An East Indian youth is shocked to discover that his father and grandfather had an encounter with a Bigfoot-like being in rural India.

I recently found the following interesting account:

"I'm from from Mumbai, India. I first heard about Bigfoot as a kid watching National Geographic. I always knew about Yeti's residing in deep Himalayan hills and wondered about any Bigfoot possibly living in India. So what I am about to tell you was a shocker for me when I heard it.

My family had a New Year's day gathering and all my cousins had come over for lunch. We usually spoke about sports, politics but that was too boring after a while, so I decided to tell my cousins about unknown creatures like the Loch Ness Monster, dogman, etc. I started off by telling them about Bigfoot and how the legend of Bigfoot runs wild among Americans and many people around the world. I was not prepared for what was going to happen next.

My Dad and my Grandpa overheard the conversation and came to my room and stood in utter disbelief that I knew about Bigfoot. I realized, just by looking at their eyes, they knew about it more than I have ever read or seen. In utter shock my Dad started telling me about a story of his childhood when he was around 12 years old. Along with my Grandpa they had encountered something which defied belief. I still have tears in my eyes while I write this as this was a surreal moment for me to know that these creatures do exist here in India as well!

He said on a cold winter's evening around 7 o'clock in 1972 my Grandpa and my Dad were coming back from church and the road that led to the house had acres of sugarcane farm with tall bushes on both the side of road. They were on a 110cc scooter which could be converted to a bicycle if it ran out of fuel and this came in handy as they lived in the countryside far away from town. While they were passing by a huge Banyan tree something just ran out of the sugarcane farm on the left and crossed the road. This thing was 20-25 feet away. My Grandpa described it as a huge 8-9 ft hairy ape like creature with dark black fur. The creature was on two legs almost like a gorilla who had learned to walk like a man. The creature crossed the road in an instant and went to the other side of the road. It saw my Dad and Grandpa and at the very moment my Dad, out of fear, screamed while looking at this hairy creature with massive pecs and shoulders. This led to the creature running away in the field. The speed at which the creature ran was absolutely shocking and my Grandad knew this low powered bike wouldn't do any good if the creature decided to pursue them. Thankfully this creature decided to leave them alone and was never seen again.

This was the encounter that changed their lives and raised their curiosity in this subject. They never spoke of it in fear of being ridiculed but when they saw me speak about Bigfoot they knew they were not alone and many people in the world had experienced what they had seen. My Dad even went on to say about a man he knew who filmed one of these creatures but never knew what they were called and thought it was some kind of an ape. People in India would generally not know about such cryptids. I saw the truth of the story in my Grandpa's eyes and never have I felt such a strong conviction to tell a story like this. I know this may sound weird but there are accounts of Bigfoot encounters in deep rural India. I don't know what was the thing which my Grandad and Dad saw, but I'm sure it was certainly not a Gorilla walking on two feet!" FW

NOTE: An alleged ape-like creature, referred to as the Mande Barung (the 'jungle man'), is said to inhabit the Garo Hills region of India. Lon