All of us have heard of ghost stories, while growing up. We have played with the Ouija board, in fear
and anticipation. We have always wondered whether the coin moved by itself or
whether it was the other person moving it.
I have heard of many ghost stories, from friends. Some of
them were very interesting.
The first story I heard was from my colleague, in a pharma
company. When he was a teenager, he used to go to his grandmother’s house in Nellore
The next narration came from another colleague from a
different pharma company. I had gone for joint work with him in Pune in
Maharashtra. While we were talking one day about ghosts, he told me his
experience.
He had gone for a business tour, for three days, to one of
the distant places. Work did not go as per plan and there was delay. He could
return home only by 3AM. The entire colony was quiet, in the silence of pre
dawn. As he opened the main gate of the compound wall, he saw an old man
sitting on the cement bench, of their garden.
As he approached the old man, he could recognize him as the elderly
tenant living one floor above his house. He wished him, and asked him, why he
was sitting out in the open, in the cold morning. The old man replied,” I could
not fall asleep, so I thought I could be here.” He requested my colleague to
help him go to the first floor. He held the old man’s arm and led him to his
house. The old man thanked him. My friend, said, “ That’s OK, uncle,” and came
down to his house, and rang the door bell. His mother opened the door to let
him in. As he was very tired, he fell on the bed and was out like a light. He
woke up at 11 AM, brushed his teeth and had steaming tea. As soon as he
finished the tea, his mother told him, “ Do you know that the old uncle who
stays upstairs; he died in his sleep, on the same day you left on tour.” My friend was shocked. It the same old man
who was sitting outside , in the morning. Within minutes, he developed high
fever, and took a week to come back to normal heath.
The next tale was told by a young guy, who worked in a
printing press. When he first came to Chennai, he lived in a colony that was
far away from the city. There were just a few houses, and the place was
sparsely populated. He was in the habit of sleeping outside the house, on a
cot, as the house did not offer much ventilation. One late night as he came
home after a night show movie, he had to cross a lonely spot. He saw a young girl, standing there. She
requested him to accompany her across the lonely stretch, as she felt afraid.
She waked in silence with him. He being young, his hormones were peaking, and
he wondered whether he could use her. She smiled, and he took it as a go- ahead
signal. As they reached his house, he sat on his cot, which was already outside
the house. There was no one around, and the seclusion was just right. She too
sat on the cot, and as they embraced, he felt a very uneasy burning sensation
all over his body. He was not new to these types of affairs, and he knew
something was wrong. Her embrace tightened so much that he felt suffocated. By
instinct, he used all his strength to push her off and without looking back ran
into his house. A few days later as he
enquired with his young friends who lived in the colony, he came to know that
the girl he met was in fact the spirit of a scorned girl. She was let down by
her boy friend, after they had planned to elope. Ridiculed by relatives, on
being found out, she had resorted to suicide. Her unfulfilled desires made her
accost innocent young men, who fell a prey to her charm, and they suffered
either physical or emotional ailments.
The last and the most interesting account: An elderly man,
around 55 years of age, was staying in an adjoining room, in Salem. He was from
Kadappa, once again from Andhra Pradesh. He had an elder brother, and both of
them had a remarkable resemblance. When
this man was about 16 years old, he had to go for tuitions, in math, his weak
subject. The teacher’s house was at a distance from his home. On the way, was a
huge banyan tree. The village folklore said that the tree was home for the
ghosts. The boys, who went for tuition,
used to hold hands while crossing the tree.
On that particular day, my friend chanced to come across a
group of village elders, who were busy discussing some juicy gossip. He lost
track of time, as he was engrossed in listening to the exciting scandal. Before
he knew, it was late evening, and darkness had fallen. He realized that he was
late for tuition. As he walked very fast, he came to the banyan tree. Now he
was alone, but had to cross the abode of ghosts. He decided to close his eyes,
take a deep breath, dash across the banyan tree, and open his eyes only when he
had crossed it. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes tight, and ran across,
right into the open arms of a female, who had come out of hiding, from behind
the tree. She hugged him tight, and passionately kissed him. My friend convinced it was a female spirit,
screamed and fainted with fright.
When he regained consciousness, he was in his home, his head
on his mother’s lap. He opened his eyes and sobbed hysterically as he told his
mother about the Mohini ghost. [ In our
country we refer to the dissatisfied female spirits as Mohini, the name
synonymous with “ one who attracts sensually. “].He had raging fever for a
week. When he became normal, his elder brother disclosed the truth.
The banyan tree was the meeting place for the elder brother
and his girl friend. The tree offered privacy as the village folks who believed
that, it was haunted, never came near it. The girl mistaking the younger
brother for the elder one, had given my innocent unsuspecting friend an amorous
hug.
All of the people who told me such tales, were to my
knowledge, honest. They did not lie or fabricate stories. However, the doubt
lingers, in me; were the ghosts real, or was I taken for a ride?
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