Fearsome Folklores : The Legend of Pichal Peri

 Hey peeps, Welcome Back.

 Today I am going to narrate a story about one of the most popular urban legends of India – PICHAL PERI. This is a story of a man named Aakash who was 30 years old when this happened to him.

 Let’s first understand what the name means. PICHAL means walking backward and PERI which is actually pronounced ‘PAIRI’ means footed. This demon is said to have feet that are pointing backward thus, giving it this name. Locals say that it does not have a defined shape or size. Some claim to have seen a 20 feet figure while some others claim to have seen a 5 feet one. It reportedly shapeshifts and appears in different forms at different times, but it always had a half-burnt face and disproportionately large eyes.

 Enough with the intro let me start the story now. Aakash liked going to Amaravati because of two reasons. One was the love he had for his grandparents who lived there and, the other was the forests that surrounded the village. The forest had well-laid-out roads and he loved riding his bike through it. He was on his annual leave and decided to visit his grandparents.

 He reached Amaravati late in the evening and crashed into sleep at once. As soon as he woke up the next day, he called his friend who was always his partner for bike rides to ask if he could join him on a long ride through the surrounding forests. His friend said that he was on to something that would be over in an hour or two. He prepared his bike for the ride, wore his riding gear, and waited for his friend’s call. His friend called at 4 in the evening and told him that his work was taking a lot more time than he anticipated. We will go tomorrow for sure he added and hung up the call.

 Aakash decided to leave all alone and started at 5 in the evening despite his grandparents warning him of the unexplained death of men who entered those forests in the night. He was not aware of the effects that decision would have on his life then. He started his ride when the sun had just begun to set. Being a sucker for the wild, he was lost in the stunning views the forest offered and lost track of time. The time was 9’O clock when he realized it was late and decided to turn his bike and return home.

 On his way back he saw a girl dressed beautifully in a pink saree stand on the side of the road asking for a lift. He did not understand what a girl, so beautiful was doing alone inside that forest late at night. He stopped near her to check if she was alright and asked her if she needed any help. The girl said she entered the forest with her friends but got lost in the woods. She started crying and asked him to leave her out of the forest on the highway. He asked her to sit on his bike and started riding again. He asked that girl numerous questions but, she answered none and stayed mum. He did not like her company and decided to leave her on the highway as soon as possible.

 He felt that the girl was gradually getting heavier and when he slowed down to check what was happening on the pillion seat of his bike, he saw a girl who looked extremely similar to the girl whom he had offered a lift stand in front of him asking for a lift. When he looked into the mirror, the girl who was sitting on his bike until then had magically disappeared. He sensed that something was not right and decided to get out of that forest as soon as possible. He did not stop near that girl and speeded instead. After riding for 5 more kilometers, he saw a woman walking with her kid on the side of the road. She looked like she was from one of the tribal groups who lived in that forest range.

 He decided to ask her if she knew anything about the girls he had seen earlier and stopped the bike next to her. He asked her, “I saw many beautiful girls inside the forest. They stood all alone on the side of the road and were asking me for a lift. I offered a lift to one of those girls and she magically disappeared from my bike. Does this happen often here?” to which she replied, “I don’t even comprehend what you are saying. The forest is so dense that even men don’t walk alone at night and you say that you saw many beautiful girls standing alone”. He gave a thought to what she said and felt lucky that he came out of that situation unharmed.

 He thanked that woman for her time and started his bike to leave. When he was about to leave, the woman stopped him and asked him if he knew anything about PICHAL PERI to which he said yes and asked why she asked it all of a sudden. The woman did not say anything and just stood there with a smile. The child with her disappeared in thin air. Clouded with confusion he looked at her feet. His face grew pale because of what he saw and he was sweating as if he was in the middle of a sauna. Her feet were pointing backward and when he raised his head to see what he was talking to, he saw her expose the burnt side of her face. He fell flat on the ground as he saw the woman change into a shapeless shadow with red eyes.

 It was the last thing he remembered when he woke up after 2 weeks. He had fallen into a coma and was admitted to a hospital by a group of travelers who were passing through the forest. He felt something different inside his pants and when he checked, he understood that he was castrated. When he yelled at the doctor asking him why he was castrated, the doctor said that his genitals were brutally mauled over by something and he had to remove them to save his life.