Ghostly affair : Ladies whose eyes were red

Usually, during the summer vacation time in school, I used to visit my Grandparents house. 

One such fine summer day, I was relishing half ripen mangoes with chili and salt on a banana leaf with my brother, grandma and younger aunt, sitting under the big mango tree in the front yard. Green ambiance, we put a straw mattress in the shadowed area to sit on. The mangoes were extremely delicious…..cool breeze was hitting us continuously to make us feel fresh and nice every moment. Grandma was telling us some paddy field stories…..how she had caught fishes the previous week in the muddy area….how she used to find the luscious small red fruits in mossy areas and how tasty they were…

Suddenly, we saw Grandpa walking very fast, infact almost running towards home….he quickly opened the gate……spitted three times towards outside, and then came inside the boundary, and closed the gate properly, ……asked aunt to quickly bring a glass of water and lied down just beside us….He was a bit shivering.

My Grandma asked him what happened suddenly. He just went 15 / 20 mins ago, with a plan to clean his fruit farm, which was just 300 mtrs away from the house. He went with one axe, but there was no axe in his hand while returning….

That fruit farm was almost 5 bighas of land, full of big trees, including all kind of fruit trees like mango, peach, pomegranates, pears, coconut, jackfruit, guava, o’ tenga etc. Just almost 50 mtrs away from the entrance, there was huge banyan tree. Usually, grandpa used to go there in the afternoon to bring some fruits. I and my brother also used to accompany him sometime, during our stay.

But, as it’s been just few months of his retirement now, he did not have anything to do during the day time. Extremely active grandpa….he never wanted to rest except a sound sleep at night time. So, that day, he went during the day time, almost around 2pm, just after having lunch, thinking of not wasting time sitting idly at home.

So, he explained us what happened there……

Grandpa just entered the farm opening the jewra gate (made of bamboo sticks) as usual. He picked one pear which was lying on the ground, rubbed in his t-shirt and sat there to eat it…..Suddenly he heard some ladies’ voice, relaxingly talking, giggling…… probably their voice was very low and unclear…..he could not understand the language……he wondered from where the sound was coming…… there was no house nearby…… till he could see, there were trees and trees….and he wondered who would come to his farm without his permission.

Grandpa stood up. He carefully followed the voice…..as silently as possible…..He reached the banyan tree…. The voice was coming from the other side of the tree….He could not see who were there as the trunk of the tree was huge at least 2 mtrs in diameter.  Grandpa moved ahead to see who were there………and …..and …Oh my God!…..what he saw…….

Three ladies were sitting there…. One was looking at the hair of the other, probably they were looking for lice.  The average height of those ladies would be about a feet. The hair of each lady was almost more than their height. They were well dressed….wearing some beautiful muga silk mekhela chadar and some heavy gold ornaments too…. Grandpa could not believe his eyes… got goose bumps …..he immediately understood they were not human being….He was clueless what to do….should he run away or shout loud…….If he would shout, who would come to help him as no human being he could see nearby…..

While he was thinking, in few seconds, his eyes were caught by the lady who was sitting on a higher plinth…… Her eyes were not normal, a bit reddish…..not clear….she jumped up, shouting something…..rest two also jumped up……posed in an attacking mood….. My grandpa got scared now; he had no way left than throwing the axe on them…….Yes! He threw the axe on them, immediately the three ladies vanished…….But what to do now………????

Grandpa……ran and ran…….till he could see us from far…..  

Grandpa recalled, few years back, he found two gold coins just nearby the banyan tree……..He wondered whether the ladies were the guards to some treasure, which was probably just hidden somewhere in the tree or was that banyan tree their home??? What kind of spirit they were……. 

Incredible retreat – my cool summer holidays!

Place I originally belong to is famous for its magnificent green panorama – a small place in Assam – ‘Sibsagarh’ ! Full of greeneries, beautiful landscape, a place, where kids of all ages can pick their own fruits and vegetables, enjoy hayrides, navigate corn mazes, and generally have FUN!

Being Govt. Servant, my father used to get transfer to many places…But, we never used to miss our cool Summer Days at Sibsagarh, the tempting chance to play with flora and fauna!

I have two siblings – my brother and sister. I am the eldest one. The first or second day of the  summer holidays, we used to visit our grand parents at a small village of Sibsagarh. I could see the equal amount of happiness and excitement in the eyes of my grand parents and their neighbor’s children  as soon as we used to reach there.

Crossing the rivers in search of O’ Tenga (very mouth-watering lemon –which is only found in North East of India), searching the bird-nests, making small huts in the forest with banana leaf and bamboo were our planned activities. I remember and now also feel thrilled how I carried my little sister on my shoulders while crossing the deep water of river ‘Dishang’ which used to come till my neck.

There was a peddy field just opposite to our house which was surrounded by dense forest with luscious fruit trees like Mangoes, Guava, Papayas, Bananas, Lychi, Pineapple, Plum etc. 

My aunties along with some other people of the village used to go to the peddy field in the early morning with sickles to cut the ripen rice…And around 8 am , we –the children with our grand ma used to go there to give them breakfast and then grandma used to come back, but we never…! 

We used to go the forest to bring Rabab Tenga (Again another variety of lemons), Mangoes, Plums etc.…and putting on the banana leaf, we used have them mixing with chili and salt. How delicious they were!  

Around 11 am, we used to go the river to take bath with our aunts…I tried to learn swimming – but unfortunately I could not learn…!!

In the afternoon, we used to go for fishing at the fishpond, which was just behind our house getting on the banana boats…!

Grandpa used to tell us his real life experience with ghost in the noon time,  when we used to put one mattress at the Veranda trying to cool us with hand –fan. We used lay down on his lap…and listen to the stories very attentively. The children from neighborhood also used to join us after their lunch.

There was a boy – called Jijin - our next door neighbor. He was a very attentive listener. Almost 7 yrs old boy, his favourite TV serial was Ramayana and favourite hero was Hanuman. All the time, he used to talk about the bravery of Hanuman. 

After listening to grandpa’s story, when all elder members used to take nap, we all children used roam here and there at the backyard and the jungle nearby. My grand parents and my mom strictly used to say – “Don’t go to the ponds and rivers during the noon time. Ghosts come there in search of prey”.

Once such year, one day, we all were sitting under the bamboo trees, just near our fishpond, relaxing, enjoying the cool breeze and also talking about the ghosts… 

Suddenly we heard a huge sound in the pond. “Jai Sri Ram!!!!” and then a plunge into the water of the pond…..

We just ran towards the pond wondering what happend…..

O' my Goshhhhh!!!!.....

Jijin was drowning….!!!! All shouted…….All elder members came outside …..saved him somehow…..

Asked him why he did so…..he said…”Hunuman never drowns! Instead, he kills the monsters! I also want to be like Hanuman and kill the ghosts at this pond!”

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Already published in Impetus Red Corner.

Image courtesy : Google.com