are filled with potholes and have swerving curves, all of which can cause accidents. Also, there are higher chances of an accident in the night as visibility is low,” Karia explained. “If you want to blame someone, blame the government or the BMC for it, not the moon,” he laughed.

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