Urmila's Haunted Home

Urmila and I have been best friends since college (that would be since '84). Her house is haunted since as long as I could remember and as I just posted a story, I couldn't help but remember the incident that took place at her house.

It's a two-storied Indian bungalow. It's a huge and a beautiful house with the living room, kitchen and the guest rooms on the ground floor and the master bedroom and the study on the upper floor. When I entered her home for the first time, I just felt uneasy. The place was spotlessly clean and tastefully furnished but I couldn't help but feel very depressed. I had never had that feeling before, it was one of being watched by something or someone. I remember it even now, 30 years later; it didn't stop me from going to her place, though. Her father was a freedom fighter during the British rule and had many a tales to tell.

When I was staying at her home, there was a little episode which had me frightened for a long time back then. Urmila knew that the place was haunted, she shared a lot of stories about the place with me. She told me how she kept seeing a woman dressed in a red sari in her kitchen; her parents had told her that she was an old family member who was widowed and, according to the social customs back then, had to wear the red clothing. There was also another spirit in her house, it seemed to belong to a British man who would pace nervously on the veranda. Both of them were a part of the house and were known to everyone. They never bothered anyone or even seemed to take note that there were living people present in the house and just made an appearance whenever they liked.

There was another ghost who only made itself known by sounds and never manifested into an apparition. It haunted the upper floor and would knock on the door of the bedrooms, curse if you talked too loudly and, according to my friend, even break vases and bottles. Urmila talked about this in a casual way and I was surprised that this didn't bother her at all. She told me a lot about the ghosts in her house but sadly I have forgotten some of it.

I remember seeing the British man and it was very eerie at that time. It was quite late in the night and we were sitting in the living room talking when I had this feeling of taking a look out the big picture windows. I could see someone walking on the veranda. Urmila and I both saw it at nearly the same time. She jokes about him being called "Sir James someone". "Sir James" was only a shadow of whoever he was in his early days. I could see a hat on his head and could see him walking up and down the veranda for what seemed like a very long time. It couldn't have been more than a minute and a half when he simply vanished into thin air.

That was enough for me that day and I simply hurried to my friend's room to sleep but we had something more in store for us. India back in '80s didn't have a very laudable power supply (it is less than stellar even today). We had been sleeping when the power supply was cut off and it could be hours before it was restored. Urmila and I lit a candle and tried to fall asleep but the noisy phantom had other plans. It knocked loudly on the door a few times and Urmila jumped out of the bed to open it only to see no one. Her parents wouldn't have done that and her brother was asleep downstairs. She said it happens at times in the nights and the ghost doesn't leave until you open the door.

I stayed at her house a lot of times in these years and saw "Sir James" one more time. The noisy phantom once cursed at Urmila because she was singing a song. But I never saw the woman in the kitchen. Her mom said she only appears to the family members.

The house still exists and people live there but the apparitions have seemed to left. I haven't visited Urmila's old home for nearly 5 years now. She moved out, her parents passed away and along with them the ghosts of the house seem to have moved on as well.

This was one of my early encounters with ghosts but it turned me into a believer. Feel free to comment.