Pond, Ghost & I

There was a pond at the outskirt of the village. There was five feet wall around the pond and it was surrounded by oleander trees. This pond was well maintained during my childhood. This pond was not a public pond, it was owned by a family but every villager had access to that pond. There was a cricket field ground near by the pond where youths of the village used to play in the evening. There was a mango tree in front of the pond. Under the mango tree, the villagers used to conduct pinddan rituals during death ceremony of family member. Pinddan is a Hindu ritual in that elder/ eligible son of the family offers the rice ball to the dead person / ancestors so that the soul rest in peace. In childhood, we believed that many ghosts lived on that tree.

One day my schoolmate told me that he saw a ghost on that tree last night. I became curious to know further, but he would not tell. When I goaded him, he divulged – “last night, when I was going to pond to wash my feet, I saw a ghost sitting on the tree”.
“How old he was? How he was looking? What he was doing? Did he tell anything to you?” – I hurled a volley of question to him.
He narrowed his eyes and in a very weird way looked at me. After few second he started – “you are asking how old he was. He must have been four- five hundred years old. He was so old that his skin was sagging from the bone. I saw his face, full dark and he was playing with fire on his mouth. He would throw fire in air and catch it in the mouth. When he saw me that time I put my leg in water. He told me to put leg in water only; otherwise, he would burn my leg. When he finished eating fire then he told me to run away from there. He told me not to tell anybody otherwise I would fall ill for three days”.

After that story, he did not come to school for three days. I was worried for him. His uncle was a priest and he used to visit my grandfather regularly. I asked about him to his uncle. His uncle told me he was not well but he would be all right in one or two days. I believed his story about meeting with ghost.

I also wanted to meet the ghost. The pond was around three hundred meters far away from my house. I came to know that generally ghost was seen there between seven and eight o’clock in the night.  I decided to visit the pond every night without telling anybody in home. By running, I would go there, stay sometime on the branch of oleander tree and then come back again by running. The whole process used to take half an hour.  I visited more than ten times but I could not meet with ghost.  Meanwhile, one incident took place in my village. There was a teacher in my village who was a good friend of my grandfather. In the morning he was plucking the oleander flower from the tree in his garden and, a snake that was on the branch of the tree, bit him. His life could not be saved. He died due to snakebite .This incident shook me from inside. I used to wait for ghost sitting on the branch of oleander tree only. I decided not to visit that place again. I wanted to meet ghost but not putting my life in danger.

When I was in class ten, I revealed the story to my grandfather. He laughed. "Oh ! ghost does not exist. your friend told you a nonsense story"- he told .
"But baba, do not we read in hanuman chalisa - bhoot pichas nikat nahi aawe, mahawir jab nam sunawe ( ghost & devil spirit do not come near to you , if you chant the name of lord Hanuman) - I expressed my doubt. He changed the stand.
 “Oh! true, very true ! How can ghost come near to you? Do not you see, we have hanuman temple and dhwaja  in the house.”
“But I was searching ghost nearby pond, far away from our home”- I had doubt in my mind.
He smiled and said – “every ghost knows that we have hanuman ji. They will not bother you; they will not come near to you. So, promise me, you will not search any ghost in future”.
I promised him, I would not  search  ghost in future. He looked relieved.

I kept my promise and never searched for any ghost.

~~~ Ramanuj Dubey