The Laughing Ghost

25/04/2014

The Laughing Ghost

As usual, I woke up at 3 am in the morning, brushed, cooked tea and poured it in a cup. I picked up the history book from the pile of the books and sat on veranda under the bulb. Sitting in the house was close to impossible in the simmering heat of the died down sun. In addition, a house with a roof of steel sheets and with only a door and no windows for the air to come in, doubled the trouble.
My house was exactly opposite to the farm which was famous for the myhs of ghosts. There were two neighbours, towards my right, Vilas Kaka and Sugandha Mavashi, a couple arrived a few days before in the village and Sudhakar and Miramavshi with two children Mahesh and Siddhesh. To my right, there stayed my uncle, dad's brother.
I was completely engrossed in the book. I was reading about the second world war. When I reached the lines about Hiroshima  and Nagasakhi I heard a voice 'Why did you beat my son? Aren't you ashamed of this?'I looked outside the book to find out who was speaking but found none. Thinking that it must be hallucination, I peeped into the book.
After a couple of minutes, I again heard 'My son did no wrong, It's your fault.' I will beat you up for beating my son.' I stood up and looked around. There was nobody. The entire village was enjoying sleep. Even the dogs seemed to have uninterrupted sleep. Now, I had goosebumps all over my body. I was completely taken aback and was confident to be haunted by the ghost. I remembered people saying that there was a ghost in the farm in front of our house.
The story has it, a lady called Megha had died in the farm. She had a son called Vijay after her. Since the day she died in the farm, people started saying that she came every night and cried for her son. Now it was for sure that it was none other than Megha Aunty. I was nearly dead.
I sat stunned on the veranda. Not making any moments, took a complete control on my eyes, I did not let my eyeballs make moments for I had a fear, if they moved to the left or to the right and the ghost was standing there. Then I closed my eyes and was planning to go to charpayee and cover up myself with as many Ghodhadis (shawls) as I can, just then I saw that Sugandha Mavashi was sweeping the yard. I went to her and asked if she heard any voice.
She said 'I heard nothing.'
She said further, 'Kiran, you have gone crazy and hence hallucinating.'
She advised me to concentrate on studies as exams were approaching. I again went back to study. The presence of Sugandha Mavashi now was a support for me.
After a minute or two I heard the same voice. This time It was louder and more violent. I thought I surely was going to be haunted or dead. Then I heard another voice. It was a voice of a male. It was a voice of our neighbour Sudhakar Kaka. He gave a little swat on his wife Meerabai’s face and said 'zopnav shidi, kiran ghabari gayana, kabar badbadi rhyani'. It meant 'Sleep, why are you sleep talking, kiran is afraid.'
These words were like the words pronounced by God and Sudhakar kaka was a savior for me. Thank god, it was Meeramavshi sleeptalking. Just think, if there was a ghost.