Was it a case
of over kill? Was it a plot turned sour? Or was it a perfectly naturally thing
turned into a supernatural event by the media hungry for news are the questions
that haunt us.
A house
under construction at Ballalbag in the heart of Mangalore was discovered
to be supposedly haunted by spirits. After midnight we were told, loud
voices were heard. In sequence - they were said to be that of a mother
and a child followed by that of a cat. Once such things happen colorful
stories start doing their rounds. One was that the site had a well which
had been closed. It was said that many years back a young woman had
jumped into that well and had died. While that could explain the woman’s
voice those of the child and the cat remained unexplained. We could
expect that the woman was pregnant when she had jumped in and had delivered
in the ghostly form, a baby which belonged to the same category. The
cat would be a pet which could not bear separation from its mistress
and had jumped in after her though cats have been notorious for lack
of any such loyalties!
The media
desperate for ratings, projected it as one of the greatest mysteries ever seen
on the face of this earth. This was not withstanding the fact that the house
under construction was surrounded by such shrubbery which could have hidden a
dozen lions and perhaps a few small sized elephants. In keeping up with the
usual custom, this was labeled as a challenge to rationalists, proof for the
existence of spirits, god and various others of the ilk. When the pressures
built up it was for us to prove that it was a man made or a biological
phenomenon with no supernatural involvement.
So, our
team set out to investigate this on a Saturday night. Since the event
was supposed to happen at around 1 am, we made it to the venue well
before that to check the premises. A thorough search of the haunted
house revealed nothing and we set out to wait. At the outset the crowd
waiting for the event was a decent manageable one. There were a few
spiritually inclined persons but were not in very high spirits. But,
when it neared midnight, hordes of proletarians fortified with spirits
of the organic variety started descending on the venue. At this plebs
of the locality, also very much in high spirits started a debate on
whether they should endure this intrusion of outsiders into their territory.
Among the debaters there were various schools of thought each one of
them having their own favourite weapons and the way to use them. Within
a short time a hot debate raged on. The highly spirited debaters have
ways of expressing their opinions and soon the limbs started expressing
themselves along with the vocal chords. Seeing this crowd of a couple
of hundreds most of whom seemed to be keen to meet the spirits of the
supernatural variety after fortifying themselves with those of the organic
type - we decided to return to investigate on another day.
Our decision turned out to be a very wise one. We were told that the
debate got noisier and the police had to be summoned. They had to use
their lathis to drive away the spiritually inclined crowd. That night
the supernatural events did not happen. It was very clear that no self
respecting ghost would come any where near such happenings. Strangely
enough, that seems to have also succeeded in driving them away for ever.
Well what could be
the manifestation of the ghosts? A number of theories are doing their
rounds - none of which have any supernatural motivation. One was that
the haunted place is the only semi vacant plot surrounded by buildings
belonging to a group of educational
institutions and taking over that would ensure contiguity. One could
always bank on ghostly phenomena to drive away any intending purchasers.
After taking over that at throw away price, rituals could be performed
and the spiritual occupants could be driven off. Some local boys
remembered seeing a flea bitten dog which was howling throughout the
day and night. In the quiet of the night one would be conscious of that.
The others were that some hooligans wanted to scare the girls at the
nearby ladies hostel. There were a number of other theories making their
rounds.
What strikes
us is that the media hype has turned a frivolous event into a phenomenon
attracting the attention of thousands and projecting it as a remarkable
incident. One wishes that the persons covering such exercise their grey cells
before projecting such as evidences for the existence of ghosts!
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