Ghostly Tales

Shekhawat left for Rajasthan on April 19 to attend the last rites of a relative in his village. He cremated two other people and returned to the Garden this morning with a load of ghostly tales from the village.
The one to have freaked him out most was about a neighbour he had known rather closely. “He was a clerk in the district court and by village standards, was doing quite well for himself,” Shekhawat narrated. “He made around Rs3,000 every day from typing applications for litigants. On that fateful day, he left home as usual in the morning and thereafter, for some mysterious reason, abandoned work and disappeared.”
It seems when the man did not return home at night, a ‘search party’ from the village went out and traced his footsteps from his place of work.

No Laughing Matter: Shekhawat speaks of his Rajasthan trip

“They crossed four wells on the way and landed on a fifth well where three people had committed suicide earlier. The villagers found his body inside. Now tell me, if a man had to leap to death, why did he have to leave the four wells behind and die here? Obviously the ghosts of the earlier deceased were beckoning him.”
Another spooky tale Shekhawat recounted was of a wealthy neighbour who had apparently everything going for himself. “His son is settled in Italy and sends Rs150,000 by bank transfer every month. He owned two buses that were let out on hire, not to mention several cars in his garage. One fine morning this man was found hanging from the ceiling. Nobody can explain why.”
Shekhawat concedes that the incredible summer heat in Rajasthan has made people’s “buddhi bhrasht”. But he is also convinced that there are higher powers at play driving perfectly sane and otherwise happy people into taking the extreme step. He makes no secret of his belief that a certain chudail residing in his village is behind all this and claims to have even caught sight of the apparition once. When asked how it looked, his reply was succinct: “It is neither male nor female!”
Lt Col Angad Singh (from Mohali):
Ghostly tales have been prevalent in the past, especially in villages. At times to frighten children, someone would act as a chudail or play similar antics. However, this had ill-effects on those children in later life. The incidents narrated by Shekhawat have its own harrowing history. Our sympathies are with the bereaved families. May they have the courage to bear the loss of their beloved ones.
Kiran Prakash:
I am happy Shekhawat-ji has come back to Mumbai and is out of sight of those village ghosts and chudails. But what surprises me now is the ghost appearing in today's blog. Is it the same one which Shekhawat-ji is describing or the Blog Monster's discovery? This story needs to be buried forever before the entire Garden is haunted by it!
Dilip Babani:
We need to be careful as there are already chudails in our Garden. They have reversed feet and hunt for dinner and lunch. These ghosts and chudails are roaming free in the form of beautiful girls and women. Those who are scared need to put on a tabeej from some tantric baba like Asaram Bapu.