I have been hearing stories of eerie experiences from my maternal grandmother ever since I was little. Theirs was a fairly large family. Grandmother had 7 kids in total - 5 girls and 2 boys. Grandfather was a police officer in Assam in 1940s, 50s and 60s and would be transferred and posted in different parts of the region. Grandmother would travel with grandfather initially when they were a young couple. But as the kids grew older, they were required to be rooted in one place so they can complete their schooling and further studies without much of a break. Grandfather build a house in Guwahati for the family while he travelled around, posted in different districts every couple of years.
Guwahati was thinly populated back then and was more like a sleepy little town. It wouldn't be unusual to find just about 3-4 houses in a 2 km radius. With grandfather gone, grandmother would manage the entire household and the army of 7 kids all on her own. It amazes me to think how she must have managed without any help. My mother, the eldest in the family, tells me that she and all my aunts grew up pretty fast shouldering responsibilities. They all went about their daily chores like a well-oiled team which in turn helped grandmother in managing them.
Now, unbeknownst to her, my grandmother had special skills/powers. She could sense entities. All kinds of entities - good, bad, everything. In most cases, she would brush them off as her mind playing tricks on her. This unwanted skill has been passed down to her daughters like a legacy and now my younger sister seems to have attained it. That's a story for another day. Let's just stay on track with my grandmother's story for now.
So grandmother would experience all kinds of activities in the house. Most times she would forget all about it. But some she remembered.
The house was old-fashioned, meaning, the bathroom and toilet were outside the living quarters and there was a well next to the bathrooms. It was like a wet area, all washing would happen next to the well. If anybody needed to use the loo at night, they would cross the well proceeding to the bathroom or toilet. Also, there was no running water in the toilet/bathroom. One would need to draw water from the well and fill the buckets. Most times these buckets would be filled and ready to use, should one need to go to the toilet in the dead of the night. But on certain nights, someone or something would draw water from the well. My mother recalls hearing the bucket being dropped into the well, the sound of it hitting the surface of water, the creaking of the pulley as it lifts the water filled bucket and even the little overflow of water that happens as you pull the bucket up. All too distinctly. She would think one of her sisters must have gotten up in the night to use the toilet. Upon casually checking with them the next morning, she would be surprised to find that everybody denied going to the toilet the previous night.
The entity would also assume the voice of one of the family members and call out. So when one of my aunts was in the toilet at night, she heard my uncle calling her from outside the toilet door. Three-four times. She thought that my uncle, who was the youngest in the family, needed to use the toilet so she came out as soon as possible only to find nobody outside. She came back to the room and woke up my uncle but he was sleeping soundly up until then and never went out at all.
These were fairly regular occurrences that the family would discuss and then laugh it off. Grandmother would never participate in such discussions. Maybe deep down she knew something was amiss in the house, but she also knew that if she accepts these as facts it would be difficult for the kids to live in the house.
All in all, the house and the well area, especially, was haunted and there are so many minor but strange incidents that occurred, which were conveniently brushed under the carpet just so a mother can single-handedly bring up a family of 7 children. Most parts of the house are now demolished for newer constructions and the well is covered and locked for good. There has not been any incidents so far.
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