7 Hours at Bhata Road by Ajinkya Bhasme | Book Review

It takes all kinds of people to make the world.

How often do we hear these words, and very true they are too. Team Thinkerviews is filled with book-loving readers, but none of us are very fond of horror/terror genres. But there is a whole world out there of people who enjoy horror books / films / TV series immensely and there are a lot of offerings out there for them to enjoy as well.

We came across Ajinkya Bhasme’s debut work When the Devil Whispers, which was based on real-life crime events and reviewed it here. We also had a chance to connect with the author:

• When The Devil Whispers by Ajinkya Bhasme| Book Review
• An Interesting Author Interview with Ajinkya Bhasme

So when we saw his second publication called – 7 Hours at Bhata Road, we read the book, which turned out to be a scary story 🙂

Book Cover:

Let us take a look at the cover page of this book.

The cover page is predominantly dark, with crimson blood dripping through one visible eyes of a supposedly human face, making it quite clear that this cover page is going to open into a scary world. Image of the number 7 is also crimson red and is played with creatively on both covers.
Interestingly, the book is filled with a sketch at top of every chapter – depicting motifs including skulls, witches, fires and other dark images. There is also a devil like image that appears on page 4 and then at the end of the book.

This image reminded me of Baphomet – an ancient western God whose name is associated with devil worship.

All in all, an apt coverpage supported by interesting sketches.

The Plot:

The book begins eons ago, when Bhata village was land of innocence. But it takes only one sin for following prophesy to be born:

When the sun had set and all hope was gone,
To fear and darkness a daughter was born
A demon from hell, with the curse of sight,
She will walk the earth and haunt it at night
Everyone shall perish, only one she will spare,
Her slave who shall be, bound by the nightmare.

In the modern world, Arun is heading home to Yavatmal one dark night on his motorcycle, when he comes past the dirt road leading to Bhata village. From this point onwards, both his journey and his life ends abruptly.

A young family – Sandesh and Aditi with their son Parth – are travelling in their car through the same stretch of road at the same time of night. Aditi is pregnant and expecting a baby very soon. As soon as they are within reach of the Bhata spirits, she suddenly develops labour pain and Sandesh tries to get her to the nearest hospital – which will presumably in Bhata. But, the dirt load leads them further into darkness and fog and soon they are going around in circles. Matters becomes worse as a sightless, purple saree clad witch suddenly appears and then starts travelling with them. Things get really bad from here.

In the Bhata village itself, there is another family – Vinoba, Sujata, Rukmini and Darshan. One night Darshan is found all contorted and Vinoba and Sujata rush him to the temple where the priest can cure him. The priest is able to provide short term relief but both children start to suffer. And soon other children in village are suffering, too. The farms are littered with dead ravens and crops are gone. The villagers blame the sightless, purple saree clad witch for their troubles and burn her.

So, the evil should be gone then? Far from it, they have all made terrible mistakes and all hell is about to get loose and come to visit them…

Views And Reviews:

Let me first talk about the dedication. The author has dedicated book to everyone affected by the 2020 pandemic – those who had to go to work and those who stayed home. In this trying year, I think it is a very nice gesture.

As you can see from the storyline above, the book has a few separate threads and so the narrative goes from one to another, leaving the reader to connect the threads of the timelines and history as the facts are revealed slowly. The author only gives us bits and pieces to keep our curiosity alive and waits until end for the final twists and turns.

Until then, he builds up the horror and fear through what his characters are experiencing – imagine being stuck on a road to nowhere with a young family or watching your children drowning and your crops withering…

The stage is set on a night – more accurately – between 10:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m – 7 hours of the night. Here is a description of the night:

The crescent moon was floating across the sky like a cursed canoe occasionally lurking behind the dark clouds looking for its prey. The sun had long disappeared, but its venomous heat still had not left.

And so on this night, the prophesy is going to be fulfilled somehow and the separate stories converge. The author gives us glimpses into lives of one family from a big city and one family from Bhata village. The witch is suitably scary, and the village children aren’t very nice to her, and the whole village gives into mob mentality as they blame her for all their troubles. All these is very similar to the scary stories you may have heard growing up and will appeal to the lovers of horror.

There are many quotes here referring to the hell and the ruler of hell:

If you do not go to Hell, Hell will come to you..

When you pray to the God, the Devil hears you too…

The Devil is a resentful God who was not prayed enough…

But I also like the following quote that reminds us that sometimes we only see what we want to see:

You easily misunderstand a wretched face for evil. You don’t even know what reality is and what is merely a vision.

The book is relatively short, but by end of it the prophesy and its fulfillment didn’t sound quite logical to me. But then, a horror story can be played out without much logic to it. The book also contains a few typographical errors, e.g.

Page56
Beside him lay the might beast, their buffalo, on the ground with her eyes snatched out.
This should be:
Beside him lay the mighty beast, their buffalo, on the ground with her eyes snatched out.

Summary:

So if you have a couple of hours and enjoy scary stories, this is the book for you…

ThinkerViews Rating:

Around 7 out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy – 7 Hours At Bhata Road: A horror beyond the regular haunting By Ajinkya Bhasme – Kindle Ebook – Amazon India
• Buy – 7 Hours At Bhata Road: A horror beyond the regular haunting By Ajinkya Bhasme – Kindle Ebook – Amazon US

Over To You:

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