The Ghost Who Was Looking For The Child

This happened to my grandfather when he used to live in South India in a village closer to the city Kodaikanal. He used to be a non believer back then.

Somewhere in the 1950's there was a drought. He doesn't remember the exact year. He was in his early 20's. His village was badly hit by the drought and all the crops were dead. They had no other food source in the village. My grandfather's family bought food from a nearby village once every week. My grandfather or one of his siblings went for food.

That particular week it was my grandfather's turn to go. Unlike his brother's who went to the nearby village my grandfather usually went to a village which was a bit far. He used to walk almost for two and a half hours to reach this particular village, he took pain going since most of his friends were living there and he used the chance to meet them. As usual he left in the morning and reached the village and did all the shopping. Then he went to his friend's place where he had lunch and spent some time there, and then another friend came there and also invited them to his newly bought hotel.

So all three men went there and were having fun. Time flew so fast and it was only around 10pm that my grandfather realized he was late. When he told them he was leaving, the friend who owned the hotel had checked the time and told my grandfather that he should spend the night at the hotel and could leave the next morning. The reason he gave, was that there was a ghost out there who wandered around their village and the road which leads to my grandfather's village. Many villagers had allegedly seen this figure of a long haired women dressed in white. Even the people who worked in the hotel had seen this ghost many times through the keyhole in the door. The villagers were afraid to leave their houses at night. Even a guy who lived several streets away was afraid to go to his home.

My grandfather had laughed at them for believing ghost tales. Then without listening to them he started his journey and because my grand father was going, this guy found the courage to follow my grandfather. (This guy's house was at the edge of the village and my grandfather had to cross it)

So the two of them left and on the way, the guy had told the story about this ghost. Even though my grand father didn't believe it he was listening to him since he usually found ghost stories very funny. According to this guy some weeks before, a woman had died while giving birth to a child. After her cremation her child was taken to some other village far away, by her husband and his family. Since then, people saw a woman very similar to the one who died, wandering the village at night. The villagers believed the ghost was very angry since it couldn't find its child and encountering this ghost alone, would mean danger. They thought the ghost might show all of its anger towards any person it sees. Once they were at this guy's home he had asked my grandfather one more time to change his mind for which his answer was a laugh.

To reach his village my grandfather had to walk down a valley and then climb a mountain using curvy spring like roads. When he reached the valley it was closer to midnight. All of a sudden at the middle of the valley a white figure appeared, he said. At first he didn't bother knowing what it was but when he got closer and closer, the figure looked like a woman. This figure was seen in moonlight. Even though he carried a torch (flashlight) he didn't flash the light at it for some unknown reason.

Once he was close enough again he had given a look. Now he saw it clearly. He described it as a middle aged woman, wearing a white dress with long black hair which matched his friend's description of the ghost. At this moment my grandfather got a bit scared.

I must say, my grandfather never drinks any sort of alcoholic beverages. He is an expert in Indian martial arts and a very brave man. He is also a non believer and a well educated person. So when my grandfather said he was afraid of this unknown entity the possibility of it being a person or he mistakenly taking something else for a paranormal entity is highly unlikely.

Then out of fear he had started walking swiftly. This figure was in the opposite side of the road, my grandfather managed to pass it without any trouble but then when he looked back he saw this figure in his side of the road, following him. By now he was climbing the mountain using the small curvy roads. A bad fall from the road will result in death as the fall would take a person hundreds of feet down the hill.

Seeing this figure following him, grandfather had increased his pace yet he could see this thing catching up with him and the distance between him and the ghostly figure was becoming less and less. Then grandfather had really freaked out and started running yet again when he looked back the figure was moving as fast as him. After he started running in less than a minute, something had struck him very hard on the back part of his neck. The blow was so hard that he rolled down the hill. He said he didn't know what happened and said he rolled for like forever. Luckily he managed to grab the root of a tree then somehow got the strength to climb back to the road. There the figure was gone. Then he ran as fast as he could and reached home in a fraction of the time it took usually. Then he went to bed silently without talking to anyone and blacked out.

The next morning when his family checked on him he was shivering, had high Temperature and strangely enough the back part of his neck was red, it also had finger marks, as if someone had given a hard slap. His brothers had gone to the scene where this happened and they found scattered food all around the place. Then his family had brought a Hindu priest and done some rituals. After a few days his health got better and he was back to normal.

Whenever I hear this story I get scared but still my grandfather laughs when someone mentions ghost.