"may I Step Out?"

Today I wish to share with you a story which was narrated by my grandma many years ago.

They used to live in their native place in Pen, Panvel, Maharashtra, India during those days around 1950s. My grandma was just a child then.

In those times, in India, there were huge joint families and it was common for one's parents, grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, etc to stay together in an ancestral home (It's called a WADA in Marathi).

Possibly may have been constructed in the early 1900s.

There was a small storeroom which was also 1+1 (ground + first floor) in the backyard. There was only a ladder though that could be used to climb to the first floor from inside the storeroom which usually remained locked with a rectangular flap in the ceiling of the ground floor.

The bathrooms were also located in the backyard such that they covered 2 sides of the storeroom and the bathroom windows could give you a view of the storeroom.

Now, many of the relatives were used to certain strange things happening around the storeroom like breathing or growling sounds, lights flickering in the bathrooms or the storeroom. Knocks being heard from the storehouse's first floor.

The village people were robust those days and hardly had a care in their lives. But, that's when the intensity of the strange occurences increased and the knocks from the storeroom's ceiling turned into actual sounds of an unknown voice asking, "MAY I STEP OUT?" "MAY I STEP OUT?"

Now, this freaked the hell out of everyone, so they invited an exorcist (BHAGAT) to the place and he almost immediately told them that there was something in the storeroom that was trapped there and wanted to be let out, but he couldn't figure out what it could be. So, he organized a small ritual in a couple of days which happened to be a NO MOON DAY (AMAVASYA).

He had asked my great great grandfather to arrange for some things like flowers, incense, coconuts, rice, turmeric, Vermilion and A Live chicken etc.

All was arranged. The BHAGAT chanted some mantras and carefully arranged all these things along a certain path starting from just under the ladder in the storeroom leading outside the gate of the actual home.

So, you could see all these ritualistic things being scattered along the ground coconuts, rice, etc doused with red and yellow powder and finally a chicken with its leg tied with a string right at the main gate.

After that, he ordered all of us to go inside the main house. My grandma and others went to the 2nd floor terrace to see what would happen.

The BHAGAT chanted some more mantras after that and when he finally heard the call "MAY I STEP OUT?" "MAY I STEP OUT?"

The BHAGAT replied, "YES, COME OUT!". As soon as he did, the 1st floors ceiling door snapped open and it was as if a cyclone had been liberated from that place, it followed the path of all the things that were laid on the ground, tossing everything out, coconuts being broken flying in the air, and finally the poor chicken which died as soon as the cyclone kind of thing passed through her and moved out of the main gate. As soon as it did, the BHAGAT, closed the gate and tied a lemon and chillies to the gate and called the elders outside.

He said, it was probably just a spirit which was trapped to that ground and needed to be liberated.

And that's how the entire story concluded and never again did anyone hear the same "MAY I STEP OUT?" again.

Anyway, hope you liked the story here. There are a few things that she told me after narrating the story which are very interesting about this. But I would share them in my comments after.

Peace.

Ajay K.