It was a hot day.
A few boys were sitting in the field, enjoying the breeze. They saw Keloda passing by on the road beside the field.
One of them whispered, "Look, Keloda is coming!" They all knew that Keloda was a ship full of stories.
"It wouldn't be bad if Keloda were in our group at this time. What would you say?" One of them asked everyone.
"It wouldn't be bad. If it were a ghost story again." Another one said the same thing.
"Then you will say the opposite of what I am saying; say it a little louder so that Keloda can hear." Saying this, he started talking about his made-up story.
"Oh, there are ghosts, there are ghosts. You haven't seen them, so you don't want to believe them."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone else said, "No, no, there are no ghosts! All that nonsense. I haven't found anyone who has seen a ghost with their own eyes."
They were telling Keloda these words. So Keloda heard them.
How could Keloda keep quiet and walk away when she heard such things? She knows and has seen so many things. They are arguing like fools without knowing anything. If they knew, they would be completely stupid.
Let's go to the shop. We have to tell them the ghost story first. Keloda came down from the road and walked towards them in the field.
When they got a little closer, someone saw Keloda and said, "Here is Keloda, so Keloda is there a ghost?"
"Of course there is! It was in this restaurant too. This is where you are sitting today! I have seen them with my own eyes, not once but many times!
Today, people are everywhere and they are not visible in the light of the electric lamp. But they are there! They hide in the trees somewhere in the shadows.
They like quiet and dark environments. That's why you can't see them. They still walk here late at night on the new moon!" Keloda said.
Hearing that, the boys stared at Keloda's face in surprise for a while.
After that, everyone asked with interest, "What are you saying, Keloda?"
"What you are saying, I am saying!"
"You mean! There was a ghost here too?" One of them said this.
"But! What am I saying! If you haven't heard that story, even the hair on your head will stand on end in fear!"
"Tell me once, Keloda." One of them said.
"You have said it! But listen." Keloda took off her sandals and sat on them in the field with them. Then she started talking.
"Back then, this was a rural village! It didn't have such a semi-urban appearance. These electric lights. These tarred roads. These houses. There was nothing like this. There was an empty field. A swamp. Big trees and a paved road!
During the day, foxes used to roam around here. This very place. Where we are sitting. There was a crematorium here! People were also thrown into this crematorium along with dead cows and goats! And that crematorium was covered with grass as thick as a person. And that road, that wasn't there. That was a little closer.
I had just started working in a textile mill in Kolkata at that time! I came home every day except for fifteen days. I had just come home a few times.
After working for half an hour on Saturdays, I would leave for home. Do you understand? There was no such arrangement for carriages and horses then. There was only one bus on that road in Baman Gachi. And that too every two hours. Not that there were many people.
I had a specific time to leave there. If I left at that time, I would get a bus exactly five minutes later.
What happened that day, I was a little late when I left there. I couldn't find that bus anymore. I had to take the next bus.
I returned to my home destination at eight o'clock that evening! It was eight o'clock at night. Everyone was asleep. Many had already slept.
When I got off the bus at Bamun Gachi at night, no one was there. The tea shop, the flower shop, the bicycle shop were all closed! All I saw was a man who kept the bus accounts sitting on a bamboo bench in the hedge next to him, lighting a small timtim.
I had to come past him when I got off the bus. So when I passed him, I asked, 'Grandpa, what time is it?'
He replied, 'Fifteen past eight'. As soon as I heard that, I thought he was dead! It was already night. I have to walk quite a distance tonight. I heard that they all sit down to get their families together tonight! If they are right in front, they are no longer safe."
"What do you mean?" one of the Kelodas asked in between.
"You don't understand what they mean. Neka! You shouldn't mention their names at night. They roam everywhere at night. If you call their names, they can hear everything. Then they will take your company. And their company is terrible! That's why many people call them evil spirits at night."
"They mean ghosts, right?"
Keloda said a little slowly, "Yes."
Then she started telling the story again.
"I am walking after talking to them. It is completely silent all around! The sound of the crickets is no longer heard! Their throats have become dry from screaming since that evening. So they stopped screaming and all fell asleep.
The moon has risen with the clock. Flowers are blooming in the fields all around."
"Don't you understand what you mean by the clock?" one of them asked.
"Then what do you mean by clocking? The moon is no longer in the sky every evening. It rises in the sky sometime before or sometime after. The rising of the moon before or after this evening is called moon watching. All these are about time. Don't you understand?"
The boys are all listening to the story attentively. Sometimes such questions disturb the joy of listening to their stories. So one of them said,
"Hey, will you stop? It's nice to say things like that in the middle of a story? Can't you just be quiet and listen to the story?"
"Tell me, Keloda! What happened after that?"
"Yes. But this is not a story. It's an incident from my own life.
Suddenly everything is silent. Not a single leaf on the tree is moving! Not a single fox is calling out in the distance! The situation is completely still!
I feel a little scared! Suddenly everything is empty. There were a few houses on the road in front of me, but after that, everything is empty.
Even if I scream and call out to someone out of fear, nothing will happen! No one will hear my call.
What if I say that? Oh. Because of that, I can't sit on that side of the road all night without returning home.
Meanwhile, your grandmother knows that I will come that day. I will buy some groceries at home. Otherwise, everything will stop eating and drinking. I have some dry food with me. I bought it from Kolkata at a much lower price. So I have to come home!
The bus got off the road and went to Jail Para. After that, after walking a little bit, there was a huge tamarind tree on the side of the road. Even if four people gathered, they couldn't find the fence of that tree. Its trunk was so thick. It was scary there too!
Many of them used to live in that tree! Many people have seen them swinging on the branches of that tamarind tree!
Once, Dhamre saw one standing near that tree! He said, "What a huge man! His head has risen above the tamarind tree! His two legs are big and thick. They are standing like pillars on both sides of the road.
In the middle of the road. Anyone who passes through that gap will be caught and crushed! How deadly!
He knew in his heart that he should never walk between the legs of such a ghost, if he did, he would never return home alive. So he did not tread that path again. The Tamil floor crawled past him like a snake in the thick forest.
Why only that Khagen Thakur of Bamun Para, he too had once fallen into the clutches of that ghost of the Tamil floor!
That day was Purnima.
He was returning from the house of the Gajens of that jailer's para after performing Satyanarayan Puja! It must have been about seven o'clock that night.
They had seen Khagen Khuro going to the Puja. They had all the accounts. They knew that day was Purnima. They had gone a little ahead and sat by the side of the road, thinking that they would eat the head of the Narayan Puja.
When Thakur was returning with his head bowed, they followed him. They walked with him exactly like humans. Only their skin color was black and they wore white clothes!"
"Why is it like that, Keloda?" asked one.
"Why, don't you understand? They are burnt, so their bodies are black. When we die, don't we burn them? And if they are ghosts, they wear the dhoti that we offer for Shraddha."
"So they are all Hindu ghosts?" asked one.
"Are ghosts anything other than Hindus? You are asking like a madman! Hey, Muslims call ghosts Zen. And Christians call ghosts. What other names do other ghosts have? I don't know that much.
But when someone dies during the time of the dwarfs, it is said that they are Brahma Daityas! Those ghosts are good. They wear saffron clothes just like the holy monks. They don't twist anyone's neck. They live in the Bel tree again.
Let's talk about that. Listen to the story I was telling. When they were coming after Thakur! Seeing that, Thakur understood that they were not human!
So many people together at such a night! It couldn't be! But he was not afraid. Narayan Thakur was with him, and besides, the sacrificial lamb was hanging around his neck! That's why they couldn't even come close to him, let alone touch him.
After walking a little way, the two came in front of Thakur and said in a low voice, 'Give me some Shirni, Thakur, I'll eat it!'
Thakura looked at their hands once! Those hands were like dry wood! Fire was burning in them!
Seeing that, Thakur said, 'The lid of the Shirni cannot be opened. If you want to eat ripe Shirni, I can give it to you. But on one condition.'
They all asked with interest, 'What condition?'
Thakura then said, 'It's nothing like that, no one will come in front of me with a lollipop.' Everyone agreed.
He threw a batasa each. Everyone opened their mouths wide and swallowed it!
The batasa was called a ripe Shirni. So Thakur kept his word, and they kept their word too. One by one, everyone climbed up that thick tamarind tree like Hanuman and climbed to the top of the tree! There, they all hung on a branch like bats!
Thakur quickly crossed the path on foot. He said, "I don't know about the Bapu ghost, if he cheats. If he comes again and says he is not full, give him something to eat! Then nothing will be taken home.
But I have never seen the ghost of that tamarind tree. Who knows, they may have fallen asleep when I came!
That day too, I walked past that tamarind tree, and I saw that there was no one anywhere. As soon as I crossed that tamarind tree, I was ready to climb out. It means a vast open space of swamp land.
At that time, there was a path through the Bena tree. There was no bush or jungle anywhere on that path. At that time, the swamp land looked completely white in the light of the cloudless sky.
I was walking alone, and I saw someone sitting on the side of the road with a cloth veil pulled over his face! He has eaten! I said to myself.
I won't be able to survive today! I will eat all the food and I won't be able to return home with my life.
I made up my mind; I won't go that way anymore. I left the Bena tree path and went down into the swamp!
I walked quite a distance without looking back. This time I thought, let's see what that guy is doing!
I looked in that direction and there was nothing! A big Bena bush standing there!
I didn't have any difficulty in understanding that he had seen me and covered himself. Who knows if he was sitting somewhere else!
I was coming in fear! I had just crossed the exit gate, when I saw a group of cows standing in front of me!
So many cows! Where did they come from? I thought, what did I think of the cow ghost?
Cows also become ghosts when they die! And why only cows, all animals become ghosts when they die. They are not good either! Cow ghosts also press on people's necks! Those who are possessed by those cow ghosts scream in their sleep at night! And they eat like cows!
Cow ghosts, however, do not twist their necks. They do not have hands. They beat them with their horns. They lift them up and throw them away!
I thought, I have fallen into terrible danger. I cannot lay a hand on them! And there is no way for me to pass by and move forward! I am in great danger!
Looking around, I saw a five-storey house lying a little distance away!
"What five-storey house, Go Keloda?" asked one of them.
"Hey, that's a kind of stick for driving away cows! A thin stick with a piece of leather tied to the end, about a hand or a hand and a half long. You use it to hit the cow on the back." If you hit them, they run away.
I went there slowly and picked up the fallen five-storey house! After that, I went to pull it and hit each one with it, and then I saw that all the cows were dead! I thought to myself, oh my, but the danger is over.
Now I am walking with joy. That old pond, the one in which big fish are now being farmed, was a small pond back then.
A small pond in the middle of the swamp is called a pond. Cross that and you will come to this field. Back then, it was a crematorium! Completely empty! The Ulu trees here had just been cut down and cleared.
A boy from that neighborhood had died and left him, so they cut down that Ulu tree and cleared it.
Everything looks so clear from a distance. As soon as I crossed that Ulu tree, I saw that an earthen pitcher was lying in the crematorium!
I know that such a water pitcher is left behind with the dead! That one is also lying there. There is nothing to be afraid of.
The fear came right after that!
I walked another ten steps, thinking there was no need to look there anymore, so I didn't look.
Suddenly, I looked in that direction and saw a terrible thing! The pitcher was moving!
At that time, my soul was about to escape from the cage. I had reached the very edge, and just then I had to fall into the clutches of such a ghost!
My hands and feet were getting cold from fear. Meanwhile, sweat was pouring down my forehead! How could I chant the name of Ram? It was all getting mixed up!
And I couldn't move forward, nor could I run backward. It was like a three-cone situation! I stood there like a stone, just looking at that direction.
I saw that the pitcher had started rolling! It was rolling in this direction and then in that direction!
Seeing that, I felt like I had done something wrong! If it kept rolling like that, it would be even more dangerous. There would be no way of knowing when and where it would go.
At first the pitcher was rolling at a slow pace, but then I saw that it was gradually increasing its speed!
Then only one thing came to mind, my life span till today! And after a while, that pitcher will squeeze my throat and make my soul leave the body!
Oh, father, mother, what should I do now? I was crying and saying this to myself!
Suddenly I saw the pitcher stop rolling and stop at a place!
I thought, who knows, maybe this time the ghost will come out of the pitcher. The pitcher will not squeeze my throat! It will twist my neck with its own hands!
I stared at the pitcher with my eyes closed as if I was relaxed, I could not see anything entering or leaving the pitcher.
Ghosts can take on different types of bodies. It may be visible or invisible! It seemed that some invisible body of the ghost had entered the pitcher.
While I was thinking like this, suddenly I saw the pitcher start rolling again. Now it is rolling really hard! In the blink of an eye, it is rolling from side to side!
Now I am even more scared. I started to feel like I am a few feet away from death!
I thought that death is inevitable. When death is written on the hands of a ghost, why should I die like a fool out of fear? I can still try to live a little. So I gathered my courage!
Now I feel like I am getting some strength back in my body. I tried to move my hands and feet that were frozen like stones a little. I saw that I could move quite a bit. But what is the fear anymore!
Thinking like that, I lifted my feet one by one and dropped them on the ground like a parade!
I saw the speed of that giant rolling then! Once it was running this way and that way at the speed of a rocket! In between, I saw it jumping up and down a little.
I thought that if it came to me and jumped up like that and punched me in the face. If I played that punch, I would die instantly!
Once I felt like running. Just then, I saw it coming right at me! I stood still!
I thought to myself that this time, as soon as it crossed the road, I would run a marathon. I would stop at once and go home. And if it catches me and twists its neck, then the race would be over!
The pitcher had rolled right over that side, and I had just started running! At that moment, I saw the pitcher break with a loud bang!
I also tripped and fell off the road onto the lush grass!
As I fell, I heard the ghost running past me with a loud bang! Then I thought I had fallen lucky! Otherwise, it would have twisted my neck and sent me flying!
In fact, it is a ghost! That's why it runs around the fields on the grass. If it were a city ghost, it would have stood there and sent me flying!
The day you fall into the lap of such a ghost, you will know whether there is a ghost or not!