Although people have called the happenings around 'Monkey Man' of 2001 a case of mass hysteria, I would like to disagree by narrating the story of my true encounter with this beast.
I am Pranav Bhati. The year was 2001. I was living in Abu Road (Sirohi District, Rajasthan) at that time. I was in 2nd standard. My cousin sister's wedding was due in some days, and that particular day it was some little ceremony and only the household and few neighbors were present. It was evening time, around 9 PM, and I was busy playing hide and seek with my friends and cousins. We had rules in the game, like we all used to have - no one would hide outside, no one would go upstairs etc. But because one of my friends had earlier broken a rule, I decided that I would break another and go hide on the terrace, because 'if he can do it, why can't I?'. I never realized this was going to be a great mistake.
Our house was a two floor building; my uncle's family lived on the first floor while we lived on the ground floor. Our neighbour's house was only one floor, so their terrace was adjacent to the balcony of our first floor, with only an iron railing separating the two. But it was broken that day. I had this spirit of 'never being caught' and winning, like kids have. So I decided not just to hide upstairs, but to take it a step further and go and hide on our neighbor's terrace. I ran up, passed the broken railing and went to their terrace. I stood by the wall of our first floor, and took it's support while trying to catch my breath. The first strange thing I noticed was that this place was surprisingly quiet compared to our place which was just next door. An eerie silence and darkness prevailed there, the only light coming was that from our terrace, which had a lamp. The house was empty as all our neighbors were present at my house. I was feeling great about how I'd win this game again when I heard a cat purr, and then shriek.
I watched in shock as a huge shadow formed in front of me. I turned my head up in fear and that's when I saw it - a huge human-like monkey figure with long nails, sitting in a crouched position like a predator does when it's about to attack. My brain signaled me in a micro-second that I had to run for my life or I'll be dead. I ran as fast as I could, and the most scary part is I heard loud thuds following me, drawing close, and felt a breath on my neck before I finally jumped four steps at a time like a madman, hurting my legs in the process, and came down. As soon as I came down I was 'ice piced' (caught in the game), but game was completely out of mind after what I saw. I couldn't speak anything to anyone. The next day, a guy named Babu Lal who lived right in front of my house reported a monkey-man like creature on his terrace as well. After hearing that, I told them all about what happened to me, because then they believed me more as it was already confirmed by Babu Lal.
So why do I believe it wasn't hallucination and real? Because I was not scared or tense or nervous when I was hiding that night - I was actually happy that no one would be able to catch me. I had never even heard about Monkey-Man or that a creature like it existed before that incident. Babu Lal confirmed it first, and it was only after him that I revealed my encounter - two encounters around the same time in the same locality is no co-incidence. I know Monkey-Man was mostly reported in Delhi, but the thing I saw was a very similar supernatural beast, because no animal has nails that long, and surely no animal has a strikingly human like face. Whatever it was, it could have been my death.
I still get goosebumps by thinking about what would have happened if I had frozen in terror after seeing it on that terrace, or if the creature had caught me before I could come down.
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