He screamed loudly and burst into tears much to the amazement of others!
It was an inky black night. The moon had not yet made an appearance and it was chilly. The boy was seated at the dining table along with his brother intently listening to his mother narrate a spooky tale from a time many decades ago when she was a young girl.
Her grandmother had recently passed away. She was just 7 years of age. Too young to grasp the enormity of what death meant. The image of her grandmother on an ice slab troubled her greatly. Won’t she be cold? She asked once, twice, many times but got no answer to. Her mother was distraught beyond belief. She hadn’t stopped crying since she got the news and they rushed on a long road journey to reach by the night.
The next few days were a blur as the palatial home was filled to the brim with relatives and strange rituals which seemed alien to her were carried out. Then one of the nights, her grandmother’s sister who had the reputation for being weird as she carried strange potions in her bag and believed in ghosts and witches came by to speak with her mother. She consoled her mother and said that she could summon her late mother’s spirit to talk to her. My mother, who was clearly not thinking and too overwhelmed with grief, jumped at that offer. She was after all not at her bedside when her mother had passed away, something that pained her immensely.
So the paraphernalia was assembled. There was a large piece of white paper with letters of the Hindi alphabet written on it. Some other images were drawn on it. The room was dark except for the tiny flicker of candles. And some inverted steel bowls were place on that paper. Children were shooed out but she found a vantage point at a crack in the door. Then the strange lady started chanting something. She started summoning the spirits and her face positively looked scary. Her hair was open and fanned out untidily on her shoulders. She looked like a witch from a Ramsay movie just with very bad makeup. Anyhow, after a few minutes, she placed her hand on the steel bowl which started moving quickly across letters. Someone started jotting down the letters to form words. Apparently, thr grandmother’s spirit was now communicating with her mother. Having been completely spooked out, she ran away from the crack in the door from where she had been watching with fascination. She was now terribly scared and that night she had terrible nightmares of ghosts and scary spirits.
As she finished her tale, her sons who were quiet till then started asking questions. Do the spirits exist? Are there ghosts? The mother truthfully said that she could not say for sure but she did not believe in them. Just then the elder son started playacting. He waved his hands with a flourish as if summoning a black witch from one of the stories he had read. He had just uttered a few words when his younger brother who was watching mesmerized screamed.
He screamed loudly and burst into tears much to the amazement of others!
The mother jumped up from her chair and hugged him wondering what caused that? At the entrance of the dining room stood a very baffled dad who had just slipped in quietly into the house, late as he was from work that day.
He could not fathom why his younger son gave such a shriek of horror on seeing him. On understanding the comical situation, every one dissolved into laughter. The younger son joined in slowly as well.
This is a true story. 🙂 It happened a couple of weeks ago at my home.
Y U DO THIS, Rachna!
I get scared even if I watch a Bollywood horror film in the afternoon. Now if I wake up at night, afraid, my mom won’t even come to hug me 🙁
P.S. Hugs to Gautam from my side too. Poor boy. Whenever event occurs in his life, everyone laughs 😛
Arre maine kya kiya? They wanted to hear about this incident that I had mentioned to them. Unintentionally, it had a comical ending. 🙂 Kids are more resilient than we give them credit for. Besides we have to initiate them to these concepts, spooky as they are.
It is surprising even today people believe in such rituals , that have no scientific basis.. Good that the kids took it in their stride but it could also have a lasting effect on their thoughts
Yes, it is. But you know, I just stay away from all this talk. I don’t understand occult and rituals. I think the kids need to know about these things as well and how they may end up encountering them later on in life.
We all love a good horror story even if we don’t believe in ghosts or are shit scared of them, don’t we? 😀 I belong to the latter category but I am always all ears for a good spooky story. Poor little Gautam. He sounds a bit like me! 😀
Yes, I think he is like you. 😀
The ghost stories seem so very fascinating when you listen to them but they do spook you out and play on your mind. Poor lil Gautam. A hug from me to him!
Yes, exactly. So sweet. Will pass on the hug.
The last line relieved me of the tension that had built up in my mind!
Uff, quite an engrossing tale!
Real life one too. 😀
Aww, poor boy. The narration must have played on his psyche.
Glad it all ended on a comical note.
Yes, I didn’t expect him to be that frightened but he cheered up quickly enough.
Awww!! Poor kiddo!! 😀
I am still scared of ghost stories!! That’s why I don’t watch horror movies! 😛
I hate horror movies too. 😀
Haha…good to know that your story had a wonderful happy ending!
But to tell you the truth, I don’t disbelieve in anything about which I can’t be sure either way. There is no way of knowing that ghosts and spirits DON’T exist. So why not keep that possibility open? – that’s how I see it 🙂 There is a whole other range of planes of existence beyond what we see in the material world! All sorts of possibilities exist.
Yes, that is why I wrote that I am not sure. Who knows? But let them figure this out themselves.
Lol…wonder who was more scared, your husband or your son?
It was surely the son. The husband was confused. 🙂
Ha ha! Poor little boy! and of course the dad must have freaked out too without knowing whats happening!!
By the way was that something like Ojo board in the story??? There was a movie in Malayalam that released during my 11th grade that had this Ojo board thing and it had become such a trend in our schools and colleges those days!! I remember ourselves trying those stupid things too!!!
No idea what Ojo board is? But yes it was a big sheet of paper. Oh yes, the dad was thoroughly baffled.
heheh…poor fellow….wait for the day he will come up with these stories himself 😀
Yes. 😀
Well, it’s a true story that happened a couple of weeks ago but what about that happened when you’re seven?
Good question, Ravish. I was quite scared initially and then confused with that incident. I didn’t know what to believe. I always found that relative very strange. Overall, no, I didn’t have any scarring as a result of that incident.
ooohhhh right I aint listening to your stories anymore .. dont want to freak out now …
ALthough I do believe in the otherside .. will put up a post some day explaing why ..
and wish you a very happy new year and Family 🙂
Oh yes, I understand. I also said that I don’t know. I guess one can never know for sure. Wish you the same, Bikram!
He he, quite the horror story 😉 Poor baby. I don’t blame him. If just reading it gave me the shivers, listening must have freaked him out. Add to that the older one’s play acting. Too bad 😛
Yeah we are a completely nuts family. 😉