Extreme Measures

**MrBallen** (0:00)
Today's podcast will feature three stories about people who are willing to do just about anything to get what they want. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Whatever It Takes, and it's about a couple who are completely devastated when they learn that they can't have kids. The second story you'll hear is called The Audition, and it's about a struggling actor who goes to the extreme to land a role he believed he was meant for. The third and final story you'll hear is called The Contest Winner, and it's about these two men who meet each other at a hockey game, but little do they know, this chance encounter would change the course of both of their lives forever. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark & Mysterious, Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload four times a week. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So, if that's of interest to you, please reprogram the FollowButtons TV remote so that every time they try to change the channel, it just turns off the TV.
Okay, let's get into our first story called Whatever It Takes.
On the evening of December 14th, 2024, a woman in her mid-30s named Priya got ready for bed inside of her home in Chehenko Village, which is a rural community in Central India. Priya put on her PJs, brushed her teeth, and then climbed into bed by herself. She was waiting for her husband, 35-year-old Anand Yadav, to finish his bath and then come in here and join her. And as Priya laid there just waiting for her husband, she couldn't help but feel like their house was so quiet. And in many ways, the quiet of their house was this constant reminder of this really deep sadness in her life, which is, you know, Priya really wanted a kid. But she and her husband had struggled to get pregnant, and now, you know, they're in their mid-30s, and it just seemed like time was running out. And, you know, it's like all she wanted was a family, and she didn't know if she would actually have one. Now, for Priya, though, you know, this was not some new revelation. Like, this pain had been going on for years. And so, like she did most nights as she laid in bed waiting for her husband, she just did her best, you know, not to dwell on it. And just think about the other things in her life that were going well, like, you know, her relationship to her husband. You know, they were very happy and a very healthy couple. And so, she's sitting there and she's thinking about that and again, trying to be grateful when the door opens to the bathroom and Anand comes out. But he's not dressed for bed. He's wearing a bathrobe, like he hasn't gotten dressed yet, and he's acting kind of funny. And Priya, she's looking at her husband trying to figure out, like, what is he doing? Why isn't he dressed? What's going on here? When she suddenly realizes his face is like bright red. Clearly, there is something wrong with her husband. And then before she can ask him what's going on, Anand just turns and runs out of their bedroom, just wearing his bathrobe. And so Priya, you know, she gets out of bed, and she chases after her husband trying to make sense of what the heck is going on here. She gets outside and she sees her husband is now collapsed on the ground outside. And so Priya really does not know what's happening here. She has no sense of what could be wrong. And so she just runs over to her husband and she rolls him over and she's shaking him to like get him to talk to her. But all she sees is his face is still this beet red color and it's almost like he's passed out or something, like he's not responsive. And so really having no clue what else to do, she just rushed next door to her relative's house. She got some family members, they came outside and together they scooped up the non-responsive Anand, threw him in a vehicle, and they rushed him to the hospital.
And when they got to the hospital, Priya leapt out of the car, you know, leaving Anand and her family behind. And she bolts inside, and she tells the front desk attendant what's going on, that her husband, he's not breathing, he's unresponsive, he's in the car. And so right away, medical staff came charging out, they went and they got Anand, they brought him inside, and before long, Priya is running behind all the doctors and nurses that are rushing Anand on a gurney through the hospital to an exam room. They get in the exam room, and even though Priya, you know, she's kind of off to the side, she can't really see what's going on, but she can see the doctor who is primarily trying to figure out what's wrong with Anand. And she sees, at first, he's kind of like doing a couple of things to see if he can get Anand to start reacting to him. But pretty quickly, she sees this doctor just kind of sit back, and there's this look of pity that comes over his face. And he turns and he looks over at Priya, and he tells her that, you know, unfortunately, your husband is dead.