The Doomed Dwelling!

Hi Guys,

I had been thinking about writing a story for a long time. I have penned down something which you might call a story, if you are generous enough. This story is inspired by some of the events that happened to a few of my friends years back. Please read it and let me know your valuable comments. Thanks!

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The day still remains fresh in my heart. After spending two years in college hostel, my parents had agreed to allow me stay outside. I was a hot May morning, but I was so fresh and the day was simply great. To the readers who are confused as to who I am, let me introduce myself. I am Ram, a Mechanical Engineering student in one of the private Engineering colleges in Chennai. Staying in hostel has its own issues. We have to stick to the idiotic rules, we have to bear with the poor food, we were not allowed to go outside, we were not allowed to use mobile phones and so on. Staying outside has its own advantages and freedom. So, I and three of my friends got into a house in the suburbs of Chennai.

It was a quite an old house, but nevertheless a big house with a few spacious rooms. We were in the first floor. The house owner said that the ground floor was being renovated and that he was in search of tenants for the second floor which was also big. The rent was much less compared to other houses in the area. There are certain things in this world that you won’t believe until it happens to you. Getting a house for cheap rent was one such thing and I was happy with it. Little did I know that I will experience other unbelievable things too.

A few weeks passed by. It was the starting of September. My roommates had gone to their homes for weekend and I was staying alone in the home. I was a Saturday night and I was watching a random movie in my laptop. The tube light in the room started to flicker and it was off before I tried to do something. I went to the hall and switched on the light, but it refused to switch on. The neighbouring homes had power supply, so I thought there was something wrong with the fuse. I took a torch light and went to the electric meter box. To my shock, the main switch was turned off. I turned it on, but was observed in thoughts as there was no one else in the home.

I came back to the room to find that my laptop had been turned off. I thought it had run out of battery, but then realized the power source was still on. My first thought was that it was a thief. Slowly and steadily, I went to other rooms and switched on the lights to find that no one was there. I had a thought that it might be a ghost, but then I never believed. I thought, there was something with the electrical connection and slept off.

The next day morning, I got up quite early. I spent most of the time outside my home. The night came. By the time I came home, all the lights were turned on. Confused, I called my roommates. None of them had reached home. I was scared now. The house was open. I went slowly inside and found that no one was there. Sweat started flowing down my face. I was standing by the entrance for some 10 minutes. Someone was opening the door in the second floor. I starting walking down the steps when the house owner called me. He said he had come with a plumber to do some repairing works in the pipeline. Sometimes, mind does play games with us.

Night came. I locked myself and I was trying to comprehend whatever I had written in Thermal Lab note to write in my record. It was then that a small girl in the opposite house started to scream as if she had seen a ghost. The girl was pointing to something in the second floor of the house we were staying and she fainted. Her parents came later and took her, probably to a hospital. Her terror ridden eyes remained in my heart and was very scared after all the events. I tried to stay awake with lights turned on. My eyes and brain were playing games with me.

Somehow I drifted off to sleep. It was around 6 in the morning when I got up. I found that my roommate Siva had come from home. He was sitting in hall and writing something. He didn’t seem to note me. I brushed my teeth and I was having headache due to the events that happened in the previous night. I wanted to have coffee and came out. The mother of the little girl was standing outside. I enquired about the little girl and she said the girl was fine. She asked us to get out of the home soon as there was apparently a ghost in the house. The home was used as a hostel few years back and a girl had committed Suicide in the hostel. Due to that, the house has remain uninhabited for a long time. If someone comes to the home, the ghost makes an appearance. She said the so called plumber was a witch hunter. I suddenly remembered that he had no tools with him.

Confused, I reached for the tea shop at the end of the street. I saw Siva walking towards the street with his bag on his shoulders. Then who was sitting in the hall? I suddenly remembered the fact that I had locked the doors and no one could have come in unless I opened. Things dawned on me suddenly. I waited for Siva and told him everything.

He said he had been experiencing some strange dreams after coming to the house. A dream where he was walking somewhere with a long pathway with no rooms on the side and a photo of a beautiful brown horse in the wall. We went back to home. Other two friends said that they would come only on Tuesday.

We went to college and came back. We went to the second floor of the house. There was no lock and we went in. It was clear that the house was full of dust and no one can live there as of now. There was many old household things. I heard a cry from Siva in the next room. There was the picture of the horse that came in his dreams.

We came out of the house. We called the house owner and asked him to come immediately. He came and tried to convince that the house was safe. After a few nasty dialogues, he accepted that there was something scary there. He said the witch hunter would probably drive it away in a few days and wanted us to stay there and was ready to reduce the rent by 25%.

But, do you think we would have stayed there? Yes, we did. We wanted to get out as soon as possible. But, we didn’t get any other houses nearby. Our fears reduced as time went by. A few notorious things would happen now and then. But, it was some silly things and it didn’t increase in magnitude as shown in horror movies. We and the ghost got used to mutual existence. We stayed for two years and we never had a problem!

Was there a Ghost?

Hi Guys,

Wish you all a very Happy New Year! I wanted to write a post around the end of December 2012 or atleast the very starting of 2013, but then I had a hectic schedule.

The first post of 2013. I was thinking of what to write about and then decided to write about an interesting incident that happened some months ago. It is about how our mind can think about things and have an immediate effect.

This is something like a continuation of the post in which I had written about one of my friends seeinga ghost. I wrote this one in October 2011 and if you haven’t read it, read it before continuing with this post.

After that particular incident happened, it became a hot topic in my classroom and many a times lot of comedy stories were running around in explanation of the incident. It was somewhere around March or April last year. I just went to their room as a few other friends were also present.

I was bright summer afternoon. We were playing cards for some time. The topic of Ghosts somehow came in. Apart from the regular roommates, myself and two other friends were there. We started ridiculing them saying how things might have gone terrible that day and it might have been someone else and it can never be the ghost.

The one who had actually seen (or the one who said so) got angry. He said a lot of other incidents too have happened. That night was not the only time it happened. On a particular day (might be a full moon day!) one of the room mates had a dream. In the dream, he went out of the bedroom to see that there was a long corridor with so many doors on either side. There was a wall painting with a Horse picture. The next day, he went upstairs for the first time and there was the same Horse picture in the window.

In another incident, a girl who lived in the opposite house has seen a girly figure sitting in the staircase at an awkward position. The stair case was in the other side and to go to the stair case a door in between has to be opened and the door was locked. In yet another incident, one of these guys had gone to the terrace to dry clothes. The terrace is protected by an iron gate and when he returned back, he found that the door was latched from outside and no one else was in the house at that time.

After some time, these guys went to have food. Myself and two of my friends (who were not staying there) were there. We were continuing with our Card game. It was some time. My mind was already playing games with me. A few days back, I had seen the movie 1408. The movie had many such scenes. In one particular scene, all the key characters whom he thinks are actually alive will be ghosts. I was thinking what if these guys come out as ghosts.

The first guy said, ‘I was having a thought in which everything in this room can come out as ghosts’. The second guy said that he was also thinking the same. I said that I was too thinking of the same. 2 seconds later, we were outside the room and standing in the Balcony. We no longer wanted to go inside the home, before the actual roommates came.

I don’t know whether the incidents happened for real or not. But for sure, the house was not having a good name around. No one was ready to occupy the big portion that was empty in the second floor. From what these guys had heard from around all the tenants who had come previously had fled the house within a few months. I still don’t know how we had the same thought at the same time. Was it a coincidence or something else?

I never really believe in the superstitious things like Ghosts. But when something like these happens, our mind automatically deviates and lead us somewhere.

Happy Reading!!!

Encounter with Ghost - or was it a Ghost?

Hi Guys,

An interesting event happened a few days ago.

My parents had been on a 10 day trip to Varanasi and other holy places around. So, I was alone in my home for those 10 days. The days went quick as I had some works to do and I was also in charge of organizing a Quiz competition in my college. One evening I went with my friend to take printouts of the posters. We came back by 8.30 pm and I went to his home. He is residing with some of my classmates in a rented home. When I went there, power was not there and the whole room was dark.

He asked me, ‘Karthi, are you alone at your home?’ I said yes and he asked me, ‘Don’t you have any fear?’

I said I was used to it since my parents go to many functions frequently. He said, ‘I too don’t have fear sleeping alone in my home (at his native), but here I am afraid’

I said, ‘Yeah, it’s a big house and its quite bad in shape too. So, you may have fear’ He replied, ‘No karthi, the size is not a problem. There is something is this house’ I was shocked. I said ‘What???’

He said, ‘Yes karthi, everyone here has experienced that’ I thought there was really some ghost and got afraid. There was no power and my eyes were looking everywhere around. I said, ‘Ok mate. I have an urgent work and need to go home. Bye!’

Next day, in college I asked him what was there in his house? So he narrated his experience.

‘A few days back I was sleeping in the second room and all my roommates were sleeping in the other room. I didn’t sleep there as I was having cold and that room had two windows and cold breeze would intensify my cough. I was sleeping quite well until 2 am.

‘I woke up by 2 am and went to the bathroom. I came back to the room and I saw that someone was standing outside the hall window (which is visible from the bedroom). I went to hall and asked who it was. There was no reply. I came back and lay down.

‘Two minutes later the person was knocking the window heavily. I went to the hall and shouted who he was. There was no reply for some time. I switched on the light, but the person was invisible. I switched off the light and then I heard a reply “Why are you concerned about who I am. Go and Sleep”. I went back and covered my face with bed sheet and slept’

I was expecting a big story and when he finished his narration, I was furious. A few days later the whole story spread in my class and he got famous with his ghost encounter. I and few of my friends sat with him and convinced him that it was not a ghost. He doesn’t believe and says that he is sure that it was a ghost.

Here are a few reasons put forth my me and my friends

1.  It might have been a thief. My friend says that the door to the balcony was locked and there is no way a thief may come. We say that there are lots other places to climb or fall other than the door.
2. The house owner is a drunkard. His roommates say that he often drinks and babbles. There are lots of possibilities that it was him as he has a key too.
3. We asked him why he didn’t awaken others and call for help. He came with the greatest explanation. I didn’t do anything to the ghost and so I knew that the ghost would not do anything to me.
4. The other possibility is that it was a dream. But he says that it was real and he remembers things, but half his explanations look imaginary.

Half his roommates are more afraid than him and now they are having sleepless nights and this story has become a big comedy in my class with lot of imaginations flowing in.

Happy Reading!!!

Ghost Stories

Hi Guys,

Ghost movies have never awestruck me, though some of those movies have been bizarre comedies.

Last week I went to my friend Siva’s home and he asked, ‘Karthick, say me some good horror movies that you have seen’. I said him some of the movies involving serial killers or fantastical creatures. He said, ‘No, no! I’m not asking about those movies. I’m asking about ghost movies. Movies in which ghost really appear and frighten’. I said that I have not seen any movie in which ghost appear and in most cases either ghost takes another person’s body or it is invisible and even those movies are great humour stuffs.

He replied, ‘What is this? Even in our Tamil movies, ghosts wear white sarees and come. You are saying there are no such movies in Hollywood. It’s amusing’. I said that there may be some and added that I left watching ghost movies long time back as they have never impressed me. I expect ghost movies to frighten us to the core and none has done so. Siva too accepted and said that he was expecting one such movie and is able to find none.

Few months back I saw a movie called ‘They Wait’ and it ended to be a frustrating one. Particularly the climax was the best comic scene. As the heroine breaks the wall of a building, piles of human bones will fall out and the bones will pull the villain groups inside the wall. I don’t know how they think of such stories.

These days I have completely lost my interest in watching ghost movies as most of the movies have monotonous stories. Either a ghost enters the body of a small boy or ghost’s surface in a home to take revenge or someone moves to a new home and ghost chases them throughout the movie or a new born baby is a ghost. Of the movies I have seen, the one which impressed me a lot was ‘The Grudge’. I watched the original Japanese version and it was a good one.

I don’t like ghost movies, but hearing or reading ghost stories is different. I still remember my childhood days in which my brother used to tell me ghost stories very rarely. The spot would be perfect. He used to say it only during night time, when there is a power cut. I don’t remember any of those stories he said, but I remember that I won’t be able to sleep properly that night.

Imagination is the biggest advantage in hearing or reading stories. Watching a movie diminishes the perspective of imagination. Hearing a story will take you to the spot of the story and it will bring the ghost right in front of you. Even a small sound around you creates troubles (read my Ghost Paper post).

After saying all these things, readers may ask whether I believe in ghosts and my answer is NO. The main reason is ‘I haven’t seen one’.

Happy Reading!!!

Ghost Story

Hi Readers,

Do you believe in ghosts?
Read my encounter with ghost in this post.

If you ask me the same question I asked you, I will be saying a big ‘No!’

You will be able to think very clearly when you are bounded by people and light. If you are surrounded by people and the power goes off unexpectedly and if someone starts to create mystifying noises, the hint of terror begins to appear. But if you are alone and you start sensing strange things, then you will be filled with great fear.

It was 30-12-09, last Wednesday and the day before New Year’s Eve. My parents went to bed as usual around 10 pm. I was surfing the official website of Solidworks (a CAD software). It was 10.45 pm. I started to feel drowsy and I went to bed.

I was not able to sleep. Things started to turn out. I sensed that some mosquitoes were biting me. It was very amazing, because the mosquito repellent was switched on. After some couple of unsuccessful attempts, I finally succeeded (there were 2 of them). Celebrating the triumph with a grin, I closed my eyes.

Suddenly I started hearing repeating sounds. The sound resembled the click of a computer’s mouse. The first thing that came into my mind was a thief. I was pondering about it. I thought the thief might try to wake me up and do something. I gallantly took the mobile phone and searched the area with the mobile phone’s light. There was no one near the computer table or under my bed.

Now I again closed my eyes. The sound started again. But this time there were more noises. Now my mind alarmed me that it might be a ghost. It was similar to the movie ‘Paranormal Activity’. Though I haven’t seen the film, I’ve read the story. It was as if some spirit was roaming inside my bedroom.

I didn’t know what to do and my face was filled with sweat. 15 minutes passed by. I didn’t know what to do. The sound was also not stopping. Somehow I brought courage and stepped out of my bed. I ran and switched on the light (light potta pei odi poidumnu oru nambikai).

Nothing mysterious happened. I just knelt down and searched the area below the bed. Nothing was there. I turned my eyes toward the computer table. There I saw a piece of paper. It was striking the leg of the table and that was the source of the sound.

I took the paper from there. My mother has used it to write down something from the internet. She has left it on the table. It has flown down due to the air created by the ceiling fan. The same has been the basis for the paper producing noises.

Feeling comfortable, I saw my phone. It was 12.05 am. I switched off the light and slept comfortably. The next morning I found that the reason for the mosquitoes biting was that the repellent’s liquid had been drained.

I won’t forget that night in my life!