A scuffle with a Ghost

Once, an old (touching 60) man (whose name is of no importance) from my village was returning back home, at night, after paying a visit to his relatives. Now, to understand the story the reader must understand that, one, this is happening before electricity or phones were common even torches, were a rarity this, means that it was quite dark. Second, is that this happens in a village, that means that superstitions ran as deep as a well. And, thirdly, that during the part in which the story takes place, the man was crossing a small stream of water flowing at the edges of the village. This water body was called messiah khud and was filled with stones on it banks. Sharp, large stones that will hurt a lot to fall on.

Now, back to the story, the man was continuing on his path, minding his business until, (now there must be until or a when suddenly, otherwise, there would hardly be a story to tell) he heard a sound. Assuming it was just the rocks shifting the man, looked upstream to check any increase in the speed of the river, lest a flood shall come. But saw nothing the river was flowing merrily at its normal pace, no sign of any abnormality. So, he continued to move along, on reaching the banks of the khud the mysterious voice returned. Now, he was quite sure and certain that it was the sound of an incoming flood. It was the darkest hour before dawn (the reader must recall the first condition I asked them humbly, to remember.) and he couldn’t quite see properly. So, he decided to wait at the banks till he was sure of anything when suddenly the sound returned.

Oh dear! he thought. It couldn’t be it, couldn’t be, how could it be. Again, he heard the now much feared voice, too guttural to be of a river, animal or any god-fearing creature. It was of a ghost, more specifically, a ghost of a man who was rumored to have died in the village he was coming from. The set of instructions to follow if such a situation occurs, was to remove one’s clothes and pick a fight with the inhumanly creature and the man decided to follow them diligently. Now dear reader doing so does seem like a bad idea but, I urge you to remember the second thing I asked you to keep in mind and realized that you are sitting in the comfort of your home not, being chased by a ghost in complete dark. Though, if you think that the advice was rather, well useless, I whole heartedly agree with you (now, say if the ghost happened to be a martial artist in his human days) and believe that Hanuman chalisa (or crosses, whatever your faith may say) would’ve been, a much better option to ward of the evil spirit.

But, the man was too panicked to think such thoughts and steeling himself, went to box with whatever creature may wait for him. When he touched the place, he believed the sound was coming from, he felt human flesh. He was scared out of his wits! This ghost, this creature not only came to haunt him but also managed to possess a human body on the way? My how strong would he be! But the man had nerves of steel (he must’ve had since he decided to make the journey home at night, rather than waiting for dawn) and fought fearlessly. They fought on the rough rocks of messiah khud for god knows how long! But, what we do know, is that the fight was long and painful. Punches were given and received, and equal measure and no party was ready to back down. The ghost, seemed to have possessed a strong body. Now, I understand that the question arises in one’s mind, wasn’t the man old how could he fight for so long in such rough conditions? But, old man in old days were tougher than the youth of today and could, hold their ground in case they wanted to pick up a fight with a ghost. What happened during the fact is completely unknown, I imagine both parties rolling on the ground trying to kill the other (or just save themselves) however, the reader may imagine anything they believed would’ve had happened (even if it means you think they had a long philosophical debate).

This, continued till the sun finally decided to provide the world with its sunshine, and appeared on the horizon. This illuminated the scene. The man firmly believed that with the coming of light the ghost will certainly take its leave but, it didn’t. rather, when he looked at the creature he had been so mercilessly fighting, he realized it was a human (not possessed by a ghost of course) in fact, it was his very own brother(whose name is of no importance too)! When both parties regained their senses, they, realized that it seemed as if, both parties had been travelling down the same path (the brother’s reason for the travel is important and does not affect the story and hence, I shall not write it. However, if you are one for details, feel free to imagine whatever you fancy) heard the same noise (which, was in fact made by the brother who, was so scared that he didn’t realized that. This dear reader, puts you at complete independence too put the blame of this incident on the brother) and followed the same set of instruction (as they were from the same village and held the same beliefs).

They both, had spent the last few hours fighting their brothers, thinking the other party to be a ghost! They laughed at it (as the other option was to cry or be embarrassed which, would be completely dejecting) and helped each other to somehow (with all their injuries) to walk back to the village. As, one may expect it was a completely humiliating (for the speaker) and hysterical(for the listener) experience for them to explain how they managed to get so wounded!